Postcard from Bishkek

About 200 kilometers from Bishkek, up over the Tuu Ashu pass and down to the Suusamyr plain, taking the turning to the right which passes through the village and enters the picturesque Kekemeren valley, a narrow gorge, where the road winds along the river bank, passing through a number of villages, after about 40 kilometers one […]

These days of the ubiquitous computer … most of the time when we want to ‘write something’ we use a keyboard, touch or touch screen … although if there isn’t one around we might reach for a ‘ball point’ – a Biro. Occasionally you might find someone who actually relishes in the use of a […]

The Russian word Gerb is often translated as ‘a Coat of Arms’ … but in heraldry, a coat of arms has a special meaning – relating to the escutcheon (or shield) and tabard (or surcoat) worn by medieval knights going into battle. Another interpretation that is sometimes offered is ‘a seal’ – as in the Great […]

It used to be said that Bishkek was the “Greenest city on Earth” with its parks, tree lined boulevards, open spaces between the apartment blocks … and even in the garden at our hotel in Bishkek, the Silk Road Lodge, we have over 50 trees of different types, sizes and age. This was largely due to […]

Today sees the annual Varsity Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities – actually races … because, for the couple of years, there are four of them: There’s the traditional event between the eights representing the two universities; the race between Isis and Goldie – their reserve crews; the Newton Women’s race and that between Osiris […]

Someone one commented about the postcards on ianbek.kg, that they represented a real eclectic collection of topics … and I have to admit that he was right! Unlike some of the other sites I am involved with, ianbek has no overall, overarching, theme … it’s a ‘personal website’ and I post about things that catch my […]

I picked up the copy of Vecherniye Bishkek – Evening Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s biggest newspaper – and one day last week and did a double take … two in fact. Firstly because of the size … it may be Kyrgyzstan’s largest newspaper … but this issue had just 8 pages: two sheets of newsprint, printed on both […]

On March 24, Kyrgyzstan along with the rest of the World will be marking World TB Day with the aim of building public awareness about the global epidemic of tuberculosis (TB) and a renewed call to reach, treat and cure everyone with the disease to accelerate progress towards eradicating it. World TB Day is one of […]

Well, I suppose it had to happen …! One of my Facebook friends regularly posts pictures of his children … a couple of weeks ago, one was dressed up in his Captain America costume … and this week he was posing in a Batman outfit. I suppose that, as kids, we all had our heroes, who […]

The young guy sat opposite me, along with his supervisor.  In some ways I wished his supervisor hadn’t been there because I had some things I wanted to say to him. They had come to see with a Commercheskaya predlozheniya – a commercial offer, a business proposal. As it happens, it was quite an interesting […]