The Cellar - Bishkek

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- Cities and Travel (http://cellar.org/forumdisplay.php?f=19)

- - Bishkek (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=28327)

Yes, it's me, on my travels again. No pictures of toilet bowls this time, as the loo is a bog standard one (see what I did there?!).
This time around I'm staying in a little guest house. TBH it's a little run down, but the people seem kind enough, and now that I know that if I want hot food in the evening I have to order it in the afternoon, and that for the shower to be hot I have to run it for at least ten minutes before I get into it, it's fine :)
I've also managed to snag myself a driver for the week. This makes life SO much easier. Not only does he drive me wherever I have to go, he brings me supplies, got and tops up a local SIM card for me, and provides a strong and steady arm to lean on on all the icy pavements. And brings me takeaway nosh in the evening, now I'vwe discovered the little weakness in the kitchen department here. It's so icy out that I don't want to go out at all, except for the business meetings.
If we're lucky on Friday there'll only be the one meeting and then we can do a little out-of-town tourism.
Damn! Could a mod move this to Travel, or Cities, or somewhere more appropriate? Please?

You're amazing! I think it would be difficult to find your way around and learn the ins and outs of another whole country! Of course, I've never been out of the states.

Pictures? I'd love to see the place.

eta: yeah, I had to google Bishkek!

Sounds like a wild & crazy place. :rolleyes:

Quote:

Bishkek (in Kyrgyz and Russian: Бишкéк), formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan.

The name is thought to derive from a Kyrgyz word for a churn used to make fermented mare's milk (kumis), the Kyrgyz national drink. Founded in 1825 as the Kyrgyz-Khokand fortress of "Bishkek", then, in 1862, named as the Russian fortress Pishpek (крепость Пишпек),[4] in 1926 the city was renamed Frunze (Фрунзе), after the Bolshevik military leader Mikhail Frunze. In 1991, the Kyrgyz parliament restored the city's historical name.

Bishkek is situated at about 800 metres (2,600 ft) altitude just off the northern fringe of the Kyrgyz Ala-Too range, an extension of the Tian Shan mountain range, which rises up to 4,855 metres (15,928 ft) and provides a spectacular backdrop to the city. North of the city, a fertile and gently undulating steppe extends far north into neighboring Kazakhstan. The Chui River drains most of the area. Bishkek is connected to the Turkestan-Siberia Railway by a spur line.

Bishkek is a city of wide boulevards and marble-faced public buildings combined with numerous Soviet-style apartment blocks surrounding interior courtyards and, especially outside the city centre, thousands of smaller privately built houses. It is laid out on a grid pattern, with most streets flanked on both sides by narrow irrigation channels that water the innumerable trees which provide shade in the hot summers.

Thank you. mod, for moving this to the right forum. When I arrived the temperature was about +3 and it was raining, but it's snowed more or less perpetually ever since. Daytime temp now around -9 to -3.
That is a good description, Bruce. I'll try to get some pix tomorrow as we drive around. We hope on Friday to escape the dull old world of business and get out of town to the hills - definitely picture opportunities there, I think.
Morning TV is very entertaining - the first morning, the programme announced it was international toilet day and then presented an in-depth analysis of how to mend assorted loo problems. Many dwellars would have loved it! The next programme was light entertainment on a medical theme, with women offering their symptoms for diagnosis by three doctors dressed as Sherlock Holmes and a rather prissy looking woman presenter - no holds barred here, first up was cystitis - the newlywed woman's special problem! Next morning there was an underwear fashion show, although at first I wondered if it was a beginners guide to sub/dom fashion (many dwellars would have loved this, too!).
Food pics next, I think.

First pic, afternoon tea.Attachment 41763
Second pic, supper, meat, peppers and onions with thick noodles.
Attachment 41764
Third pic another supper, carrot salad, meat-filled omelette and mashed potatoes, meat & onion pie.
Attachment 41765
Sent by thought transference.

How was the meat and onion pie? That sounds like it might have been good.

It's all been delicious. I think my fave was the omelette thing because the meat filling was so tender. Maybe it was mushrooms. I'll ask tomorrow.

I think I told Dana that you were in Bishkakastan ;)
Well it was near enough and she knew I was half making it up anyway.

The food looks pretty good!
Not as good as we had in Cafe Cossachok of course, but recognisable at least.
Unlike the country (to me). I had to follow Bruce's link to even have an idea.

Wow, when you travel - you really travel! What takes you to Bishkek, if that's not too intrusive? The food looks interesting; rather familiar (Ukrainian/Russian cooking for the past three decades). Love your description of morning TV. Maybe that's what I'm missing in clinic - a Sherlock Holmes outfit!

Work brings me to these exotic climes, Ortho :).
The old SU certainly hooked with the spread of culinary ideas.
Here's a couple of views for y'all.

Sent by thought transference.

Nice. I can't imagine being there and not speaking the language though. Of course that's not a problem for you since you're there because you do speak the language. :haha:

I just flew in via googlie earth. Bishkek looks foreign.

They certainly like their tea with loads of sugar lumps, eh?

Or is that stuff cocaine??

;)