Denver to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and more

Bishkek's Russian opera house

We started in Denver Tuesday morning, flew to Washington, Frankfurt, Istanbul and, finally, Bishkek, arriving at 5:10 a.m. Thursday morning.  Long trip.  But we arrived just before the sun rose, lighting up the Tian Shan Mountains surrounding Bishkek, with their striking 18,000 foot peaks topped by snow and glaciers.

the Parliament Bulding shows its Russian architectural roots

After a nap, our first visit was to the U.S. Embassy to meet with a top official there.  This is turnover season at embassies around the world as foreign service officers move from place to place, after their 3 year stints in one assignment, headed to their next posting.  Bishkek is considered a hardship post, primarily because of its isolation, cold winters, difficulty in getting consumer goods, lack of educational opportunities for the embassy staff's children, earthquake danger, poor housing quality (no earthquake standards, in particular) and poor health care facilities.  But, if you're someone who loves history and the outdoors, this is a haven fo

r hikers and, as part of the ancient Silk Road, history buffs.

As does the White House, office of the President

Bishkek is about 2500 feet in elevation, settled below the towering Pamir Mountains.  About 1.5 million people of Kyrgyzstan's 5.5 million population live here.  The rest live mostly in rural areas scattered throughout the 93% of Kyrgyzstan that is mountains and in the Kyrgyzstan portion of the Fergana Valley, its primary agricultural area.  Osh, another key Silk Road city, lies in that valley, near the border with Uzbekistan.  We will be headed there in a couple of days to visit its famous bazaar and UNESCO World Heritage Site, Suleiman's Mountain, before crossing into Uzbekistan.

A Kyrgyz grandmother with her grandchildren

Most of Kyrgyzstan's population is Kyrgyz, with about 10% being Russian.  In the area around Osh, in the southwestern part of the country, there are more Tajiks and Uzbeks.  The far southwestern province is primarily Tajik and the site of much ethnic violence.  Except for that area, the country is quite peaceful and more or less democratic.

Tajiks are Persians and speak a Persian language.   The rest of the Stans are dominated by Turkic-speaking people.  Turkey sees itself as the "fatherland" of the Turkic-speakers, which is probably why Turkish Airlines is the only international airline that serves the entire area.

Russian influence is, of course, pervasive, since Kyrgyzstan was formerly part of the Soviet Union.

A Kyrgyz family enjoys a pedal cart together

Most people still look to Russia as their most important influence (more on that in my next blog), the place to get a good education and the source of their historic and political identity.  Russia dominated Central Asia long before the Soviet days, as this was all part of the Russian Empire under the Czars.

This evening, we had a visit with our guide from our trip last year, a proud Russian, with her baby and husband.  She is a smart, well-educated, manager in her travel agency, who feels close ties to Russia, doesn't particularly like the United States, and thinks the Soviet Union provided a better life for most people, though she likes the political freedoms she and her family enjoy now.

Meeting our guide from last year's visit with her husband and new baby