The physical entity known as Lindsay Hill is now a legal entity once more! Yesterday morning I collected my replacement passport from the British Consul here in Bishkek. I only held it in my hands for half an hour, as I then had to go and hand it in to the Kyrgyz Consular Service, to get a replacement Kyrgyz visa. That takes 1 week, or 3 days if you pay double ($72). They got me to write a letter explaining why I wanted a new visa – reasonably obvious with my blank passport, and police report, but form must be followed.
All going well, I will be able to pick that up on Friday morning, and race out to the Kazakh embassy, and try and hand my application in. It’s a bit of a mess there, and it took me over an hour yesterday just to get through the queue to get an application form. They couldn’t understand why I didn’t have my passport. Luckily some English/Russian speakers helped a bit, but the guard was still an idiot, and couldn’t really work it out. But now at least I can pay the money to the bank in the next few days, and get the form filled in, so that when I go there, it will just be a matter of fighting through the queue, and getting my application handed in.
I then need to try and get a Chinese visa too – no idea how long that will take. I think it will probably take me up to two weeks to get things sorted out, and then I can get back on the road, heading to Kazakhstan. At least one bright spot is that it seems that the Kazakhs will give me a full tourist visa here, unlike the short transit visa I got in Tashkent. Of course, nothing certain there until I actually have the sticker in my passport.
I spent 9 days riding from Bishkek up to Issyk-Kul, and doing a loop around the lake, before coming back to Bishkek. All very pleasant, except for the main road, at least as far as the Torugart turnoff – it’s very busy, especially on a Sunday, and the road quality is variable, sometimes quite narrow. You get pushed off the road into the gravel a few times. Kyrgyz drivers don’t really understand the power and danger of speeding vehicles. At least another two decades to get any sort of cultural education of good driving I think.
The southern side of the lake was nicer, with the road frequently near the water. Camped near the water a couple of times. One day I was riding along, seeking some shelter from a very nasty squall that was coming up, when a Land Rover came by, with a Swiss couple and baby on board. I ended up camping with them on the beach, and they cooked me a lovely dinner, and we sheltered inside the car from the cold wind. Food, warmth, good company, what else could I want. And then the wind dropped right around bedtime – perfect.
The early morning swim the next day was rather refreshing, but I guess not as cold as a lake at 1600m could be. A touch salty too – that combined with the small waves, and sandy beach, made it feel like I was by the sea – quite nice when you’re thousands of kilometres from the ocean.
I stayed in a homestay in Karakol run by an old Russian woman, in an old Soviet apartment block. Very nice indeed, made to feel very welcome. The second day, when I was eating my fantastic breakfast, she even put together a special package of pancakes for my lunch that day. More than made up for the fact that Karakol is a pretty dull sort of a place. Most roads in the town were just dirt tracks, and there was little in the city that stood out.
But the people could be good – I was having dinner by myself, and got dragged over to a group of Kyrgyz Telecom network engineers, who were having a leaving do for their boss. A couple more rounds of vodka than I would have liked, and I was trying to work out how to escape, but luckily they declared that 21:00 was late for them, and it was time to go to bed. I was happy about that, as it could have started getting messy. But nice guys, with a few speaking a bit of English, and they gave me translations of the toasts, which are taken fairly seriously here.
So more time to kill in Bishkek, but it’s OK – I’m quite happy here, the place I’m staying at is nice, and I can eat all the simit I like from the Turkish supermarket.