Prigorodnoye

After 20 hours of travel, we've made it to Bishkek - our first destination in Central Asia! We flew from Budapest to Turkey, had a 6 hour layover, and then a 4.5hr flight to Bishkek, arriving here at 7.30am. We took our very first marshrutka from the airport to our hostel (the first of many over the next 2 months). We didn't sleep much on the plane so our first day here has been spent sleeping and making some final tweaks to our Central Asia itinerary. We were meant to come here back in 2020 (but then covid happened) and are so excited that we've finally made it!

We spent our first full day in Kyrgyzstan hiking in Ala Archa National Park - a 16ha alpine national park in the Tian Shan mountains, only 35km south of Bishkek. We joined up with three guys from our hostel - an American, Egyptian and Colombian - and hiked the 8km return trip to Ak Say waterfall. Even though it was warm in Bishkek (around 20°C), the national park was freezing at 5°C or less because of the high altitude. This was our first hike at altitude in over 2 months and was a good warm up for the 3 day Ala Kul trek we are doing soon. After our hike, we went for a traditional Kyrgz dinner with the Colombian we hiked with and swapped stories over dumplings and tea.

We spent our 2nd full day in Bishkek exploring the city, starting with Osh Bazaar which is known for selling spices but also sells clothes, shoes, kitchenware and almost anything else you could need. We then walked to Panfilv Park and Ala Tu Square, admiring the massive and brutal soviet architecture of the city.

Tomorrow, we plan to catch a marshrutka to Cholpon Ata, where we will stay a few nights to watch the Kok Boru World Cup.Read more