“Kyrgyzstan” is derived from old Turkish and means 40 tribes, but it has been posited that it also means 40 girls. In any case the flag has a 40-ray sun. End of history lesson. I’ve been gone over five months … Continue reading
Category Archives: Kyrgyzstan
No one, absolutely no one, has uttered a bad word about the Second World Nomad Games, an all-time event. I hemmed and hawed about coming because I had been to Kyrgyzstan before, and for visa reasons land-locked Kyrgyzstan is like … Continue reading
In case you missed the last blog post, the government of Kyrgyzstan gave me a press pass for the Second World Nomad Games, a sort of Nomad Olympics for countries near and far from Central Asia. I’ve never done anything … Continue reading
What do the President of Turkmenistan, “world famous actor” Steven Seagal, and The Dromomaniac have in common? We are all here for the opening ceremony of the Second World Nomad Games! It’s all very heady stuff. I’m here reporting—I’ve got … Continue reading
Greetings from Kashgar, Xinjiang Province, Western China! Aside from my broken tooth drama and the fact that my bank debit card expires in 12 days, it’s very exciting to be here. (Anyone from California flying to western China next week? … Continue reading
I usually don’t like to announce what I will do until I have done it in case I don’t do it, but I need everything to fall in place, so this is the plan: tomorrow I will hitchhike or carjack … Continue reading
A quick word: As the Mormons might say, these are the latter days of my stay in Kyrgyzstan. My plan is to go to Sary Tash tomorrow near the Kyrgyz/Chinese border. (“Sary Tash” is an ancient Silk Road town meaning … Continue reading
This is kind of how I would have written it in my journal book in the pen-and-paper days before I started a blog: Bokonbaevo, KYRGYZSTAN Saturday, August 3, 2013 I’m sitting in my room in the homestay I had the … Continue reading
Without much argument the main attraction of Kyrgyzstan is Lake Issyk Kul and the hiking opportunities in the area. (My main attraction is hanging out at the retro roller skating rink in Bishkek, but that’s just me.) Issyk Kul is … Continue reading
It feels like cheating to simply fly in to Kyrgyzstan from Europe and hop over to China. I would love to do the full overland slog through Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, curling up through Central Asia, but recent events and … Continue reading