Welcome to the Pik Lenina
Expedition 2002 homepage
The summer of 2002,
a norwegian expedition challenged the 7134 m Pik Lenina on telemark skis.
The mountain named
after the Soviet communism leader is situated in one of the least
touristic developed areas in the world, this in spite of its spectacular
nature, rich culture and fascinating history. Learning about Cental Asia
has been a great discovery during this expedition. contact@piklenina.com
TRAVEL
REPORT
Travel
report 20th July
Travel
to Bishkek went totally smooth, niema hussle at all. We tricked the
luggage service and got away with 7 kg overveight when we actually had
about 300. (79 NOK pr kilogram)
Aeroflot
is great, nice service, all baggage arrived almost without damage. Sergej
met us at the airport
5 o'clock
in the morning with a big bus. After that we have bought some
cartridges, slept at the hotel, got a nice meal, and are now ready for a
bit more sleep and then maybe a bar.
Bishkek
is hot, green and calm. The town is a mixture of typically old Soviet,
Asia
and turkish. Not
very well maintained though. People are smiling and helpful and never
tries any tricks on stupid tourists.
Our
man, Sergej from Tien Shan Travels seems like a terrific guy. He will help
us with transport to and from Ashik Tash/ basecamp and will be our cook in
basecamp. HH
We
are 6 hours ahead of Norwegian time, and tomorrow morning we head for
Osh
.
Piece
and love, regards from all the boys.
Travel
report 21th July
Bishkek-Osh,
day 3: The day started good. Iceberg Night club, probably one of the most
expensive places in Bishkek, were visited until late. Good music, Kaare
dance, many nice girls and interesting conversations. We also met a
friendly Norwegian pilot, working at the allied air base in Bishkek.
2
hours sleep before Esp woke us up. Time to take the bus out to
Manas
International
Airport
. The plane trip to
Osh
was beautiful,
despite some skies. Snow covered mountains and other good views. But some
of us were very tired and felt asleep...
Sergei
met us in
Osh
, he had gone there
by car. 21 hours. The plane trip took a little more than one hour. He
brought all our equipment, which was very useful for us. It would have
costed a fortune to bring it on the plane.
Osh
is situated on the
silk route and have been a merchant city in 2000 years. Like Bishkek full
of monumental buildings and squares from the Soviet era, we've also found
a huge Lenin Statue here. Strange how they seems to adore this man down
here. It's warmer and more humid in
Osh
, around 40 degrees celsius. The most fascinating fact with the city is
all the different kinds of people you see here. Kazakhs, Kkyrgyzs,
Chinese, Mongols , Muslims, Uzbeks and Europeans . A real melting pot.
The
Bazaar here, the market where they sell everything from traditional hats
to some real "good stuff", is also very interesting. We were
shown around by this nice girl
Luda
,17 years old The
only thing I couldn't see there was fish, but we didn't see the whole
market. So now we have bought the last supplies for our journey into the
mountains: toilet paper, a lot of chocolate, tea, coffee, much yoghurt and
chips. At least , we will not starve to death up there. I think we have
food for a whole regiment for a month! Sergei has already bought all the
food for the stay in the Base Camp.
Tomorrow
we will go into the mountains by an old military truck, we guess it has
been used in
Afghanistan
during the russian
invation there. The trip will take about 10 hours, there might be some
sore backs and asses after that. But it will be exciting to see how the
landscape changes from this flat and cultivated areas here in
Osh
to the mountains and
valleys along the border to Tadjikistan.
Everybody
are still fit and healthy. The journey so far has definitely been good!
There is an existence of good team spirit, everybody is in good mood, many
smart things have been said, which has caused a good amount of laughs. And
people here are nice and friendly.
One
thing is interesting. We have met to two groups of climbers, one Swiss and
one Russian, that has been to Pik Lenina before, they will both make their
third attempt to reach the summit. Previously they have not succeeded due
to bad weather. And they all looked quite experienced...
Travel
report 7th August
what
the heck happened? it's a complicated and a bit dramatic story. we start
at day 11, saturday the 4th August. sunday the 4th and monday the 5th was
planned as the days for the attempt. our guys had struggled with bad
weather during most of 12 days in the mountain and some illness. 3 (JanK,
Kjetil and Paal) had went back to basecamp (stomach problems and bad
cold), but 4 was still feeling fit and optimistic.
the
trip from camp 2 to camp 3 on saturday was quite tough, we had not been
able to pitch the camp 3 earlier as planned, due to bad weather, so we had
to carry tents and all stash the approx 900 height meters to camp3
situated at 6100 on top of Pik Razdelnaya, on the border to Tadjikistan.
