Blogs from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Asia - page 5

"Life here is difficult," said the young, good-looking driver. "Not many jobs here. Many go to other places." "Well, the situation is similar in the Philippines. People also go to other countries for better opportunities," I replied, as we cruised down the picturesque tree-lined road from the airport to my couchsurfing host's house. Made it at last to Kyrgyzstan. If there is one word that can describe the country, it is GREEN. Trees, steppes, rolling hills, and pasturelands are in all directions -- laced by very tall snow-capped mountain ranges at par with the Himalayas. The verdant landscape is just occasionally broken by white to beige houses. All worries brought by not planning disappeared as soon as I stepped into the country. "Are you Russian or Kyrgyz?" "Do I look Russian? They look so yellow to ... read more

So we meet again. I didn't really expect to deploy so soon again, but as things turned out, here I am. I have to try not to sound too salty because I know plenty of people who have deployed way more, and for longer times. The first one was fun, but I can see how this would get really old really fast. Not sure how people with families can cope! Enough lamenting, and on with the story telling! Our date of deployment was fudged a little at the end. First they give us a window of about 4 days that we might deploy so we can somewhat plan. Then they pick a day (ours happened to be one day BEFORE our window started) -- this usually doesn't happen until a week or two before we leave. ... read more

Overnight stop in Urumqi on the way to Bishkek, arriving in Urumqi airport from Beijing we were hoping to just find the right terminal and chill for couple of hours, but when we checked at the Southern China Air we were given vouchers for a hotel! We told them we would be happy to stick around, but no! they insist we go in the hotel, we don't see and passengers loitering and we took it that it is not allowed. The shuttle bus took ages and when we finally got to the hotel it was 3am, we had nice cup of jasmine tea we bought from the crazy Silk market in Beijing and went to sleep for couple hours. We got a morning call at 5:50am. quick shower and off we go to meet the shuttle, ... read more

Day 32, July 27, 2009, Monday, Duishombu A nice surprise this morning, Ernes, one of Emil's cousin's from Kysyl-kia, arrived with his father Dushen from the south. I met Ernes and his younger brother Nursultan last summer. Ernes has the best command of English of any of the relatives. His little brother also has really good skills in English. He is here to look into universities for the Fall. He would like to go to Manas University, he says. He and I talked about this and that, then he and his father and Gulnara talked about two Universities in Bishkek, with a call to Emil in the US to ask his opinion about where Ernes should be attending, Manas or Ala-Too University. I will try to stay out of it. I failed to ask what he ... read more

So it's Christmas Day, I'm at work but there is nothing in particular I'm meant to be doing and the boss is out. What should one do except of course, prat about on the net! Firstly I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas from me to you whereever you may be in the world. Also blog wise this is quite exciting as I am moving from Blogspot to Travelblog, mainly because the old one is a rubbish layout and it is doesn't work in about 80% of computers outside of Europe and the US. It is a beautiful sunny day here, with a good 10-15cm of new snow having fell last night. There are practically no christmas decorations except those I put up in my house this morning and it is quite serene. I ... read more