Day 196 (Kyrgyzstan): Osh - Bishkek (by plane)

Uneventful day really. Late start … not. I tend to wake up at the crack of dawn at the moment. And lo and behold there was power in Osh today.

But it was Sunday and therefore it was a slow day. I made my way to the airport by way of a little mashrutka (small bus), found the lone gate and was part of the small crowd that wanted to go to Bishkek today.

The airplanes were all not so new – 4 out of 5 were propeller planes. But the flight was good. I got to see a bit of the landscape through the clouds, longing to be able to ride these roads. But that I will – if ever – have to do some other time.

The airport in Bishkek was empty and deserted. After fending off the usual crowd of taxi drivers (what part of net do you not understand), Ainura picked me up. We go back a while and she had set things up perfectly. The first time we met was in 2004 I believe when I first came to Central Asia to conduct human rights seminars and have been in touch ever since.
Turns out that she found a place for me to stay. A German lecturer who also worked on the same human rights project, Tanja, was nice enough to let me stay at her place and so all is set to go. After yummy lunch at a Uygur place we pottered back stopping over at an internet cafe.

As I said, uneventful day.