Another natural disaster?+ I loathe corrupt police

  Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Thursday, June 5, 2008

Kyrgyzstan, another country in Central Asia, surrounded by more of the 'stans' and China which I sure many of you have not heard of? Its a geographical vortex amid massive knot of colliding mountain ranges. Full of colossal mountains all associated with their scraggy valleys, glaciers, gorges and ice blue turquoise lakes which amazingly dominate 90% of this country! Its also full of high altitude summer pastures of glorious, untrammeled alpine scenery, some of which I intend to explore and go trekking in as they are perfect if you want to get up in the mountains for some true nomadic hospitality and camping under the star crowded skys.
It hasn't taken me long to learn that a bus journey in this part of the world is rarely event free. The journey its self should of been quite straight forward and apart from a few bribes changing hands at the borders, which I had already prepared for by separating some small bills of American Dollars away from the bigs ones ready for a quick

Falling rocks

inexpensive bribe, (because if they catch a glance of Ulysses Grant's ($50) or Benjamin Franklin's ($100) head then thats what the greedy officials will want! As it turns out though, this was not the case, the border was relatively easy although the border guard did show a little alacrity to take my passport, he then had a good look along with his crones who didn't even know what they were looking at, after a while, I could clearly see he was struggling with the roman characters and told him I was English, he then told his superior who told one lackadaisical glance,

View from tthe bus window

nodded at me, stamped the page and I was on my way. After not long we had a puncture, which was again not much of a problem but only as I luckily knew how to get the spare wheel of the bottom of the Mercedes sprinter as I had done so at work before. After continuing for another couple of hours we came to a grinding hold, with everyone turn to me because I was laughing put loud to Ricky Gervais on my ipod! Then we all looked ahead and saw why the driver had stopped, there were rocks coming down the mountain at about 100mph, cracking the road, 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 not long the police turned up and were shouting to the top of the mountain then looking through binoculars. I could only just make out the small dots at the top which were obviously people and never actually worked out what was going on, wether they were trying to cause trouble or it was just a accident or even something to prevent a landslide. Either way it held us up about 2 hours then turned the already perilous mountain road into a death trap as we tried to over take huge trucks in our small van pulling in at the last minute to avoid on coming traffic, while cars were trying to then push it a bit further and overtake us, all of this performed on a winding mountain roads with at least a 50meter drop one side and blind corners.

On my first day in Bishkek I applied for my Indian visa which took a week to process so I decided in the mean time I would circumnavigate Lake Issyk Kol but not before the polices had had there chance to get some money out of me! On my first day I got stopped twice, admittedly I did look like a tourist with my flip flops, shorts and hat on (although I

The mountain looming over the city

didn't have a map and anorak). The first time the officers was just kept asking for my passport, in perfect English and me looking back pretending I did not understand, this went on for a while and I finally had to give him a copy which he was not happy with, he studied it for a while then I took in back, grabbed his hand and said Spa-si-ba (thank you in Russian) and walked of hoping for the best, hid did not come after me but did call me back, I didnt look back and kept walking until out of sight. The second officer seemed alot more official. The first policeman came across much more petulant, just looking for a quick and easy pay off but this one looked as though he was prepared to pursue me for alot longer, clearly having nothing better to do. I tolerated his theatrical remonstrations and usual acts of intimidation for about 5mins but this time I had, had enough and called his bluff, playing him at his own game. This could of been risking but I was careful to keep a fine line between being confident but not aggressive or to try and belittle him in front of

Square

his colleges. I pulled out my phone (with no battery and sim card) and told him firmly that I was ringing the Embassy, he shrugged his shoulders so I got out a pen and started writing down his number and raising my voice slightly to create a bit of a scene, at this he folded explaining that there was no need in escalate matters but next time I I should carry my passport in very very bad English/Russian/Kyrgyz. I snatched my copy back, thanked him briefly and quickly walked off. When back at the guesthouse I met a couple of other who had been stopped as well and made the school boy error of giving their passports over and then the officer had demanded money for the return, only about $10 but that's not the point!