Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan is a country dominated by massive mountain ranges, glaciers, gorges and ice blue lakes. It is about twice the size of the island of Newfoundland.
The 5.2 million population is made up roughly eighty ethnic groups: the principle ethnicity's being Kirghiz (66%), Uzbek (14%) and Russian (10%).
The photo above is in downtown Bishkek, the nation's capital. It is a congenial city of 900.000 inhabitants, not near as cosmopolitan as Almaty nor near as rich. The cost of living dropped dramatically for us.

We found a great little restaurant whose specialty was rabbit. Simon indulging in the house special!
Caine and Adam awaiting a meal.
Monica and a new young friend. He made a special drink for her, on the house. The people, as has been for most of the trip, were kind and hospitable.
Bishkek fast food hamburger joint and the adverts in Cyrillic.
Getting ready to leave the capital, outside the Sakura Guesthouse. The owner is an expat. Japanese fellow married to a local lady. Excellent place to stay!
Leaving Bishkek for Central Kyrgyzstan's mountainous heart in the Tian Shan (Celestial Mountains in Chinese) Range. The well paved road leads to Lake Issyk-Kol, the second largest alpine lake in the world.
Rest stop on the way up.
Tasty corn on the cob. shishkabob, bread and salad.
We turned off the main paved highway for a 50 km. ride over a dirt road to Lake Song-Kol.
Up over the Kalmak-Ashuu Pass and into the lake basin.
Lake Song-Kol at 3016 meters is one of the loveliest spots in Central Kyrgyzstan. All around it are lush pastures favoured by nomadic herders, who spend the summer here with their animals.
Visitors are welcome, and it's a sublime place to camp for a couple of days.
Monica and a new friend.
Kids and their donkey. The older people spoke a little Russian, the young not so much.
Packing up.
The boy just sat in the saddle and watched.

Yurts at the side of the lake on the way out. Simon drove over to check on directions. They had been indulging in that popular Russian cultural import, drinking vodka, and were drunk as skunks.
The view onwards from the top of Moldo Ashuu Pass at an altitude of 3200 meters.
Quite a spectacular ride, with 33 switchbacks to be navigated! The photo is from the top of the pass looking out at the route down before us.
Stopped for a break in the next valley. Monica and Frank pictured.
In the village of Jangy Talap looking for gasoline. There were no gas stations in the town, but we were able to buy some from one of the locals.
We next inquired about a restaurant and were promptly invited into a home to join a christening party celebrating the arrival of a new baby.
Over another pass, people at the side of the road.
Bridge over the Narin River, east of the town of Kazarman. The countryside was more arid in this area.
Simon and Monica enjoying supper at our guesthouse in Kazarman.
On the road to Jalalabad the next morning. Still no pavement, but spectacular country!
The final big up, before the Fergana Valley.
Monica near the top staying to the right. No guardrails here! Parts of the road had been gouged away by rain water run off. The route was so degraded in sections that we seriously questioned whether we were really on the right road.
Simon at the top, 3100 meters, on the Kazarman-Jalalabad highway.
More of the road. There was next to no traffic.
Approaching the Fergana Valley.
The Fergana Valley, the breadbasket of Central Asia. Rich farmland, lots of sunflowers, and of course, warmer.
This part of Kyrgyzstan is less Russified then the north. The people in the south are more observant of Muslim doctrine than their cousins in other parts of the country. Still the face coverings such as the one in the photo were not the rule.
Family leaving the market, Jalalabad.
Pretty traditional dresses.
A man offering a traditional greeting with his right hand held over his heart. What a nice gesture! Many times people would do this when we passed them at the side of the road on the highway.
Kirghiz man wearing a traditional felt hat.
Market scene, Jalalabad. It was melon season and they were delicious!
Nuts and dried fruit.
Russian style dental work.
Herbs and spices.
Chewing tobacco salesman. I tried some, and it was potent stuff!
Lady in a tea shop.
Foxy lady in a tea shop.
The owner of our home stay. She of course was fluent in Russian, the working language.
Monica at rest in their room after a long ride.
Lenin is still an important figure in the "Stans", as in Russia. Statues are common.
A month before we arrived in Kyrgyzstan there were ethnic riots in the Jalalabad-Osh area of the south. Many buildings were burned out. The conflict was between the Uzbeks and the Kirghiz. They were of a economic nature, pitting the majority Kirghiz against the minority Uzbeks and their businesses. It had settled down by the time we arrived and they were cleaning up. Curfew had just been lifted the day we arrived.
Pictured above is a hotel burned out during the troubles.
Cool biker dude, Joseph, grandson of the guesthouse owner.
We next left for the nearby city of Osh, and the Pamir Highway.

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is the ninth biggest country in the world, and the most economically advanced of the "Stans" in the formerly Soviet Central Asian Republics. It is well on the way to becoming a prosperous and modern multi ethnic Eurasian nation. Travellers are still relatively rare here, and we were treated with real hospitality. The photo above is from north east Kazakhstan, south of the city of Semy, going south through the steppes towards Almaty, a two day plus drive.
The area is not heavily populated, just small farming settlements here and there. It was in this part of the country that testing of the atomic bomb took place during Soviet times and some of the countryside is heavily contaminated. The photo is of a Kazakh cemetery at the side of the road and its unique mausoleums.
Open steppe. The road was paved but heavily potholed. Hard on the bikes and difficult to make good time. It got much better closer to Almaty.
My second flat in two days. I almost lost it when this one happened with a bang on a curve at 80 kms. per hour. The bead broke on the side of the tire in the middle of nowhere. Caine came up with the ingenious idea of using plastic strip ties to hold the tire wall in enough to carry on. It wasn't the safest way of traveling, but there was no other option.
With notches cut, the ties were installed, and at 60 kms. an hour we preceded to a major town 250 kms. to the south, periodically stopping and making adjustments along the way.
Arriving in Taldyqorghan, we pulled around to the parking area behind our hotel and the was a little ethnic Russian boy with his father named Maxim. He was literally screaming with excitement over the motorcycles. He got to sit on them and even start the engine!

