Biskek and all that.

So I am back from my trip to Biskek and it all went very well. I met the American friend in the very nice American/New Zealand Cafe, called Sierra for my ham and eggs and waffles, which was great.  I had to get them to explain what drip coffee was when I went in yesterday just to check it out and have a tuna sandwich. (Fish yippee) and this morning though I was one of the first people in soon in filled up with American locals, local locals, Indian locals etc and it has a very nice vibe. After that I was shown me a very nice felt shop and we wondered into a totally Western style mall, with huge supermarket and more felt shops, so that will be useful next time I come and then we just found this street festival. A relatively new phenomenon in Biskek, it turned out that it was in aid of road safety, which is vital in Kyrgyzstan, as even with traffic lights crossing the road is a challenge, but  you could not really tell that as there were lots of nice face painting stalls and even someone blasting out a good rendition of Adele.

 Biskek is very green, in parts it almost looks like the greenery is taking over as the city cannot afford to maintain some of the buildings, whereas in other parts it looks like the small homes are being knocked down for more flats, but at both ends of the town there is a sort of green thorough fare, with nice trees, ice creams, playgrounds etc.  There are irrigation channels running round the whole of town, which I guess fill up with ice melt at times.  So parts of it are very pleasant.  So, having said farewell to my friend, I walked through one of these areas and towards the university where to my surprise they were also having a special event, there were loads of cars and blokes, being blokish about them, and girls in high heels. It reminded me a bit of the scenes on Formula One, but instead of big cars they were racing go karts and although the track was cordoned off just as I arrived one car went straight into the audience, which was rather ironic given the message of the other street event. Luckily just the kart got damaged, but it could have been serious.  I then realised it was getting a bit late as although I was only guessing that there would be a one o clock bus back I wanted to get to the bus station for then. So I hoped on one of the trams and to my delight it got me to the bus garage and there was a 309 waiting.  I realised that the bus driver was a bit surprised by this "tourist" getting on and a beautiful young woman was sent to enquire as to whether I really wanted the bus so imagine how superior I felt being able to say actually I live in Shabdan.  She it turned out was accompanied by another Westerner and I heard her explaining that there was a very good school in Shabdan, so I fessed up to being the English teaching there and she surprised me by saying my school is getting very famous!   I suspect that is a bit of an exaggeration especially as the local big wig did not even really know of it before his visit, but it did make me feel very special, but what was even nicer, was the 70 year old woman who sat next to me turned out to have quite good English so we had a nice chat on the way back.(It takes just over two hours).

Two interesting things re Biskek, I noticed official street cleaners, which made me realise it is cleaner than our little village.  I also noticed unofficial street cleaners (no yellow vest) and I am guessing they were looking for stuff with resale value, but also just as there is all over Shabdan, there was also evidence that people just try and burn their rubbish on the streets. Near my village there are fairly deep mining pits, so whether they would be suitable for land fill I do not know. And while I know landfill is not brilliant it has to be better than heaps of half burnt out plastic dotted across the countryside.

The other thing. To my amazement there was a very well written local magazine in the hostel last night, all in English and one of the stories was about the stray dogs.  Stray dogs are definitely an issue here, they are everywhere.  Most friendly and walk on by, but definitely an issue (they have rabies here) so I wondered if Kyrgyzstan had a strategy like they do in Bhutan of trying to spay or neuter dogs, but no Kyrgystan has a Shooting Service instead and apparently over 12000 dogs were shot last year in Bishkek alone.  And each shooter receives 300 some about £3.80 for each dog killed.   Apparently here dogs fleeces are popular with street traders as they are very warm, but some people are very opposed to the policy. Whereas in Britain of course, when we have a problem with animals we are much more humane, we oh yes, we shoot them too.

Very Holman Hunt and Biskek.

If I had written this yesterday as planned I would have sounded very enthusiastic because yesterday was a good day, but in truth today has been good too, just a bit too tired now to express it.

I know I have already made some entries for yesterday but it was an interesting day. I set off a bit late for work yesterday as I had been chatting to two guests from Australia.  Like before they were in their 70's.  So pretty impressive. Then walking along the road I realised the music teacher was ahead of me. I had only just caught up with him when the bus stopped by us and I hopped on with him.  No charge.   It just dropped us half way, but maybe this is an option for winter time.  Anyway we wondered up to the school singing yesterday and arrived in fine spirits.  So the gloomy face of our head stopped our smiles.  But I know her well enough now to know that if she is like that something is going on. So it was not a surprise when the man who set up our school turned up for the second time this week with some dignitaries  Just like in the UK one always has to demonstrate success, organisation and planning and miracles   The dignitary was introduced as a governor and I thought that they meant school governor, so was surprised when told it was unusual for a governor to attend the school However, in the end it turned out he was the Governor or something similar for our area and this was his first visit to the school and the good news he was impressed, and his support is important, which explained the tension earlier.  Once he left her good spirits returned and we were able to relax with a tea.  However, I actually just wanted to continue sorting out my scheme of work.

