Emails from Kyrgyzstan - September 2008

Mel
The queues at the airport in Moscow were incredible. First a half hour in the passport queue even though I wasnt leaving the airport. Then I joined the 100M queue to get to the gates. It did not take so long to get to the top of it because some men decided that the ladies are to be first and cleared a path for me and a girl with long blonde hair. Then a bunch of guys came alone and tried to go through the gates before the ladies. The men in the queues asked them why they are not letting these ladies through first. Because their flight was going in 10 minutes they were allowed to go before the ladies. Well, it turned out that I was at the wrong gate even though it was the right gate on my boarding pass.


Dirk-Jan
Heheh, sounds like carefully organized chaos :-)


Mel
The information desk directed me to another 100M queue. When I got to the top of it they told me to come back in an hour. I joined the other passengers who were passing the time with some smokes and an open litre of duty free whiskey in the smoking section. The smoking section was right in the middle of the non smoking section where people ignored the no smoking signs and smoked.
After an hour I joined the 150M queue to get to the departure gates. When I finally got to the the top of it and went through the security check I had a half hour left for some relaxing reading. I was 4 hours at that airport and this was the first half hour of not having to get through queues or wait near queues until I was allowed to join them. I read a half page before everybody in the departure lounge started leaving. We all had to leave and go back to the original departure longue I stood in line for. Well, all signs showed that I had exited the European Union. Another 100M queue with nobody to enforce the ladies first ''rule''. I have no clue how late the plane took off. I stopped looking at the clock after reentering the original departure longue. Then there was another around an hour long wait in the bus that was to transfer the passangers to the plane.
So is Lydia enjoying her holiday?



She would certainly love it here. Animals everywhere. Even on the way from the airport to the centre of Bishkek there were plenty of goats, sheep, cows, horses and dogs to look at. And there were the snowcapped mountains always in the distance since I left the airport and all the way to Kochkor.


Mel
I had better find a room now. I have just been sitting around the town watching the scenery since I got here with people constantly asking if I am Russian. I tell them I am from any country they seem to know something about. I want to make damn sure I am not mistaken for the Russians they are so keen to beat up when they get drunk.
And the culture shock! Why do all rooms here except the toilets have doors?
Dinner yesterday evening was fruit, vegetables and sunflower seeds from the market. And er uh a nice bowel of horse milk. I could have done without the horse milk but the matronly ladies living in yurts at the edge of the village selling it by the litre insisted that I drink some because it will make me strong. The bowel of it that I was given had a few pieces of mud floating around in it, so it was possible to avoid the pices of mud by drinking carefully. What they were selling ranged from having a few pieces of mud floating in it to having so much mixed in with it that it is brown coloured. Despite this the locals were buying is by the litreful. I was trying to forget that it was horse milk I was drinking but everybody who came to buy a few litres made horseriding signs to explain it to me, and drink up it will make you strong signs to encourage me to knock it back. The horse milk matrons were also selling balls of cheese, some white and some off white with the dirt that was mixed in with them. I bought some type of fried pastry with cheese in it from them. Horse cheese?! Well, it tasted good anyway.


Dirk-Jan
Ha, that is getting close to my yuckyness threshold..


Mel
Next morning and I have to find a new home. The place I am staying in is booked by a group of tourists. Appart from the mild inconvenience I am happy about moving because I am curious to see the inside of another Kyrgyzstani home. Despite being down a very muddy lane the house I stayed in last night is quite modern. Modern because the toilet is inside. My room had a wooden floor with carpets on floor and walls. As well as the beds there were a few couches with woven rugs on couches and beds.
There was an Australian guy also staying at the same place last night with his guide whom he picked up at the border when he arrived on his motorbike from China. He wanted to know how I managed to land this morning and already be here in Kochkor without a guide. I told him that I did it like I do everywhere. I rolled off the plane in a jet laggy haze while concentrating on not forgetting things and trying to work out if the money exchange rate in the airport is reasonable. Then I get myself to the nearest cafe or bar and load up on caffeine in the form of tea or coffee while trying to gleen some hints from the Lonely Planet about how to get to where I want to get to without being robbed, murdered or whatever.

