From Cappadocia, we flew to Istanbul where we had a long layover and then took a red eye flight to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Our Cappadocia flight was delayed by almost 3 hours. Luckily, we had planned a long layover in case of flight delays, so we still had plenty of time to catch our second flight. We boarded our Bishkek flight at 10:50pm, but unfortunately, we were delayed again on the plane for unknown reasons and did not take off until close to midnight. I sat next to a friendly Kyrgyz woman who was an English teacher and we chatted. I learned about her year in Nicaragua teaching and the related travel fiascos she encountered due to her Kyrgyz passport severely limiting where she could travel or even have layovers. Having a strong passport, I have never had to think too hard about travelling internationally. Talking to her was a reminder of how fortunate I am to take travel for granted. I was also able to get some great tips and recommendations for Bishkek including the contact info for her family’s hair stylist. I had been planning to get a haircut in Bishkek. I usually don’t talk to people on flights, but I feel very lucky to have sat next to her.
Once the flight took off, I quickly fell asleep . When we landed, it was around 9am local time (a three-hour difference from Istanbul). We were eager to get out, so we were one of the first people from our flight to reach immigration; but to our luck, we chose the slowest immigration line and ended up being the last ones through. We then collected our bags and I bought a SIM card. It was the cheapest one yet — about $6 for 30-days of unlimited data. Then we ordered a Yandex (like Uber) to finally arrive at Viva Hotel. We were still very early for check-in, but they got a room ready for us in about 45-minutes. Exhausted, we immediately took a long nap.
As with most travel days, we did not do much on our first day in Bishkek. After our nap, we went on a hunt to find an ATM and then walked to a nearby Korean restaurant for a late lunch. Aside from eating instant ramen a couple of times, I had not had any Korean food since we left the US. When I saw that there were Korean restaurants in Bishkek, including one close to our hotel, I decided it would be our first meal. We both got one of our favorite Korean dishes, dolsot bibimbap – rice with mixed veggies in a hot bowl. It was so delicious and hit the spot. We also ordered amazing smoothies. After dinner, we walked around the city for a little bit before retiring for the evening.
Getting a Haircut in a Foreign City
I got up early on our second day in Bishkek to get my haircut while Nate slept in. Being constantly on the go, I wanted a shorter hair style for easier maintenance and it was past time to get my roots touched up. I had scheduled an appointment at 9am with Yulia, the hair stylist my Kyrgyz plane friend had recommended. Yulia is Russian and does not speak English, so I had to book the appointment via WhatsApp using Google Translate. I found some example hair pics and headed to the salon hoping for the best. It was an interesting, but good experience. It was a bit of a comedy communicating. She would speak to me in Russian and I’d speak in simple English, neither of us understanding each other. I showed her the pictures, used hand gestures, and used Google Translate a bit, and then I hoped for the best and let her get to work. And it worked! She was great and I loved the end result. It was also so affordable compared to the US — $15 for a haircut and root touch up.
Day Hike in Ala Archa National Park
With my new hairstyle, we were off to Ala Archa National Park outside of Bishkek on a half-day group hiking tour. Our group was about 14-people, a mix of non-Russian speaking tourists and locals and Russian speakers. We first stopped at Globus, a supermarket, to get snacks for the trip. 40-minutes later, we arrived at the park. Ala Archa is stunning. The park has beautiful alpine tree-covered and snowcapped mountains with a river running through. There are also glaciers in the park, but we would not be visiting those on this tour.
The itinerary was a short 2-hr roundtrip hike to the “broken heart” landmark. Seeing the beautiful landscape made me already lament that we only had a few hours here. Our group’s hiking pace was slow, so we went ahead of the group, eager to reach the top. The hike was quite steep and difficult. The trail was also slippery for large sections. Once we reached “broken heart”, we decided to go a bit further to the next landmark (the “plateau”) since we would have time. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to go further to the waterfall we saw in the distance. After admiring the views at the “plateau” and “broken heart” for as long as we could, we headed back down to catch our bus. It started raining towards the end of the hike and we were grateful for the timing. Ala-Archa was a great way to get a taste of the Kyrgyz mountains and hiking. We were both incredibly excited for all the hiking we had in store after his trip.
