Looking back

OK, this should be it for now... I've been going through the pics and picking out the best/most memorable pictures and moments from the trip, starting with St. Petersburg, which seems like another trip it was so long ago...

The Winter Palace and Palace Square. Probably the most impressive place we saw on a long list of impressive places. Absolutely mobbed with people, and with good reason. If you ever go, try not to go in summer at the height of tourist season. You'll have a lot of company.

There's a great 360 degree view of the square here.

The Alexandrinsky Theater, where we saw "Swan Lake" performed. I have to admit, it was the first time I'd ever seen a full ballet performed, and it was great.

One thing St. Petersburg has, is canals and cathedrals.

The throne room in the Winter Palace. Easy to imagine how intimidating it must have been to have an audience with the Czar here.

My memories of the St. Petersburg subways are obviously mixed, as I had my camera stolen there, but the stations certainly had their own beauty.

One of the things I noticed about Russia is the contrast between public and private spaces. The public spaces are elaborate and ornate, while most of the apartment buildings we visited were pretty run-down and poorly maintained. The apartments inside were nice, but the common spaces (hallways, elevators, etc.) were very poorly maintained by American standards.


The canals in SP were just incredible. Taking the boat tour was definitely worth it.


Micky D's rules the world. They're everywhere.

But I have to say... one of the things I was craving most by the end of the trip, was a large coke with ice in a paper cup. You can't get a really cold drink over there... anywhere.

The Kremlin's version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Interesting that the flame and the 24-hour guard used to be at Lenin's tomb, but now it's here... on the other side of the Kremlin from Red Square. The two guards stand perfectly motionless while they're on duty.

Saint Basil's Cathedral at one end of Red Square. This is the building I thought of most when I tried to picture Red Square. Odd that a cathedral dominates a place we so associate with "godless" communism.

Red square at dusk (9PM) I convinced Lena to walk back through Red Square at the end of the day, after we had already walked through it twice earlier in the afternoon. I'm glad we did though, as the light was gorgeous.


A closer view of St. Basil's Cathedral.

Lenin's Tomb, with lights from the building across the way reflected in the polished marble.

The building across the square you see reflected is actually an upscale shopping mall, and was during Soviet times as well. Strange that such an obvious symbol of capitalism has such a prominent place on Red Square.

The mountains near Bishkek, in Kyrgyzstan.

Another view of the Tien Shan mountains from downtown Bishkek. We had dinner the last night on a rooftop restaurant in downtown. It was dark so we couldn't see the mountains, but one can imagine...



Lake Issyk-Kul.


An amazing spot with so much potential. It's starting to be developed, and although I'm usually in favor of keeping such places unspoiled, the country can so use any kind of economic stimulus that I hope it attracts some big international resorts. I kept looking around at all the beauty and open land and thinking "why isn't there a golf course here?" :-)

This place could be Lake Tahoe East, no problem.

One of the many roadside camps you see in the countryside. The locals sell Kumis, a national specialty made from horse milk, to travelers. I tried it a few times, but it's definitely an acquired taste.

One of the kids in the festival showing off his horsemanship.


Koshoikorgon... the centuries-old fort that the backdrop for the festival.




Tash Rabat. One gorgeous place.


An old woman in her traditional costume having tea. The Kyrgyz people drink a LOT of tea. And they love their watermelon too. You see it for sale everywhere.

That's it for now... check back in a few weeks (or months) and I'll have the video done.

Back home & At-Bashy pics

Well, we're back. Lena, her two kids and I left Bishkek at 6:40am Monday (8:40pm ET Sunday) and I got back to my place around 9pm ET Monday night. Still bit jet lagged, but got some more pics to post, as promised.

Me and some of my new friends at the At-Bashy festival.

The crowd and the stage for the festival. The building in the BG is a new museum of Kyrgyz history that was opening that weekend.

The 1000 year-old ruin of an old fort that was the backdrop for the stage at the festival.

Some of the locals enjoying the show.

One of the old Kyrgyz guys in his costume.

The "sacred mountain" that the ancient Kyrgyz tribes looked to for spiritual guidance, as seen from the old fort.

Home, sweet yurt. Where I slept for two nights.

