Bishkek
After a flight that was slightly longer than the one from Flagstaff to Phoenix, we met our new driver, Misha, who drives a huge SUV, and guide Kuban, whose American English is perfect. Kuban studied to be an international journalist and is an avid photographer, which means he won’t be upset with all my clicking. As this portion of the trip is more about the natural beauty of the mountains than about history, we headed straight to the Ala Archa Gorge in the National Park right behind Bishkek. It had rained the night before and the temperature had dropped considerably, which we weren’t prepared for having just come from 90 + degree weather. It was actually cold when we entered the mountains. It was sooo good to see some green, what’s left of the fireweeds and blue alliums, the junipers, birches and pines and the rushing rapids in the stream. The cloud cover was low and dense so we couldn’t see any of the peaks, but that was ok. It was simply wonderful to be back in the high country. And high it is. These glaciers still have their perennial white blanket above 4,000m. When we get to the Tien Shan, we’ll be amid a few 7,000ers.
The rain had washed away part of the path and we weren’t sure how to cross one of the rivets that was too deep, too cold, and too fast to wade across, but Kuban found a log large enough to lay across one of the narrower spots and we managed to cross it that way. Luckily the log hadn’t washed away before we got back. We didn’t have a long hike as it looked like the clouds were going to release a lot of moisture fairly soon, but it was a good change of pace.
About 10:30 pm I was startled from my typing by booms and a popping sound, then lots of lights. There were fireworks right outside my bedroom window; I couldn’t have asked for a better view of the Independence Day celebrations.
This morning I woke up to a beautifully clear day with the mountains out my hotel room window. For the holiday today, concerts are being held in the main square most of the day. We saw and heard most of the folkdances and folksingers, some of whom were quite good, after going to the museum. There was no goddess there, but I did learn that we may find her on a petroglyph tomorrow; we’ll see…. They did have an interesting painting from the Soviet era with death holding an American flag riding a missile and the text in English reads “no more Hiroshima.” As we are about to send missiles into Syria for some nonsensical reason, they may have been right in their portrayal of us as the evil empire.
The U.S. has a base in Manas, which has been used as a staging ground for the Afghanistan operation, but the new government (which is supposedly not nearly as corrupt as the former) isn’t renewing the lease and is booting us out. The Russian base, however, will remain in place.
The Soviet legacy is alive and well here. Most of the buildings are from that time, and it seems that many of the people who are over 45 think that perhaps it was better in that time than now. They say that at least everyone was equal then, without the poverty that now exists. The young people, however, are happy to be independent and even if they have to work two jobs to survive (Jamila’s main job at the museum pays $100 pr month), they would rather be in their own country rather than under someone else’s rule.
It appears that Kyrgyzstan is more open than the other Central Asian countries we have visited. They recently lifted the censorship on movies and can now get films from across the globe, which certainly wasn’t the case elsewhere, and it is the only country where we didn’t need to get a visa. We’ll see what the next few days bring to validate or refute these very early impressions of this gorgeous mountain country.
