Coming out of the Pamirs, Osh was a welcome change. It was back to great, cheap food, with a healthy bazaar and being able to breath again because of the lower altitude. Osh has a bunch of statues and nice parks, such as this huge Lenin statue:
There is also a nice hill you can climb to get a view of the city:
Leaving Osh I decided to head straight to Bishkek, though that included a bit of a detour to avoid crossing into Uzbekistan. I ended up camping every day on the way there as I hadn't planned to do much except see the country. It was fairly standard central Asian scenery for the first bit, though many of the towns have statues of warriors like this:
I was pretty much following a river or lake the whole time, riding mostly in valleys. I met up with two Swiss cyclists headed the same direction and rode with them for a bit. We found some nice camping spots right beside the lakes:
The Toktogul reservoir was a bit disappointing because it was very hazy for the whole day it took to ride around. However you could still see the way the whole country is eroding.
After Toktogul it got a bit more interesting as the population started to thin out and towns were replaced by yurts and I climbed back up from 1000m to 3000m. All the yurts sit at the side of the road with little signs next to them, mostly advertising meat dishes and what is apparently fermented horse milk. I haven't been brave enough to try it yet as I've heard it's awful.
The day after making it to a sort of high grass plateau, I had to climb another pass that I had been warned about. This one I could see directly in front of me, with what looked like switchbacks all the way through the snow line.
Luckily there was a tunnel through the top of the pass that wasn't marked on my map:
After that it was a steady downhill until Bishkek. As I arrived on a Sunday, I checked into a hostel and on Monday I went to the visa service person that everyone uses and asked about getting a Chinese visa. I was told that due to the new rules it was only possible if I was a Kyrgyz citizen or had a one year Kyrgyz visa. This is what I was expecting as I had been told in Khorog by all the cyclists there that it was no longer possible to get a Chinese visa anywhere in central Asia. I went to visit the Chinese embassy as well but they were closed. I decided to stick around until they opened again but when I went back Wednesday morning there was a huge crowd of people all waiting outside the embassy door with an angry guard slowly letting people in. After waiting for most of the time that they were open I was told the same thing as at the visa service office. So I have now purchased a plane ticket to Hong Kong where hopefully I can apply for a visa
there and at least see the southern part of China. If not I should be able to fly to Bangkok and do a loop through south east Asia. In the meantime I will see more of Kyrgyzstan by heading towards the lakes I had planned to see.
There is also a nice hill you can climb to get a view of the city:
Leaving Osh I decided to head straight to Bishkek, though that included a bit of a detour to avoid crossing into Uzbekistan. I ended up camping every day on the way there as I hadn't planned to do much except see the country. It was fairly standard central Asian scenery for the first bit, though many of the towns have statues of warriors like this:
I was pretty much following a river or lake the whole time, riding mostly in valleys. I met up with two Swiss cyclists headed the same direction and rode with them for a bit. We found some nice camping spots right beside the lakes:
The Toktogul reservoir was a bit disappointing because it was very hazy for the whole day it took to ride around. However you could still see the way the whole country is eroding.
After Toktogul it got a bit more interesting as the population started to thin out and towns were replaced by yurts and I climbed back up from 1000m to 3000m. All the yurts sit at the side of the road with little signs next to them, mostly advertising meat dishes and what is apparently fermented horse milk. I haven't been brave enough to try it yet as I've heard it's awful.
The day after making it to a sort of high grass plateau, I had to climb another pass that I had been warned about. This one I could see directly in front of me, with what looked like switchbacks all the way through the snow line.
Luckily there was a tunnel through the top of the pass that wasn't marked on my map:
After that it was a steady downhill until Bishkek. As I arrived on a Sunday, I checked into a hostel and on Monday I went to the visa service person that everyone uses and asked about getting a Chinese visa. I was told that due to the new rules it was only possible if I was a Kyrgyz citizen or had a one year Kyrgyz visa. This is what I was expecting as I had been told in Khorog by all the cyclists there that it was no longer possible to get a Chinese visa anywhere in central Asia. I went to visit the Chinese embassy as well but they were closed. I decided to stick around until they opened again but when I went back Wednesday morning there was a huge crowd of people all waiting outside the embassy door with an angry guard slowly letting people in. After waiting for most of the time that they were open I was told the same thing as at the visa service office. So I have now purchased a plane ticket to Hong Kong where hopefully I can apply for a visa
there and at least see the southern part of China. If not I should be able to fly to Bangkok and do a loop through south east Asia. In the meantime I will see more of Kyrgyzstan by heading towards the lakes I had planned to see.
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