Thus we were more tired than expected as this point. It was a lot of wind,
and limited sight. Snow was digged and planed as good as possible and
tents put up.
There
were about 6-8 other tents at the camp, and some more further down.
We
relaxed and ate and drank and when the darkness arrived at 9 oclock we
reported to basecamp over radio that we expected to get up at 1 oclock to
look at the weather and decide to go or not. Our status at that time was
Espen and Runar feeling very fresh, Knut had stomach problems and Kjell
Olav bad headache.
At
about nine o clock we heard yelling outside the tent, someone calling for
a friend. It was now completely dark and still very windy. The yelling
kept on and sounded desperat. Espen asked from the tent, "do you need
help?" The answer led to no doubt, and pretty soon we were all in the
clothes outside. 2 Iranian guys had lost there third friend on the way
back from the summit. He was supposed to be close, so Runar and Esp went
looking. After a short while they found him kneeling in the snow 100
meters below our camp. He was totally exausted and cold and we got him
into the tent and gave him some warm to drink. The other iranian was
snowblind, but the third was very awake and fresh.
His
english was not especially well, but he tried to explained that there were
to russians still up in the mountain. It was a couple of 50 and 60 yrs
lying in the tent next to us, we found the tent empty, but their sleeping
bags were there, which very much pointed at the conclusion that they were
still in the mountain.
Are
they coming down? we asked, I dont know, the iranian answered. He pointed
at the direction he thought they were. We blinked with our lights and got
response. The bad thing were that the spot from where the respond came,
were 400-500 above us, and many kilometers away. It also seemed as they
were outside the track, out on the very steep north face of the ridge.
What
should we do? It was stumbledark and snowstorm, ice cold and we were above
6000 m. We knew there were people in lifedanger up there. After a short
discussion we decided to go look for them, a spaniard in the neighbouring
tent wanted to follow us. A finnish group also wanted to contribute, but
they were all feeling to altitude sick to join in. They dedicated a
Tikka-light outside so we could find back to the tentcamp.
So
it was us 4 and the spaniard who let along towards the summit, 5 hours
before schedule. At the bottom of the ridge, we felt the wind getting much
stronger. The wind had made the track hard to follow and the snow was
heavy. Kjell Olavs head was banging hard and he decided to go back. Knut
who had not been eating all day joined him back upwards again from the
sadle to Pik Razdelnaya.
Runar,
Espen and the spaniard kept on, but they soon understood that it was
hopeless to fight against the mountain, without risking their own lives.
It was a desicion that probably ment leaving the russians to freezing to
death.
Back
in the tents the mood was everything but joyful, both incidents had made
strong impression. We were all tired but not at least we hade lost all
motivation for the summit. This risk game was not something we wanted to
be part of. The summit attempt that night was cancelled right there.
The
weather got a bit better during the night, so it would had been possible
to go.
That
night sleep was not good. In the morning we checked the iranians. One
asked for eyedrops, he was snowblind. The other one was worse, not able to
walk and hard to get contact with. Espen diagnosed brain edema, and gave
him decadron, which he has never given anyone before. We concluded in
getting that guy down as soon as possible.
while
we were preparing to descent to camp2, two persons comes silently
wandering towards the camp, almost unnoticable.
Wasn't
that... yes it is, the russian couple!! Miraculously they had survived,
spending the night in the snow at 6400 with one downjacket to share. The
couple were of course exausted, and all they wanted was to get inside of
their sleepingbags and sleep, not to talk with us about their experience.
Russians mountaineers are made of something special.
We
got Ibrahim and his backpack down to camp2, Ibrahim was after the medicine
able to walk without a backback, his walk was like a very drunk mans whois
going home for a party, and the road is not wide enough for him. After
some hours he was down with his friends in the camp2, they took good care
of him, and after a while he looked much better. We got lots of tin fruit
and was invited to Ibrahims wedding next summer.
