Kyrgyzstan Travel Blogs

Gamburgers on Ice, Twister in the Marshrutkas
Dec 27, 2007

Back in Bishkek, a Soviet-style modern capitol, I stayed in Nomad's Home Guesthouse, a bed and breakfast, for a week with Raisa and her family, along with a Carmen, Yuki, Yogi, and Motoko, fellow travelers. Every morning, we would gather for breakfast and ...

Waiting for the Ketchup
Dec 5, 2007 (37 photos)

Until I met Valentyn, I was wondering about Kyrgyzstan.  "Too cold, we don't go now." I heard all too often from guides and travel agencies. But this is your country!  And now was the best time to go see wildlife and enjoy the winter weather.& ...

Cowboys, Wolves, and Satan
Dec 8, 2007 (14 photos)

... Valley below a herd of Marco Polo Sheep, who escaped to the high rocky ridges. Vasilliy Nemchanko, the skiing champion of Kyrgyzstan and biologist, and I walked slowly behind them, watching the scene unfold. We were in the buffer zone of Sarychat-Ertash, ...

Five Parts From Bishkek to Tashkent
Dec 28, 2007 (8 photos)

... , beginning the Mughal Empire. Using the same logic as the Chinese (who claim anything they once set foot upon as theirs), Kyrgyzstan has plenty of reason to claim Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India as their own. Pilgrims and children were at the top, ...

Poachers and the Camera Trap
Dec 16, 2007 (17 photos)

Winter Survey of Sarychat-Ertash National Preserve: Poachers and the Camera Trap, part III of III Climbing high once again the next day, we found Snow Leopard tracks and scat, which Akeel called "Alexander's Vinaigrette." We collected the "vinaigrette" ...

The Experiment
Dec 12, 2007 (24 photos)

... of here was the Marco Polo Sheep, occupying the Pamirs or high elevation pastures and rolling hills of Tajikistan and southern Kyrgyzstan, the fringes of Karakoram National Park in Pakistan, the Wahkan Corridor in Afghanistan, and the Pamirs of China's ...

Kyrgyzstan
Nov 20, 2007

map pin

Wild Kyrgyzstan - Part 2
Jul 23, 2008 (8 photos)

... that 'Russian only' will win over friends and businesses. And there is no guarantee that the future generations of Kyrgyz will continue to learn Russian and be bi-lingual. Only time will tell how the future of Kyrgyzstan and its people will turn out.

Wild Kyrgyzstan - Part 1
Jul 23, 2008 (56 photos)

In China, the number of yearly registered cars is an indicator of improved living standards - almost everbody wants to have a car, even if it means to be stuck in traffic for hours (especially in BJ and Shanghai). In Kyrgystan, I would argue that the ...

Karakol
Jun 26, 2008

Bright orange hotel

Badass'stan
Aug 7, 2009 (147 photos)

... the Community Based Tourism (CBT) office. The organisation focuses on putting tourists in touch with a traditional Kyrgyzstan experience, and delivers an important additional income for local families; who offer homestays, horseriding and trekking guide ...

Not a nyet but not a da either
Sep 14, 2009

I'm off to the Russian consulate at the crack of dawn and get there at 08.15 for the 09.00 opening. There is already a very large queue waiting. Fortunately a young Russian woman tells me to put my name on the list otherwise I'd be still there wondering ...

Kyrgyzstan
Aug 14, 2009

... haphazard garden shed from the outside, but on the inside it worked like a bonafide sauna, completely with birch branches. Kyrgyzstan is beautiful. The cities are not spectacular. Built during the Soviet years, they are mostly a dilapidated collection of ...

Kyrgyzstan (1)
Jul 6, 2005 (10 photos)

... site. If you do not wish to receive these messages, please unsubscribe yourself or send me an email. Sublime. I'm back in Kyrgyzstan, its election season, and the mountains are glimmering in the summer sun. Could I ask for more? Once I decided ...

Altyn-Arashan
May 9, 2008 (24 photos)

Salam Aleikum, bin zurueck von meinem Campingtrip. Der Weg bergauf war recht anstrengend, nach 4 1/2h habe ich doch merklich abgebaut, aber da war ich auch schon am Tal angekommen (LP sagt 5-6h, bin also doch noch fit:-). Dort oben gibt es warme Quellen, ...

another natural disaster?+ I loathe corrupt police
Jun 5, 2008 (18 photos)

... taking out the concrete wall then flying off the 50 meter shear drop the other side. Knowing that most of the roads on Kyrgyzstan were prone to landslides I straight away assumed this was what is was, jumping out of the van and moving to safety. But after ...

