Black Friday in Kyrgyzstan — The Sleepy Cheese

Sep 25

Sep 25 Black Friday in Kyrgyzstan

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Part Two of a Five Country Central Asia Tour.

The overland border crossing into Kyrgyzstan is one step below chaos. You queue up into what’s essentially a dusty holding pen on the Kazakh side of the border. Don’t leave the slightest space in front of you as it will quickly be filled by a grandmother with sharp elbows and oversized shopping bags. There’s a direction to the line, and we were at the back of it, pressed up against a tall fence. For a while things were calm; it’s just us and the other border crossers, no security besides the closed fence. Then all hell broke loose when a very official border agent walked out of the nearby immigration building and to the closed gate at the front of the line. I don’t know if he opened it or if the collective weight of the crowed did, but it swung open and people started flooding out. It’s unclear how many people he intended to let by, but from the way he started yelling almost immediately, I’d say too many were getting through. We were still at the back of the line, and it quickly was apparent there was no way we were getting up to the front and through the gate. Other people around us realized this too, but they had a much more can-do attitude and started squeezing through fence rails, dragging their belongings through behind them and sprinting to the immigration building. In a blink Martha had army crawled under the fence , and Mike and I had no choice but to follow behind her. We ran with the short distance to the building, dodging locals burdened with sacks and battered roller luggage and made it inside where it wasn’t much more organized. Again, Martha led the way, weaving and wiggling her way through to a passport booth at the far end. Getting your passport stamped is the first hurdle (aside from the Black Friday, door buster-style way the mob of people charged the immigration office. Turns out it actually was Friday when we crossed the border too). The second part is a walk across the actual border, over a bridge that spans a small river and is guarded by another officer. You’re supposed to hand this guard a little square of paper that the first official gives you when he stamps your passport. Well, somehow I missed this little important step. Just before I reached this checkpoint I realized my mistake and I ran back inside - leaving mike and Martha, who already crossed ahead, to wonder what the hell was going on - and muscled my way back to the same booth. Over the very loud yells of a woman and her family, who I assume thought I was cutting them in line, I snatched the piece of paper I needed and ran back across the border. Aside from Somalia, I can’t recall another more memorable and sketchy border crossing. It really set the stage for what would be very different experience from Kazakhstan.

We met our guide, Yana, in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Right out of the gate she helped Mike and Martha navigate the bureaucratic process of shipping their drone home, as it seems like it might meet an untimely end if they still had it while crossing into Uzbekistan. Drones there are illegal, and didn’t seem wise to try and sneak it in, especially since shipping it home wasn’t terribly expensive. They were able to get some good shots the first day, then shipped it home the next at the only UPS store in the country.

First impression? It’s clearly several economic steps down from Kazakhstan, and has a much stronger Soviet feel. The architecture was again primarily gray concrete, but the larger buildings were splashed with color as least. One thing that became apparent in both of these former Soviet satellite countries, is that the communist designers incorporated large public parks and squares into the city. In Bishkek there is Duboviy park (Oak Park) close to the center of town. It’s filled with roses and flowers and old Soviet statues. That particular design element of urban planing the Russians got right, as it’s quite lovely.

Sniper fire remnant from the 2010 revolution.

Our first day we visited the National Museum, Central-Ala-Too Square, Victory Square, and shopped a bit a bazaar. They had no restrictions really on photography (including drones) and snapped away. Yana was old enough to have lived through and remembered the last revolution that had occurred in the county in 2010. The fence surrounding the White House still has bullet holes from sniper fire, and Yana remarked casually how at the time they had power outages and had to get down on floor to avoid gun fire. It felt a bit more sobering and serious compared to Almaty, but still very pleasant. Like Kazakstan, it’s roots trace back to a historically nomadic people who’s traditional lifestyle was forced to change under Soviet rule.

In the evening we walked through Paniflov park, a unique space with paths that loosely make the shape of a pentagram. Inside is an amusement park of sorts, lots of little rides and ice-cream stands. It’s also right next to a sports stadium and this is were we had another run in with the ‘can do’ attitude that seems to be here. We walked by the stadium gate being generally nosey and looking through to see what was happening. A local guy noticed us poking around and walked over and offered to boost us up and over the fence. We declined, but man, these people seem to have a positive go get-em attitude that’s pretty great.

Our second day we drove out to Ala-Archa Gorge, a park outside of the city. Mike got to really get some use out of the drone here. Kyrgyzstan is known for it’s natural beauty and this park was a great example. Craggy peaks, mountain streams, leaves changing bright yellow, it’s all just gorgeous. During Soviet times it was a private retreat for VIPs and few others even new the park existed. The park was filled with hikers, backpackers, kids on a school trip, and one German guy who seems determined to get into all of our photos. We ended the evening trying another version of pilaf (every country has a slight variation on this dish) and I took a few night shots at the fair in the Panfilov Park.