Sunday 2nd June - Bishkek

Breakfast was taken on the rooftop terrace in beautiful warm sunshine. The altitude is lower here, about 900m, so the air feels much warmer. The sun is also really powerful!

Pick up was at 9.00 and we were taken to the Osh market. A huge area of stalls that we wandered around for a good 90 minutes, Janybek helping us to make various purchases. The spices were ridiculously cheap as were nuts and dried fruit so some of these will be in my suitcase! The market, although large, was more spacious than in Karakol which made you feel a little safer!

We then started our city walking tour. The university, philharmonic hall, parliament buildings, the mosque(funded primarily by Turkey) monuments, squares, parks and all with a huge volume of information about Kyrgyzstan’s history.

It is difficult to sum up all that we were told but you are left with the impression that this is a young country that really wants to be democratic and to stand on its own 2 feet.

There have been issues with some of the previous presidents (the best one who stood in for a year was a woman but she declined to stand for election!) There have been issues with corruption and nepotism and there is an acceptance that the path to democracy is not always straightforward. The collapse of the Soviet Union saw the collapse not only of the economy but also health services and education, which is why some people would like a return to those days, despite the repression.

Yet again we had a delightful lunch. The food on this trip really has been excellent and I’m not returning home craving vegetables!

And then a bit more culture with a visit to Victory park and finally back to the hotel where we had a couple of hours before dinner to get packed up and ready for our journey home tomorrow.