Our
plan was originally two attempts, but after that day no motivation for the
top was left. We continued all the way down to camp1. 3 of the fins who
stayed with us at camp3, decided to go down with us, one week before
scheduled. It was not funny anymore.
The
following three nights, we got the best summit weather we had had the
whole period. Our feelings have been a bit mixed, we did not reach what
was our goal. It has been much tougher than anyone of us had thought, both
physically but not at least psycologically.
It
is hard to keep the motivation up and having patience enough for so long
time in ucomfortable conditions. Especially when such things happens. We
are of course dissappointed for not achieving our goal, but we mean
sincerely that some of us definitely had fixed the summit easily if the
rescue incidents hadn't occured.
But
the 14 days in the mountain have anyway been fantastic in all ways.
Overwhelming nature, fine challenges and good laughs. Our group has all
the way focused on security, and never felt really unsafe.
Walking
around in
Osh
, some loose stomachs
and some burnt lips but the whole group is very satisfied and harmonic.
Yesterday we ate and drank as much as we were able to at a good
restaurant, 8 persons, 35$.
Sergej
had taken our gear to Bishkek, and we are now left with very light packs
heading for
Samarkand
tomorrow.
Travel
report 8th August
how
was the rest of the days up there? here are some more information.
we
spent totally 14 days from arrival to departure basecamp at 3600. we had
good cooking from sergej the days we spent in basecamp (4-5 days). the
first day after arriving we was told about a german guy who was missing,
and the same day a very sick russian was brought down. because pik lenina
is such a "easy" 7000-mountain, lots of people come here and
lots of accidents happen. about 700 come each season, and approx 50
reaches the summit.
the
route up to camp1 was pretty easy, 6 hours walk on the glacier. camp1 was
situated close to the foot of north face of pik lenina. this is a 2800 m
wall, whoch is from 25-45 degrees. the route from camp1 goes first
straight upwards this wall 1000 meters, quite steep, and lots of
crevasses, neccessary with rope all the way. one crevasse was 2-3 meters
wide, and here we needed special security for passing. the others were
possible to jump over. it was scary to pass them, looking down into the
black hole of infinity. some of the russians did not use neither rope nor
crampons. the last part to camp2 the route turned right and rather flat
into a bowl shaped valley. here the devastating avalanche killing 50
alpinists 12 yeras ago took place. the camp has now been moved to the only
safe spot.
during
each night in camp2 we could hear the bouldering of several avalanches
sliding down from the surrounding hills. cause its so steep the snow
slides early after snowfalls, so most were rather small, and noone seemed
to touch the track.
going
upwards to camp2 the first time, we met a thunderstorm which were a bit
exiting, when raising the skipoles we felt and heard the electricity in
the air. to be sure we lay down in the snow for 20 minutes.
but
the main danger between camp1 and 2 was crevasses. the last part through
the bottom of the bowl to camp2 was tricky for us, the track was snowed
down, and we had little sight. the cracks were not visible. we stepped
through two or three of them until the knees. carrying 30 kilos and after
walking for 9 hours, it was an unpleasant thought to fall down into one of
those.
the
next morning one russian guide, did what we avoided, he followed our track
the opposite way and fell down 3 meters. his partner was not able to get
him up himself, but luckily being so close to camp2 he could call for
assistance.
between
camp 2 and 3 there were more snow, and after heavy snowfalls, avalanches
where the biggest risk, which stopped us on our first attempt to get to
camp3 for setting up our tents. for two days noone dared to go that route.
everyone seemed to wait for the first one to go.
even
though the record from BC to summit is 12 hours one reckon about 3 weeks
as necessary without previous acclimatisation. its ususual to climb up and
down between camp1 and even basecamp 3-4 times, before hitting the summit,
which is rather dull and makes the patience suffer.
using
skis was not the best idea for us, we barely used them because of the
cracks. they were carried up and down till 5700.
a
finnish guy plans to snowboard down the north face (on saturday), this
will be a spectacular ride, almost 3000 height meters on one straight
wall. he stipulated 40 minutes. walking along the route it takes 10-14
hours.
jank
and kjetil, as mentioned, got sick, jank catched a awful cough at camp2,
which he still has. both kjetil and paal got almost half the way to camp3.
the last night at camp1, two nights before the first summit attempt kjetil
was food poisoned from some soup we tried. the next morning he was blue in
his face and barely able to get out of the tent for shitting. paal was
never feeling at his best like we know him, lacking motivation and decided
to stay with he two sick persons.
