Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Welcome to the 'Switzerland of Central Asia': Kyrgyzstan!!

We finally made it to the summit of Coquahalla Pass and camp just next of the rest area. This road pass is located about 3hours from Vancouver on the TransCanadian Highway.



We figured it would be nice to head up towards Markhor Peak. None of us has ever tour around this area and since Nic had to catch his flight on the coming night, we weren't feeling to venture too far.



In addition of the poor visibility, the wind scoured snow, everyone has now turn into the fanciest powder princess you can imagine. We cut the day short and head to Vancouver.



After packing all our stuff, we went for an all-you-can-eat sushi where we really tried hard to close the place down by eating all their supplies!!!



I guess we failed, but everyone was full and had gain several pounds just over that single dinner!
Nic left just after this food-fest. I was to do the same the following day. I was flying Vancouver-Calgary-London-Baku (Azerbaijan)- Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan).



I catch up with my dad who was flying from Montreal in London from where we were flying together. After 19 hours sitting in a plane (25 including the layover) and crossing 14 time zones, we finally got to Bishkek at about 3h30AM.



We had planned to be pretty knocked off, so my Dad has prepared an airport pick-up that we were both fairly happy to get. We finally collapsed at 4h30AM in our hotel room.



A bit tired by the jetlag and the travel, we spend the following day wandering around the Kyrgyz's Capital. It is fairly grey and drab. It seems that most of the buildings have been build during the Soviet Era leaving the capital quite a lot of the huge square concrete buildings typical of this period.







There is also a weird smell that floats around town, like grass that has been burned. It also accompanied the smog that forms in town.



We can see the nearby mountain range in the morning that look quite promising.



After fixing a taxi ride to the nearby ski station for the following day, accompanying my dad buying his first cell phone (for 20$) and preparing a bit the europe part of our trip, we left the hotel for the Osh Market.



This market is the biggest one in Kyrgyzstan. You can find pretty much everything you can think of. It showcase all of the usual product that you can in the market: meat, fish, vegetable, produce, spices, clothing. They don't really de-ice the sidewalk so it is fairly dangerous for the tourist that we are to look at all of what we have in front of our eyes without sliding on the uneven ice surface!







We are now all set for tomorrow where we should be able to make our first turns on the Kyrgyz ground.



We have been lucky so far to be able to get some fairly reliable internet in the Capital, but I really don't know how it will be. The Blogspot server is block in Kyrgyzstan so I'll have to get one of my friend to post my travelogs so I cannot guaranty how reliable it will be!!!

Jakshy kalyngydzar!

evans

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