Another 1000-year-old fort, this one at a beautiful gorge called Tash Rabat. This was was restored in the 80's to the way it used to look.

More yurts at Tash Rabat. These are available for rental. You can there and get all your meals for $17/day. All you have to do is get there.

Another view of the old fort.

This is taken from the hill behind the fort. It's difficult to convey just how impressive the view was from here, but we just sat there for long time staring at it.

I guess it was hay-making time when I was there, as this carts full of hay were everywhere.

Inside one of the yurts. As you can see, I didn't go hungry. The hospitality was unbelievable. A few minutes after this was taken, they brought in huge chunks of lamb for everyone. And you'll notice the shot glass filled with vodka? We put down more that a few of those while I was there, hehe.

Yurt at dusk.

At-Bashy was definitely a fun adventure. There were some downsides...the ride there and back, the bathroom facilities (don't ask), the smells you might imagine with all the horses and sheep around... but overall I'm glad I went. I met a ton of really friendly people and saw some sights I never would have gotten to see otherwise. Definitely a highlight of the trip, for me.

More pics from the rest of the trip later...

At-Bashy

Sorry... it's been a while. Couldn't get on-line for the last couple of days at Issyk-kul, and then when I got back I left on a little solo trip-within-a-trip to a Kyrgyz folk festival in a very remote town called At-Bashy.


Lena wanted to spend some QT with her mom, and a friend of hers had invited us to this festival, so I went solo. At-Bashy is a gorgeous place. There are wide open rolling hills, framed by tall, snow capped mountains with China on the other side. It was a looong 6-hour drive over bad roads to get there, but I'm glad I went.


As promised, I slept in a yurt with 3 other guys, but one of them spoke English so I was able to make at leat some conversation. I was the only American there, so the local Kyrgyz people were all very friendly and welcoming. Random people would come up to me and say "hello" in English and shake my hand. A few kids who were studying English in school sought me out and wanted to practice with me.


The festival was to dedicate a new museum of Kyrgyz culture, and it's the site of the ruin of a 100 year-old fort that was really cool.


I took a side trip one day to a really beautiful, and even more remote spot called Tash Rabat. It's one of those places where pictures just don't even come close to showing how beautiful it is.

I ate a lot, including fantastic fresh lamb... and drank vodka with the locals. They're very into making toasts, and for some reason I had to down a full shot every time, while they were just sipping. Hmmmm...


Anyway, I'm back in Bishkek now, and I'll try to post some pics later on. We leave for home early tomorrow morning, and I'll post a whole mess o' pics when I get back.


I hope everyone's doing well. See you soon!

Issyk-Kul

Hey, they have internet in Issyk-Kul!

Lake Issyk-Kul is the 2nd largest high altitude lake in the world. It's very beautiful... deep blue color with crystal-clear water, surrounded by high, snow-capped mountains. It's just now starting to attract foreign investment, so it's still pretty dumpy by western standards, but the place we're in is quite nice.

We took a ride up into the mountains today, to a tourist-y national park, but it was beautiful. Classic 3rd world experience when we got there... we were immediately surrounded by 10 or 12 people trying to get us to ride their horses, eat their food, take pictures with their hawks (?!) or whatever... thank god for Lena. She did a great job holding them at bay and negotiating. We ended up taking a 1 hour horseback ride, followed by a very tasty lunch of a salmon-like fish they call "flounder", bread with fresh honey and jam, and the local delicacy: horse milk. Very pungent and strong but I liked it.

Then we stopped at a market in Cholpon-Ata on the way back and did a little bargain hunting. I got a pretty nice pair of leather sandals for 300 som (about $8) and a nice lined windbreaker that I'll need next week for 400 som. (around $10) I let Lena do the bargaining, as the price immediately goes up if they think you're American.

Tomorrow I think we just lie on the beach.

Pics!

Making this quick as I'm on Lena's B-I-L's computer, but here goes:

Red Square - Moscow

View from a balcony in downtown Bishkek. The mountains are amazing.

Lena and her Mom... Zinaida.

On the hiking trip to the mountains: L to R Lena's nephew Losha, me, Lena's son David, Lena's Step-Dad Anatoly.

