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…