Flights depart from Istanbul to Bishkek, but not every day, so the flight was full, and the vast majority of the passengers were, I assumed, Kyrgyz, plus a double handful of gringos, maximum. I've never flown on an airplane flight where I was in such a… more »

I was thinking about how long it took me to get from Phoenix to Bishkek, not counting the hours of just living in Budapest. Let's see: Phoenix to Atlanta:6.5 hours Atlanta to Amsterdam:10.75 hours Amsterdam to Budapest:5.5 hours Budapest to… more »

A month ago my colleagues in Bishkek sent me a selection of apartments to choose from for my stay here. I briefly glanced at them, said any one was fine, and they very logically chose the one closest to the school. The location is ideal. A colleague… more »

Upon arrival in Bishkek I was given a little welcome kit by my colleagues. It contained: a roll of toilet paper (since the apartment had none) a bottle of water a cell phone a bag of fish-shaped crackers a city map Now *that's* a practical… more »

My first order of business after getting the key to my apartment was to get a cell phone, but my colleagues had already purchased me a SIM card, so I just popped that into my old Russian cell phone and was good to go. Next I needed to establish some… more »