One of the two elevators was broken no a/c, only 5 rooms with hot water.
Taxis in Bishkek aren’t marked.
We walked through Dubovy Park which was filled with strange statues and visited the bust of Felix Dzerzhinsky (founder of the Soviet secret police)
We walked to the State Museum of Fine Arts…. Boring.
Then we headed to the Frunze House/Museum. Fortunately we ran into a Russian girl who studied English for two years who walked us through the museum acting as our personal guide. Her interpretations were questionable (“Fruenze was a great friend of the Kyrgyz people”) but she made great sound effects. Then a local took us through the Fruenze house.
We headed to the Counsel Restaurant (recommendation of the paper bike-man) and found cold beer with an English menu.
We made up names for our group: Angela, the tour guide became “Polly- X-er” (polyanna + X-er).
After lunch we hiked to the Historical Museum. Kids were rollerblading and local kiosks blared rap music at the foot of the Lenin Statue.
The museum was amazing. The second floor was filled with heavy bronze socialist realism. featuring VI Lenin. On the third floor, there were touching Kyrgyz photos and art.
We grabbed a cab to the Issykul Hotel, known for it’s great views of the mountains and great Korean food. We had beers on the top floor with swallows swooping into their nests on the ceiling. When we asked for the menu, it was in Russian. We had traveled to the south of town for the much touted Korean restaurant—only to find one Korean item on the menu “Korean meat" -followed by Russian meat, French meat and chicken fish.
We tried to get a taxi from the hotel. They wanted to charge us 100 som. Since, we got to the hotel for 30 som, we walked out in disgust to the street. A few minutes later, a Toyota van stopped (not a taxi) and offered to take us to the Counsel Restaurant. We give him 30 som and discovered a whole new way of hailing taxis.
At the restaurant, we met an American couple living in Bishkek who gave us some great food recommendations. We had dinner through a huge thunderstorm…then headed home.
We grabbed a cab to the Issykul Hotel, known for it’s great views of the mountains and great Korean food. We had beers on the top floor with swallows swooping into their nests on the ceiling. When we asked for the menu, it was in Russian. We had traveled to the south of town for the much touted Korean restaurant—only to find one Korean item on the menu “Korean meat" -followed by Russian meat, French meat and chicken fish.
We tried to get a taxi from the hotel. They wanted to charge us 100 som. Since, we got to the hotel for 30 som, we walked out in disgust to the street. A few minutes later, a Toyota van stopped (not a taxi) and offered to take us to the Counsel Restaurant. We give him 30 som and discovered a whole new way of hailing taxis.
At the restaurant, we met an American couple living in Bishkek who gave us some great food recommendations. We had dinner through a huge thunderstorm…then headed home.
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