May 12, 2013
The first “day” of my trip
spanned three dates (May 9-11) and roughly 43 hours (and for those of you who
know my obsession with the number 43, not, I am not making that up). Thirty or
so hours were spent in the tedious process of traveling from Orlando to New
York to Istanbul to Bishkek. The trip wasn’t bad, although like any such
lengthy trip, it wasn’t great either. I had a boring 5 hour layover in New
York’s JFK (Terminal One of which seems to have been the design basis for
Seoul’s ICN), followed by a ten hour flight in the middle seat next to a
Bangladeshi fellow who was quite intent on sleeping on my shoulder. I’m not
talking about the person who falls asleep and then topples over onto the person
next to them whilst unconscious; this fellow actually said, “Can I sleep on
you?” and then when I said no, proceeded to do it anyway. Grrrrr. I got very
little sleep on the way to Istanbul as a result of this guy, but given how much
I was fidgeting in my seat, I don’t think he slept much either. Hah.
In Istanbul I met up with
B., and we obnoxiously cackled our way around the airport for about four hours
before our flight left for Bishkek. (This included an incident in which B. became
convinced that a flight departing for Mongolia with a layover in Bishkek – and
which departed about 2.5 hours prior to our flight – was actually our flight.
He even talked me into trying to board with him. The woman at the gate stamped
his boarding pass before actually looking at it, and then telling him that this
was a completely different flight and that ours left in 2.5 hours. Hah. Told
you!) I was actually able to sleep on the flight to Bishkek, so I wasn’t
completely dead to the world when we arrived at the Manas International Airport
outside Bishkek at 5am local time on May 11th.
I had to pay $70 (USD) for
my student visa (yes, I was traveling under a student visa, even though I would
actually be teaching, albeit as a volunteer) – this $70 fee was annoying as the
tourist visa is free upon arrival, and since I had not been informed of this
fee in advance. Luckily I had the cash I needed on me and was able to replace
the “lost” $70 via an ATM in downtown Bishkek. I needed the “student” visa
because I was planning to stay in Kyrgyzstan for two and a half months, and the
tourist visa was only good for two months. While the initial student visa is
only good for one month, it can be extended, while the tourist visa cannot be.
B and I met up with N and A
who had arrived about an hour before us. We then hopped into our pre-arranged
taxi (arranged through our hostel) and headed for said hostel – Sakura, located
just outside the center of Bishkek, not far from the circus and the Hyatt.
Check-in time at the hostel wasn’t until 11am, and we got there at 6am. Sigh.
Luckily there was an incredibly adorable cat to play with. Eventually the owner
awoke and let us put our bags up, although our beds were not yet ready. At that
point we headed to Fatboy’s for breakfast.
On the surface, Bishkek
seems nearly completely unchanged from 2008. Walking along Sovietskaya and
Chuy, we felt as though we’d either never left or had stepped back in time five
years. There were quite a few small, superficial changes, but overall nothing
that stood out as a huge, fundamental change. Among the superficial changes we
noted on our very first day back in the Motherland was the remodel of the
interior of Fatboy’s. The menu was essentially the same, and the free selection
of suspect reading material remained, but with the completely new remodel it
was almost like being in a new (and not necessarily better) establishment. (In
my opinion it was much cozier before.)
After breakfast, we strolled
around the center of town. One main superficial change we noted was the
replacement of the Erkendik (freedom) statue in Ala Too Square (which had been
of a fantastical woman holding a tunduk – the top part of a yurt and the
national symbol of Kyrgyzstan) with Manas (the legendary Kyrgyz hero), or as N
put it, “trading freedom for nationalism.” The other was the addition of a new
monument to the overthrow of Bakiev in the 2010 revolution. This monument is
located next to the Kyrgyz White House. We also photographed Lenin (still
lurking behind the State Historical Museum), then wandered over to Panfilov
Park, taking pictures of creepy rides and riding the creaky ferris wheel. At
that point we headed back to the hostel to check in and freshen up… then it was
off to The London School.
The London School has definitely
changed a LOT in the past five years, although it remained quite similar
nonetheless. The biggest difference was that it is now three stories (whereas
five years ago it was only a two-story building – in my opinion this cannot be
a good structural decision in a place prone to shoddy construction and
earthquakes!) and it now has a huge office and reception area which filled half
of the courtyard. Additionally, several of the old teachers’ apartments
(including mine and B’s) are now classrooms. My old classroom, in contrast, is
now the TLS teachers’ lounge. Most (perhaps all?) of the teachers live in a
house off-site, and the remaining bedrooms where we all used to live are rented
to foreign students who have come to TLS to study Russian or Kyrgyz.
We were very excited to
discover that the tradition of keeping not entirely illicit cats at TLS
continues (the staff continues to turn a blind eye). We met one of the resident
cats, and of course played with it and held it for pictures while the security guard
looked on in bemusement.
After I had signed my
volunteering contract and given TLS a copy of my passport and visa (so that
they could begin the visa extension process) we went over to the VEFA center
for the purpose of checking out the new (since 2008 anyway) Georgian restaurant
located there. It turned out to occupy the expensive spot on the rooftop which
can only be reached by taking the back elevator to the fourth floor then
following a convoluted route of unmarked passages. We ate khachapuri adjarski
(my favorite dish) as well as various salads. It was all quite delicious,
although not as good as Mimino in Kiev (or actual food in Georgia I suspect,
although I have yet to make it there).
We then strolled through the
grocery store on the first floor – no longer Ramstor, it is now Plus Market,
where I picked up my “traditional” Kyrgyz snacks of Twix and chechil. Then we
headed down Gorkova to the CBT office to confirm our homestay reservations for
Kochkor and Arslanbob. CBT stands for Community Based Tourism, and this is
without a doubt my favorite organization in Kyrgyzstan. They are incredibly
well organized, very helpful, offer reasonably priced services, and something
like 90% of the money they charge goes directly to the community members
providing the various services (homestays, horse treks, transport, etc.).
At that point, I seriously
felt like I was about to pass out from exhaustion – I was literally having
trouble putting one foot in front of the other. We returned to the hostel,
where I showered, then crawled into bed and slept for ten straight hours.
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