After a few cups of tea I went outside and go in the first city bus(cramped van with a number painted onto the front of it) going into the city. I got out at OSH Bazar hoping to find somebody who could advise me about a driver. Public transport from town to town is sparse here so the thing to do is hire a driver to take you where you want to go. Petrol is expensive so one needs to find passengers to share the costs with. Usually the taxi driver will round some up if you find the entire amount too much to pay. I found a taxi driver who took me to somebody who speaks English and then to a taxi driver who would find more passengers to share a taxi to Kochkor with. The guy who spoke English told me to be very careful because there are a lot of dangerous people around. I well believe him. Drunken violence and robbery attempts seem to be frequent here, but thankfully most of it happens after dark and can be somewhat avoided. But taking a taxi with unknown people to the middle of nowhere also has its risks so I watched carefully for any signs of something going on with the drivers and potential passengers. I noticed nothing and was also happy to see a pregnant local woman would also be taking the same taxi.



Mel
I am not yet sure about staying in a yurt on the pastures. It is very cold here and they are expecting snow. The lady in the tourist office said it might be too cold up there for me. She says I can go up there and come back without staying if I want. There is no public transport to get up there and a taxi is expensive. I will let whether I go depend on if I can find other tourists to share a taxi with. So far, I am the only one at a loose end. The few tourists who come here decend in a swarm and disappear to the hills with guides etc to hike and horseride. But the village is an adventure in itself so no problem...


Dirk-Jan
So it attracts activity maniacs. Snow, heh. It's a bit colder here in the Netherlands but not nearly cold enough for snow. Rain and wind, autumn has arrived here.


Mel
Yeah, that is for sure. Thank goodness they were up early and gone to the mountains. They don't understand why anyone would want to sit around chatting and people watching and it can get a bit embarassing having to answer the questions about which tours and hikes I went on.


Mel
I spent a few hours at the tourist cafe yesterday drinking tea and looking out for lone tourists who would share a taxi to the pastures with me. Despite it being called the tourist cafe, only locals where eating there and drinking a lot of alcohol. Some men bought me icecream when I turned down the shots of evil looking liqueur they offered me. I made it clear to them that I am from any European country they want me to be from, but I am not Russian. They know nothing about Ireland so there is no real point in explaining I am from there. The man from the tourist office came in at one stage. He speaks English so they wanted him to ask me where exactly I am from. They said, that is England. The man from the tourist office explained to them why it is not England. Those who speak English here seem to be also very aware of world politics while those who don't seem not to be. I don't know if this is because speaking English is a part of being well educated or what.


Mel
Yesterday when I was in the tourist cafe the guy from the tourist cafe told me there is a disco upstairs later and I could go. I asked if it is safe for me to be walking around at night because I heard a few stories. He said it is safe for a girl because I would not have much money. Well, at least that stereotype might keep me safe. But, it makes me wonder how they think I could afford to fly here with being a moneyless girl.



I showed the cafe lady a picture of you and Lydia. She nodded in approval when she saw your photos and said ''That is a good man''. This opinion she based on the photo alone, because I had not told her anything about you.
I offered her one of my cigarettes. She said she will accept one of my American cigarettes, (which are in fact German cigarettes, but exotic is exotic I suppose) as a gift for her father. She asked if I go to school because going to school is good. Girl?! school?! Exactly how old do these people think I am?! But, I don't have the weather beaten face with a few gold teeth that everybody over 12 here seems to have, so maybe they think I look young.


Mel
I didnt go to the disco last night. I wasn't so convinced that being a girl will keep me safe, especially after the Australian guy told me that some horsemen on the mountains surrounded his motorbike looking for money. His guide expained that the thing to do is have a packet of cigarettes and give one each to the robbers in these situations. Apparently, this gift appeases them enough so you don't have to hand over any money.
I noticed that if somebody asks for some of your food, giving them some also causes good feelings. All you have to do is hand over an apple or a piece of bread... and whether asked for or voluntarily offered instant friendship is the result.


Dirk-Jan
Instant friendship if you hand over your cigarettes when you are being held up, LOL...


Mel
Indeed! :D They have their own ideas about what it means to be civilized here. The cigarettes are not quite a bribe. It is more a way to display your good intentions. You display your good intentions and thus become a friend and they don't rob friends.



Mel
Hope you didn't get too worried yesterday when I didn't send you an email. The electricity outages are hitting this place hard. The power goes off at any old time and comes on again later after some unspecified amount of time. This happens several times per day. By the way, don't worry about any days you don't get emails. It will likely be for the same reason.



