KYRGYZSTAN • TRAVEL

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Total km biked: 365 kilometers

Days biked: 6 days

The road conditions varied significantly in Kyrgyzstan. The road just over the Chinese border before Sary Tash was pretty rough, with very large rocks, which had to be navigated around going a very slow speed uphill with lots of loose dirt. Just after the checkpost, near the top of a hill, there is a dirt/sand road branching off to the right. Some guys at the checkpoint told us to take it; it was shorter and less rocky. It was getting later in the evening and we were uncertain if the road would take us to the right place. We didn't want to ride off into the sunset! We decided to take it and it was great. Because it is so sandy, we wouldn't recommend taking it after rain, but for us it was smoother than the main road, with only one or two really sandy sections where we had to get off the bikes and push for 10 meters or so.

We had some rain just after we crossed the border from China. A month or so later when we returned this way to head to Tajikistan after visiting Osh and Bishkek, it was raining in this region again. Most people we met coming east from Europe also mentioned that this area was wet as they crossed. We were there in July and early August. Other than that area, Kyrgyzstan was dry and hot in July and August.

You can find small grocery stores (called magazin) in most towns and villages. And of course Osh and Bishkek are filled with a big variety of food. Outside of the cities we ate mostly bread with kymak (cream/butter spread) and cooked pasta for dinner. In the cities and bigger towns you can find lagman (noodles) and kebabs. We didn't have trouble finding water we could pump, though we only visited a relatively small area of Kyrgyzstan.

Besides staying in Osh and Bishkek, we camped every night except one when we stayed with a local family in their trailer not far from the Chinese border area.. Accomodation in Central Asia seems expensive, especially coming from Nepal, India and Pakistan. In Bishkek, we were able to find a room in a house with some local university students for US$50 for one month (we needed to stay in Bishkek a while to do some work). This is by far the best deal we could find, since most budget guesthouses and hotels charge about US$8-10 for a double room per night. The phone number for the company we used was +996312664010, but you needed to be (or be with) a fluent Russian speaker in order to communicate effectively It was also hard for us to find dorm accomodations in Central Asia.

We took a mini bus from Osh back to Sary Tash, rather than riding the same road twice. The bus left from Osh between 5 and 6 in the morning and was a bit of an ordeal since at first they didn't want to take our bikes. Once we convinced them to take them, they wanted to charge us a ridiculous amount. In the end, we paid what we thought was reasonable (including some extra for the bikes - we knew the real price for locals by asking around a few days in advance) and then just sat in the bus and wouldn't move even when they told us the price wasn't enough. We knew it was fair and didn't really feel like getting involved in the whole ordeal. In the end, they took us and the bikes and we all laughed about the negotiations. It did help a bit that since we had been living in Bishkek for nearly a month with a Russian roommate, we tried to learn a decent amount of Russian. So we could bargain a bit in Russian, which helped we think.

We also had to take a van from Bishkek to Osh. We needed to extend our visa within 3 days of reaching Osh. The extention had to be done in Bishkek and we couldn't cycle there in that time. We ended up searching around and found a truck delivering vegetables to the market there that was willing to take us for a reasonable fee. These vans park on the street on the backside of the main market in Osh if you need one. Yoav did nowever get us in trouble.

We used the Gizy map of Central Asia...it worked great for us.

The area of Kyrgyzstan just over the border from China was amazingly beautiful in our opinion...some of the most beautiful pastureland and mountains we have ever seen. Living with Marina in Bishkek for a month and increasing our "power". Ladies and gentleman, why are you laughing. The ride with the Chipopo's from Osh to Bishkek.

Meredith was asked for her passport from "undercover" police in a market with Bishkek when she was with Marina. After Meredith refused a few times, Marina stepped in, demanding to see the man's credentials in Russian. After a long arguement, he walked away and we never showed him anything. Police bribes and scams do still happen in Central Asia. We also met one cyclist who was beat up pretty bad near Karakul Lake and had to return to France for some months to recover. From what we experienced Central Asia can have an edge to it, but we also met many kind, generous people as well. Internet usage is often charged by the megabyte (at least when we were there), so be careful about uploading/downloading any information. There is great produce in the larger cities of Osh and Bishkek in the summer months, especially watermelons. A large one costs about 30 som or UD$1.