The “Camel Cheese Crew” from “What took you so long?” are here!
I wrote a few weeks ago about the project – they are making a series of films about pastoral lifestyles around the world through the theme of Camels and in particular cheese made from camel milk. On their travels they are passing through having been to Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan and are on their way to Uzbekistan searching for herds of camels and nomadic camel herders. Then, after a flying visit to New York for a presentation it’s off to Africa and the Middle East. More…
The word “Orozo” is Kyrgyz for “fast” – refraining from eating.
Orozo Ait is also known as the feast of “Eid al Fitr”. It is a celebration to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the month in which Muslims believe the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the prophet Mohammed – and is marked by Muslims all over the world by fasting during the hours of daylight.
The date of the festival changes each year because the Islamic calendar is a based on lunar cycles … and the date depends on the sighting of the new moon at Mecca. Also as the Muslim year is shorter than the Solar year, the date is different each year, some years there are two festivals in one (Gregorian) calendar year. More…
If last week was a Three Day Week, this week has been a Four Day Week.
Friday marked the end of Ramadan, and is known here as Orozo Ait, (although elsewhere in the Muslim world it has different names – for example: “Eid al Fitr”), and is a public holiday. Because it is based on the Muslim Calendar, which is governed by phases of the moon and is shorter than the 365-day calendar that we usually use, it is a “moveable feast” and the date of the festival varies from year. Technically, the actual date depends on the sighting of the new moon and although it is possible to predict when this will be, many of the orthodox usually wait for the official pronouncement from Mecca. This can make life a little awkward, however, and so many countries – especially “secular states” like Kyrgyzstan – predict the likely day and declare that the “official” holiday. The result is that across Muslim world, holiday can celebrated on different days. This year, the faithful in some countries celebrated on September 9th and others on the 10th. Even so, the official order declaring Friday as a non-working day was only issued during the week, and caught me a bit by surprise. More…
We had an interesting problem with a client’s payment for a tour last month. Yes, we do have tourists in Kyrgyzstan … despite this year’s “little local difficulty” … not as many not as many as last year, nor as many as would have liked or hoped for.
As is often the case, there was a fair amount of correspondence back and forth discussing the itinerary – the dates, what he was interested to see and do, services that he required and, of course, the safety and security situation here in the country … whether it was safe for him to come, or not. In the end, everything was agreed including the price and we sent him details about how to make payment … our bank account details and the information needed to arrange a bank transfer.
That’s when the trouble started. More…
Have you noticed how history seems to have a habit of repeating itself.
The actual circumstances vary in detail, of course, but the situations and the way that people react often bear remarkable similarities. I have written before how struck I was by the similarities between how the situations evolved in Russia in 1917 and Kyrgyzstan in 2010 and also in Osh in both 1990and 2010. More…
Here in Kyrgyzstan it is traditional to think of the tourist season as ending on September 27th, the International Day of Tourism.
In fact, for most of the tourism industry the season is much shorter. The vast majority of tourists who visit the country are usually from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Siberia and they mass on the shores of Lake Issyk Kul during July and August. I always used to talk about the season being three months – thinking of June, July and August, but a couple of years ago I was taken to task by one the director of one the resorts on the northern shore of the lake who said to me: “Ian, why do you talk of three months? We work on a season of forty days!” More…
Independence Day – 31st August – marks the formal declaration of independence of the Khirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (KSSR) from the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in 1991. More…
The question of insurance of insurance has occupied my mind a lot in the last few months – but it’s been mainly a routine matter so I haven’t thought of commenting on it here.
Routine? – yes, our policies were due for renewal in July so I spent time in June putting the proposal forms together and submitting them to the insurance company. (I have to submit them well in advance because they need time to arrange for reinsurance in London.) Although the answers to most of the questions on the form are the same each year, some need to be checked and updated … it takes time … but it’s routine. More…
In many ways, this week has been a quite week but also a strange week … it has provided to be a hiatus in lots of different ways. More…
“Another Website?”
That was the astonished reaction I got a short while ago when I announced to my staff that I was thinking of launching yet another new website into the company’s constantly growing family of websites. More…
