First
impressions of Bishkek was that dusty rundown feeling I had previously
felt in Armenia and Albania, The hostel Rodem house was fairly easy to
find after asking for directions. On arrival I noticed that I was the
only person booked in the dorm room for the next 5 night........not a
good sign. It quickly became obvious that the owners English was very
limited and they were very vague when I asked about going on tours/day
trips also not a good sign.
I
went on the usual walk round and get a feel of the place for a couple
of hours, I knew before hand that Bishkek didn't have much to see and
do and was using it as a base for visiting other places. It wasn't too
bad as it took 3 days before I seen anyone begging for money. I got bed
early the first night to sleep off the flight...........
The
most obvious choice to visit first was Ala archa national park roughly
20 miles south, I first visited a few tour companies to get some more
bad news, joining an organized tour was highly unlikely and the ones who
did only ran them at the weekend. I was going to have to visit places
alone and by public transport.
I
managed to get on a very crowded and slow minibus to the national park,
the walk from the entrance to the first trail was the best part of 2
hours. I walked round a footpath and got a few good pictures of the
mountains in the background. In all I spent many hours walking but most
of them taken up by walking both ways along that road.
It
was 6 in the evening when I returned, the only people staying at the
hostel were some sort of religious group from Korea and they were out.
The place was empty so no chance of meeting anyone to go out for a drink
in the evening, I spent the time reading and planning the next day.
I
choose to re visit the national park this time bypassing my usual
hatred of taxis and ordering one to take me straight to the first trail
beyond where I got the previous day. It only cost around 10 pounds which
wasn't bad for saying.
The
views were great and it was the kind of place I had come to the country
for. I met a Swiss couple who I spoke to for a while. It was the first
proper conversation I had with anyone as the locals English was very
broken.
It
was a far more enjoyable and productive day then the previous one. As I
left the woodland area and went back onto the road came an event which
probably summed up the highs and lows of travelling in one go.
A
taxi driver was dropping someone off and I asked him to take me to the
park gate, the price he quoted was a blatant rip off. Based on what I
paid to get there it was about 4 times more per mile so I got straight
out the car and started walking. Within 5 minutes a local picked me up,
drove me to the bus stop at the next village and refused my attempt to
give him some money.
Two
days of heavy walking had made my legs very sore, I left the hostel
only for food shopping and an unsuccessful attempt to find a cycle hire
place. Again the hostel was empty in the evening, I spent most of the
time surfing the net, drinking tea and watching the news.
I
had 2 full days to go and wanted to be active for 1 more then have a
final rest day, Alamedin valley was my choice of destination and I had
to pay a taxi to take me there and back with a 2 hour stop in between,
not bad for around 25 pounds.
It
was basically one track leading along a valley, nice scenery but it
quickly all looked the same. I was also nerved by a group of police just
after the start of the track. All the travel guides warn of corrupt
police fleecing tourists out of money and if they do it in the city
what's to stop them out there all alone. I took a different route out
and ended up going through someones back garden but I wasn't seen by
anyone.
Back
in Bishkek I couldn't face another night in an empty hostel so I headed
to a nearby pub called metro. A popular spot for the American military
from the nearby base. I also met a lad from Manchester who worked in a
mine. Everyone I spoke to was amazed by the fact I was just in the
country travelling not working, got a couple of beers out of that as
well. It was great to speak to people, drink beer and eat pizza, I
suddenly felt a lot better about the whole trip.
Final
day was fairly lazy as planned, take a few picture on a short walk
round, avoiding police as I feared them more than the criminals and head
back to pack for the next days flight to Istanbul. I returned to metro
pub in the evening where I met someone from Birmingham who informed me
that the visa rules in nearby Kazakhstan had been relaxed and Almaty was
a far better city to visit.
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