Rest Assured 1

It's been so so good to have time to completely and utterly rest for a change.

I've been really active for the past few months, and haven't had an extended break from travelling since all the way back in Hue, Vietnam, nearly a year ago, when I took a week off from moving around, and chilled in the one place.

I mean, it's all relative isn't it.

Every day on this trip I've had a bit of time to relax, at some point, and have had plenty of days where I haven't cycled or moved or done much at all.

But travelling requires energy, and I've been moving around out of Australia for over 18 months now, and was also travelling around Oz on and off for the previous 9 months before that.

Cycling is also pretty physical too, so having a little break from all that activity seems like the right thing for me to do right now.

I've been in Bishkek for a few days, and I haven't really been doing that much, relatively. I've been exploring, I've been sorting out my bike, but generally I've just been allowing my body to rest as much as it wants.

Nice huh.

It was quite hot when I left the town of Tokmak on the back road, and headed west, towards the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek.

An accident at a major intersection in Tokmak. I didn't see it happen, but I've seen many accidents nearly happen in this country. Road safety is really poor here.

It was quite green around the road, and pretty quiet traffic-wise at the beginning, but the traffic picked up as I carried on, and I was forced to take the bumpy shoulder.

Hay now, hay now

School Uniforms of the World #422

I entered Bishkek through the back alleys and back canals. The local map app, 2GIS, sent me this way.

Hitting the edge of the city centre. Lagman is a traditional and favourite Kyrgyz dish, basically a noodle soup with thin chunks of beef.

I found a really nice hostel, with the sweetest receptionist of all time, Ayganesh. Her sister Aydana is also amazingly nice. There's a few long term residents here as well, from all over the place, and I've had some awesome conversations with them over the past few days.

Ayganesh holding up a gymnastics costume that Leana, a Ukrainian gymnastics teacher who works in Bishkek, made for her own student. Her student's poor, and couldn't afford to have a costume made, so Leana generously stepped in. The sequin work was pretty stunning actually, it looked rather Vincentian. (Of the Van Gogh variety).

Naveed, from Karachi in Pakistan, proudly holding up his graduation certificate, which he received at a ceremony from his Bishkek University a couple of days ago. He's now a qualified doctor, and will return to Pakistan soon to work. We've been hanging out a bit, he's so interesting, very widely read, and with a huge understanding of philosophy, theology and politics, particularly of this region.

Bewdy badly needs a hot bath. You know how bugs get smashed on your car windscreen and get stuck there when you race down the highway at high speeds? The same happens to bike frames, see?

Smoked fish in the supermarket

You're never too far from run-down buildings in this country. Not even in the capital.

E-scooters zipping around. Not as many as Almaty, but young people and couriers here love 'em.

Bishkek is full of red umbrella-ed stalls selling particular locally made drinks, which Kyrgyz locals go mad over, especially when it's hot. Each stall has 3 barrels of different drinks, maksym, chalap, and kvass, and the company that sells them, Shoro, Is big here, so big that the drinks are colloquially known by that name.

Maksym is a sour drink make from barley, wheat, millet and corn, and is pretty much the national drink of Kyrgyzstan. Chalap is essentially aryan, a salty and tart Turkish yoghurt drink, but diluted with water. And kvass is a low-alcohol cloudy beverage which is of sort sweet and sour, and a bit cola-esque.

They're all super cheap, with a cup costing only 25 som, around 25 Eurocents, or about 45c Oz.

This is a maksym and aryan mix, which the lady recommended I try. It was tasty and sour, which all Kyrgyz drinks, and many foods, tend to be.

Classic old theatre

Gardens around Ala-Too Square, the biggest park in the city.

Yes, real latte. It was good!

One of many parks around the city

Sausage seamen

They're doing major roadworks on the big road outside my hostel. Families are taking advantage of the extra kid cycle space.

Beautiful mural

Wow! I need to go here! I wonder if, rather than get a whole new me, you can just get part of a new me, like the eyes, or the skin, or a normal body.

The kitschiest shoe store sign in history, made from plastic roses and flashing fairy lights.

This pomegranate drink is the bomb.

The bar next door to my hostel. Yeah, I went there, it was really cool, but the music playlist included Kansas, Elton John, and cheesy American soft rock. Go figure. That music must be cool here again.

Kyrgyzstan has adopted some of the anti-tobacco measures that some more progressive countries have been implementing, such as hiding the products in boring grey cupboards.

This may look completely like nothing, but it's part of a street that had banks and money exchanges right next to each for block after block. It was so weird. Hundreds of metres of banks, all rubbing shoulders. I guess that keeps the competition tight.

http://buymeacoffee.com/krolesh9

Go to Part 2