Postcard from Bishkek

The other day I was a given Tourist map.  I don’t suppose it was much good to me, however, because it was of Georgia. However, I did find it interesting.  It was just a sheet of paper, a little bit smaller than A3, folded along five creases to create ten panels.   It was packed […]

I happened to be in the hotel for a meeting, and was about to leave, when I heard that someone was looking for me.  I walked down the corridor and was met by a familiar face, but couldn’t think where I met the lady before.  Fortunately, she put me out of my misery with her […]

One of the things that often amazes me is the language ability of many of the young people here in Kyrgyzstan.  There are many people who speak really good English – and most are rather self effacing about it, peppering their conversation with comments like, “My English is not very good.” On the contrary, there […]

In Russian, the term “science” is used in its widest sense – that of “a system of objective knowledge” – rather than the more restricted usage which is common in the West “systemized knowledge derived through experimentation, observation, and study” – or empirical sciences.  As such is understood to encompass all forms of scholarship – […]

In 1932 a new book hit the bookshops in Britain telling a remarkable story of one man’s escape from the clutches of the Cheka, (Lenin’s secret police) as they hunted him throughout Central Asia for two years.  It was a great success and led to a sequel – telling of his escape from Kashgar to […]

When I was a lad … as the Major General’s song in the Pirates of Penzance puts it, my mother took me to visit my Aunt for a long weekend.  She, in turn, arranged two theatre trips for us: One to the Shakespeare Theater in Stratford upon Avon to see his play, Pericles – not my favourite […]

The yurt is the traditional dwelling of the nomadic peoples of Central Asia – including the Kyrgyz. They are found from Anatolia to Mongolia and it is not possible to say which of the ancient nomadic tribes originally developed the traditional design.  However, it is clearly a very ancient form of dwelling. Although basically similar, there […]

Yesterday afternoon, I walked back to the office from a meeting in the Hyatt.  Of course, I could have got a taxi, but the sun was shining, it was warm and I felt that it would be nice to take a stroll through the city centre. I walked past the Opera and Ballet theatre, along […]

I am not fond of fashion shows.  I can think of nothing more boring than watching tall, slim, young things, (male and/or female), strutting up and down a catwalk showing off what they are wearing to some loud music and possibly a fancy light show They are quite popular here, however, and I have been […]

A.E. Houseman may have written in “A Shropshire Lad” about how the Cherry Tree wears “white for Eastertide”,  “hung with bloom along the bow”, and how he would wander through the woodlands to see “the Cherry hung with snow”. There’s a Russian pop song with a similar theme: “Poplar Fluff“, by Ivanushki International.  The tree […]