Today is a free day in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, so we have a relaxing start to the day and we leave at 10:30 with Goldie to go to the Ala Archa Alpine National Park in the Tian Mountains.
We start to walk up to a plateau but decide that it’s going to take us too long to get there so we turn around and walk back to the river. The views from where we climb up to are stunning though so worth the walk.
On the way down we see a group of locals who are having a picnic and one of the ladies runs over to us & insists on us joining them, which we do. They are school teachers and today is a holiday for them, so they are in the national park having a picnic lunch with their spouses. They have rugs laid out on the ground with all types of food in the middle and they offer us a vodka or a cognac and won’t take no for an answer. So we have a sip of cognac and they also pour us a cup of their national drink, a fermented wheat drink which is an acquired taste. We have a lovely talk with them, one of the ladies teaches English and she speaks is very well. Some of the others also speak English.
The drive back to the hotel takes us back through the National Park.
This afternoon we go for a walk around town, which has lovely shady trees along the footpaths. There are new apartment buildings going up along most of the streets we walk along and they are a big improvement on the old Soviet style ones.
At the end of our walk we enjoy a nice cold beer on this warm day.
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