If your going to die.. it might as well be to Micheal Jackson!

Hello from Kyrgyzstan!!!!!!!!!! Caution EXTREMELY LONG.

Well we have made it out of China "safely" and now are into our second country of our journey. Yesterday we left Kashgar eatly at around 9:30 am Beijing time, after getting up late, we hurried to get ready and to get some breakfast. Our breakfast as usual took forever to get here and I was pretty much eating my crepe in my hand on the way out the door. Turns out that our driver was late anyways so I could have actually chewed my breakfast instead of swallowing it whole. Anyways we got in the car and were off to the Toguourt Pass.

The drive there was bumpy as the roads were not paved and we had no problems going through China customs and getting our exit stamp. The problem started to arise once we got to the pass. Our guide was so excited that there was lots of vehicles around she thought for sure that our Kyrgystan driver was there, however she found out otherwise. She at this point was calm and told us he should be here any minute. However any minute turned out to be 3 hours later. Once an hour had gone by our guide was getting anxious and scared because this has never happened to her before and the driver has never been late, there were a couple of tourist buses who had unloaded and were going into mini buses that were waiting for them. Our guide wanted to just get us over the boarder because there was no way we could get back into China now that our visa had been stamped out. She talked to the boarder guards and with a lady who was organizing the tour who was from Australia and she kept telling our guide that she couldn't take us accross the boarder. Tyson getting a little ancy told the Australian lady that he would pay her money, and even join the tour for a day just to get accross the boarder.. the lady wouldn't budge because she said that there was an incident last year where they ended up taking some other tourists across the boarder who weren't on thier group list and there ended up being an accident and the people sued their company.. Tyson was willing to sign his life away with some waiver but the Australian lady said it was a no go and that she was sorry. Meanwhile in the back of my mind im saying "please don't leave us stranded here in the middle of no where with no where to go, we don't take up much room and we're Canadians we're good". Our guide at this point now was frustrated and upset.. she wanted to as she said "pow pow pow" them. So we just went back to the car and waited.. the options were getting slim and it came down to the next big truck we see coming from the Chinese side to cross the boarder we are going to hitch a ride with them to get us to the customs office on the Kyrgyz side where then we would find out what happened to our driver who was suppose to meet us. Well what do you know the next car was a car coming from the Kyrgyz side.. and not any car, im talking about an Black Audi (Felt almost like a limo mom with leather seats) (Tyson is writting now, as Sara is off having an MSN conversation). The Audi was ours. The guide jumped for joy. We took our bags and finally put both feet across the imaginary line in the dirt at the same time. 7 kilometers down the road we hit Kyrg Immigration. A great rusting Russian building, with men sitting around outside in heavy army jackets smoking with AK-47's over one shoulder, or resting against their knee. I really wanted to photograph this, but though otherwise. Immigration was a breeze, our bags even stayed locked in the truck. No more than 10 minutes later we were on the road again, driving beside two parallel barbed wire fences (both on the left hand side). A couple of times we passed a watchtower or bunkers with trenches connecting them. I felt like I was driving through Normandy in 1950 or something, it was really surreal. I think I learned more about military defenses driving that dirt road then any history book or movie for that matter. (For note, these defenses all appeared abandoned, except the fence, but who knows...

