Bishkek

The most important event to relate is . . . the surly KZ Embassy (staff) have miraculously come through and rendered a Transit Visa for yours truly. This means I’ll either get to Ulaan Bator before freezing in place in the Altai . . . or am off to oblivion a bit earlier. Stay tuned.

Tortugul Reservoir

I’m afraid “staying tuned” will once again be primarily about following the ‘Where I Am’ link . . . as neither my time nor internet availability will be good again until I’m in Ulaan Bator (presumably). So I have about 2500km (1500 miles) left to get across. (If it means putting the KTM in the back of a truck – if I can find one – I’ll do it to avoid losing a digit or so.)

Tortugul Reservoir

So, what about Bishkek, the capital of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan ?

Near Tortogul Reservoir

Kyrgyzstan is world’s ahead of Tajikistan in terms of the professionalism of it’s officials (the police are excepted – pure revenue generation, they “work” 9-5 and then vanish from Bishkek’s view), the quality of it’s roads (really pretty amazing, leaving aside the wonders of Chinese infrastructure development), and the sense of a fledgling democracy in practice, not just words. Service jobs ARE performed at a high level, not commonly, but not as an exception, like in Tajikistan. The cafeteria at the ‘Beta Store’ is a marvel of efficiency and quality.

Ah, BOTH honey and horse milk at the same stand. And look, here comes lunch !

That said, it has some relics from the past . . . you can still find Lenin proudly pointing the way to the great socialist/communist future in school yards and municipal squares, though his aura is clearly in deep decline. (I have to comment about an article written in ‘The Nation’ over 20 years ago which was essentially an obit on the Soviet Union and Communism. The article was unusually short of logic or facts, though there were a few ‘zingers’ for Mr Reagan and Mrs Thatcher, for ‘The Nation’, but maintained the normal high standards of moral indignation the publication has been known for throughout it’s 100+ year history.)

What's all this talk of snow and freezing to death ? 10,500'

The article essentially said that while the Soviet Union had exhausted itself subsidizing it’s “colonies” and failing to permit it’s own human capital from flourishing due to an authoritarian government supported by a labyrinthine bureaucracy it was only “just” bankrupt ahead of the Capitalist West. That looks very prescient right now.

We had a fine chat - check out his gun

My only other comment, which is pitifully obvious – we need a new economic system. Socialism doesn’t work. Capitalism suffers from a quest of “growth for the sake of growth” or, in the words of Edward Abbey – “the mantra of the cancer cell”. Accountants CAN mark with cheer “growth” but it can look alot like “updating, not upgrading”, or worse.

Goats and sheep get EXCLUSIVE use of the tunnel (@ 11,000')

How does this relate to Bishkek or the other pick-a-stans ? Well, they have some dead cities that were created out of thin air and socialist dogma. On the one hand, their economic engines were highly un-optimized factories belching pollution and needless and/or poor quality products. This was summed up eloquently by “we pretended to work and they pretended to pay us”. In any of the Stans’ capital cities you can see lovely gardens and parks and graceful thoroughfares. But look just a little closer and you see that the next block over is empty housing and offices built by the Soviet machine that’s too painful or expensive to tear down. Everywhere there are 50’s sci-fi props acting as architecture (bazaars, circus building, state opera houses, etc).

From the Pamirs to a 3000' valley to an 11,000' pass

The jobs market is one of service sector positions (taxis, private buses, retail, restaurants, bars, insurance) but little that actually CREATES value in a society or economy. Sound like anyplace ELSE you’re familiar with ?

The way forward is SOCIALISM ! (Or not)

The amount of chinese junk says as much about the dearth of manufacturing as it does about China’s own desperation to corner such markets – really, the Tajik economy is smaller than any COUNTY of the state of Delaware !

Shashlik !

Without naming any names, for fear of getting someone in trouble, I heard lots of testimony about favoritism stymying careers and dreams of “winning the ‘Green Card’ lottery” (really, it’s essentially a fact in many countries that its some sort of sweepstakes !)

