In the morning we saw this view of Bishkek from our hotel. Bishkek is the capital city of Kyrgyzstan and home to a million people.
The city has wide boulevards and marble-faced public buildings combined with numerous Soviet-style apartment blocks surrounding interior courtyards. Outside the city center there are also thousands of smaller, privately built houses. Streets follow a grid pattern, with most flanked on both sides by narrow irrigation channels that provide water to trees which provide shade during the hot summers.
A lively and crowded market featured ethnic Kyrgyz Kalpak hats. They are worn as everyday attire and at festivals. This is the first place that I’ve seen square bread.
In Ala-Too Square we encountered these giant sunglasses.
Elle crashed a graduation ceremony that was occurring next to the sunglasses.
Kyrgyzstan has a national epic poem called the “Epic of Manas”. It consists of a vast body of oral and written folklore that tells the story of a legendary hero, Manas. Is is unclear whether the epic refers to a person that actually existed. Manus is revered as a unifying force who brought together 40 Kyrgyz tribes and is a central figure in Kyrgyz identity and culture. The epic is one of the longest in the world, with recorded versions spanning over a million lines, making it a cornerstone of Kyrgyz storytelling and history. I was struck by how the historical stories of Central Asia don’t connect to the European history that I know.
After the Soviet Union split in 1991, Lenin’s statue was taken off of the pedestal where Manus’ statue is now and moved around to the back of the building.
The Kyrgyzstan national flag is proudly displayed in Ala-Too Square on the tallest flagpole in Kyrgyzstan. The giant flag measures about 30 x 50 feet. The red background symbolizes valor and courage. Manas used a red banner. The word “Kyrgyz” also means red.
Here is a one-minute look around Ala-Too Square.
In the afternoon Elle and I were taken to “banyas”, or Russian-style public bathhouses that are segregated by men and women. As I walked in, I immediately saw that all of the men were naked. After disrobing, I walked into the area of the sauna and steam room. Some of the men were hitting themselves with birch branches covered with leaves. It wasn’t apparent that anyone spoke English. After a period of time in the sauna, which was very hot, I went into the steam room. It felt like the hottest place that I had ever been. I was trying to figure out how to sit down on the stone seats that were hot to the touch. One other man was in there. Seeing my predicament, he motioned that I should use a pad to sit on. He saved me from burns and blisters. When I was tired of being hot, I went down the hall and threw myself into a large circular pool that maybe was about 50 degrees F. Then I dried off, put my clothes on, and walked past some men getting massages as I exited the building, relieved to be outside again and away from the uncomfortable experience. Whew!
While KFC restaurants exist in Kyrgyzstan, we came across their competitor BFC (Bishkek Fried Chicken). Ha!
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