August 10 to August 23, 2025
Gate1 Travel with Liz Clark and Tom Eng
Tour Guide, Sergey. He was Russian and did not have a good grasp of our language. Example: The eagle man told Sergey the eagle’s name was __________. Sergey translated to us “His name is flashlight.” One of our travel companions was Russian and explained “His name is Lightning.” TOO FUNNY.
BUSINESS CLASS!! Emirates MCO to Dubai; Economy Dubai to Bishkek. Then Economy all the way back Bishkek to Dubai; 18 hour layover (got a hotel suite) and then Dubai to MCO.
We bussed around the entire 90-mile long lake you see there near Karakol — construction the entire way. Like Uzbekistan, when they rebuild a road they don’t do it in sections. They tear up the entire road all at once!
I was obsessed with wanting to fly Business Class everywhere, since I was on one for a 5-hour Qatar flight. I upgraded this Emirates flight to Kryg for $1,525. When one starts calculating that it costs $100 PER HOUR to be in Business Class, it loses some of it’s shine.
Yes, the food was great, yes the service was great, yes I got free PJ’s and a make-up kit from Bvlgari, but it still wasn’t worth the price. I found out it depends on the plane. This Business Class still had 2/3/2 seats across. (The best ones have 1/2/1) And even if you BOOK the better plane, there is no guarantee they won’t switch planes to a different set-up. Yes the seat laid flat — sort of — and when I slid down to get my head totally flat, my feet hung off the footrests by 12 inches (and the seatmate had to jump over them every time he got up.) Even their headphones were not as good as the ones I own. (Bose)
I AM OVER THINKING BUSINESS CLASS IS WORTH IT. WOO HOO!
I am now obsessed with getting a hotel room or suite during long airport layovers to rest, eat and get saunas/massages. Now they ARE worth the cost!!
Note the 3 wine glasses. I asked for 2 glasses of wine. They brought 2 different wines with about 4 ounces in each. Good enough, I thought. Then they brought a third glass with a third brand of red wine. I drank them all. THEN they returned to ask which I liked better and returned with a full glass!! Too funny because I could not tell the difference in any of the three!!
OOH!! and look at the airport code for Bishkek (FRU). How the hell were we so unlucky that they changed the airport code from FRU to BSZ the day we were flying there!! It caused a lot of stress and uncertainly in that our flights were suspended and we weren’t sure we’d get our luggage. But it eventually worked out.
This woman was a travel agent in Dubai on my last economy flight, with 12 family members, going on a week’s vacation to the lake. She was very excited to read my blog; but I have yet to receive a message from her.
Note the temps. I guess this was Dubai. Friday’s high was 116 SHEESH!!
Very happy with the hotels on this trip. Bishkek is a relatively poor city, but construction is everywhere. Kyrg is the second poorest country in that part of the world.
People have one job to pay the rent and another job to cover the rest of the living expenses. They have a stipend retirement payment; but not enough to live on.
Took a long walk through the city to find a grocery store and never did — turns out it was about 400 steps from our hotel.
About 87 soms are equal to $1 USD. So I divide by 100. That $1,000 bill is worth ten bucks. The 50 is fifty cents.
Tom and Liz meet for the first time.
Traffic jams throughout the city. Note the beautiful lighting along the new road. Apparently the lights go off at some point in the night in front of rich neighborhoods who don’t like the light.
No bathrooms on this bus — and we stopped to use some doozies “toilets” — some out in the wild blue yonder!
Russian control of the country stopped in 1991. However, they still have some big statues of Lenin around.
When you have a sign like this, you know you’re not in Kansas any longer!
One-legged Liz.
This was always my view of Tom and Liz — they’d head up hills like a flash, leaving me sweaty and gasping for breath.
CLICK
Glacier — getting smaller and smaller every year.
CLICK.
Ice cold glacier water rushing down the mountain.
Three-legged Liz!!
Liz says beautiful. I say desolate.
Lunch at an eclectic restaurant. This is Hugo, a fellow traveler — 90 years old!!
Museum in Bishkek
He used to be out front of this Natural History Museum. Now they’ve relegated Lenin to the back of the building.
One of our tour mates from Russia wants this statue REMOVED!!
Oak Park
Tallest flagpole in Asia.
These crazy soldier/guards marched all the way to the flag pole building with their feet up in the air like this.
Hots as hell!! Maybe 98. Hiding from the sun.
Yurts!! It was a nomadic country and the locals just take down their yurts and move to another part of the country. They were quite cozy.
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Kyrgyzstanian flag.
Cool horse display.
I love the sound of rushing water! Tom and I were proud of our Gate1 hats we acquired in Tanzania together.