Royal Treatment in Bishkek

July 27, Bishkek

 

One thing that is critical when travelling alone, without a guide, and not knowing the language, is to seek out others who are travelling the same route.  It helps if one knows a good place to stay, tricks about crossing the border, changing money, and such. It is particularly nice if you can swap information about reasonable places to stay. Finding a place to sleep is always a difficult proposition coming into a new town. While waiting in Almaty for the mini-bus to find its required fifteen passengers so we could depart, I saw a young man talking to another person in English, and took the opportunity to ask him what he knew about Bishkek, our destination.

 

Turns out that he was a German doctoral candidate, doing research on his thesis. He had been documenting how the newly established post-soviet Central Asian states used propaganda and publicity to establish themselves and their countries, particularly among their own people. Obviously a smart fellow, it turns out he was quite sociable and proud to call Bishkek, where he had based himself, his new "home." The ride was made interesting by the mini-bus breaking down, leaving us all stranded along the highway. Gradually cars stopped by and picked up a few of us, and then a relatively empty minibus saw us and got us all as far as the border, where we could easily pick up a marshrutnoe (shared taxi-bus) to the city. When we arrived, Sandro walked me around, explaining changing money, looking for hotels (we could not find any good cheap ones) and explaining the history of the place. Finally giving up on the hotel in the center of town, we went to his apartment way down south, where his roommate had cooked up a big plate of potatoes, vegetables, and spice. After dinner, he walked me to a nearby hotel. The place was clean and the price was right.

 

An hour later he came back, and we walked from one end of main street to the other as he explained the transition from Sovietization to independence/capitalism/democratization(?)/and the future of these new countries. Each of them have a different personality, resources, and geographical conditions, and they are each developing differently.

 

We had a second dinner at a Turkish restaurant, and Annika, his roommate, joined us. The conversation went on as we walked back through the big central square (it used to be Lenin Square, but the big statue has been moved to behind the building). It was a great day, and Sandro and Annika made sure I was taken care of.