The Long Trip Here

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I started writing journal entries after arriving here, but am just now creating a blog... so here's my first journal entry to start things off...

July 4, 2012

After a delayed flight resulting in an amazing evening in London and two days in Bishkek, I’ve been in China for almost exactly two days now.

I left Moncton early on Wednesday, June 27^th. I flew to Washington-Dulles via Newark and sat at the Dulles airport for the day. My flight to London-Heathrow was supposed to leave at 10pm, but due to mechanical failure, it only left at 2:30am. So I didn’t make my next flight to Bishkek on time. The airline put me up at a hotel for the night. This gave me the opportunity to tour London for a little over two hours.

I arrived at my hotel sometime between 6 and 7pm. After showering and eating, I was ready to brave London by myself on foot. I left on the underground at 9pm, putting me downtown about an hour later. It was just getting dark at 10pm. I first went to Buckingham Palace, then to Westminster Abbey, the Parliament and Big Ben, and then across the bridge to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. I walked back across the Tower Bridge, and then past the Tower of London. By this time, it was about midnight. A rickshaw driver saw me and told me to get in. At that point, I was ready to let him give me a lift! We drove past St. Paul’s Cathedral. At that hour, the underground line that would have taken me straight back to Heathrow was closed, so I had to take a different underground and then catch a bus. Fortunately, a very helpful young man who was familiar with the underground and bus routes overheard me asking someone else how to get to Heathrow, so he took the initiative to help me out and confirm at the underground station exactly what I needed to do.

Touring London was a magical night. I remember turning the corner and seeing Westminster Abbey for the first time. It was a breathtaking moment to finally be seeing in person sights that have become so familiar through media. I felt like I was experiencing part of my heritage and strengthening my British roots as someone from a Commonwealth country. Unfortunately my camera batter wasn't charged, so I don't have pictures of any of the London sights.

The next day, I flew out of Heathrow at 11:30 on Turkish Airlines. In the flight rescheduling and airline transfer (I was originally flying United, but they rebooked me with Turkish airlines), my checked luggage didn’t make it on the flight. I was assured that it would make it through to Bishkek, but that is still unconfirmed.

I arrived in Istanbul at about 5pm local time and flew out just before 9pm. The view from the Istanbul airport was beautiful! Too bad I hadn’t been delayed there, too! I was scared to eat anything or drink anything that wasn’t bottled (I wouldn’t even get a coffee). I realize now that I would have been fine ordering from any of those restaurants, but I was unsure at the time. Turkish Airlines served good food on their flights, so I was fine anyways.

I arrived in Bishkek at 5am. Because of my delay, I couldn’t get a flight out of Bishkek until Monday morning. My friends in Urumqi made arrangements for me to stay with people they knew in Bishkek. I had to buy a visitor’s visa for about $70, and I had to pay cash. I had $40 USD on me and some Canadian cash as well, but they wouldn’t accept Canadian currency. They wanted USD, British pounds, or Kyrgyz cash. The people in line in front of me warned me that the guard who escorted them to the ATM charged them a $50 bribe just to get back in to get their visas. I was scared, but fortunately the girl who escorted me didn’t ask for anything.

I stayed with Kyrgyz nationals in Bishkek, and it was neat to get a glimpse into Kyrgyz and Central Asian culture. We even visited the home of some of their friends and had a for-real-sit-on-the-floor-on-mats-around-the-food meal! I commented that I was enjoying an authentic experience, not simply something put-on for foreigners. Their response was that they didn’t know any foreigners would be there, so it was definitely authentic!

After staying the weekend in Bishkek and "celebrating" Canada Day there, I made it to my final destination, Urumqi, on Monday afternoon, July 2nd.

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Photos

Waiting in Washington
This is my only photo between Moncton and Bishkek since my camera ran out of battery. This is my traveling companion (actually, I just brought him as a pillow for the plane), Monkey. Since we had time, I figured we'd get a shot of us en route.

In Bishkek
This is the daughter of the family I stayed with in Bishkek and her friend.