Bye-Bye Uzbekistan; it was clearly an highlight of our trip so far – especially for its amazing historical heritage.
We therefore left the Fergana valley in Uzbekistan yesterday to enter Kyrgyzstan and its mountains. The border crossing was fairly uneventful – at least compared to what we had been used to so far. We spent the night in Osh – a typical Central Asian border town with a lot of trading activities and many small businesses along the road. This is also the 2nd largest city in the country, has one of the very few remaining standing statute of Lenine and it hosts the largest bazaar of Central Asia. Quite impressive – all sort of people from the mountains and valleys around (Uzbeks, Tadjiks and Kirgzks) selling their products in one massive mess spreading to all the streets around. Cars and trolleys coming and going in all directions with anything from fresh meat to traditional hats.
Our first impression of Kyrgyzstan is very positive: extremely friendly and welcoming people, a lot of different faces, the food seem to vary a little bit (getting a bit sick of the mouton meat…) and we both look forward to discover the high mountains that are known to host some of the most impressive landscapes of the region.
With the mountains should come back some of the riding challenges and the road are said to be in pretty poor conditions especially at this time of the year (Thanks again Chopat !). We should be at above 2,000m for most of the time over the next few days and will have to cross mountain pass above 4,000m (snow well expected). So far so good – the bikes are holding up very well and there is little technical problem to report.
Internet connection is likely to be non-existent in mountains and so you will have to wait for a few days for the next pictures and stories. We are hoping to stay with nomads and experience the infamous ‘yurt’ stay.
We therefore left the Fergana valley in Uzbekistan yesterday to enter Kyrgyzstan and its mountains. The border crossing was fairly uneventful – at least compared to what we had been used to so far. We spent the night in Osh – a typical Central Asian border town with a lot of trading activities and many small businesses along the road. This is also the 2nd largest city in the country, has one of the very few remaining standing statute of Lenine and it hosts the largest bazaar of Central Asia. Quite impressive – all sort of people from the mountains and valleys around (Uzbeks, Tadjiks and Kirgzks) selling their products in one massive mess spreading to all the streets around. Cars and trolleys coming and going in all directions with anything from fresh meat to traditional hats.
Our first impression of Kyrgyzstan is very positive: extremely friendly and welcoming people, a lot of different faces, the food seem to vary a little bit (getting a bit sick of the mouton meat…) and we both look forward to discover the high mountains that are known to host some of the most impressive landscapes of the region.With the mountains should come back some of the riding challenges and the road are said to be in pretty poor conditions especially at this time of the year (Thanks again Chopat !). We should be at above 2,000m for most of the time over the next few days and will have to cross mountain pass above 4,000m (snow well expected). So far so good – the bikes are holding up very well and there is little technical problem to report.
Internet connection is likely to be non-existent in mountains and so you will have to wait for a few days for the next pictures and stories. We are hoping to stay with nomads and experience the infamous ‘yurt’ stay.
3 comments:
It is a great that you guys are doing this. Welcome to Kyrgyzstan!
Azamat
Lovely latest pics. Keep going guys,
Raj
Hey Cyril, are you going for the beard look as well? Hope the mountain passes and snow will not have left you too exhausted, and try to wash once in a while ;-)
Ciao
Jerome
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