Still young at heart
I always joke that whereas I have “the body of a weak and feeble sexagenarian,” (having recently celebrated – if that’s the right word – my sixtieth birthday), inside I still “have the heart and stomach” of an eighteen year old, (to misquote Elizabeth I’s speech to the troops at Tilbury).
Like most people as we grow old, the ravages of time may take its toll, physically, on the body … but mentally and emotionally I feel much as I did when I left school and entered University.
That’s not to say that I haven’t learned a lot in the time that has passed since then. Indeed, my opinions have changed as I have gained more knowledge and gathered more experiences … enough, I hope, to avoid repeating the same mistakes that I made in my youth.
Since then, Kyrgyzstan – and Bishkek in particular – has changed considerably.
I am often asked about the changes I have seen over the time I have lived here and my answer is usually in several parts:
The amount of traffic: when I first came here, (for a holiday, back in 1994), there were far fewer vehicles and you could safely cross the road without really looking – you could hear the oncoming traffic. Nowadays there are there are far more vehicles on the streets, many of them modern, foreign made SUV’s rather than the old “beat up” Ladas and Moskvitches that used to predominate.
The number and range of restaurants: when I first came here there was very little choice and what did exist seemed to involve a choice between cavernous halls ideal for holding a banquet, with menus and prices to match, or small cafés offering local dishes. Now there is a huge selection covering a wide variety of cuisines to cater for almost any taste. Of course, away from Bishkek the choice of food on offer is still limited, but it is improving.
I look upon this as a positive sign not simply because it means that there is more choice for the consumer, but also that there is more money in the economy … people have more money available for “discretionary items of expenditure”, such as eating out. That’s not universally true, of course, but there are signs that this is a tendency or trend.
People are also becoming more discerning in how they spend that money … instead of buying something because it is all that is available, now they tend do their research, know what they want and seek out the best bargains.
The shops: not only are there more shops, they are also far more obvious with large shop windows on the street with impressive displays of goods on offer for sale.
It used to said in the 1990′s that, in the days of the Soviet Union, when the supply and prices of goods were strictly controlled, people had money but there was nothing in the shops for them to buy … and that shortly after Independence, imported goods began to arrive – and there was the Ruble crisis, bankruptcies and the collapse of several of the banks – which all meant that although there were plenty of things in the shops to buy, people had no money to buy them.
There’s still some truth in that for many people who are cannot find work or are stuck in jobs with low salaries … but expectations are high and rapidly changing.
Indeed, when one of the first supermarket to open its doors here in Bishkek, I remember being told by one family how they to pay a visit and how it felt like walking through a Museum … there were things on offer that they had only heard of before … but they were shocked by the prices. ”It was all very nice but we’ll keep shopping at the bazaar!”, was how the mother put it to me at the time.
The amount of construction: there has been a construction boom – especially in Bishkek – with high rise blocks of “elite apartments”, business and commercial centers. Some of those buildings that have gone up have been new hotels … and, for us, that is both good and bad news for us.
Although the “bad news” for us as hoteliers is that there is greater competition, it represents “good news” for the consumer in that they have a greater choice, In another way, it is also “Good News” in that it is a sign that the situation in Kyrgyz tourism as a whole is improving which means that we, as a tour company, have a wider variety of products to offer tourists who contact us. Finally, increased competition keeps us “on our toes” as it means we have to work that much harder to attract and retain business … its a stimulus to us to be “think out of the box” and be creative rather than simply sit back and “rest on our laurels”. I hope that we rise to that challenge.
Of course, there have been far more dramatic changes arising from what seems to be constant uncertainty arising from political and social upheavals, two revolutions and civil unrest.
There are also lots of things that haven’t changed, such as the level of bureaucracy and the tendency to think that government can and should look after the citizens “from the cradle to the grave”. The problem with this, it seems to me, is that it encourages a passivity – what I call the “field of dreams” philosophy: “If you build it – people will come”.
Bishkek