We're German, German 5

To Jalal-abad

In the morn it was finally time for me to move on, as Timur was going in a different direction.

It had been an amazing couple of days with him, we had a really beautiful connection, and it was super interesting for both of us as well.

Timur wobbling around on my bike in the morn.

He cried as we said goodbye. Really.

Watering the weeds. Actually, there were a few small planted bushes in there as well.

My guest house balcony

Fruit flavoured tea is big here.

Resting from the hot road

People suffer from birdik here too, but generally after too much vodka, rather than beer

Pumpkin acrobatic troupe having a rest

Gourd heavens

Roadside memorial

The hot road to Jalal-abad. Not the Jalalabad in Afghanistan of course, which actually isn't that far away, as the golden eagle flies.

I parked here for awhile, chatting with Lali on WhatsApp about her Uni subject options and exchange possibilities. Talk about different worlds. The range kept being dodgy though.

Romantic roadside stop

They love their flags around here

My guest house didn't exist. I farted around on these dodgy roads for ages in the blazing sun looking for it. Frustrating. Eventually I went back into the guts of the city and found a Russian hostel.

The bazaar in Jalal-abad was good, but nowhere near as big as I'd expected, given that the city is the third largest in Kyrgyzstan.

To be fair, it's not a big city though, with a population of 120,000, out of a total country population of about 7 million.

Russian travel agent

I was so tired I didn't even climb this hill.

I know. Pretty unlike me, huh.

Head and collars above the rest

It's hard to admit, but this was my dinner. Everything I saw on the streets was so meaty that I couldn't bear it anymore.

My sweatart

Kurt and  Darina

The next morn, as I took off from Jalal-abad, I bumped into Swiss Kurt, who was waiting on the side of the road for his Irish partner Darina to finish chatting to some local guy.

We chatted for awhile, Darina eventually caught up, and before we knew it we'd become a threesome, in the most wholesome way possible.

Kurt and Darina are amazingly interesting, warm and super friendly people. Both have a deep love for music, so we immediately connected, chatting about all these random bands that at least one of us had heard of.

Those guys have also travelled more than pretty much anyone I've ever met, and most of it has been on bicycles. They've been everywhere, man. In fact, both have been to over 100 countries each, which, if you think about it, is a lot.

And besides the initial getting there, they do it all by pedal power.

Yet another mosque portrait

Takin a back road out of Jalal-abad

Darina pretending she's happy, whilst climbing a hill in the hot sun

Great that they've got rubbish bins. Bummer hardly anyone uses them.

Yay, we made it over the low pass

Another of the five thousand horsemen of the apocalypse

Stock photo

We stopped for gallons of cold sweet drinks and some lunch, and a couple of Italian cyclists from Roma turned up too.

Yep, Kyrgyzstan is a bit of a cyclist mecca at the moment, especially this part of it. There's a lot of masochists out there.

I gave this little girl and her cousin some fat bangles I've been carrying around since India. At last, I got rid of them! This girl was so happy, she kept walking past showing me she was wearing it, although it's still a little too big for her.

Just like bloody sheep

We passed through a super interesting town, Özgön, and we would've loved to stay there, as it was Friday, mosque day, and the town was pumping. But there was nowhere decent to stay, so we rode on.

Nice hats aren't they

As it got late we looked around for campsites, and Kurt found a nice one by a canal.

Darina kindly offered to cook, so Kurt and I could jam - me on guitar and him on gas bottle.

This is the bloody life innit

To Osh

The next morning we headed off to the second largest city in the country, Osh.

It's not really that big though, with only about 250,000 Oshalians living there.

Starting to look like his crop

We stopped for brekky, and guzzled Coke

And samsy

On the outskirts of Osh

Ride 'em, cowboys

The traffic was thick, but we breathed in and slid between it all.

G-osh!

I've wanted to go to Osh forever. I've always wanted to see what it was like. And now I'm here to explore it.

Kurt, Darina and I plan to do some riding in the hills away from the city for a few days, before they fly all the way back to Switzerland.

It's so great that I'll get the chance to hang with them some more, we've been having such a great time together.

Once they've gone I'll stay for a little longer, before embarking on yet another leg of what has become rather a millipedal journey.

Yeah, soon I'm gonna head over the border, to the magnificent and historic land of Uzbekistan.

It just keeps getting better, innit❤️

http://buymeacoffee.com/krolesh9