we
are now still in
osh
, waiting for some
uzbek visas which is told us that will be received tomorrow. we have spent
the days changing hotel two times, wandering around at the bazar, enjoying
the heat, eating as much as we can bare and hoping for the stomaches and
the coughing to get better staying here in "normal" conditions.
the people are so very friendly, loves to be taken pictures of, and the
youngsters enjoy to speak english. not many tourists, and incredibly
cheap. very hot, about 40-45 degrees.
we
have great expectations for for the rest of the travel. leaving with taxi
tomorrow evening towards
tashkent
and then to
samarkand
.
more
info to come.
Travel
report 12th August
runar,
knut and jank arrived
samarkand
on the 11th august.
since latest report the group has divided into two groups. espen, paal,
kjell olav and kjetil didn't have visa for usbekistan. they tried too fix
it from
osh
, but it was not
possible. so they left for the capital in kirgistan, bishkek, trying too
fix it there. latest news from them tells that they are on their way from
bishkek too
samarkand
by rental-car.
on
there way too
samarkand
, runar, knut and jk
have seen
tashkent
, the capital in
uzbekistan
. we went by bus from
osh
to the border
between kirgis and uzbek. passing the border was like passing the border
between
norway
and
sweden
, easy-peacy. on the
border we met Bahodirjan (sorry if the name is wrong spelled). he drove us
the about 400 km to
tashkent
. our plan was to
find a hotel, but he had a friend there, Nilufar, who was so kind that she
let us all sleep in her apartement. the next day she guieded us all around
tashkent
, museums, tv-towers
etc. nice town.
we
tried to find some discos that where open, but all nightclubs closes at
24.00. that is because it is usbeks nationalday on the 1st of september,
and 2-3 years ago usbek had this terrorist accident. i guess it is because
they don't want any other accident to happen again before the nationalday.
anyway, this means that we get early home in the nights.
samarkand
. the journey went by
taxi from
tashkent
to
samarkand
aswell. it seems
that most of the taxidrivers are going quite fast. about 300 km in 2,5
hours is a nice average speed. the car had aircondition, which was very
nice. it is hot here, about 40 C during the day. soo far we have seen
registan, which are some very nice buildings built long time ago. (sorry
about little info about this).
money.
a beer in usbek is about 1500-3000 locals. we have changed some money, and
the recieved 100, 200 and 500s. yesterday we bought beer, and had to pay
10000 in 100's. it means a lot of counting.
well,
think that's all. we have to go looking for paal, kelly, kjetil esp
Travel
report 13th August
There
are few names which awake our dreams as
Samarkand
, reckoned as the
pearl of central
asia
and one of the most
pitoresque cities in the
Asia
. This is much thanks to Amir Timur, also known as Tamerlane, who made
Samarkand
the capital of his
gigantic empire in the 15th century. He killed about 17 million on his
way, but Timur also brought the best artists, architects and engineers to
his capital for raising magnificent buildings.
We
have been lucky enough to wander around among these ancient attractions
completely left alone from other "bothering" tourists.
Yesterday
we visisted among others, the Biby Khanym mosque. For 2 dollars each we
got inside.
Then
the guard pointed the direction to the entrance of the Minaret and left us
alone inside for exploring the old building by ourselves.
We
climbed up through the broken stairs in the dark, all the way up to the
top. From the top of the tower, looking down at the blue domes, the walls
and the bazar around us, we felt piviliged being allowed to use the
attraction as playground.
We
climbed further along a thin wall which we were a bit uncertain of the
solidity of to the neighbouring tower and back. The whole thing is under
restauration and parts of it looked ike falling apart any minute.
The
town in general is very clean, tidy and nice maintained. This yields not
only for the attractions but also the hotels, restaurants, the bazar and
the streets. People are relaxed and friendly so also the traffic. Here
they speak Uzbek, but everone understands russian. The atmosphere and
culture seems much more turkish than in
Kyrgyzstan
, and less mongolic.
ALso less russian influented, though there are some terrible examples of
the gigamania architectural achievements of the Soviet time, with its
caractheristic "concrete art".
