KyrgyCarl On the Road Again

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Time is moving forward, and I am moving with it, and that is where I will write from today. Specifically, from Kashgar city, China.

That's right, your very own, Kyrgy Carl has returned to the Middle Kingdom, his once and former stomping grounds. This time, however, with my Chinese hiding deep in the recesses of my mind, my Kyrgyz is coming out in full force. See, the people of Kashgar are ethnically Uighur, and there language is in the same family as Kyrgyz. Imagine a Frenchman and a Spaniard trying to carry on a conversation. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

See, my father and my brother and my best friend, Matt came out to Kyrgyzstan, timed just right for the parliamentary referendum at the end of June. We toured the country. I showed them the world that I have grown to know, and I relearned the novelties. The fermented horse milk was once again sour; the boiled sheep bland; the hospitality overwhelming: at one point, my brother said, "Carl, I think I might be feeling hungry right now, but I'm not sure I can remember the feeling."

We spent our Fourth of July in the At Bashy Mal Bazaar, the place I've now spent so much time. We drank beer and ate fried fish with grilled beef. My Dad didn't like the fat. I was the kind of magic that is too easy to forget. Plus, to have such luxury as to share my new life with my best friends in the world is a gift finer than any other.

Their trip, a small two weeks, went by with reckless ease. Since then, Matt has stuck around, and we've teamed up with another volunteer, and cross the Torugart Pass, one of the highest commercial borders in the world, and are now resting with cold beers on a rooftop cafe in Kashgar, the capital of the Uighur world. At the border itself, high and cold in the middle of nowhere, we ran into a crew of Kyrgyz nobles, both from Kyrgyzstan and China. Upon learning of our language skills, they invited us to they're parting party. We drank and ate with these people, enjoying hospitality like only the Kyrgyz can show.

Since then, it has been China, once again, in full force. The city is big, the buildings tall, and the streets broad and well paved. The Uighurs are surprisingly lax about hearing us speak a varient of their language, but tickled all the same. From here, we head to the magical Mogao caves, some of the most impressive repositories of Bhudist statues in the world.

It's travel like I know it, folks, and never fear, you'll be with me every step of the way.

Follow the whole epic at www.kyrgycarl.com

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