Bishkek. The nice folks at the Rich Hotel allowed me to check in early, which in turn allowed me to rest up before my Intrepid tour started the next day. I explored the neighborhood, and a large cemetery, but mostly read, wrote, and researched. The Rich has a pool, as you can see, and here’s the welcome dinner.

The next day, we took the city tour and visited many of the main government buildings and various monuments. Hopefully, the mountains in back ground will be the focus soon. Lisa, our guide, explained lots of relevant history (LMK if you want the details), and check out that cute long-eared squirrel…

The batch above has two shots of a huge Lenin statue (also featured below) which was moved to a less prominent place after the independence of Kyrgyzstan following the fall of the Soviet Union. However, communist/socialist ideology has not been completely rejected, and check out the two shots of a statue of Marx & Engels in discussion. This batch focuses on statuary, often dismissed, but a place where history and honor are memorialized in art (questions?). Ya gotta love the jaguar – snow leopard – made completely of nuts! The stories of Manas, the folkloric hero of Kyrgyzstan, and Kurmanjan Datka, a female leader in the Khanate of Kokand, were particularly interesting. You can also see our tour guide Lisa, that cute squirrel, and some paintings depicting local culture and nature…

Here’re some pix of the cemetery I explored. Not very well maintained, but some impressive stones…

While we walked for most of the tour, we did get a ride to go see two prominent religious sites: The main mosque, a smaller version of the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul – a gift from Turkiye, and the main Russian Orthodox Church. Both are new or restored since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Like Almaty, Bishkek has a central market, the Osh Bazaar, but this one is huge. Here’s just a fraction…

Here are a couple of clips of the changing of the guard at Freedom Square in front of the National Museum, and one ceiling selfie at the Central Mosque…

I reckon that’s plenty (too much?) for one post. Today we are off to Issyk-Kul Lake and a couple of nights in a yurt…