After five nights on the road, we opted for some luxury at the lovely and incredibly cheap hotel of our friend, Gapur Karimov. We went to the TsUM department store which has an entire floor devoted to computers and got the charger repaired for 300 som (£3) or one-third the cost of a police bribe.
Although the little hotel is delightful and the breakfasts were delicious, there isn’t much to see in Bishkek because it was just a minor fort and trading post when the Russians arrived in the 1860’s. The historical museum is said to have some fascinating exhibits from a long period of history starting with the people who made the rock scratchings at Cholpon Ata and the Scythians, but it is still undergoing renovation. Taxi fares for the 6 kms into Bishkek ranged from 78 pence to £3 and we had a bit of a dispute from some scumbag who tried to charge us £4.
Gapur phoned the garage on the 5th of November when the headlight should have arrived. It was “on its way” and should be here by the 8th. Sarting to suffer from cabin fever in the hotel, we thought we might go for a drive for three days after I had shown the receptionist my picture of th gold mine, only to be told “thats not the gold mine. Its a huge round bowl with a road running spirally from the bottom to the top. So we set off for Lake Issyk-Kul and found a quiet place off the southern road a few kms east of Balykchy,