Would you check the news and see if the electricity problem is effecting flights in and out of Kyrgyzstan.
Well, time to find out where my new home is now.
Some activity maniacs with sunburned noses and sporty looking travel clothes have just arrived in here(the only internet connection in town is in the tourist office). They are also in a group so likely won't want to share a taxi with me to the pastures.
I asked the Australian guys guide last night if the drunken men beat up tourists because they think we are Russian. He said, it is true that they don't like the Russians but he thinks the attacks are because people are desperately poor and when they get drunk they get aggitated about it and make clumsy attempts to rob tourists.
He(the Australian guys guide) seemed keen to talk about the politics of the country. I asked if he minds being asked by tourists about these things because in many Western countries people are phobic about political talk and think that people in other places are also like this. He said, in Kyrgyzstan people don't mind because unlike in some of the other Central Asian countries they would not be thrown in jail for saying these things.
He thinks there will be another revolution here next Spring because times are hard and the government are getting a lot of things wrong. Apparently there are half finished projects everywhere and foreign investers don't want to invest here because things are too unstable. I asked why the revolution will be in Spring. He said, after a long Winter of poverty people feel at their lowest ebb. He said, in 2005 the revolution was in Springtime and the government was overthown. He said, that president left peacefully but this comming Spring he fears that people will be shot for demonstrating because the current president is the type who would do that.



One of the things going wrong right now is the shortage of hydropower. Apparently the government let the resevoirs flow down the mountain and the water flood towns and be wasted. Now the electricity in Bishkek is off for 6 hours per day and factories etc can't run properly. The hydrapower is a source of a lot of the frustration people have with the government and it will get worse in Winter because people will be cold.
I asked about tourism as a way for the country to make money. He said, that the tourist season is very short and because the foreign investors don't want to build resorts here the country only suits the type of tourist who likes camping and hiking. I kinda wonder what those resorts would do to this country. The drive from Bishkek was through the most beautiful untouched landscape I have seen anywhere. I don't suppose the government would put enough restrictions on the foreign investors to make sure they build things tastefully and don't dig up the entire place for their hotels. The guide says the government are easily influenced by money and would certainly take a payment in order to allow the investors to do anything they want.
It seems to me that one government seems almost as bad as the next in these countries. At the very best they are chaotic but allow people some freedom. At worse, well check Amnesty reports for details... I said to the guide that maybe what these governments need is the support of the governments in the more developed world because no matter what government comes along it seems like being so isolated and poor will just cause the same chaos and failure again and again. He said that since 9 11 he does not hold out much hope for relations forming with the wealthier countries.
But the good news(in my opinion) is that the minor tourism that we as backpackers bring at least gives some money to the locals people. The guesthouse owners that the tourist office finds us get 82% of the money we pay. The government only get 3% of it. And when we buy meals and food at the market and have drinks at the cafes...... According to the guide the government allows a type of unruly capitalism. The government don't seem to get much of the money from this everyday trading but the guide thinks this is still bad. I am not sure why he has this opinion because I didn't know what question to ask to clarify it.


Mel
My new home is at the edge of the village. I walk past the village yurts where the women selling horse milk are, women milking cows in their gardens, dogs, turkeys, chickens, kids who have learned to say hello and good bye in English, goats tied to garden fences so they can eat the grass growing beside the ''footpath''...... to get to the house. There are at the most pieces of wood with the street names painted on them nailed to a tree here and there. Most streets don't have the names displayed at all so finding the house on the first evening was not so easy. Thanks to the kids lined along the street and likely to have been sent out to watch out for the tourist I got there.


Mel
The house I am staying in is made up of two buildings and a yurt with a garden in the middle of all this. A strange design in my opinion for a country that gets so cold. A person would need to go out in the snow to get from one part of the house to the other. Floors are wooden with capets and there are colourful velvet patchwork hangings covering most of the walls and chandeliers one the ceiling, also rugs and carpets on all chairs and seats. The houses here are like a colourful display of handicrafts.


Dirk-Jan
Let's hope the American and Japanese tourists don't discover it for a while yet, it sounds so... genuine if you know what I mean.


Mel
HaHa!! Yeah, lets hope. :D


Mel
There is only a small trickle of tourists anyway and I am glad that people make at least some money to keep for themselves. I presume however that the government pockets our quite hefty visa fees. 30 Euros a pop.