You
take taxi or local buses eherever you ago, the price is about the same,
300-600 soms (1300 = 1 $). Even though this is cheap we allways bargain to
get the cheapest price. It s important in respect of the tourists
following us later.
At
he bazar they sell everything, including handmade carpets, blankets,
purses knives and jewelry. A big wool carpet is about 50-100 $, silk
carpet 600-1000$. Just mail me and order. We have made friends with
Nargiza who helps us get the best prices at the bazar.
Nightlife
i
Uzbekistan
is not the greatest.
We dont have to worry about staying out too late, KArimov (the president
in
Uzbekistan
for the latest 15
years) have made a kind of a curfew. Everything have to close at
midnight
.
Couple
of years ago there was terrorist attacks at several discos, and the
Government do not want any incidents before the National Day 1 september.
Then it is a great party all over the country.
Uzbekistan
looks like a country
of law and order. Lots of Police averywhere, little criminality and we
have so far not experienced any kind of threateing situations at all. We
feel very safe, even more safe than in
Kyrgyzstan
. Almostly boringly
safe, maybe we have to take a trip to Tadjikistan.
Only
to guys left now, Knut and JanK, the rest of the pack is gone back to
Bondevik and the brown cheese.
Travel
report 14th August
This
day we travelled back to
Tashkent
. 3 h drive on the
good but a bit bumby motorway, especially when you drive in 160 km/h. It
turnes out that the motorway intersects a part of Kazakstan, so we can add
the fourth Central-Asian country to our list, (suck your ass Paal
Haavengen).
All
newer cars in
Uzbekistan
are Daewoos,
actually the Uzbek words for cars are Nexia, Tiko and Damas (which are
three types of Daewoos). Uzbek economic politics is not very liberal and
business frendly we have been told. There are high taxes on import of
goods, for instance cars. Daewoo have a factory in
Uzbekistan
. There are also
restrictions on importing money to the country, all have to be reported to
the government. And the official conversion rate is much lower than the
real one. A company can't keep any cash, it have to be put in the bank.
This
in addition to all the remains of the Soviet byracracy makes it difficult
with foreign investments and interpreneuring in general.
Uzbekistan
have allready a
transportation problem, long way to the big markets, no ports, and feels a
bit claustrofobic situated. The biggest industry is agriculture.
There
are not as much natural resources as in neighbouring Kazakstan and
Turkmenistan
. While Kazakstan and
Kirgistan have let loose the economy, Uzbek are still moving very slowly
from a centralised, unliberal economic politics. Appreantly most people
have good economy, and it seems like one big middleclass, same cars, same
clothes.
There
are still alot of unemployment after the fall of the old Soviet factories.
A couple of american organisations have come to Uzbek after 9-11, and
their goal is to get people into stable work. They have a funding program
for entrepreneurs. The aim is of course to stabilize the region. In
Fergana
Valley
especially there are
muslim extremists which share some of the views as Taliban. This is the
most religious part of
Uzbekistan
. Except for these
americans organisations, and a few tourists, there are no foreign capital
in the country.
Uzbeks
in general is very islamic. Most people are more religious than the
government, and the president (even though his first name ironicly is
“Islam”). Men are aloud to have 4 wives, family traditions are strong.
We spoke to one guy who had got his wife pointed out by his parents. He
met her once before his wedding, but at that time he was in a hurry and
hadn't much time to look at hear. In these cases we understand that the
wedding night are a bit more exciting than in
norway
. But as he said, he
trusted his mother, she knew his personality and what girl would suite
him. And for him it was more important to have a wife who cooks good and
knows the Uzbek traditions and behaviour than one wit a nice body. Because
he can get that too, while his wife is cleaning
the floor, he goes out with his frends on nightclubs to meet other
girls. You can’t argue with that. For the women getting married means
that you are financially secured for the rest of your life, and being more
than one wife means having someone to share the marriaging duties with.
Our friend was providing his own family, his parents, his two brothers and
their kids, as he was the only one with steady income in this family.
From
the wifes side, marriage gives security, then she knows she will allways
be taken care of.
Our
main impression of the country is the unbelievable friendliness and
hospitality we meet everywhere, we are treated as we where close freinds
or near family. Noone have tried to trick us once, as they do with
tourists in all the rest of the world.
Tomorrow
Margilon and silk factory. Bye for now.
Travel
report 15th August
"so,
knut, you have the video camera?". "no, you have it".