Leaving Bishkek
May 12, 2008 (14 photos)

Salaam Aleikum, ich bin vom Issyk-Koel See zurueck nach Bishkek gefahren, diesmal im Shared Taxi, das ist mit 4h schneller als der Minibus (5h). Urspruenglich hatte ich ueberlegt via Naryn zu fahren, aber die Strassen durch die Berge sind erst ab Ende ...

Kyrgyzstan and Lake Issyk-Kul
Aug 20, 2006 (5 photos)

... various types some damaged from vandalism. Despite all of this economic decline and revolution to topple the president, Northern Kyrgyzstan seems to be doing well off of their rich Kazakh neighbors. Many have opened tourist oriented businesses to bring ...

To Osh
Sep 20, 2009

20th September - To Osh Today is the end of Ramadan. I leave the Zinaida family laden with bread, fruit and sweets. I could easily stay a month here. I rejoin the road to Osh at Bazar Korgon back on the plain and it is a series of short climbs through ...

Biskek at Last
Jul 25, 2005 (4 photos)

Having landed in ______ for a few hours, we well and truly ready to arrive in Bishkek, not quite knowing what to expect.

In to the Hills
Jul 27, 2005 (20 photos)

We arrived in Kochkar with a beautiful back drop of the mountains. We were in a homestay, so we all got split up into 3 different houses and were welcomed by some of the friendliest people into their home. They are extremely house proud people, and made ...

Leaving Osh and Kyrgysztan
May 14, 2008 (32 photos)

Salam Aleikum, morgen geht es Richtung Tajikistan ueber den Kyzyl-Art Pass in 4282m Hoehe, ich hoffe das Wetter ist gut und die 7000er sind gut zu sehen:-) (ich befuerchte aber fast, dass ich zumeist Gegenlicht haben werde). Hier in Osh ist das Wetter ...

Leaving Karakol
May 11, 2008 (42 photos)

Salam Aleikum,   nach vier Naechten in Karakol ist es nun Zeit wieder aufzubrechen. Karakol selber ist keine besonders schoene Stadt, es gibt ein paar kleine Sehenswuerdigkeiten, aber eigentlich keine Ecke wo man sich so richtig wohlfuehlt. (Mein ...

Completely blogged
Sep 12, 2009 (15 photos)

I potter around town. The internet cafe is closed! I go and explore the Chinese Mosque. It looks like a Tibetan temple but it is a mosque for the Dungan community in Karakol built by the Chinese. I drop into the tourist office to check if my brief ride ...

Bazaar day
Sep 21, 2009 (11 photos)

21st September - Bazaar day I breakfast late. No option because everybody was celebrating the end of Ramadan yesterday so not many are stirring early. Fine. Then to my favourite urban activity - exploring a bazaar. The bazaar in Osh is awesome. One of ...

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Aug 5, 2006 (6 photos)

... off the coast of Burma and Thailand. They had very fond memory of each other. Tomorrow, I will travel, probably by shared taxi, to another (more remote) part of Kyrgyzstan. If everything goes according to plan, I should be in Xinjiang by Friday night.

Qui a dit que ca sentait le cheval ???
Aug 5, 2009

Salut à Tous, Voici que bientôt s'achève ma mission et, fourbes que vous êtes tous, vous vous disiez déjà que j'allais fort à propos oublier de vous ennuyer, plongés dans vos vacances, avec une nouvelle et interminable WKN. Que nenni, le Kirghizistan avec un K ...

Some interesting observations in Central Asia
Oct 19, 2008

... in Central Asia seem to be very high. Anyways, the place I'm staying at is a very nice bed and breakfast in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.   Now, a lot of things have happened since the last time I wrote a blog, and it wasn't even that long ago. I ...

Jalalabad - the one in Kyrgyzstan
Oct 21, 2008

My childhood seemed to be filled with me asking my dad, "I've got good news and bad news, which do you want first?" His response was invariably "bad news first." So in honor of you dad, here's the bad news first.   Being in a country where no one ...

Glaciers, Hotsprings and Honey beers
Jun 10, 2008 (84 photos)

Lake Issyk Kol which is a huge alpine lake in the East of Kyrgyzstan if one of the only alpine lakes that does not freeze, this is down to a combination of thermal activity, extreme depth and a mild salinity. At 170km long and 70km across it is also the ...