Dirk-Jan
It would almost seem as if the authorities think the piddly bit of tourism money isn't worth their time. All the better, of course :-)



Mel

I met a lone Polish guy yesterday. It is a bit late for me to plan to share a taxi to the wilds with him but I hope to get back to Bishkek in the same taxi with him on Thursday. It is always better if some women or foreigners are in the taxi too. He is spending a night in a tent someplace and then has to make it back to Bishkek and then to Almaty for his 2AM flight one Saturday morning. I asked him if cutting it so fine is not making him nervous. He said it is but can't do much about it if he wants to enjoy being here. He said he may not be allowed into (I forget which country Almaty is in) to get to the airport and that worries him a bit.
He has a point. No sense in worrying too much about what inconveniences could delay one because one could spend all ones time worrying about such things in a country like Kyrgyzstan.


Dirk-Jan
Maybe the world news is not being broadcast in Kyrgyzstan.


Mel
I don't know what type of news is broadcast even thought they switched on the fuzzy screened TV for my benefit during breakfast, because it was all in Kyrgyzstani. There was the news, the weather and some morning TV show including things like fashion. Fashion and other things that the typical person here can't afford. It seems a pity that people are bombared with advertising and provided with just enough goodies from the modern world to frustrate them. If everybody lived in yurts and travelled on horseback until the country is properly ready to make things like electricity and running water consistent and affordable I think it would reduce a lot of the stress people feel here. And the same goes for all countries including ours so the cost of living remains tolerable.


Dirk-Jan
Guess the advertisement folks want to brainwash them into being consumers just in case the Kyrgyzistani get some money :/


Mel
Here walking back to the guesthouse from the village is never eventless. Yesterday evening I was on my way and had passed some animal skins hanging on garden fences, some cows, some horse shit, some yurts and was approaching a dead dog(it is still there today and starting to stink) when the man who insists that I buy one of the melons layed out on a blanket in the middle of the village every time I pass appeared. I usuallly agree if he has one that is not too big. This deal is carried out everyday with a lot of hearty smiles and handshakes and jolly comments in Kyrgyzstani. He said I have not bought my melon and I was to come back to the market now. I had bought a melon but not from him because his melons were there without him when I arrived at the market. I showed him that I already have a melon and he looked stricken when he saw it. After much passionate chest pounding(his own chest) and looks of sadness(from him) I managed to proceed on my way home.
Most of the kids on the way were saying whatever they knew how to say in English and being generally friendly. On little monster asked me for money. This is the first time that has ever happened here. I said no and he started throwing things at me. I made the usual tut tut behave yourself noises and signs that all mothers know and all kids understand. He scowled and tried to thow something at me. I told him loudly in English to behave himself hoping it would attract some adult attention. It did, and somebody shouted to him over a garden fence. It only worked temporarily because as soon as I was out of sight of the adult the kid started following me until we came to another adult. It seemed like this was an adult that the kid expected to be indulged by, from the way he was behaving. I raised my eyebrows slightly at the adult and glanced towards the kid. Another of those universal parent signals which means ''do something about your brat''.
This sort of incident is a little worrying because even though most people are friendly or ignore me there have been a few aggresssive types. This morning another kid threw something at me and a school girl said something that did not sound nice when she found out I can't speak Kyrgyzstani. Best to ignore these shows of aggression of course. but I am tempted to lecture them that their poverty is not my doing and being hostile to tourists they see as rich will not make them less poor.


Mel
Speaking of the yuckiness threshold, I was having a hard time at breakfast this morning eating the amount of food required to show basic politeness. Even as a paying guest one should show some enthusisam at meal times. They gave me a big bowel of steaming porriage which I didnt eat because I am just not a porriage eating type of person. And the pair of false teeth with a few gold ones on it(for authenticity I presume) soaking in a coffee bowel put me off eating much of the bread and fruit that was there. And I put fermented horse milk in my coffee by accident so left a full cup of coffee behind at the breakfast table too.
I had better send you a bunch of short emails because I don't want the electricity to cut out when I am in the middle or one, even though it seems to be behaving itself today.


Dirk-Jan
Haha, I hope they'll give you something decent to eat soon :-)


Mel
A bunch of tourists arrived last night. 5 of them stayed at the same guesthouse as I am at. They were friendly and OK. None of them asked which of the surrounding mountains I scaled and which frozen lakes I have swum in. They were not the hiking types who wonder what I could possibly be doing with myself if I am not spending everyday hiking and mountain climbing.
All the family were out when I woke up this morning except the 7 year old. She brought my breakfast including boiling water to make the coffee. She forgot the bread but no problem because too much of it will just make me fat.


