Drag Lift into Hell
If you are into pain and looking to be beaten up, I advise you to use an old soviet drag lift. For this to work, you need be prone to dumbness and having a snowboard helps, too, but is not mandatory. […]
Faces of Osh Bazaar
I'm reluctant to bazaars, first because I find shopping in general stressful and secondly, because being in crowds drives me to the brink of insanity. In Kyrgyzstan, thirdly, police has found an additional source of income, by searching tourists, more precisely, their purses. But where, if not at a marketplace, you can experience a country's [...]
Dry-Tooling in Chunkurchak
As I understand it, "dry tooling" is ice climbing without ice, using ice axes and crampons on the rock. They say, it was originally developed to bridge rocky passages in order to reach free hanging, frozen waterfalls. I had not heard about it, and when my Russian friend Katya suggested to visit the competition at [...]
A Morning at “Container City”
The Dordoy Bazaar in Bishkek is one of the largest markets in Asia. It consists mainly of stacked cargo containers: the lower one contains the shop, the upper one is the storage room. In the weekend, Dordoy is extremely busy. Therefore, we went there early, at seven o'clock in the morning [...]
The Russian Word for Skiing
There is no leather padded eight-seater chairlift with heated seats and wind bubble. Here in Kashka Suu, there is a single two-seat wooden folding chair lift with a small chain for safety. Don't even start looking for foot-support. "Don't you want to buckle up?" Kathrin asks. She works for a German humanitarian aid organization in [...]
Snow Hiking in Ala Archa
Who likes to sit in front of the PC all Sunday? Certainly not the European expats in Bishkek. The spontaneous decision: "Let's go hiking in Ala Archa!" The National Park is located about 40 kilometers outside of Bishkek, which is a nice day trip. It's four of us and we conveniently share a taxi. It [...]
Road to Bishkek
The driver and I look at each other. "4000 and we leave right now," he says in Russian. I take a deep breath. Now I have to make a decision. Just this morning I crossed the border from Uzbekistan. "Feels good to be back," I thought, when I got the Kyrgyz stamp in the passport. [...]
The Red Fox
It may happen that you start traveling in summer and, unintended, are not yet back in winter. Because there was no room in your 70-liter backpack for the thick down jacket, you will just stand there, clueless and freezing. The purchase of winter clothing can be fatal for a small travel budget. In this situation, [...]
Couchsurfing in Bishkek
"The shower is over there" , my couchsurfing host, Erdem, shows me his apartment. " A bathroom!? INSIDE the house?" I have not seen this for a long time. Erdem takes a beer from the fridge and puts it in front of me. Then he shows me the WiFi access. I 'm in seventh heaven. [...]