Listen, I cannot say enough good things about Bishkek. It's the laid-backinest, good-timinest, most beautiful city in Central Asia. So far. It's Kyrgyzstan's capital, but it has the laid-back feel of small-town America, with the Turco-Islamic exotism of central Asia and what I assume are the identity issues of any far-flung former Soviet bloc state. Imagine the gorgeous National Theatre (pictured) with children and adults frolicking in the fountain. Beautiful parks downtown with unmown grass. Everything about Bishkek says "kickin it".In addition to the unmown parks and nighttime crickets, on my very first day in metropolitan Bishkek I saw a station wagon packed to the gills with watermelons (!) and a horse wearing a hat pulling a cart full of laughing kids. This was followed by the scene of a conservatively clad Muslim family picnicking in a field of yellow sunflowers, just in front of a sunlit range of snow-capped mountains. Throw in some free-grazing livestock and some of the nicest people you've met, and you'll see why it's the national capital that thinks it's Anytown, Nebraska. With Muslims.
On day two we drove out to Asel's uncle's farm, where we drank homemade shoro (fermented barley) and had more bread, jam and tea, as always. For a couple of hours, we all went out to a nearby national park where we walked in the mountains and drank from a cobwebby spring and a very cold, very sweet river.
Most of the people I met in Kyrgyzstan were ethnic Kyrgyz, some Russian. I also met (thankfully!) some Chinese. But riding in the back of Azat's Ukrainian jeep with Asel and Belek, they pointed out whole towns that were primarily Dungan and German respectively. (Germans in Kyrgyzstan?)
Above is the nicest picture I took in Bishkek. Here are more.