The tire! That was far enough! Hired a truck and put on the back for the 200 km. trip to Amaty the next morning.
Street scene in Almaty through the back window of a SUV while going to find a new tire. Adam Shani, an Israeli motorcyclist on a three year around the world trip in the foreground, followed by Caine.
Street scene from the front of our hotel in Almaty, with the Tian Shan mountains and Kyrgyzstan in the distance
Almaty, with a population of 1.3 million, is the largest city in Kazakhstan and the nation's commercial, social and cultural hub. It has an incredible setting on the steppe, with 5000 meter snow capped mountains rearing up immediately on its southern flank.
The streets are full of well dressed people, and the roads with Audis, BMWs and Mercedes negotiating the peak-hour traffic jams.
Yeldos Ametbay in the photo at left is the owner of the Eldoro Restaurant, the only 24 hour establishment of its kind in Almaty. He's an avid motorcyclist, an amateur historian and a gold mine of information on Kazakhstan! Yeldos was incredibly helpful to us and several other cross country bikers who were passing through Almaty. Without him, the processes of upgrading the motorcycles and patching up visa issues would have been much more problematic! We were fortunate to meet him!
Suppertime on the patio of the Eldoro. Clockwise from the left, Adam from Israel, Omar, Yeldo's son, Caine at the head of the table, Simon, Chris from Italy, and Yeldos.
The food was good and reasonably priced. Wi fi was an added bonus
Some of the staff at the Eldoro
Sunday brunch with Yeldos. The weekly group consists of American and English expat friends of Yeldos. They work in the oil and gas industry and are motorcycle aficionados.
A man and his Harley, on the street outside the Eldoro.
Monica, and changing oil, in the outskirts of the city.
Bicycle and skateboard park for the kids in Almaty, just like you would find at home.
Omar brought us over to meet some of his friends. Kids similar teenagers in any western urban area.
In the food court of one of the bigger malls in the city.
Zenkov Cathedral, Panfilov Park, Almaty. Many ethnic Russians left Kazakhstan after the fall of the Soviet Union. About thirty percent of the population are of Russian or Ukrainian descent. Kazakhs make up about fifty six percent of the 15 million people in the country, up substantially from Soviet times.
Kazakh is the national language, but the working language, especially in the cities, is Russian.
Babushkas, outside the Cathedral.
Young family, Panfilov Park.
Chess club, by the park.
Impressive war memorial in Panfilov park. Stalin drew heavily from this area of the Soviet Union for troops after the early setbacks during the Second World War. These soldiers were instrumental in breaking the siege of Stalingrad, the beginning of the end of the German war effort.
On an excellent road out of Almaty west along the Kyrgyz frontier, towards the border crossing and Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.

A- Kazakh Russia border, B- Semey, C-Almaty, and D-Kyrgyztan Kazakhstan border crossing near Bishkek. 1534 kms..

Russia, The Altai Republic.

At the main entry post on the Russian side of the Mongolian Russian frontier. It was an easy one to go through, but with the usual loads of paperwork.
The first major town in the Russian Altai Republic, Kosh Agach, the driest inhabited place in the Russian Federation. Members of the Kazakh minority make up most of its population. In the distance, panoramas of perennially snow-topped peaks, through which runs for 400 kilometers or so, the Chuyski Trakt, our route north. The Republic is home to more than 7000 lakes and soaring peaks, including Siberia's highest. It is popular with Russian extreme adventure enthusiasts and new age types.
The directional road sign in the photo points to Novosibirsk, the capital of Siberia, 887 kilometers to the north.
Hotel Transit, our home away from home while in Kosh-Agach, a clean, friendly, funky little place. There was a Russian filming crew staying there.
Simon and Anna, a Russian tourist living in Spain, who comes here often.
Leaving for the north. Finally, great sealed roads.
Lunch stop at a little hamlet, settled in the valley between the mountains.
While stopped for lunch, a group of motorcyclists came by, among them a young German couple who were driving the exact same motorcycle as mine.
The group also included one Irish fellow and three Finns. They were going south into Mongolia and making the circuit to Ulaanbaatar.
Campsite along the Chuya River, Altai Mountains in the background. Beautiful spot!
Russian campers. Camping is very popular in this part of Russia. Most of these tourists come down from Barnaul and Novosibirsk, Siberian cities to the north.
Street scene from Barnaul, a pleasant industrial city of half a million people. The vast majority of the people are ethnic Russians. Friendly, clean and well run city.
Russian fast food restaurant serving bliny (leavened buckwheat pancakes) with a choice of stuffings, Barnaul. Good food!
The road west out of Barnaul over rolling farmland towards the Kazakh border. The land in this part of Siberia is covered with grain and dairy farms.
A crop of sunflowers by the roadside.
At the Border, Kazakh side, buying insurance. We are on our way down through Kazakhstan.

A- Mongolian-Russian border, B-Barnaul Altai, C-Kazakh border N.E. of Semy Kazakhstan. 1000 kms..