I wanted to sleep in today as we went to bed at 4:30am last night, but Antoine insisted on getting up at 9:30am to try our first Kyrgyzstani breakfast. Running on barely 5 hours of sleep, we went down to eat. The hotel breakfast was not traditional and underwhelming to be honest, so we just sampled a little bit and retreated to our room. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t, so we got ready and headed out to explore Bishkek.
We started our walk to the bazaar, a massive outdoor market. It was only about a 20-minute walk, but absolutely deadly under the strong 36-degree sun. There wasn’t much shade, which made it ten times harder. We quickly got sweaty and exhausted, but we made it. There were fruits, nuts, spices, clothes, toys; basically anything you can imagine. Antoine was on a mission to find a traditional bread he’d seen online. After searching forever, we finally found a place selling it and bought one, only to walk around the corner and discover many other stalls selling the exact same thing. It was great bread anyway, tasting like sourdough.
After the bazaar, we decided to go back and check in to our next hotel, which was only two blocks away. When we got there, we realized we’d been given a twin room. We asked if we could get a double room instead, and they said one would be ready in an hour or two. So we grabbed lunch nearby at a Chinese restaurant.
We ordered rice, noodles, a beef dish, and dumplings. It was good, but the portions were way bigger than expected, and we couldn’t possibly finish it all. We put up a valiant effort though, and headed back to the hotel. We ended up getting a much bigger double room. Delighted with our lucky upgrade, we fell straight into a food coma. What was supposed to be a 1-hour nap turned into a 1.5-hour complete pass out. After waking up, we went to meet our G Adventures group.
There were 16 people including us, and surprisingly, we were the undisputed babies of the group. There were 3 people in their 40s, and the rest seemed to be at least double our age. This trip probably didn’t attract as many young people because it’s on the pricier side. Everyone seemed lovely though, and our guide was a walking encyclopedia during the tour briefing. After the briefing, we headed out for a group dinner.
The dinner was at a local restaurant, and we were excited to finally try proper Kyrgyzstani food. There were so many choices on the menu, but we were still stuffed from our heavy lunch. We also had only about £10 worth of cash left, so we did some tactical math to order just the right amount. We ordered what looked like empanadas, manty (dumplings), chicken kebab, and lemonade. Everything was so good that we completely forgot to take pictures. We genuinely wished we had come here on an empty stomach to try more.
Happy with our dinner, we headed back to the hotel. Tired from jetlag and the heat, we quickly went to bed.