Anne and I hope all is well back home. We're leaving Kyrgyzstan for Uzbekistan tomorrow. Here's what we've been doing:
9/22: Anne, Ramil and I left the hotel at 0330 for our flight from Yerevan to Astana. We said goodbye to our driver Kako. All the others had taken earlier flights to their next destinations. When we arrived at the airport, we discovered our flight had either been canceled or rescheduled to an earlier hour. We could wait for a later flight, but we decided to return to Tbilisi with Kako and make arrangements from there. Dale and Janet's flight to Brussels, Rome had been canceled, so they also road the bus with us. Eventually we flew to Almaty, then Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana), finally arriving at 0600 on 9/23.
9/23: We've changed time again, another two hours ahead in Kazakhstan. This is a free day, and we are worn out. The majority of people we see now have Asian facial features. Our new group has three married couples, two sisters and a handful of single ladies who are from California, Washington and Singapore, Michigan, too.
9/24: It's windy and cold, 46° but feels like 39°. We learn Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in gas and oil supply. They have many natural resources. Turkic language was spoken throughout the Stans, but Russian is the dominant language, and the alphabet is Cyrillic, which we also don't read. We visit the lovely Hazrat Sultan mosque, and all the women must wear turquoise robes inside. We see almost all newly constructed buildings with interesting architecture. We see the Baitarek Tower which resembles a popular tree and the Khan Shatyr shopping tent. The Pyramid of Peace and Reconciliation has a viewing area on the upper floor in this interesting building. There are 130 different ethnicities here. Nur-Sultan has been the capital since 1997.
9/25: We visit the very nice National Museum of Kazakhstan. We see a floor show of the architecture of Astana. The 5-year old Opera Hall seats 1200+ and 120 musicians with four levels of seating, with a fancy presidential box in the middle. We are excited to catch part of a practice of Don Carlos. Then we tour the Presidential Palace.
9/26: At the airport we say goodbye to our driver Vasily and we fly south to Almaty. We say hello to our driver Sergeij. It's a beautiful warm day, and the city is green, there are wide streets, people walking, outside cafes. The land is fertile. The famous white-fleshed melons here are a big oval, probably 15" long. Almaty means 'place of apples', and apples may have originated here. We visit a large park and the largest wooden building in Kazakhstan, the Blessed Ascension Orthodox church. Ramil entertains and explains as we tour the Museum of Folk Musical Instruments.
9/27: Ramil takes us to a large bazaar market, where we see and taste beautiful fruits, cheeses, dried fruits, nuts. The kimchi sellers' area smells so good. We don't spend enough time here. We visit the Zaili Alatau mountains and ride two cable cars up this mountain from the ski resort. From Republic Park, we see the beautiful mountain range. We all are thrilled with the wonderful falconry show at Sunkar Bird Refuge put on by Pavel, Diana and an owl, falcon, vulture and golden eagle with the horse's assistance. A magpie shows up but isn't part of the show. This is a rehabilitation and training center. Great show!
9/28: Today we leave Kazakhstan but still have the same nice bus and driver. New roads are under construction along this ancient Silk Road. We head south through hilly scrub steppe with the Tian Shan mountain range on the east. We see farmed wheat and potato fields along with horsemen and their sheep, cows and horses raised for their meat. I haven't mentioned the common eastern squat toilets here. We try to avoid them. At one large rest area, there are 9 stalls in the women's room, and only one is western style. We cross a small river into Kyrgyzstan, Ramil's homeland (but he holds a Russian passport), go through passport control, exchange our tenge for Kyrgz com (68 com to $1). Ramil tells us the Krygz people were mostly nomadic, 94% of the country is mountains, 6% is arable land. He has already explained yurt construction to us. We drive the River Chu valley and are no longer in the steppes. We travel along the Kazakh border. Traffic is stopped often by cows and sheep crossings. We see more mosques since crossing the border. There are a huge number of lakes and rivers in the country. Isslyk Kul lake is salty, the 7th deepest in the world, 10th largest in world by volume, 2nd largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea and the 2nd highest alpine lake in the world. There was an uranium mine along the lake, and torpedos were tested on the lake, too.
9/29: Ninety-three miles from the Krygz-China border, we visit Karakol Petroglyph Open Air museum from 800 BC. The national sport is a game played on horseback with a goat carcass. They are still harvesting potatoes. We visit an unusual wooden mosque built by Chinese in the style of a pagoda. It was used as a gymnasium during Soviet times. We visit a restored wooden Orthodox cathedral from 1893 which was used as a dance hall in Soviet times. When we visit a cemetery, we discuss Muslim traditions.
9/30: Strong winds came in at 0100. This morning we see much more snow on the mountain tops. We are driving west and south. Along the roadsides, people are selling sea berries, smoked trout and cheese balls. We pass a road that leads to China. We visit the UNESCO ancient settlement of Burana (Balasagun) from the 10th C. The tower was partially restored recently from a long-ago earthquake. There is a field of headstones with likenesses of the dead carved on them. We are seeing lots of color change now.
10/1: Bishkek is the capital of Kyrgyzstan and Ramil's home. In Republic Square we watch the changing of the guard. We see the White House of the President and Parliament. Ramil discussed recent political demonstrations that Anne and I were both notified of by the State Dept. The weather is cold and dreary, which is too bad because Bishkek looks as lovely and enjoyable as Almaty. Tonight we will join the group at dinner and will meet Ramil's wife. I think the two of them will be part of tonight's entertainment. We leave at 0530 tomorrow for a flight to Osh and drive.
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