Beyond the End of the Road

One of Jim's magical moments of this entire trip is our journey the second day in Kyrgyzstan. As Jim describes it to others, "We fly to the city of Bishkek, which 99% of Americans have never heard of, we drive 300 miles on bumpy asphalt roads, only to turn off onto a washboard dirt road that winds up a mountain. It's dark by now, and I can only glimpse a drop-off at the side of the road here with no idea how far it drops or what is below. Finally, we drive up to a gate, where there are a few houses clustered. I imagine we must be there, but we go on - another 20 minutes. I realize that I have never been this far away in my life. We've just traveled beyond the end of the road."

And, he has yet to really see where we are. But, let me start at the beginning of the day...

We leave Bishkek early in the morning, around 7:30 a.m. We're all together in a fifteen person van, which sounds big, but it contains the driver, his wife, son, and daughter; the five of us; and Rysbek, Anara, her daughter and niece. All of our luggage (we brought too much!) is piled on several seats, so it is cozy!


We travel along the northern edge of Issyk-Kul lake; the road at times also abuts the border with Kazakhstan. The lake is the second largest mountain lake in the world. The lake is clear and stunning, with little development along the shore. We can often see the white peaks of the Tien Shan mountains looming on the southern shore. We stop to swim at - get this! - the Moscow Communist Party Resort. I swim and swim.

We also stop at a cultural center along the lake that epitomizes tolerance. Through statues, buildings, and other art forms, it tries to represent the central tenets of each world religion.

Other than these stops, and for breakfast and lunch, we travel fairly continuously. Finally, we arrive at Rysbek's brother Askar's family farm. We get out of the van, stretch, and see a million stars. We are up high!