I left my heart in Bishkek…

May 31, 2008

En route from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to Tashkent, Uzbekistan

To say that Central Asia is a fascinating place is a gross understatement. It’s hard to believe that this part of the world, with an area of 4 million sq km (80% of which is Kazakhstan), is so unknown by the outside world. Crossroads between Europe and Asia, home of the Silk Road, it is truly the archetypical “Where East meets West.” Geographically it consists of vast grassy steppes and cragged, soaring mountain ranges; Kyrgyzstan itself is 90% mountainous. Recently, it has become a little more well known for its geologic and geopolitical importance: Kazakhstan happens to have the world’s 3rd largest oil reserve and Turkmenistan has its 4th largest deposits of natural gas. Americans and Europeans may also be familiar with the region due to its strategic importance for the ‘War on Terror’ in Afghanistan and Iraq. Another unfortunate claim to fame for the region is that it has one of the world’s fastest growing HIV/AIDS rates, due primarily to injecting drug users, and fueled by the drug trade in the region (from Afghanistan), which is worse than ever.

Kyrgyzstan, like the other ‘stans in Central Asia, was never one ethnic entity. Before the Soviets created it in 1923, basing its name on the dominant of 80 ethnic groups, Kyrgyzstan, which shares a border with China, was part of the melting pot of Central Asia, ruled as small kingdoms. For the most part, Kyrgyzstanis look Asian, not European. However, there are still Russian minorities here, and there are clearly people who are of mixed origin.

Bishkek, the capital, where we stayed, is a small, sleepy, very leafy town of only about 600,000 people. The city’s women are very fashionably dressed in tank tops and miniskirts, and there is no visible evidence that the dominating religion is Islam (although this should not be surprising since Islam came very late and was rigorously suppressed by the soviets). Few people spoke English, but all spoke Russian and Kyrgyz, the State language.

Our interviews in Bishkek were very successful, but the best thing that happened was that we got our Uzbeki visas (not always easy). I keep looking at my passport to make sure it hasn’t disappeared...