The scenery was breath-taking to say the least. The Switzerland of Asia is not a bad way of putting it, as we've been told before. Only it is the Switzerland without the permanent buildings, at first anyways. The countryside was dotted with grazing horses, sheep, goats, and cows. Lots of horses. Once the pavement finally started we wished it hadn't. Only one side of the road was ever in very good condition, usually the wrong one. The other was pitted with large truck ruts. We made our way to Naryn in good time. Most people stop in Naryn for the night on the way to Bishkek, we stopped to wash the car. For 20 minutes the outside and inside was washed and hand dried to a perfect shine. I enjoyed a chia with the houses grandmom, who enjoyed way too much sugar in her own chia. One sip, add another spoonful of sugar, another sip and repeat. After leaving Naryn the driver seemed to speed up, and we didn't feel so comfortable, as the roads hadn't gotten any better or wider. We got the driver to limit himself to 100 km/h. Still we reached for the ow sh*& bars a number of times. I tried to distract myself by looking out the side window at the amazing scenery, but Sara would squeeze my hand really hard anytime she felt uncomfortable, so I didn't get to miss the large transport truck and us sharing the same lane of the road for what seemed like way too long. Luckly there was a English mixed CD in that played classics like Micheal Jackson's Billy Jean and others. As you've probably guessed we reached Bishkek at around 10:30 local time, after 12 hours of driving and 3 hours of waiting. The driver got a Travel agent on the phone to get us a hotel, we had read on Thorn Tree of a nice guesthouse, but I'd only written down directions from an intersection for walking. We couldn't find it as the streets aren't well lit at night, and we didn't leave the car. The driver got frusterated, and I got back on the phone with the Travel Agent and asked for another guest house, she said she'd call back in 5 minutes but refused to tell the driver this. We had a language barrier, so we ended up driving 5 minutes to a street where we stopped and were greeted by a Chinese man that spoke broken English. The driver basically threw us out of the car (for who knows how long he'd been driving for) and we got into a Toyota van with this Chinese man who we hoped would take us to a hotel or guesthouse. We first went to this apartment building and got in an old Soviet Elevator that made all the noises you're supposes to be scared of in Canada and rose to the 8th floor. Where we were greeted by a Russian women who lead us to the 7th floor and quite a nice apartment for all intents and purposes. The apartment was more than sleepable, however we wanted something with a frontdesk and a sign. So we picked the highest recommended place in Lonely Planet and tried to call them. No answer. So we picked the second highest. The Chinese man talked to them on the phone, but it appears that the hotel we picked was not just off the map but rather 7 kilometers out of town. He said he would drive us no more and 1 km. He said he would take us to a nice hotel that was close, we said no. I had another phone conversation with a man that spoke better english. (I wonder if I spoke another language very well if I would get random phone calls at all hours asking me to explain to some lost, tired, and grumpy tourist something that seemed to make perfect sense..) We agreed to see this other hotel and if it wasn't any good to get a taxi to the one we wanted. The hotel ended up being quite nice, expensive, but not more than we were willing to pay for the night. We made another 2 successful trips in Russian elevators before watching some music videos (Avil, P. Diddy, Christina, etc.) and falling fast asleep.

The sun was bright in the morning and we were well awake before our alarm went off. Sara was feeling very homesick and strongly contemplating going home. This discussion took a couple hours with no real conclusion. We agreed to check prices on flights and consider what exactly was involved in seeing Kyrgyzstan. We went to Fatboy's for lunch. A nice place with good food. We then had a quick internet session ($1500 to fly from Bishkek to Edmonton for those who are interested and coming this way (28 hours of travel time)). We then went in search of a guesthouse for tonight. We found the one we missed last night, but they only had dorm beds. We went to another but again the same. This walk took a couple of hours. We grabbed a pop, and a taxi back to the bank district to try and get money. We ended up having to pay with a mixture of Som (Kyrg money) and US money for the taxi. We needed a bank. Here lots of places change money, and can give you money on a Visa or Mastercard, but few ATMs that accept forgein cards. Sara spotted one not in the LP and as always I was relieved to have a couple days worth of money. We walked back past the White House to a travel agent. We wanted a guesthouse, they didn't know any, but they did help us rent an apartment. So now we are renting an apartment for 500 Som per day, by the day. It is a second story flat, in an old Soviet building that is rented from a pleasent Russian women. It is clean and comes without a fridge or hot-plate. After watching the sports news on both CNN and BBC, we went to the best Italian Restarunt we've ever eaten at. The food was amazing, rich, filling, and really tasty. The terrace on the street was packed, and at the end of the meal we invited a father/son from Norway to join us instead of standing and waiting. They gave us some good information as the father has been here many times with NGO's.

Well it is getting late and this is getting long. Tomorrow well see some sites, find some hiking routes, and post some pictures.

Tyson and Sara