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Published: September 11th 2009
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Up Early in Bishkek
Reading while the household sleeps Day 2, June 25, 2009, Thursday, Beishembi:
I was up early this morning after sleeping most of yesterday. Five o'clock and I could not really return to sleep. I had some coffee, read for awhile, then went back to bed until about 7 a.m. I am the first one to rise in the household. The others seems to sleep later. I brought Reza Aslan's new book, Cosmic War, God, Globalization and The End of the War on Terror, with me for the trip. I read more in that this morning and I have finished the book this afternoon. Now I realize that I should have brought a couple of other things to get me through. I do have a couple of things in text form in the computer and I will be able to read them until I find some additional reading material. My young assistant, Timka and I ventured out of the house today with a pocket full of Coms (pronounced Sōmz), the local currency, and some specific objectives. One of the problems of traveling with electronics is that you have to remember to pack all the wires that support your gadgets. I needed to purchase a number of
At the Zum
The entire first floor of the Zum is filled with cell phone and cell phone service vendors. Having the latest cell phone is important to young people in Kyrgyzstan. things. A charger and a sim card for the Nokia 95 phone my friend Emil sent with me to use here. And I have a Mobal international phone whose charger and adapters were left behind. I also bought the wrong razor blades before leaving, so we were looking for razor blades. We also needed to find adapters to charge up some of the devices including my computer that I brought with me, since the system here in Kyrgyzstan uses the same 110-120 volt system as the US but requires a round two pronged plug.
So, Timka and I went shopping today. We also stopped by the Vefa Center, a modern shopping center and used the internet at the internet cafe there. I checked my email in the three different accounts and wrote a quick travel blog update. The keyboards are set up for Russian, so getting the fingering correct was an issue. But after that we were off to the Zym (Zum), a multilevel department store in the center of the city. The store is really a building housing a number of individual retail operations. It is the height of entrepreneurial enterprise. The entire first floor is composed of shops selling mobile telephones and mobile telephone services. We found a place that sold Nokia phones and accessories and were able to get a charger and a sim with a Kyrgyz telephone number for the phone I brought with me. My Kyrgyz number is +996 (77) 807-01-36 for the next two months. I hope that I can eventually learn it. I am going to write it a number of times on the business cards I brought with me. That should help in the memory process. Then we needed to find someone who would have a charger for the Motorola Mobal phone I brought with me. The Mobal phone program is a very dependable international phone that gives you a UK number and then works with local mobile systems as you travel. The calls are a little pricey, but it is nice to have one with you if you are traveling to different countries and areas. We have realized that the SMS messaging is very reasonable, so most of my communication using it is as messaging. A check at about three other phone sellers turned up an aftermarket charger for only 100 Coms. Then we were off to look for the adapters.
It took longer than I thought it would to find them. They were on the 4th floor, along with a number of other electronics items, including televisions, radios, audio systems, etc. The fourth floor is also where I found some Kyrgyz items to buy for my friends when I was here last summer and again in the winter. I found that shop again and asked for advice about a man's razor blades, they directed me around the corner. We found the razor blades. Well, one razor blade for my Gillette Titanium razor at cost of $120 Coms. Timka thought that was outrageous. It is about $3.00 at the current exchange rate. I explained to him that the same razor blade in Houston cost about $14.00 for eight of them, or a per razor charge of $1.75, and that it was okay.
At that point, my shopping companion is ready to go. After all we have gotten every thing we came for why would we just hang around and watch the people? I need a cup of coffee after the process, so I persuade him to wait a few moments while I get a cup of really good iced coffee for a 45 Coms, about a dollar, and convince him that I can just sit right outside on a bench to drink it. There I did get to do a little people watching, but then he was anxious to get out of the arena and find a taxi and head back to the house. Ketig. Let's go.
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