Woke to rainy, chilly weather. Last night as we were eating dinner we'd noticed a sudden temperature drop but inside the restaurant we'd thought it was air conditioning. But when we stepped outside we realized that a sudden cool front had moved in.
Larry, Scott and I decided to skip the mountain hike and stay in Bishkek for exploration. Our primary destination is a museum just across the street that our guidebook describes as having "eye-popping felt rugs". When we reached the main entry door at around 10:30am the museum did not appear to be open and we were heartbroken. We decided to return at various points in the day to see if we could get in. As we walked we got progressively colder. I was wearing only a t-shirt and rain jacket which was not enough. I longed for the fleece sweater I'd packed for hiking that was back in my room. But at least it wasn't raining.
Sunday morning in Bishkek is a quiet time. We walked around numerous government buildings (Bishkek is the capitol of Kyrgyzstan) all built in the Soviet grand architecture style around the 1980s. In fact all the major buildings in Bishkek, including museums, seem to have been built around this time and we suspect that after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 90's, no more maintenance has been done on them. At Ala-Too Square (formerly Lenin Sq in 1991) there are grand buildings next to ones that are in a complete state of ruin, or seemingly unoccupied and the grounds overgrown and unmaintained.
Walked past the "White House", the seat of the Kyrgyzstan government, including the president's office and the parliament. In Panfilov Park we saw men setting up rides in a children's park, probably set to open on Sunday afternoon. Stopped in at the Frunze House-Museum. Frunze was born in Bishkek in 1885 and eventually commanded the Red Guards who occupied the Moscow Kremlin in October 1917. He was a major player in the Russian Civil War and later led the Bolshevik forces that seized Khiva and Bukhara in 1920. He replaced Trotsky as War Commissar and according to the book "moulded the Red Army into a potent tool of the Revolution". He died in 1925 "during an officially ordered stomach operation" (ordered by Stalin...!!)
Wound back around to the State Museum of Fine Arts and this time got inside. This is not a museum to go to for paintings, which is what is mostly there. But on the second floor is a nice, well lit room containing Kyrgyz embroidered and felted textiles, plus a few pieces of nice nomadic jewelry. No photos were allowed. Of course if the stout female guard had not been so attentive I would have tried for a few surreptitious shots, but that was not to be.
Returned to the hotel for a quick lunch and at 2pm went downstairs to the Hyatt spa for a sport massage. This reminds me to talk about how outstanding this hotel is. I have never experienced the level of service anywhere else that I've experienced here. The front desk helped me several times in my attempts to connect to the internet (never happened) plus several other things. I plan to write a letter to Hyatt and to the management of this hotel to praise the staff in the restaurant, the front desk, the spa...it's amazing. I don't know where they received training but to a person they are excellent. I really hate to leave here.
We had two quest speakers come to talk with us before dinner; one from the Peace Corp and the other from Mercy Corp, both of whom do work here in Kyrgyzstan. Programs include micro-finance given primarily to women for agriculture (really the only major revenue generator here other than gold mining). He told us that in Kyrgyzstan in rural areas the population can be 65% women because the men go to other countries to get jobs. Unemployment is a major issue here.
I'm almost embarrassed to write that after dinner I ran back down to the spa to have an outstanding 90 minute THAI massage (Cliffy, I hear you calling). The tiniest little woman bent me into a pretzel and stretched me way past my comfort zones. I've never screamed ouch so many times but it hurt so good, particularly after several glasses of vodka. I can't describe how truly heavenly it was. Why don't I do this at home?
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