Trip to Bishkek, Part 3

We’d seen enough of the city, so the next day we decided to explore some surrounding areas. I’d heard about Burana Tower just outside of little town of Tokmok (about an hour of driving from Bishkek), so we thought we would check it out. The tower, along with grave markers, some earthworks and the remnants of a castle and three mausoleums, is all that remains of the ancient city of Balasagun which was established by the Karakhanids at the end of the 9th century.  The tower was originally 45 m (148 ft) high. However, over the centuries a number of earthquakes caused significant damage to the structure. The last major earthquake in the 15th century destroyed the top half of the tower, reducing it to its current height of 25 m (82 ft). It was used as minaret, a watch tower, and a sort of a light house for those traveling along the Silk Road.

 

Burana Tower

Batyr, our reception guy at the hotel, told us how to get there by ourselves if we were up for a little adventure. We were! We were to go to one of the two bus stations in Bishkek and get on a little marshrutka (minibus) that said “Tokmok Express” on its windshield. Once in Tokmok we could get a taxi to Burana Tower. And that is exactly what we did.

Bus Station with all of the little marshrutkas 

We got to Burana Tower and asked our taxi driver to wait for us for an hour while we explored the site. It was midmorning on a Saturday, and we were the only visitors. We were told that later in the day the wedding parties would arrive as it was a popular destination for wedding pictures. But at the moment we had it all to ourselves. First we explored the little museum. One of the ladies who live there to watch over the site, opened it for us and showed us everything. I have to say that the little museum was much more impressive than the National History Museum in Bishkek we visited the day before!

 

Spencer at the entrance to the site

The red roof building is where the museum workers live/stay. The right wing of it is the museum. The yurt next to it is the souvenir shop. 

Then the lady gave us the keys to the tower, so we could explore it on our own. First you had to climb up the metal staircase to get to the little door leading into the tower, and then up the winding stairs to the top of the tower. The staircase inside the tower was super narrow and dark, and quite steep. I think Spencer felt claustrophobic in there, I think I did too. But we made it and it was worth it! The view from the top of the tower was beautiful! The tower was surrounded by Chuy Valley to the north (that goes all the way to Kazakhstan) and white peaks of the Tian Shan mountains to the south.

The metal stairs you have to climb to get to the entrance to the tower

The entrance to the tower

The steep stairway inside the tower. 

Tiny windows inside the tower

On top of the tower. Behind me are the Tian Shan mountains which you cannot see because of the morning fog.

A few minutes later, and you can see the mountains now.

I might be mistaken but I think this is one of the kurgans - an ancient burial place  for a warrior or someone famous. Either way it looks like one.

Then we explored the nearby site of headstones and landmarks. They were gathered from the surrounding area. The people that lived in the area were of different religions - from Pagan, Buddhism, and Christianity to Islam, so the tombstones were different as well.

The tombstones.

Spencer between two tombstones.

This one was pretty neat.

Another tombstone

These are mills that were used at that time.

While we were looking around the site, this group of local Kyrgyz went by.

A view of the tower with the kurgan on the right.

We decided that Bishkek itself was an ordinary post soviet era city but the nature around it is amazing. And if you are into hiking, camping, mountain skiing, or anything to do with the outdoors, then a trip to Kyrgyzstan is a must! 

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…

A trip to Bishkek, Part I

Last weekend Spencer and I flew to Bishkek, the capital of another Central Asian country Kyrgyzstan for a little getaway.  It was one of the places we had on our list to visit while we are living in Central Asia but we wanted to check it out first before bringing the whole family. Since my mom has been visiting us and could watch our kids while we are gone, we couldn't miss this opportunity.

The flight

Our flight was at 8 am, and we arrived to the airport just in time to go through an easy check-in and passport control  process and to board our plane. It was a smaller jet operated by Air Astana and it was only one third full. The plane was super clean and amazingly the seats were not crammed together as has been the case for a lot of air carriers. My tall husband who usually has a hard time on planes due to the lack of leg room had plenty of space on this plane! Our direct flight to Bishkek was about an hour and a half and during the flight they served hot snack and drinks. We were quite impressed with Air Astana and will definitely fly with them again.

A view of Kyrgyzstan from 10 000 meters up in the air. 

The mountains by Bishkek (it really reminded us of Utah)

Our hotel where we were staying while in Bishkek arranged for the airport transfer for us but we arrived about 20 min earlier, so the driver wasn't there yet to meet us when we came down from the plane. Instead we were met by a zillion of taxi drivers, every one of which wanted our business. We opted for waiting for our driver though, and he soon showed up.

Bishkek is about 20 km away from the airport, so we had some time to look at the countryside on the way to the hotel. Our driver, Aibek, told us about the place and what we should see while in Bishkek.

Our hotel

We stayed at the Futuro Hotel while in Bishkek and I have to admit it was one of the best hotels I ever stayed in! No, it wasn't all big and glamorous like some I've known but it was new, clean, fun, small and had the best service ever! We arrived about 3 hours before the official check-in time but Batyr (our reception guy) let us check-in right away. More than that he asked the kitchen to make a hot breakfast for us at no charge. The breakfast is included with stay but they already finished serving it for the day besides this one was an extra one for us.

The hotel itself was located on the outskirts of the city in the private housing area. Some might say that the location wasn't the best but we loved it! We were in a quite neighborhood away from the city noise but only a 30 min walk from down town. Nice!

Me in the neighborhood by our hotel. I think in late spring and summer it would look quite beautiful. 

Spencer by our hotel

The rooms were smaller that what I've seen in the US but they were super nice, modern and clean. They had this fun snowman pictures on the doors. We wondered if they change this design with every season. We both thought that it kind of had an IKEA feel to it, and Spencer wondered if they shipped the entire hotel in the box here and just put it together!

The door to our room. Isn't this Frosty a cutie!?

Our room

Our room and a funny guy

The hotel had two floors (we were on the second floor), and every floor had a small library, a tall shelf with books in Russian and English that you can just pick up and read during your stay.

There in the middle you can see a little bookshelf with some books on it. The one downstairs had a lot more books.

The breakfast area and bar. Doesn't it look like IKEA?

There were a few tourists from Germany and Britain staying at the hotel, all of them came to ski and snowboard on the slopes of the beautiful mountains right outside of Bishkek. If I would put more thought into planning of our trip, I would definitely bring our ski gear with us as well. Oh well, next time.

 After the breakfast we decided to explore the city. Batyr (our reception guy) called a shuttle to take us down town to the Ala-Too Square, again at no charge and told us to give him a call back when we are ready to come home, and he would send a shuttle to pick us up.

To be continued…