in almaty part two

i had forgotten what an adventure it can be as a foreigner in a foreign land. when it was time to leave the pre-school to go and meet chris... it took me a while to find a taxi willing to stop... and when i did it took me a while to find one that wasn't trying to rip me off.

a note on being "ripped off". is there really a difference between $4 and $6? not really. but it seems like a lot when you are dealing in soms (the currency of kyrgyzstan) or tengy (the currency of kazakhstan) and instead of looking at two dollar difference you are looking at 100som difference or 1000ten difference. i get do indignant when someone tries to squeeze a little more out of me and then i just realize that it is only a dollar or two difference and not a big deal.

so i finally find a taxi that i end up sharing with this young russian kid who speaks some english but is wearing his head phones the entire time and not talking. we (meaning me and the taxi driver... i was being a back seat driver) drop him off and then head to downtown almaty where i am to meet chris.

the night before in the mega mall i ended up buying a local sim card for my phone so i could make calls in almaty. the card i have in my phone normally only works in kyrgyzstan. it worked great and only cost about $5. of course i didn't bring my charger for my phone (or my camera battery which i had left back in bishkek in the camera charger... hence the lack of photos) so i turned my phone off on saturday night to save battery power. when i went to turn it back on sunday the phone was locked and asking for a pin. of course i didn't think to ask the guy whom i bought the sim card from about a pin (and he didn't speak english anyway) so i couldn't use my phone. but i had plans to meet chris at one so it was all good... right?

no. i showed up (surprising myself and the taxi driver that i found the place) at his girlfriends apartment. and just as i was about to get into the elevator to go up to the night floor... chris gets out of the adjoining elevator and stops me. his is having a fight with his girlfriend and can't hang out. do i mind walking around by myself for four hours and then coming back? uh... no chris. i would rather come upstairs and watch you guys fight!

i turned out great as i did end up waking around downtown almaty and as much as i hate to admit it... it was really nice. very, very european. lots of parks and monuments like bishkek... but on a much bigger and much nicer/western scale. i was pleased. between discovering downtown and the mountain top park (with a crazy gravity roller coaster) i quite liked almaty. not the gross outskirts... but the city center was great.

so i walked around. ate some lunch. and then waited downstairs (aka fell asleep in a chair) in the lobby until he came down and got me. we headed out and drove back to bishkek three hours through the famous kazakh steppes. surely you have heard of them?!

the great thing about riding in an car with red plates (aka embassy car) is that you can speed and break traffic laws in front of the police and never get stopped. we even cut line to the front at the border crossing. instead of two hours it took us about 10 minutes.

i should travel everywhere with chris. IF we decide to stay overseas next year and IF we take a position in europe... i think it would be amazing to drive from central asia through russia to europe. chris has already said he is in. if we just put his red plates on my car we should be fine! jen can fly home early and i will take olive and boone with me!

kyrgyzstan tourist convention

today we went downtown to the heritage museum to check out the kyrgyzstan tourist convention. we were hoping that we would find some information on rafting guides, etc... that we could use to help us plan the outdoor adventure program next year at bishkek international school.

what we found out instead was...

1. yurts are super cool.
2. as soon as we get a place with a yard we are buying two miniature yurts... one for olive and one for boone.
3. kyrgyz fur jackets are really, really heavy and really really warm and when we wear them we feel like the rapper flava flave.
4. you can flight from bishkek to iran for under $500 round trip and the iranian embassy here in bishkek will give us visas. don't freak out parents... but olive's first spring break trip might be to iran!

we ended up buying jen a felt hat (a perfect "mother" hat).

afterwards we went over to marykay and sasha's for dinner... stopping along the way to pick up some fresh baked bread (see last photo).

email alert from "the company"

we received this email notice today at work. nablus is looking pretty good at this point! as mentioned before... jen, baby conover and myself will be returning from india the day after the scheduled protest. if things reach the level that they did in 2005 or 2007 (meaning if things get violent and last for several days) we will hole up in almaty, kazakhstan (where we fly into from delhi) for a couple of days. qsi (the organziation we work for) has a school in almaty and we will just crash with folks there. life here is so benign and peaceful that i have a hard time imagining anything violent happening...