Anatoly. Check out the eyebrows. He's a major character.

Brother-in-law Igor. Work in TV here, so we've been trying to talk shop, but it's not going to well, because he doesn't speak any English, and Lena and Gilana, who translate, don't understand the tech stuff. Oh well...

Sister Natasha, Lena, daughter Gilana, niece Stasia

Off to Lake Issy-Kul tomorrow, so may not post again, but I'll try.

Blind Yak: The food is awesome, not much music and zero golf. I'm not even sure there's a golf course in Kyrgyzstan. We've been eating mostly here at Natasha's apt., and they're cooking up great local dishes that I have no idea how to describe, but it's all great.

Oh, and lots of Vodka, hehe.

Kyrgyzstan

We arrived here in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (actually The Kyrgyz Republic) really early yesterday morning. Lena's sister and brother-in-law met us at the airport and took us back to their place, where we promptly crashed for a few hours.

Last night was family reunion time with Lena's parents and her kids. They are all great people and are making me feel right at home. All of the conversation is in Russian, so I don't get much of it, but I catch a little and Lena and her daughter Gilana translate for me if it's something important. And I'm learning more words and phrases every day. I should be fluent in 10 or 15 years.

The city is framed by gorgeous snow-capped mountains (think Colorado) and today we went for a day trip up to a National Park. Very pretty... but not exactly Yellowstone. Still it was fun to be out in the natural world after seeing so many cities.

Back to Bishkek for the evening. There's some kind of Summit Meeting going on here... the leaders of Russia, China and a bunch of the "stans", so there are cops everywhere, helicopters flying overhead, and as Lena's sister said... they cleaned up the city and it looks great.

I'm not sure what we're up tp tomorrow. I haven't been able to get on-line with my laptop since St. Petersburg, so it's hard to post pictures, but I'll give a shot later.

Back in the USSR

We took the train overnight to Moscow on Saturday, and spent most of Sunday touring Red Square and downtown Moscow. Red Square was really impressive. At first I was put off by the large open Russian Squares, but once you spend some time in them, they kind of grow on you.

I think they're designed to make you feel small and insignificant, which is what I didn't like at first. But after spending some time, it does make the surroundings that much more impressive. Red Square, and the Square outside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg were definitely two highlights of the trip.

I got a new camera here in Moscow, and I have a bunch more pictures, but I can't get on-line with my own computer in Andrey's aparment (Lena's cousin).

Tonight we fly to Bishkek, Kyrgysztan. I'll try to post some more pics from there.

Go Tiger!! #13!

$##^##@(^&%!!

Well, I had a bunch of great pictures from our excursion to one of the summer palaces today, but just now, on the way back, I got pickpocketed in the Metro and some a**hole stole my camera. Fortunately I had downloaded all of our pictures before today to my laptop or it would have been an even bigger blow. As it was I lost some great pictures from today. :-(

Lena told be I would stick out as an American tourist here if I wore shorts, so I guess I looked like a target. Since it's been so warm here I said "screw it" and wore my shorts. She even warned me right before to watch out for pickpockets, as the subway was really crowded. He got it right as I was getting on a down escalator in a crush of people... I realized what had happened, but I was already on my way down. Never even saw the guy.

It was a brand new camera that I bought for the trip... to say I'm bummed is an understatement.

Anyway...

Onward. Dinner tonight with another of Lena's friends.

Saint Petersburg is amazing. We have two full days of sightseeing behind us and haven't even come close to seeing everything there is to see.





This is the Alexandriski Theater, where we saw a performance of "Swan Lake" tonight. Beatutiful inside and out.

This is Kazansky Cathedral. Right in the center of downtown StP. Also gorgeous... even prettier at night, as is most of the city.

Another of the many beautiful cathedrals in the city. "Church on the Blood", Lena says it's called, but we don't know the story yet.

I'm sure it involves the deaths of thousands of people, as that seems to happen a lot in Russian history.

We're going to check it out tomorrow.








The Hermitage/ Summer Palace courtyard. Non-stop opulence. Un-freaking-believable inside. We spent most of today inside there and didn't come close to seeing everything.















You get the idea.