Discovering Bishkek through people and places - Day 3 June 18, 2013

We woke up to a nice and cold morning. Clear blue skies, it looked like we were going to have a pleasant day ahead. Heard an alsatian barking a few blocks away; reminds me to take note that people here rarely keep pets. What a pity!

Today's mission: Buy the local road maps in English. After a solid breakfast we met two young cyclists traveling from UK for the past 110 days. James and Ashley. Their destination -"Till money lasts". On an average they traveled 100 Kms a day.

You can follow their trip on www.pedallingfree.com and feel the spark in you ignite. We exchanged cards and shared details about our own journey --The Silk Odyssey: Motorbiking with a cause -- with them. They were glad to know that the cause was associated to save children associated with 'Save The Children', which was founded in the UK in year 1919.

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Today we walked more than 8 kms asking many enroute for a road map from Kyrgyzstan to Russia in English. We checked out several places recommended but could not find one. Finally we met a shop owner who spoke fluent English but even she didn't have an idea where to find a map in English. Phew!

We had french fries and coke for lunch as no veg burgers were available in Bishkek. It was a nice public place to sit with water surrounding the sitting areas. We wanted to eat some veggies for a change but couldn't find any one serving them here.

Now Bishkek cities have taken this amazing idea and implemented it to make place for people like me to plonk themselves under a tree after a nice meal. They just cement a couple of wooden planks under the tree to work like a bench, and Voila!

Walked back to the guest house in the lovely weather that as expected lasted all day.

Later in the day we met an elderly German couple who travel very often. Thay have been coming to India for scaling peaks for the past 6 years. They said they love Nandadevi. Speaking to them about our journey was an absolute pleasure. They were, too, happy to note that we were raising funds for Save The Children through our trip.

They took the link for donating online from us and said they would talk to others back home too. Interestingly, their house is on the border of Germany n Switzerland. One can see the terrain of both the countries from his house. An open invitation was extended by them but as we are not going that way, maybe we will leave it to next time.

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We later received a call from our clearing agent that the bike should come by tomorrow. Hope that we get it ASAP. Booking Air Cargo internationally last minute is not a good option but we were left with no choice, thanks to China and Pakistan.

We had supper at a near by cafe where we were lucky to have a doctor having his meal who went out of his way to help us place an order as he knew some English. Chui Hospital is just next to the cafe so there are many doctors that come in to have their meals.

Hitesh, our mechanic, is not too well and is down with a sore throat. We called it a night with the hope of getting our bikes the next day.

Bishkek, our first experience with Krygyzstan June 17, 2013

Woke up to a clear sky. Had a superb breakfast laid out for us. We ate to our heart's content after which we had to visit the our clearing agent's office for the bikes.

The lady who owned the guest house we were living at spoke to the officer we were supposed to visit and arranged for her husband's car to drop us there. The gentleman didn't know a single word of English. With our SIM cards finally activated we started using the Google translator on our phones.

It had been raining since breakfast so we later set out to buy an umbrella or a 'zontik' as it is called here. What happened in the next few hours was pretty unexpected. We visited many stores, walking around looking for a zontik (umbrella) but discovered that it wasn't easily available although almost everyone on the road was carrying one.

In the middle of our mini treasure hunt we received a call from our clearing agent who wanted us in her office in 10 minutes. Luckily we were around her place and could make it there in time to sign some crucial documents to procure our bikes. She offered us some coffee which was more than welcome in the rainy weather.

Off again to find a zontik, we visited more than 4 malls, walked for about an hour and a half, asked the locals but still couldn't find out. In the meanwhile we ended up visiting a monument but had no idea what it was, or what it stood for. The only person who stopped to talk to us was a youngster, who spoke promising English but could not even convey the name of the monument to us. Finally we found out that it was called 'Victory Land'.

Language shall be a big barrier all through the trip until we reach UK.

Finally, however, we did end up finding zontiks at a road side market and bought three for 450 som.

What really appalled me ever since I came to Kyrgystan was the Som: Rupee value. Can someone please explain why the value of the Som is higher than that of the Indian Rupee? When we got there 1 Krygystani Som was equal to 1.2 Indian rupee. As far as I could see and find out, there are no industries here whatsoever, masses are poor and the standard of living is low. Parity between rich and poor is also very wide.

Now for some societal and cultural differences that I noticed on my short time here.

Almost everyone in a car stops and waits for a pedestrian to cross the road. A welcome change after the mind numbing traffic in India.

The food is tasty much like the food we get in India only less spicy and low in salt content. Vegetarian food is almost impossible to get. No chapatti, very little rice. However, the problem of figuring out what is listed on the menu is the most difficult part.

The younger generation speaks English in bits and pieces.

Today for lunch -- we visited Buhara a specialty restaurant that serves Uzbekistani dishes in Kyrgyzstan. One young boy in the restaurant could speak some English. But placing an order with him was also very difficult. This time we managed to convey what we wanted but went wrong with the quantity.

We ordered Lamb Sashlik and Chicken Tandoori. The food was delicious but heavy and so was the glass of their local draft beer.

Wifi is available everywhere which is a big boon. I had planned to rely on using the wifi connection whenever available to communicate with family back home and write these blogposts.

I do hope that wifi will be available down the line too.

The highlight of my day was the sight of more than 20 limousines parked at one place. I took some photos and couldn't help posing in front of the Hummer Limousine. :P It seemed like all the limos belonged to a single service provider. Pleasant surprise indeed.

After the heavy lunch we decided to walk back to the guest house which was about 3.6 kilometers away. We noticed state run buses, the only buses allowed to run, which did so on electric cables. This kept the speed of the buses in check and kept them confined to one side of the road only, hence not interrupting other vehicles on the road.

Walking was perhaps easier than using public transport as again language was the problem.

Most malls look dead from outside maybe because they were all factories in the country's pre-independence era, much like the mills in Mumbai converted into pubs. The busiest malls were the one that had electronic gadgets in them.

The shocking thing to note was we saw only one motorbike which passed us and one scooty. No one rides a bike here ?

It got very cold in the evening. We went to a near by cafe for dinner and were lucky to get some food as it was already 9 pm and all establishments close by then. By the time we were halfway through our meal we had to pay up as the owner was leaving. We were the last guest.

Back in the guest house as it was chilling. We learned that its never so cold in June here. Hopefully the weather changes and predictions are that it shall be sunny for the next three days.

Bike update:

We are extremely worried as our cargo has reached Uzbekistan but it will be a couple of days before we get our bikes. As soon as we get our bikes we shall leave for our extraordinary journey the very next day. Right now our scheduled date to leave Bishkek and go toward Osh is 20th June which seems unlikely now.

We pray for our bikes to come in ASAP.