Day 200 (Kyrgyzstan): Bishkek IV (it’s Medvedev again … oh and then there was another deja vu)

So, I was supposed to call the consular section today. I did. Just before 11 am as they had told me to. The usual voicemail - press this button and the like. I do and only get a person who says that the embassy is closed. What???? Ouch. My passport. Closed until Tuesday. What????

Alright, so I am pleading my way to the duty officer who is very nice to me. I tell him what I am calling about and he tells me what is going on. Due to the summit (it’s Medvedev again - seems like he is getting in my way all the time, remember here?), the road the embassy is located on is completely closed off and the embassy is closed for Thursday and Friday. The staff didn’t find out until Wednesday, 5pm and has no access to the premises. They called everyone they said, but because they had no phone number couldn’t call me.

And now they are closed for the day, starting at 10:30am. Bonk. What to do? I ask. From what I understood, my passport is in the embassy, the visa in there and so I am ready to go, but can’t. That’s no good. The duty officer calls the consul again and calls back. Turns out that the visa is still not through, so I wouldn’t have been able to go. I can’t believe it. Everything prepared for, did everything I could have done and now this … So there is no use of anyone going in and getting my passport out over the weekend. I don’t like this at all, I am now stuck in Bishkek for the weekend and Monday being Columbus Day I can hope for Tuesday at the earliest.

This also means that I will now almost certainly not be able to reach the Yellow Sea under my own steam. This now kills it as it adds another week pretty much - and that is time that I really don’t have now any more. What a … never mind.

So, off to town I go. I buy lots of good pastries for myself and … it’s Heike and Ingo again. Remember? We met by chance in Istanbul a long time back. Now, we are meeting again here in Bishkek. What a coincidence. Here is the picture to prove it. Oh wait … and if that wasn’t coincidence enough, there is also Bastien, whom I met in Tehran at the Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan embassies.

Great seeing them again before they are leaving for South-East Asia by plane. I will be here for a while still …