The crew visited Bishkek as the entrée and dessert to a ski and snowboard trip in Kyrgyzstan, the Ski Adventure Kyrgyzstan tour.

On the first day of the trip, Ryce organised a city tour of Bishkek which was a nice way to efficiently get some insight into the culture and history of Kyrgyzstan and Bishkek, and see some of the classic city attractions. The sights didn’t fit into the wow category and the main attraction was the fascination of the people watching.

We returned to Bishkek a week later and had a little more time to wander around the city at our leisure. It was a lovely sunny day, which is apparently not to be taken for granted during winter. It was nice to be able to see the mountains above Bishkek which we’ll have to visit another time. There was a bit of a haze, but we didn’t really notice the pollution in Bishkek too much, especially compared to Karakol when everyone fired up their coal heating in the late afternoon.

A highlight was wandering around some of the Osh Bazaar sections. We bought a few handicraft souvenirs such as hats and enjoyed the repartee of some good old fashion haggling. One of the gents had a haircut to really absorb the culture, and we enjoyed sampling a few classic treats such as cream cheese with chocolate chips (yum!), and I continued my quest to find the best pecans in Central Asia.

We stayed at the Art Hotel Bishkek which was modern, clean and comfortable, and within walking distance of the Osh Bazaar. It was also on the right side of the city for easy exit to the airport, where we headed to fly out to Tashkent in Uzbekistan for more adventures.
See our video here