Bishkek's shopping mall, multi-media park

Bishkek has the ‘Obama Cafe’ which sits on a street regarded for some fine restaurants. But the one name I’ve heard more than any other on this trip thru the ‘Stans is . . . the Terminator. Arnold might not be able to run for President in America but he’s a landslide winner here.

The monument to the Martyrs (of WW II)

My (short) take on Bishkek is that it’s lovely, framed by huge mountains (and may suffer from some of the poorest air quality I’ve experienced in some time – possibly worse than Kathmandu), has virtually NO western brands in any sector, has the best food outside of Almaty in the ‘Stans, is filled with good people (as long as they’re not driving – if horns were machineguns this city would have a population in the dozens !) and, like the other ‘Stans is a bit like California in that it’s common to see mix-race (God, I HATE that scientifically untestable word that was delivered to the world by the British to justify their “white man’s burden” racism) friendships, dating and marriages. A couple comprised of one with an epicanthic fold and the other with blond hair and blue eyes is wonderfully common. But the city is NOT dynamic nor exciting. Yes, you can go to the State Opera for nearly nothing and see a decent performance but this isn’t Paris, Texas, never mind the real city of light, by eons. It’s denizens where unusual head gear, whether the classic Kirghiz hat, felt skull caps, etc and can be seen in the modest dress of the muslim middle east and . . . the shrink wrap, push-up, styles of the west. A minaret is a stone’s throw from my guesthouse but no ones seems to stop anything during the imams’ call. And alcohol is never further than a few feet !

This theatre was built in 1963 - check out it's celebrations including Yuri Gagarin

Why ? Well, Stalin took a look at what the British had done and “improved on it”. (It’s noteworthy that both Stalin and Hitler looked at history as a guide to what they could get away with and HOW they could achieve it.) Stalin carved up Central Asia simply so that he could maintain just enough ethnic tension to keep the focus off of him and the lack of economic development. Many Tajiks state freely that “it was better under the Soviets”. I’ll bet – the Soviet subsidies sent were enormous, possibly more than 100% of the Tajik economy. Currently, there are more Tajiks living in Afghanistan than in Tajikistan. The mix of groups across the ‘Stans is curious if you think these countries arose from some organic force. They did not. Like the Middle East, their borders were created from the devious imaginations of their occupiers. Like the Middle East, these areas were primarily inhabited by nomadic peoples.

Kyrgyz souvenirs and crafts

Now, thrown together in a “republic” with a name which celebrates (or denigrates ! ? !) an ethnic group, even though its a lumpy mix of any and all of the ethnics and you get . . . hardly an inspired nationalism. Which is good if you want to eliminate imperialism but makes selling a national identity very hard. And in the 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union these places have struggled, mostly aping the practices of their former masters – crush dissent, eliminate a free press, use patronage to control rivals or woo potential loyalists, and shanghai one or more “national” symbols as a means of placating various religious or ethnic groups. And the marginalized ethnics have repeatedly called for autonomy or independence – “generals always fight the last war”, none of these folks “gets it” that going it alone these days is an economic death sentence, globally.

The State Opera House

Anyway, my plan now is to drive well beyond Almaty tomorrow and then Oskemen the next day which will put me within 100km of the Russian border. It’s possible that I could clear the Russian border and approach the Mongolian border within a single day meaning, weather permitting, I could cross into Mongolia on Saturday or Sunday.

50's sci-fi prop as architecture. The MB's are all wedding rentals . . .

Please pray for sunny skies, even if they’re cold skies, and manageable water crossings.

One last comment – if it’s the LAST comment . . . this trip has been wonderful but it’s made me REALLY appreciate how fantastic living in Thailand is. The Thai’s are great. Their food is great. Our house is great. It’s always comforting and pleasant to think of being in the LOS (Land of Smiles).

Sawasdee !