Mel
I am going back to Bishkek tomorrow where I will spend a couple of nights before flying early on Sunday morning. I wonder what it is like there. Nice cafes, shops etc maybe. Well, it will surely be an interesting contrast with this place. I will be staying at a backpackers place. I sure hope it is there because nobody seems to know anything about it even though it was recommended to me by a few people on the internet and has a website.


Dirk-Jan
I saw Almaty on the map yesterday, it's not too far to your north-east. Russia? I'm not sure...


Mel
It is in one of the former Soviet countries. There is a main highway from Bishkek to Almaty. The actual physical part of getting transport to there is not a problem. The problem is the border police. They may or may not give him a transit visa to get into the country and if they don't that would be a huge problem for somebody with a plane to catch in Almaty in the next 10 hours.


Dirk-Jan
Something tells me that such problems may go away when they are compensated by green pieces of paper with $ signs on them...


Mel
The backpackers challange is to avoid handing over the pieces of paper.


Dirk-Jan
Really sounds like the very edge of civilization :-)


Mel
Yeah, the edge of civilization but it reminds me in a lot of way of rural Ireland when I was a kid. The Australian guy told me that being from Ireland I should be used to the drunks here. Well, he has a point and that point is one of the reasons I don't live in Ireland.


Dirk-Jan
I think even the hardiest poteen drinker might baulk at fermented goats milk though :D


Mel
Yesterday I changed money at the bank and it was a spectacle like everything else here. The bank is located at the more affluent looking side of the village. Affluent looking because there are some well maintained houses(by Kyrgyzstani standards anyway) and some official type buildings, the streets were paved even if they had a lot of cracks and holes and there were not as many farm animals in the gardens, tied to trees or running wild.



The bank looked derelict and abandoned by both staff and customers. There was a sign on the wall pointing towards someplace I could change money so I proceeded along. A policeman at a doorway said something rather demanding in Kyrgyzstani. Third world police are generally best avoided so I pretended I thought he was greeting me and walked on. Then he and a soldier started to follow me saying something in the same demanding way. I stopped and they asked me if I want to change dollars. I said, I do in fact want to change money. The soldier disappeared and the policeman let me to a room with nothing and nobody in it except a lady behing a big desk. She filled in a form and handed it to me. Somebody else appeared and took me to another room with nothing and nobody in it except a banktellers window with bars on it. I gave her the form and the crisp, clean 50 Euro note. In return I received a ratty half inch of Kyrgyzstani money. If I was the vengeful type I would have told her that those notes are not good enough for me, as I have been told so many times before when I handed over less than in perfect condition Western notes.



Mel
After changing money, I decided to look around for a cafe. Since I was in the more affluent side of town I envisioned a leafy garden with stunning views of the mountains that surround the village. Well, I got to the cafe which was nice enough but as is typical in all houses and buildings here they manage to block any views of the mountains with curtains, plastic plants, haystacks....... It is the same with the house where I am staying. Being at the edge of the village they could have amazing views from every window. As it is, one has to twist ones neck to see the mountains from any of the windows or the area in the garden where they put the tables and chairs.
In the bad and good old days in Europe when everybody had less money to spend we could afford to live in houses with mountain, sea, river.... views. But I suppose like the people here we have only become interested in these things since they became expensive. Ya don't know what ya have till its gone is what I have to say.


Dirk-Jan
I guess for them the mountains are too normal to be considered admirable :D


Mel
Then there will be no objection if their government sell them to be knocked down by foreign investors and replaced with shopping centres.


Mel
We passed mountains and lakes for 2 hours and then could see the mountains of Kazakhstan on the left as we proceeded to Biskek..
The driver stopped at a petrol station with a war plane on a pedistal. Real?!
It took a while to find a place to change 10 Euros this morning. Most money changing places are in jewelery shops and I went into several. They waved me away when they saw that I was only changing 10 Euros. As far as I know the average monthly wage in Bishkek is very low. Less than a couple of hundred Euros so why is a 10 Euro note considered a small amount.
I was offered a choice between a yurt and a room to sleep in last night. It did not matter to me which as long as they were the same price. I was put in a room. Anyway, I am off to spend my 10 Euros. Weehee!
The police have been hassling some of the backpackers at the guesthouse. Thankfully not me yet. Sometimes they are fake police and want to steal the passports. Sometimes they are real police and want to fine us for not handing over our passports. We try to fob them off with photocopies in case they are fake police and if they are real we tell them we want to phone the consulate or we want to be taken to a big police station before we hand over the passports. After arguing with them for a while and making them labouriously explain what they want with sign language and then saying we have no money they generally let us go.

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