Kyrgyzstan: Opposition calls for nationwide anti-government protests from 27 March Six opposition parties have announced plans to participate in an anti-government rally on 27 March in the capital Bishkek, and similar demonstrations are probable in other cities around the country. . The protests have been called to press for the resignation of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and the formation of a parliamentary committee to investigate the death of the former presidential chief of staff Medet Sadyrkulov. Comment and Analysis The opposition call for protests is likely to receive widespread support due to growing discontent with President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's government. Simultaneous counter-protests by government supporters are possible and there is a credible risk of clashes between rival political activists or between the police and protesters. Although foreigners are unlikely to be targeted by angry demonstrators , potential skirmishes pose incidental risks of exposure to violence for bystanders. Travel delays in and around the urban area should be anticipated because of increased security measures and associated traffic disruption during the events. Mass protests in early 2005 culminated in the removal of long-standing former president Askar Akayev in March of that year, after which Bakiev was elected to the power. Violent anti-government demonstrations in April 2007 lasted for nine days in Bishkek; about 34 protestors were arrested while 15 people were injured in the unrest. The opposition movement in the country, which is usually splintered, gathered momentum last week after a government critic was arrested for his alleged involvement in a murder in 2007, a charge the opposition claims is politically motivated. Moreover , discontent over the country's economic downturn is becoming increasingly widespread, and the government has recently faced accusations of political intimidation. Travel Advice Personnel should avoid all protests and public gatherings gatherings as a routine precaution in order to mitigate the risk of incidental exposure to violence. Monitor the local media for specific information on the locations and timings of upcoming demonstrations. Plan overland routes through the city that avoid the vicinity of protests wherever possible and allow extra time to complete journeys on days when demonstrations are being held.

you say you want a revolution...

the plot has thickened in bishkek just as our friend charlie had predicted. a local politician was in an "auto accident" last night (article and link below). opposition demonstrations are scheduled for saturday, march 28th... the day we return to kyrgyzstan from india. we don't arrive back in town until early sunday morning so it looks like we will miss all the fun.

International Herald Tribune
Suspicions follow crash of Kyrgyzstan politician

By Ethan Wilensky-lanford

Friday, March 13, 2009

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan: The former head of the presidential administration in Kyrgyzstan, who was a leader of the opposition, was killed in a suspicious car crash early Friday morning that many observers are calling a murder.

"We are absolutely in agreement that it is an assassination," said Bakyt Beshimov, an opposition member of Parliament, said of the death of Medet Sadyrkulov. "He became a victim of this repressive regime."

The grisly crash was the latest in a series of incidents that the government's opponents say amounts to a drastic crackdown on opposition politicians, journalists and civil society in the country.

Sadyrkulov died in a car crash at about 5 a.m. Friday while returning to Bishkek from neighboring Kazakhstan, according to local news media and politicians close to him. The chief of the Internal Affairs Ministry said that pending DNA tests he could not confirm the identity of three bodies, believed to be those of Sadyrkulov and his guards, found in an incinerated sport utility vehicle that had been hit by a sedan.

An opposition politician said that in recent weeks Sadyrkulov had been raising money in Kazakhstan to help overthrow President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan. "There are many groups in Kazakhstan that would be interested," said the politician, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal.

Although Sadyrkulov oversaw widely criticized parliamentary elections in December 2007 that solidified Bakiyev's rule over this Central Asian state, several opposition politicians said that he had recently approached them with offers to make amends.

"He was not only frustrated with this government, but also sad that he helped Bakiyev to strengthen his power," said Omurbek Tekebayev, a former speaker of Parliament and head of an opposition party. "He said that it was now his obligation to help correct the problems that he had created."

Tekebayev and other politicians accused the president's family of engineering Sadyrkulov's death. He said that Sadyrkulov had told him that he wanted to join the opposition for ideological reasons, but also "to secure himself."

Before stepping down in January, Sadyrkulov was in charge of the president's cabinet, and was his primary negotiator. He was instrumental in forming the president's party, Ak-Zhol, in 2007, and organized the party list that determined who would be seated in Parliament. In January, he left his position with little public explanation. Some insiders said that he was forced out, although he said he turned down an offer to be foreign minister.

Sadyrkulov's death comes amid what opposition politicians — and other former insiders — describe as a growing atmosphere of harassment, intimidation and threats. This week a leading opposition figure, Alikbek Jekshenkulov, was arrested on what his supporters call a false charge of murdering a Turkish businessman. That followed the vicious and so far unexplained beating and stabbing of an opposition journalist, and came amid a debate about proposed legislation that would ban NGOs from participating in politics.

"I think I might be next, but I am not scared," said the former first vice prime minister, Elmira Ibrakhimova, who resigned shortly after Sadyrkulov.

travel special on kyrgyztan

thought we would post some videos about kyrgyzstan for those of you more visceral in nature...

part one

part two

part three

part four

where in the world is bishkek?

View Larger Map

what we have to look forward to