August 24, 2000: Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia) a 4 hour drive through the mountains brought us to kara-kol, a little town. we had a real difficult day. no money change possible, a police officer asked us without any reason to pay usd 20 (we didn’t pay) and we just had a few som's left for a last peace of bread. soon later we met our personal angel in the person of "island". this young kirghizian father invited us to his place and offered us to stay there for the night. we gradefully agreed to his offer. his wife cooked a perfect diner and we had a fine evening, talking in broken english. after a calm and peaceful night we organised our trip to bishkek, which is about 400km from kara-kol. the trip was difficult, no paved roads, our driver had a heavy job. and the fact that 4 adults and 3 childs were packed into one lada didn't made anything easier. 10 stressful hours and 2 passes later (height: 3200m) we arrived bishkek. our first goal was to get a visa for china, so we could continue our trip over the torugart pass. both our goals turned out as not easy ones. first of all the opening hours of the chinese embassy were strict mo/tu/fr and only from 9.15 - 12.00 a.m. (and they closed really at 12 - once we were right in front and the woman behind the desk just closed in front of us). the luck was on our side as we met two kirgizhian female students. they helped us to get a room at a russian family place, which was pretty and clean. because of the embassy we had to stay for a week in bishkek. we made the best out of that, did some day trips from bishkek, once we climbed a 3370m high mountain. the view was terrific! we felt like home in the swiss mountains... so, time passed by quickly. we just cruised around, hanging around with other travellers and used of course the internet. sometimes, you need a break... bishkek is, compared to other central asian cities, very european and modern. women are dressed with t-shirt's and mini-skirts (no scarf’s). and the city does have a lot of nice parks. from all that military and rebel wars up in south kirgizhia, we didn’t hear anything. on our trip in central asia (as well as in turkey) we met nice and hospitable people who are very interested in tourists and who liked to be photographed with us. the countries, all ex-ussr, do have their very own culture and tradition. typical for all countries are that you get everything at the local market. we did get lot of invitations for tea, for dining, and received some very nice gifts (handmade silk). today (4th time at the embassy), we finally get our visa for china. so we will continue tomorrow, passing the torugart pass (3700m) to kashgar in china. as we picked up, this trip must be very impressive and exotic.

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