"kidding??" "NO, you took it from ulugbeks car".
"FAAAKKKK, no we have it lost it again".
it
was the 2. time we lost the video camera in less then 15 hours. the first
time was in the car from
tashkent
to margilon. the big
thing too experience in margilon is the yodgorlik silk factory. we drove
straight to the factory when we arrived margilon, and when we left the car
we forgot to bring the camera with. the driver found it after a while and
started searching for us, and also we searched for him. in a city with
about 200 000 inhabitants we found his house with some great help.
incredible. we got the camera back!!!! then we forgot it in an other car
after 2 hours. we found out after short while and got it back. now knut is
responsible for the video camera and jk for the photocamera.
well,
our stay in margilon was good. the yodgorlik silk-factory is the only
factory in central-asia where silk is handmade. the fabric closed for the
day when we arrived, but we met ulugbek. he works there as a guide, and he
adviced us to stay until the next morning. we did so. ulugbek runs a
bed&breakfest place for visitors to the factory in his house, so we
stayed there. he helped us a great deal wth getting back the camera both
times we lost it. thanks!!!!
during
the evening we where treated like old friends. he was going to a wedding,
and we came along. fascinating how friendly people are here. at the
wedding we where served dinner and fruit and lots of drinks. everybody we
met had this great hospitality. i guess that this wouldn't happen in
norway
. in usbekistan the
weddings lasts for 2 days. the first day for all the men, the second for
all the women. it is also a tradition that if somebody dances the other
guests give money to the ones that dances. well, we danced and earned a
great deal of money. what we didn't know was that the money were supposed
to be given back to the musicians. sorry about that, but we kept it!! will
give it back next time.
from
ulugbek and his friend murtazaev we learnt a lot about muslim and usbek
traditions.
the
visit at yodgorlik silk-factory was intresting. ulugbek showed us around.
there where no silkworms there now, but the way they made the silk seemed
to have been unchanged for centuries. fascinating. there is also a shop
where you can buy silk. it is quite cheap i think, though i now little
about silk-prices, and the quality is good.
well,
now we are back in
osh
. seems like the
place has survived even thoug we have abscent for one week. the plan is to
stay here until sunday, then go back to bishkek. we have heard that there
is a new disco opening here in
osh
, it's called steltz. we'll check it out. after one week in usbek, where
all clubs closes at 24 until 1st september it would be ok.
Travel
report 16th August
Toilets
the
one thing I never get used to traveling in "non-western"
countries is the toilets. Why is it so difficult to shit in a hole in the
ground? why should it be so uncomfortable to sit in the position that most
people in the world have as their most comfortable resting position? The
only thing you need to do, in addition to positioning yourself over the
hole, is to take down your pants, and that should be pretty easy. And if
you just sit their like that, with only your sandals touching the ground
and your asshole in free air, and your pants and clothes safely away of
any unclean area, it shouldn't have to be a problem that there in some
other parts of the room are some shit. even though its there doesn't mean
you need to touch it. and the smell, well anyone can breathe trough their
mouth in 5 minutes.
The
locals shake their head of which efforts tourists make just to be able to
sit on porcelain, on which god knows how many other filthy asses have been
sitting.
well
anyway, the fact is are you born and raised shitting on porcelain, you
want porcelain. shitting is not supposed to be an exhausting athletic
event for your muscles, it supposed to be a time for piece and quiet and
good thinking.
the
"different" toilet conditions together with the fact that when
traveling your stomach often not is at it best state, makes this one of
the toughest tasks. visiting the "rest room" at the bus station
jan kristian was not able to complete his planned activity, entering the
area he instead had to puke.
Sorry
for the inconvenience, but as this being one of our main discussion
topics, I just felt it had to be mentioned.
Travel report 17th August
Back
again in
Osh
for the third time,
almost feels like home.
Osh
has always been a trade city, and is actually more than 3000 years old.
Despite this there are no old architectural attractions here.
The
silk road passed through here for several 100 years with goods between the
east and the west, and west and the east. The towns along the silk route
were prosperous and then had their golden era.
Then
around 1500th century, the sea and the ships took over as the cheapest and
quickest transportation method. In some 100 years the area of central
asia
got gradually left
without interest from the rest of the world, almost as a no man's land.
