MIR Corporation's Travel Blog:
Chinese Turkestan & Central Asia
Andrew Barron, MIR's Director of Scheduled Group Tours, visits the ancient Silk Road in Western China and the 'Stans with the Chinese Turkestan & Central Asia scheduled group tour. Read about his journey from Almaty to Urumqi, Kashgar and Bishkek. 
Day 10: Bishkek, Lake Issyk-Kul - Don't Quit Your Day Job
May 22, 2008
Today I made the long drive out to Lake Issyk-Kul and back. At the same time, the group was heading into Bishkek, having overnighted at the lake last night. Occasionally clients ask me if Lake Issyk-Kul can be added as a day trip from Bishkek, and it could, but it would be much better to include an overnight at the lake. The scenery is beautiful, but the drive is long enough to make a roundtrip less appealing. On the way to the lake on this cloudy day I found the scenery fairly striking. Issyk Kul is one of the world's great high-altitude lakes, which was easy to forget as it is neighbored by mountain peaks. These nearby hills make it seem as though the lake is at sea level, an illusion that was broken when I noticed some clouds up ahead of us on the ground.
On my ride back to the city, I struck up a conversation with the city cabbie. He spoke excellent English and asked me all about where I was from, what line of work I'm in, and so on. It came out in our conversation that he is an aeronautical engineer and designs and overhauls airplanes for a private aeronautics corporation when he's not driving a cab. This reminds me that my transfer driver on my way in from the airport let on that in addition to being a driver, he was also a doctor. Kyrgyzstan has huge economic problems, including unemployment and loss of its skilled and educated class to countries with more jobs and opportunities. It is one of the poorest countries in which we spent a significant amount of time, and the future looks about the same.
It was good to catch up with the group a bit tonight for dinner and an excellent recitation of (a small part) of the Kyrgyz national epic Manas. The group will head to Osh after some touring together tomorrow, whereas I'll stick around Bishkek for one more night and then return to Almaty for the flight home.
Photos from this leg of the tour:
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