Pedaling from the Black Forest to the Yellow Sea

So, I somehow confused days and therefore have put what would have been Thursday into the Wednesday post and only just realized that now. Those that subscribed to the newsletter may be getting what happened on Thursday and what I mistakenly posted under Wednesday twice now. My apologies.

Really, all that happened on Wednesday was that I called the consulate and they told me that the visa wasn’t ready and that I should call again on Thursday … which I did (and those who read the post already know the outcome).

Not much going on until I got to the embassy where things went rather smoothly. The usual security checks and then I was at the glass window. “Sir, what are you doing here?” “I am applying for a work visa, H1B.” “Oh, OK - please submit your documents. And the money.”

All done. You wait. And wait some more. I watch the American flag flying in the Kyrgyz wind outside. And listen to the TV behind me which is on repeat on a all-too-short 8 minute cycle with bad music and commentary that you know by heart after the second time.

Then your name is called. A very friendly consul seemed to have everything ready to go - but she said that there was a number missing and that I would not be able to pick things up tomorrow most likely. I should call to confirm. But things will most likely take until Thursday, but no longer. Wow!!! Things do seem to go without a hitch. Keep your fingers crossed they do indeed. It would be nice if at least one visa application on this trip would be going entirely smoothly.

The rest of the day was uneventful … so I will spare you non-interesting details. And again, no pictures. You’re not allowed to take anything with you to the embassy they say. So I didn’t.

So, off to the office where the documents were waiting for me. Little did I know that I would be spending all day there in the end. It was a good thing, so thanks a lot to J. for letting me do this. Lots of space to lay out all the papers that were in the package, checking for things and printing out, among other things, scans of all of my last three passports. Yikes … and filling out more and more forms still.

The internet connection in this office was absolutely smoking … it gave me the opportunity to upload all the pictures in one go practically. At the end of the day I had a couple of days posted, pictures uploaded, but most importantly I also had everything in order for the visa interview tomorrow. I am also getting a $1 bill from Nazar as I have come up dry finding one here in a few places. Nazar and I also met up through the human rights project and yet again, if I stayed over the weekend, I would have received an invite to a wedding.

Little bit of a shock today as I was preparing things … I get an email from the consular section. Argh …. time change!!! I was flabbergasted. I don’t want any changes!!! Turns out that the main road is closed for a summit meeting tomorrow morning and it was rescheduled for the afternoon. Ufff …. But those emails where the subject line is ambiguous … can’t stand them.

Today, news percolated of an earthquake in the South of Kyrgyzstan. There is no need to worry, I am not close. I would have been though had I not come up here to Bishkek. Bit of a scary thought. It would have been quite possible that I would have been staying in or around the village of Nura which has apparently been almost completely leveled today. Keep the people in mind there – my bike is in the area too, but this is not a major concern at the moment. I will see what state it is in when I get there.

Really, this was a day in the office … no pictures. Go to the flickr site for those of the Pamir, I have been told that they are worth checking out.

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.

The days in Osh … what should I say. Again, the two days were largely similar, so I am folding them into one entry again. Osh is in the Fergana Valley. Funny thing that I was here just a few weeks ago – just a couple of hundred kms to the West. And the bazaars of Kokand and Osh being so similar, one could just forget that it is a different city.

The helicopter landing pads are the same in all of Central Asia.

What is different for once is the internet cafe business. This is the only place so far that has put restrictions on the amount of uploads you can do. Which stinks after all the pictures I have been taking on the Pamir Highway. In the end, after scouring the places – one charging triple the price, the other closed, the third one not allowing uploads – I found a cafe that would let me do what I needed to do. Sort of … it was slow on the first day and smoking on the second.

The main attraction of Osh for me was the bazaar. But after having been to so many already they are remarkably similar so I cannot get worked up about them all that much. What is interesting though are the people that stop by here. Again, just as in Kokand there is a great variety of different ethnicities milling about. All a result of this conglomeration of people over the centuries – and artificial lines having been drawn to come to some kind of separation.

One other amazing thing was the food here in Osh. I have eaten Lagman before in Bishkek and it was good. But so was the one that I tried here. And open kitchen to some extent – here is proof. Lagman are noodles with meat and vegetables (and tons of garlic) and some sauce. Yummy, yummy Uygur stuff. Can’t (yet) get enough of it.

Turns out that my keyboard has given up after coming down from the Pamir Highway. It worked perfectly fine still in Sary Tash and now it is not doing much any longer. I will write to the manufacturer and see whether they are willing to send a replacement.

I also decided that I would fly to Bishkek after all. The initial idea had been to drive to Bishkek and fly back, but I don’t feel like being boxed into a car forever (10-12h, depending on the degree of craziness and ability to push fatigue [sadly this is a factor]of your driver). It also reduces the time I cannot work on things if I have to for the visa part.