It was around 6pm by the time we were back in Bishkek. We had both enjoyed the Korean food so much the night before that we decided to get Korean food again for dinner. Our drop off point was close to a highly-rated Korean friend chicken restaurant, so we headed directly there for dinner. We ordered kimbap (Korean roll that looks like sushi but is not because it does not have raw fish), fried chicken, and kimchi-jjigae (kimchi stew). It was another delicious dinner. The kimbap and fried chicken both tasted quite good and authentic. The kimchi-jjigae did not taste anything like it should, but it still tasted good and comforting after a hike.
We strolled back to the hotel walking through the city center where the main attractions are located. We passed by Ala-Too Square (sadly it was under renovation so we couldn’t see it), the National History Museum, a few parks, the Parliament building, and more.
Exploring Kyrgyz History at the National Museum
On our third day in Bishkek, we decided to go to the State History Museum. Not having eaten many vegetables for quite a while, Nate wanted to eat something healthy. So, we decided to go to a western café for lunch to eat a salad. We went to Sierra Café, another recommendation of my Kyrgyz friend. In typical Nate fashion, upon reviewing the menu and seeing burgers, he decided he wanted a burger. So we got a burger and a salad to share. Unfortunately for him, the salad was full of cucumbers (which I detest), so I ended up eating half of the burger.
After lunch, we had walked to the museum. Neither of us knew much about the country so we were eager to learn. The museum was a nice, modern building; but the museum exhibitions left much to be desired. Most of the exhibits had English signage, but the explanations were hard to follow. We feel we got only a very broad understanding of the country’s history – so broad and high level that I don’t feel like I can even recite it here.
It was still fascinating to see the artifacts. The clothes, fabric weavings and tapestries, tools, and artwork are all so colorful and beautiful. The museum is small, so we finished in about an hour and a half. We then went to see the statue of Lenin behind the museum. In Soviet fashion, Bishkek is full of statues. By then, it was late afternoon and very hot, so we decided to go back to the hotel. We had talked about going to Osh Bazaar, a large bazaar near our hotel, but we were too tired to walk around further.
Finally Trying Kyrgyz Cuisine at Navat
On our third evening, we finally decided to go to a Kyrgyz restaurant. It may seem ridiculous to have waited that long, but our reasoning was that once we left Bishkek to travel the country, we would only be having Kyrgyz food, so we wanted to take advantage of the food options while we had them.
We went to Navat, a popular Kyrgyz chain restaurant. The location we chose was massive and beautifully decorated. It was full of both locals and tourists, a testament to its popularity. The menu was massive, but I already had in mind a couple dishes I had been wanting to try. We ordered manty (Kyrgyz meat dumplings), lagman (noodles), and bXXXX (noodle soupe with horse meat). As a starter, we were brought a small glass of kumis, which is fermented horse milk. We both tried it and though it was not our favorite, I could see it being an acquired taste. I think it tastes like a salty, runnier, and more pungent Greek yogurt. The manty was so flavorful and delicious, but it was so heavy and fatty that it was hard to eat more than two, especially once it cooled and the fat solidified. The lagman was very tasty as well. The beshbarmak was outstanding – the horse meat was so tender, the broth was wonderfully flavorful without being overwhelming, and the wide flat noodles were the perfect texture. We left feeling extremely full and happy, looking forward to the variety of Kyrgyz food we would try on the rest of our trp.
Leaving Bishkek to Start Our Hiking Adventures
Our three days in Bishkek were a perfect combination of rest, sightseeing, and food. We were off on our fourth day to Karakol, a popular destination for hiking and nature activities. We took a 6.5-hour hot, stuffy bus ride. But it was still probably a much comfier ride than on a Marshrutka, the van shuttle buses used across the country. Marshrutkas are the main public transport system in Kyrgyzstan, but they do not run a schedule. They go when a van is filled meaning you could be waiting for an indeterminate amount of time before you go. We knew that we would probably be riding many Marshrutkas on our trip, so we decided to take the new coach bus, GoBus, to Karakol. Although GoBus did leave on schedule, it was like a Marshrutka in that instead of stopping at only the designated stops, the driver stopped any time a passenger asked him to stop, which added almost an hour to our ride time. It was interesting to experience a new system. We eventually arrived in Karakol around 4:45pm. We were excited to be in a new city and the 3-day, 2-night Ala-Kul hike we would be doing!
Leave a Reply