A trip to Bishkek, Part 2

We took a shuttle from the hotel down to Ala-Too Square, the main square in Bishkek.  It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny and felt like spring after our freezing Astana (about +1C (33 F) in Bishkek vs. -28C (-18 F) in Astana). Bishkek had a very Soviet feel to it. The buildings were those of soviet era, grey and run down. As far as we could see there was not much new construction going on. We walked around the square, and then decided to visit the National History Museum that was on one side of it. In front of the museum was a monument of Manas, a legendary hero, who fought against external enemies and tried to reunite all his scattered people. Our shuttle driver later told us that the monument was ordered from sculptors in Moscow, and if you look closer to the face of Manas, his features look more like those of Russian warrior – wider eyes and curls. We thought it was funny.

Some monument. We are not sure what it is supposed to represent. Just like with a lot of monuments we saw around the city, there are no signs with explanations.

Spencer at Ala-Too Square

Me with the Manas monument in the background. To the left is the pole with the national flag and the honor guard at the base of it.

To the side of Manas monument there was the national flag of Kyrgyzstan and an honor guard similar to the one in Moscow at the Red Square. We didn't get to see the change of guard ceremony which happens every hour but I've heard that it is very similar to the Moscow one.

We went to the museum. We had to pay a small fee (it was double the fee the locals have to pay) at the entrance, and then we could explore it at our own pace. The museum was very dark and had kind of a depressing feeling in it. It had three floors, and the first two were filled with artifacts from the Soviet Era, and not the best of them. Lots of statues. Maybe for some foreigners it would be more interesting but I grew up with this heritage, and so I guess I was hoping to see something more. It felt like yhe Kyrgyz people were stuck in that time and had a hard time moving forward. I felt it at the museum, I felt it on the streets of town, and I felt it everywhere in Bishkek. I really hope there is a bright future for this country!

Spencer is trying  to look all serious.  

A statue of Lenin and revolutionists

The top floor had some historical artifacts that were really interesting, but there weren't a lot of them. A lot of them didn't have signs, so you didn't know what you were looking at.

One of the national Kyrgyz dresses

Spencer next to a Yurt

Making fabric

After the museum we decided to walk towards the local mall TSUM (ЦУМ)and find some souvenirs for our kids were being troopers staying with their babushka at home. On our way to TSUM we saw this little art gallery right on the street. I noticed that there were a lot of paintings of nature and horses. Horse is a beloved animal in Kyrgyzstan just like everywhere else in Central Asia.

A little street gallery. A lot of nature and horses!

Spencer looking at art

We got to the mall that was also a very typical soviet era trade center, found a place with a lot of souvenirs, bought a few for our girls, and realized that we were pretty hungry. So instead of calling our shuttle to take us back to the hotel we decided to walk towards the hotel and find something local on the way. A couple of blocks away we found this little café where we tried lagman for the first time.  Lagman is a Central Asian dish of noodles, meat and vegetables. We loved it! We loved it so much that when we got back to Astana, we tried to recreate it a week later for our family. Success!

Our successful attempt at making lagman at home after our trip to Bishkek. Everybody in the family loved it! It will definitely go on the menu. 

Then we just continued walking to our hotel. It was a very nice day, and it felt good to walk and it took us only 25 minutes to get to our hotel. One thing we noticed that there are a lot of stray dogs on the streets. A lot! Everywhere! The ones we met were all friendly and kept to themselves but I wouldn't want to meet a pack of them while walking our dog Yuki. There are some stray dogs in Astana but nothing comparing to Bishkek.

Stray dogs. These were super cute!

To be continued…