Archive: July, 2010
Lake Issyk Kul lies at the bottom of a drainage hollow, or depression and has no outflow. Mountains ring the lake and there are several valleys worth visiting, Gregorievka and Simeonevka on the North, Barskoon on the South and numerous others around Karakol. To the North are the Kungei (“Sunny”) Ala-Too mountains and are criss-crossed [...]
Everyone kept telling me to “Come on in, the water is lovely and warm!” I wasn’t convinced, especially after I had walked over to the water’s edge and dipped my toes into the lapping waves … The name of the lake, Issyk Kul, might mean Warm Lake in Kyrgyz, but that doesn’t really relate to [...]
This was originally included in an email “postcard” sent out on July 16th, 2010 – What planet are you from?
There is a report from Russian UFO-logists who claim that a 600 meter long UFO may have crashed in the Tien Shan Mountains, near to the Chinese border.
At the end of last week there were reports of an Unidentified Flying Object, (UFO), sighted over central Bishkek. This raised quite a bit of interest … but in fact it is not the first such incident in recent years. Strange lights in the sky, flying torpedoes on Lake Issyk Kul … and, perhaps the [...]
I was faced with an interesting dilemma this week … I received a Skype message from a colleague, the director of another tour company based here in Bishkek. He wanted to swap links between our websites.
I won’t say that Naryn is one of my favourite places in Kyrgyzstan – but I do have a soft spot for it … for both the city and the oblast. Of course, one of the reasons for this is probably down to the fact that we have a guesthouse in the city. You could [...]
To people of my generation the word “spam” has several different meanings. It was, (and still is), for example, the brand name for a tinned, cooked, luncheon meat, first launched as long ago as 1937. The name SPAM, (it should be in capital letters), could be derived from “spiced ham” or “spiced pork and ham“, [...]
The Second Tuesday after Easter is the Orthodox “Parent’s Day”. It’s not like Mother’s Day or Father’s Day in the the West in that it is a special day for remembering one’s deceased relatives. Apparently, the tradition goes back a long way and there are fourth century references linking it to a spring pagan festival. [...]
My black tie has been getting an awful lot of use this year. I suppose that my particular annus horribilis, (the Brits, and anyone with a Classical education, will get the reference and understand), started in January when a close friend, Roma, died suddenly. I was sitting at my computer in my office when I [...]