In
the 1900th century the area has again become interesting for the world,
now because of the strategic localization between the south and the north
and the west and the east.
After
the collapse of the Sovietunion the islam have become stronger, but the
governments around here are still ruling like in old Soviet, trying to
prevent religious freedom. For instance in
Uzbekistan
you can go to jail
for having a beard, and there is restrictions on which religious customs
you may practice. There are actually underground places for praying and
worshiping.
USA
is of course
struggling to get settled in central area, even though most people are
very sceptic on their motives.
A
new trade is today dominating the city of
Osh
, and still it is
because of where its situated the city is important. The heroin traffic
from the south,
Afghanistan
and
Pakistan
to the west goes
through
Osh
. None of this
traffic or business is visible on the outside, all trade you see is the
farmers selling their vegetables on the bazar. All is quiet and friendly.
But
Osh
is said to be one of
the worst gangster cities in
Asia
, and many people here are addicted to drugs. Noone talks about this, so
sshh.
Today
we have seen the other official tourist attraction except from the Bazar,
the Suleyman mountain, lies almost in the middle of the town. Its quite
steep and nice place for bouldering. Quite easy to get up, but climbing
down was a bit airy. Fantastic view of the city and the surrounding area.
Inside
of the mountain they have made a museum, which contained some stuffed
animals, clothes and models of old Kyrgyz warriors, and a nice yurt.
Tomorrow
off we go to Bishkek. Than, Issyk Kul on monday.
Travel
report 18th August
Travelling
in this country in general s very easy. Plane tickets are cheap and easy
to buy, planes are good, service splendid. It you don't travel by air, you
can get about everywhere you like with taxi, Tashkent-Samarkand which is
about 3 hours drive is 15$. Within town you never pay more than 1$.
Today
we flew from
Osh
to Bishkek and got a
spectacular view of the Kyrgyz mountain and steppes.
We
have had a luxury rehabilitation day, nice hotel with porcelain toilet,
cable TV and air condition. Thereafter we have visited one of the many
saunas in Bishkek. Hot sauna, cold pool and massage. We preferred the
traditional massage, a big russian girl with strong arms, squeezed,
hammered, and pushed until every part of the body where hurting. But it
feels pretty OK now.
Now,
jank is screaming for a burger, here is a famous MacBurger restaurant so
thats what will be. Then we will go to the very apprecialble nightclub
Iceberg, where the beer is very cold, the music is smooth and the sofas
are comfortable.
Travel
report 19-21th August
issyk-kul,
nice lake, but not much to do besides beach volley and sunbathing. there
is volcanic activities underneath in the ground and so its known as
"the warm lake". never freezes even though the altitude is 1500
m and it's pretty cold in the winter. they also call it the second biggest
high altitude lake in the world (after titicaca). the lake has no outlet,
so the water evaporates.
in
the area, there are several remains of buddhistic settlements from plenty
years ago. this area was buddhistic until the muhammad prophets came
along. also been some christianity, today 80% of Kyrgyz are muslims, but
the people traditionally are religious tolerant. as mentioned earlier, the
later years have arised an
islamic extreme movement in central
asia
, with its epic
center in ferghana valley. the movements are according to the governments
working for one united islamic state in central
asia
.
the
silk road passed on both sides of issyk- kul, and has for long been known
through out central
asia
as a place for
healing and therapy. there are still dozens of sanatoriums which offers
therapy of all kind, and loads of tourists come from kazak, uzbek, kyrgyz
and
russia
. nowadays also
popular among soldiers from manas airbase. but the place is still very
sovietskaya, expensive and low standard, few organised activities except
trekking and swimming. i guess the popularity of the lake is partly due to
the fact that this is a area without shore.
the
kyrgyz people are originally nomads, horseriders, and warriors. they were
hired by the chinese emperor 140 (approx) BC to help fight the Hunns which
were the big hurdle for establishing trade routes between china and the
the west. this was the start of what later called "silk road".
this culture together with the trade and merchant culture which grew along
the cities along the silkroad are the two different way of livings which
have been living unpeacefully side by side in centuries. the horseriders
from the steppes which during the years every now and then came riding
along into the merchandising cities for plundering, killing and
destroying.
One
digression, the chinese actually managed to keep the secret og how
producing silk (silk worms) until 400 AD, then a chinese princess was
offered to a local king in
Ferghana
Valley
, and she smuggled
with here some worms. the secret was revealed and from that day silk
production started in central
asia
.
