Norman's Blog: Biskek

Biskek

From my hotel, I walked to the corner of Kuliev Street and Chuy Avenue. Chuy is the main thorough fare through the centre of the city. Most of the tourist sights to see are all a stone's throw from this road. On the corner is a large shopping mall and behind it is the local bazaar. My thinking was that if I was ever lost, it was easy to get back to Chuy and it might be a long walk but I could find my way home.

The guide book had warned about the names of streets. The names have been changed several times so directions are not always simple. People use several names for the same street. There are no road names at the end of a street. Houses and businesses often include the name of the street and a number on a sign but you have to walk along the street to find a couple of signs that will confirm which road you are following.

I could have taken a business card from the hotel to catch a taxi but they had run out of cards. The night before, I was nearly at my hotel and I was asking for directions. No one spoke English so I reverted to Russian. Unbeknown to me, I was in the right place just 100 metres away but everyone shock their heads. Either they weren't locals or they didn't understand my accent. I had to go into another hotel to find someone who spoke English to direct me. I felt rather embaressed to discover that I was so close.

My first tourist stop was the Osh Bazaar. It is named after the country's second largest city. It was a sprawling mass of stalls and easy to get lost in. It is also a haven for pick pockets and thieves purporting to be secret or tourist police who speak your language and take you to one side to inspect your passport, phone, camera, money, cards and rifle through your rucksack and then disappear with all your valueables.

I went with nothing of value exept a few hundred local currency. The noise, the smells, the colours and the hustle and bustle all came back to me as if it was yesterday. Given the high risk of robbery, I didn't spend much time there. It was a quick and determined walk through, ignoring all beseeches from traders and making sure not to slow down or make eye contact.

The market was much as I remembered with a mass of buyers pushing past each other and all the stallholders shouting out their best bargains. I exited the bazaar and walked along the road back to Chuy.

At the junction of Chuy with Jash Gvardiya Boulevard, there is a Soviet era monument of two soldiers standing upright on a pinth, staring nto the distance. The Soviets knew how to create striking monuments. There was a plaque high up on the plinth but only in Russian. It was too far away to read and I didn't notice a date so I will never know.

On the cetral reservation in the centre of the road is an atom like piece of art. It is the Atomo, a reproduction of an atom with circulating electrons. Just next door is the Zoological Museum. The design is clearly communist era, brutalist style concrete but with some mosiacs to break up the facade.

I query its original purpose as it is quite a large building. Another view of the building but the complex is larger as the structure continues around the square to the left of the photo. Also just to the left of centre, the top of a large radio antenna is visible. No zoological museum would need such a large aerial so

On another side of a crossroads was the only pre commuist building that I found on my walk through the city. Its design suggests that it is a Slavic building which pre-dates rhe communist era. The clue is the detailed brickwork immeadiatel under the eaves.

The city is very much a communist era invention. On another cross roads is the former Russian Bank of the USSR. It is a grand building but its former occupation and the detailed communist inspired central decoration at the top of the facade give a clue to its date of construction.

My next stop was the Toktogul Satylganov Philharmonic Square. Overlooking it on the south side was Biskek City Hall. To the left of it is the Geological Museum.

On the west side is the International University of Kyrgystan.

In between the two in the corner is part of the Molodezhnyy Teatr Tunguch complex which surrounds a courtyard. The corner nearest to the square has a tower that is similar to the tower of the university.

There are flowers planted in neat geometric symmetarical patterns across the centre of the square.

The centre of the square is dominated by the Manas Statue. This is a man holding a sword and riding a horse. It celebrates The Epic of Manas. It is a very long and traditional epic poem of the Kyrgyz people of Central Asia, later versions of which date to the 19th century and contain historical events of the 18th century; Kyrgyz tradition holds it to be much older. Manas is said to be based on Bars Bek who was the first khagan of the Kyrgyz Khaganate. The plot of Manas revolves around a series of events that coincide with the history of the region, primarily the interaction of the Kyrgyz people with other Turkic, Mongolic and Chinese peoples. The government of Kyrgyzstan celebrated the 1,000th anniversary from the moment it was documented in 1995.

A little further along Chuy is the Jogorku Kenesh, the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic. I remembered this building due to its stark white concrete archetecture.

I passed the Monument to the victims of the April Revolution and Aksy Shooting which I remembered from my previous visit to reach the Stela of Friendship of Nation. I miht have passed this by except by chance, I met Scott and Sam nearby who were following a self guided tour of the centre.

Just across the road was another Manas Statue in a square and behind it was the State History Museum. It was another building that I remembered although my trip the first time was from the east oing west. So the sights I recognised all seemed to be in reverse order,