Photos - Kyrgyzstan

The second country of our 2009 Central Asia tour was Kyrgyzstan the poorest country in the region. Our visit was a year before the riots and protests but we found out that people were not happy with the government. We stayed in the capital Bishkek, in a beach resort at lake Issyk Kul and high in the Tien Shan Mountains at Ala Archa. Much in Kyrgyzstan has not changed since the Soviet Union so we could shoot many interesting photos.

The border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan is only a few kilometres away from Almaty behind the Tien Shan Mountains; there are no border guards however. The best solution is to take a taxi to the border at Korday, cross the border, and then take a Kyrgyz taxi to the capital Bishkek. During the taxi ride it became clear that Kyrgyzstan is a poor country, especially compared to booming Kazakhstan with its gas and oil money. Bishkek, formerly named Frunze is clearly a former Soviet with all the usual treads. Absolute highlight of Bishkek is the Lenin Museum with many soviet sculptures and a painted ceiling depicting he history of the Soviet Union. Bishkek features many Soviet era monuments architecture and museums, so is well worth a visit. We also stayed for three days in the Ala Archa National park, 40 km south of Bishkek, high in the Tien Shan Mountains. There are some trails with beautiful nature, gorges, streams and steep climbs. Halfway the trail to the Adygene valley is a Soviet mountaineer’s cemetery, were also the victims of an airplane crash are buried. From Ala Archa we moved to a beach resort near Cholpon-Ata on Issyk Kul to chill out for a couple of days. We flew to Tashkent from Manas Airport, used by the US military as an airbase supporting the ground war in Afghanistan. We saw many transport and tanker aircraft coming and going while we were waiting for our flight out.