Flying in to Bishkek is pretty special. You go over endless steppe for ages, then the Tien Shan mountains which are beautiful enough to move you to tears, especially if you come in feeling a bit drained on a sleepless overnight flight.
The city is full of contradictions. It’s got a soviet history, a Muslim history, and is rapidly changing as western tourists find it.
On most street corners, You can buy horse milk by the cup from old ladies on the street (just because you can doesn’t mean you should). I saw a Woman in a hijab and modest clothing with a slipknot t-shirt over the top. The kids can all ride horses and say ‘six seven’ whenever they see a westerner.
It’s daunting too, arriving alone in a city where you know nobody, can’t understand the buses or taxi apps, and can’t read the writing. Luckily, the population of Melbourne that hasn’t yet moved to Clapham seem to be in Bishkek, so it’s not too hard finding people.
I signed up to a 3 day horsetrek the day after arriving and was bussed to Kyzart with other people from the hostel. Nobody had ever really ridden a horse before, but the local guides didn’t seem arsed about that. It was probably good they couldn’t speak English to warn us where we were going and what the terrain was like. Quick breakdown of the trip:
Day 1: Maybe 4 hours riding to a yurt camp. I decide maybe horse riding isn’t too hard but my thighs are killing. Breathtaking scenery all the way, and at the camp the locals being huge speakers and play Kyrgz DnB.
Day 2: Trotting regularly; testicles are obliterated. Even gallop at the end. Stay at Song Kul lake and have a dip. See more stars than I’ve ever seen in my life.
Day 3:Ride back to Kyzart. I am a consummate horseman, until we descend down a mountain that surely we should not be on, surely horses can’t traveslrse this terrain, but we make it and my knees and calves are in agony. Bus back to Bishkek
The day after the trek I pressganged one of the guys to hike up to a waterfall in Al Archa national park. He’d had a rabies shot in the arse that morning and it was hot, hard going. We make it back for a night out with the other horsetrek gang (surprisingly Bishkek has LGBTQ friendly bars, they’re just overseen by gigantic security guards in balaclavas and armed with pistols). Make it to a sports bar to fall asleep in front of England beating Norway.
People start dispersing from Bishkek we look around an eccentric artists museum/studio – I’d love to hear the thinking behind it all and the exact amounts of hallucinogens he lives on, but he doesn’t speak english. Bishkek also has loads of bazaars, and we get lost in one. A guy I end up drinking with in the hostel mentions a place called Tong, so I decide to go there the next day.
Planet Caravan 
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