An Antipodean's Adventure: Bits of Bishkek

(That's "Bishkek" in Russian)

Well I've been here for 6 weeks so I figure it's time Bishkek, KYRGYZSTAN gets a blog mention. (I know, I know, I need to upload the rest of my Everest Base Camp trek but I'll get on to that this weekend!) Bishkek is interesting, its gorgeously green as we're in summer and the weather had been mostly fantastic. I've struggled with the language barrier a lot. Google Translate is my most use iPhone app. I assumed that since so many (locals and internationals) in countries like Cambodia, Greece, Nepal and Germany had an excellent grasp on English so would people here in Kyrgyzstan. It's definitely not the case, there's very little tourism here so there's very little motivation for the local community to learn English- it's really not necessary.

It seems to me that about the people half are Kyrgyzs and half are Russian but almost everyone speaks Russian. I've met a few tourists and unfortunately most complain at how they feel locals just want to rip them off, quite sad really, I've found it can take a little time and a few Russian words to start a rapport with some of the locals I've met. I personally have have been pretty lucky, most of the Kyrgyz/Russian people I've met are lovely! I think it's just like anywhere else, you have nice people and not so nice, taxi drivers especially, seem to love it when I explain that I'm from New Zealand!