Travel
report 22th August
Bishkek,
formerly known as
Frunze
(named after a
general born in this city) has not a great history, after it became
capital of the Kyrgyz republic in
USSR
, it has grown fast.
the people in the area was mostly nomads and farmers, not traders and
merchants as further west. for 100 years ago not more than about 20 000
lived here, today 700 000. the architecture is thus soviet like, but very
green, and seems nice and quiet and the surroundings are pleasant with
mountains on 4-5000 meters visible from the town center, once called lenin
square, no something else that i don't remember. most of the stalin and
lenin and marx names are removed, but lenin himself still stands on his
pedestal in the middle of the square.
in
lonely planet its mentioned one internet cafe, which is "terribly
slow and you must queue up in line". Today there are one on every
corner, this one's even 24h open, so things are happening around here.
this is gonna be our last night, we leave from bishkek tomorrow morning at
4 o'clock
. we decided to drop
moscow
, it will have to be
a disappointment after this terrific weeks. better off then to the old
bondekuk-country. many impressions, and early to sum up things, but
hospitality and friendliness or "drushba" as say here, are
keywords. but what is maybe my main impression now is that things where
different from what i had thought (even though i didn't know much), i have
learnt immensely much about history and culture, and not at least the
situation the situation here today, politically and socially.
now,
we gotta get ready for our last night celebration.
23rd
August
Bishkek-
Oslo
– Sauda
The
former Lenin museum, is now called
State
History
Museum
, but looks rather
unchanged since Lenin times. Worth seeing, information in both Russian and
Kyrghyz. Afterwards we went to the Zum supermarket where we were told you
could get the best souvenirs. I found a nice Kyrghyz filt carpet and after
30 minutes arguing i bargained it down from 22 to 15 $. After the deal she
admitted that at the Bazar i would have got it for halfprice. I had to
visit the Bazar, and of course she was right, so i had to buy another one
there.
Me
and Janks have agreed on the accounting for the journey. I have used
approx the same amount in souvenirs that he has used in telephoning home
(approx 350$). So then we are even.
The
plane left from Bishkek 0400, thus we thought the best idea was to go to
the airport directly from a nightclub. Here we first had to get rid of the
rest of our local mon. As a result we might have been slightly unsober
when we arrived at the airport. This probably was sensed by some officers
at the baggage check who wanted to see the inside of my backpack. I had
brought nothing unlegal but the officers would not accept my 5 souvenir
knives and was brought down to the cellar for questioning.Inside this
office I spent almost 45 minutes where the police kept looking at me with
a serious face speaking mostly russian, but also mentioning the word
“problems” alot of times.
After
30 minutes they also added the words “dollars and hundred”. Maybe they
wanted to finance their sick kid’s hart operation, but I chose to think
that they would spend it all on beers and decided to not accept.
I
answered mostly “ne panemayo russki, garavitje angliske?”.
I was pretty calm, thanks to the drinks ihad had, but as the time
until my flight shortened, I started feeling uncomfortable. I could see
that they felt uncomfortable too. After some more time, I got angry,
slammed 5 $ on the table, grabbed my souvenirs and left the room.
They
didn’t seem to react so I just ran as fast as i could. Arriving at the
gate I met Jank busy abusing an airport employee, telling him that this
wouldn't look good for his country cause we'd write about the incident at
our web-site. And so we did.
Sad
end of our stay in Kyrghyzstan, after all this was the only occasion we
experienced suck kind of hassle.
The
rest of our travel went perfectly ok, all the way to Sauda where I spent
the weekend celebrating the nameday party of my nephiew Magnus Brostrup.
Conclusion:
There is not war here, no bombing, no terrorism, no islamic
fundamentalism, no public burning of western tourists, only lots of
hospitality friendly people and untouched nature. We have learnt alot
about a place in the world we knew little before. The countries are easy
to travel in feels very safe so what are you waiting for. In 5 years there
will be MacDonalds on every corner, and charter flightsfrom
Oslo
. If you hurry you will be able to experience to ascent 5000 meters
where no man has been before you, watch snowleopards and other rare
animals, or climb unseen to the top of ancient historical protected
buildings at night to sit and watch
the stars.