About 4 I realised that the art teacher was working on his design so I popped out and joined him for a bit, and on the way home was struck by the Holman Hunt like quality of the scene and got side tracked to take some photos.

 For reasons I do not fully understand although I like where I live, I have not been blown away by it.  However, I have to say going and getting these pictures felt good and I do like seeing how the light shifts over the mountains.  By the time I got home I was desperate to crash out, but the manager of the guest house, stopped me en route to my room to say, a) that there was a group having a meeting in the lounge area next to my room so I would not be able to go through and b) the guest house was full up on Saturday so I would not be able to stay.  Ugh.  Well I was able to give him the news I would be away Saturday night so could move everything out of my room and rather than crash out I went and finished the sow in the dinning area.  Every now and then I tried the internet: nothing.   I could have got a lift to Biskek Friday night but I had stupidly booked to do some online work at 9.30.so relaxing was difficult.  By the time I had cleared up my room it looked most dejected.  But at dinner was really impressed with the slap up meal that the ASHU had prepared for the group of economists who have been working away all week in the place. I had hoped that I could speak with them about developing the apple market or doing something economically sensible with the rubbish that dots the landscape, but although they were always friendly, saying hello, I did not get the chance and now they were able to have speeches, and celebrations so the opportunity had gone.  But looking at their meal was like seeing a Christmas scene, three roast chickens (unusual here)salad, bread, drinks etc.  It looked brilliant.  Me and the other guests gradually departed and left them to it. But sadly still no internet, which is why I did not write this yesterday. But with 10 minutes to spare I suddenly got the connection so was able to work.

This morning I was up at 6.30 to finished tidying out my room and to catch the bus to Biskek and yippee it worked, no problem. By 10 I was here.  However, working out which way up the town was and how to get to my hostel heaven knows.   Having consulted the map at the bus station, I set off and was about to turn left, when I realised that the sign said Almaty to left which I knew must be wrong way.  Over the next couple of hours, I asked several people but no one could quite tell me how to get here ( I am sat in the kitchen writing this) but each person I asked the nearer I was.

To my surprise Biskek looked very downbeat, just huge restaurants and little hairdressers and car shops, I was sure I was going in the wrong direction and nowhere had name labels.  When I came on a bigger road and realised it was Chuy and on my makeshift map. A quick bus trip brought me to another road on my map and to my delight there was - no not the youth hostel, but the opticians I was advised might be able to help me with my glasses.  I am pleased to say, they were not phased by my need for English or for a solution to the broken specs and by 11.30 I had arranged for a new frame to be fitted onto my old lenses. After that I walked and walked and though sometimes I would see something that I thought looked like something on my map, everything was further than I had expected  However, it was all a lot posher than before..  Suddenly the sight of a very nice looking coffee shop was too much and before I knew what was happening I had gone in ordered coffee and cheese cake!  what can I say, a million miles from England but my old habits back immediately I am in an urban environment.    Half an hour later, I was finally at the location given for the hostel, but I still could not see it.  So I had to phone the people connected to it. Moments later a young woman, with two lovely kids, welcomed me, took me down the road, through a gate and up 5 flights of stairs to this flat.  It is not very nice, and the bathroom is shared, but it will suffice for tonight.  But boy does it make me realise how lovely having en suite is at the ASHU.  It is so different here to Chong Kemin. Smelly on the outskirts with petrol fumes, but nicer in the centre. Lots of little shops but also some more modern and western shops.  I actually enjoyed window shopping and was able to find some things for school and spotted the cafe where I am meeting one of the Americans I met last week,  so all in all very successful.  Some of the women are stunning and incredibly tiny, it seems a young city.    I will be hard pressed to find shoes big enough for me here. People are quite fashionable too.  After I had picked up my new frames I finally found all the tourist spots that I had somehow missed on the way before.  In the sun it all seemed very gentle.  See if you can spot the super large hats on the guards, I was not sure if they were real people at first, and thought I better be discrete taking their photos, but some aspects of power are hilarious. (perhaps Busbies seem just as daft).  Anyway I have now come back to the flat and I am writing this. My legs are killing me, but tomorrow I look forward to American Breakfast and a good chat before catching the bus back to the quiet of the countryside.