From Arslanbob we drove to Jalal-Abad, a place Fintan wanted to visit because it sounded like a place that's been on the news… O, no it doesn't sound like a place on the news, it is the place on the news! Excellent! There had been riots in 2010, but what we say of the city just looked like any other in Central Asia - chaikhana - check, bazaar - check, weird city gate things over the road - check. So after some lagman (noodles with meat) and a quick shop in th...

We left Nomad's home on Friday after lunch. Our motorcyclist friends, Robin and Keely, were heading off too, although they were actually heading for the Tourgart Pass to cross into China. It was great to meet them, but it did add to my frustration - they were part of the large motorbike group we'd been offered to join in January, but then the offer was for some reason removed by the tour agent. Hmmm… We'd conferred over the age, experience and knowledge of ou...

Waiting for visas in Bishkek seems to be a quintessential factor of spending any time in Central Asia. We have been staying in a (very cheap) hostel in Bishkek. Unusual, it is a home with dormitories, a yurt and garden for pitching tents. After our strange experiences with hotels/hostels in Bishkek so far, this one is at least cheap! The driveway is large enough for the car, bicycles and motorbikes. It always seems full to bursting and they have a strange plumbi...

Note - this blog title should be read in the style of the Big Brother voiceover, such is the monotony and drudgery of officialdom in the Russian Consulate/Embassy. The picture is of the drive to Bishkek - kind of rubs salt in the wound of what we're missing! Plan C, or was it D, was going well... until we got to the visa counter... so in hindsight perhaps we were overconfident. We collected our Letters of Invitation from Celestial Mountain Tours and went around ...

After discussing our plans with the owner of the campsite in Zhagbaly we decided to drive from Taraz to Talas (not to be confused, they are across the border from one another). We left the campsite feeling relaxed and enjoying the landscape as we drove along. The road wasn't great and the traffic slowed down to a crawl… I had thought it was due to the trucks struggling up the hill. As we came to the crest of the hill we saw the accident. A cyclist had been t...