Barskoon, Balykchy, and Bishkek

Time for something completely different. When I last wrote I had descended from the heights of the Arabel Pass to Barskoon on the shores of Issyk-Kul and was happily munching on garden fruits courtesy of the little guesthouse I crashed at for a couple of nights. Given my imminent return to a grey and inevitably rainy Cornish winter, and perhaps in need of a relaxing wind-down, I quite fancied something of a beach holiday, so rather than loop back into the mountains I chose to trundle west along the south shore of Issyk-Kul to the town of Balykchy at the western end of the lake, looking forward to the occasional coffee and/or icecream in the villages along the way.

The day I left Barskoon was hot and humid, the mountains only occasionally visible through the wreaths of thick cloud.. thunder rumbled on and off all day but happily the lakeshore remained mostly sunny and dry. Cycling west I was very much reminded of trundling along the coast of parts of the eastern Mediterranean… you know, azure waters meet scrubby desert littered, in parts, with half-arsed and abandoned construction projects; some clearly dating from the Soviet era, others failed enterprises and follies from more recent times.

I needed a day and a half to cover the 165km to Balykchy, enjoying a super mellow beach camp after 100km, and enduring rather than enjoying the last 40km or so on a vast new highway being built by the government. With virtually no traffic and only tiny communities along the shore of the lake it felt like the kind of project that governments engage in when they want to say “look, we’re investing” while ignoring more pressing issues like healthcare, education, and so on. I could be wrong of course, perhaps a certain neighbouring ‘economic superpower’ is financing it by way of creating yet another indebted client state…

Balykchy defied my initial expectations on rolling into town and turned out to be, perhaps unsurprisingly, a super friendly and fun place to poke around on my bike for a day. From there, had it been summer I could have hopped onto one of Kyrgyzstan’s limited train services for a ride back to Bishkek, but as the summer season is only considered to run from mid-June to the end of August I had no choice but to fork out for a taxi for the  2 1/2 hr ride (the minibuses or ‘marshrutkas’ that form the backbone of Kyrgyz public transport as a rule cannot/will not take bicycles).

As I write it’s my last day here; I’ve been indulging in one of my other favourite pastimes here in Bishkek – street photography. If that’s not your thing then I apologise for much of the content that follows ;-) I initially found Bishkek to be a challenging canvas – unlike the towns and cities of Europe, Latin America and so on which are awash with colour and fine architecture, Bishkek is, with few exceptions, very much a dun coloured agglutination of  crumbly old concrete and corrugated tin. It took me a while to discover its personality, and the time spent here (4 days in total) feels as if it has been very much worthwhile – not only wandering with a camera but also poking around the bazaars and flea markets. I have also been able to catch up over coffee with a couple of contacts in the cycling community; also fun. It’s time to leave now however.. the snow on the mountains is very much lower than it was even a week ago and the nights are easily 20+ degrees cooler than they were when I arrived.