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Flying over in a helicopter
over Issyk - Ata Pass 3964 m.
to the next Pass.Over Alamedin
Then Tor River to see the glaciers.
The pass is 4023 m. high.
We can see grazing mountain goats,
and if we are lucky -the famous near
extinct Snow Leopard.
Arriving in the Salyk Valley walking down to the
hot springs from the chalet visiting a
natural mineral hot spring's pool
in a building just below the chalet.
Are we really in the land of dragons?? I wonder----
As blood passes through a mortal's heart,
so does time beat through the heart of the dragon.
This was not so, in ages passed, when the
universe was but ice and chaos, cold and black,
with nothing to stir its depths or give meaning to
its movements. In time a being willed itself into
creation, and it was Salyk-sho, the first dragon,
and the Creator. She looked upon the universe
with round, wise eyes, and was displeased; as
her first course of action, she travelled the dark
expanses, and devoured the energies and debris
that cluttered space, and for her it was a day's work,
as a dragon's heart pumps languidly.
Written by Steve Gold
Written Sep 12, 2007
Helpfulness
What is dangerous in Kyrgyzstan are tactics
that are bringing thousands
of citizens onto the streets to protest clumsy
attempts to stop opposition
candidates. While the Akaev government had
all but squandered its potential
to be remembered as a progressive force for
democracy and human rights,
it might itself have dragged the society into chaos.
Free and fair elections do not result
in instability and insecurity.
At this point, what poses the real security danger
to this beautiful Central Asian state is a numb paternalism
that blindly assumes
that a population hungry for democracy and
human rights will remain passive.
A spot of diatribe goes down well with a glass of vodka and a plate of Ploff.
Updated Sep 12, 2007
Website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxFO2D1vO2c
Helpfulness
No its not Thomas the Tank Engine but a
wonderful dish originating from Central Asia.
It is a rich, spicey dish, similar to Spanish rice.
Maybe even cous cous in the way it is eaten.
Usually bits of chicken or lamb are added for flavour,
in our case it was lamb, lamb and lamb
plus sometimes a dab of the ubiquitous Russian mayonnaise.
“Hosts and guests play the fun game of forcing more portions upon
you, politely refusing at first, more pushing,more eating and usually
washed down with Russian Vodka or some Brandy, then the seams
of your stomach begin to stretch, breathing gets harder, so the alchohol
helps to relax the muscle, then okay just a little, followed by not politely refusing ”
By this stage, you will never want to see another sheep, or even contemplate
about eating for the next 24 hrs. In fact you feel so bloated you have to undo
the top button of your trousers or kilt if you wear one,
At one home they Ploff as a side dish....I looked with horror when the
main course was brought in....Bish Mar Mar...sliced sheep eaten
with 5 fingers and scooped up together with something looking
like a pasta. If your really like us, we got the sheeps head on a
plate..you offer a slice of eyeball to your guests...
Please don't tell this to Shaun the Sheep!
Updated Sep 12, 2007
Helpfulness
TO BE UPDATED SOON WITH MORE DIATRIBE...
WATCH THIS SPACE
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Updated Sep 12, 2007
Helpfulness
Recent History
Akaev subsequently went on to spoil the good reputation he'd built himself.
He fiddled with the consitution, staged elections and referenda condemned
as unfair by international observers, intimidated political opponents,
consolidated power in the role of president, won himself lifelong immunity from
prosecution and - perhaps most importantly - lost his reforming zeal. By the turn
of the millennium, the country had slipped from early pacesetter of
transformation to stagnant backwater.
Akaev has proven to be an agile diplomat, however, settling border disputes
with neighbours China and Kazakhstan (critics say he gave too much away)
and overseeing rapprochement with China. He has at the same time rented
out Kyrgyz territroy to the US and Russia for the establishment of military bases.
It seemed that, by 2004, with immunity from prosecution assured, Akaev was
preparing for life after politics - just as well, as in in March 2005 opposition protests
and political pressure forced him to flee the country, forcing fresh presidential
elections in July 2005 and a year of political uncertainty.
Written May 10, 2006
Helpfulness
Akaev has gone on to establish himself as a stubborn reformer,
restructuring the executive apparatus to suit his liberal political and
economic attitudes, and instituting reforms considered to be the
most radical in the Central Asian republics. Akaev and his economic
program got a solid popular vote of confidence in a referendum in 1994
and again in early 1995 elections. The following year, Kyrgyzstan signed
a non-aggression agreement with Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.
REVOLUTION
ARTICLE BY Aaron Rhodes who is the executive director
of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights.
Posted February 25, 2005
As we write these words, thousands of Kyrgyz are protesting on the streets
about the removal of opposition candidates from the race for parliamentary seats
. According to the Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights and to the Kyrgyz
branch of the Bureau on Human Rights and the Rule of Law, there are protests
in Naryn, Talas, Jalalabad, the capital Bishkek, and other towns.
International human rights groups have dutifully recorded and expressed
concern about illegal attempts to thwart opposition campaigns and to
manipulate the results of the elections, which will be held on 27 February
. Kyrgyz human rights activists say that President Askar Akaev, having already
"taken over" the government apparatus, is now trying to take over the legislative
branch, after which he can join several other leaders of former Soviet republics
in establishing a dynasty for himself and his family. The ground is clearly being
prepared: numerous family relatives of the president are running in these
elections.
Updated May 10, 2006
Helpfulness
The new colonial masters dished land over to Russian settlers,
and the Kyrgyz put up with it until a revolt in 1916, which was heavily
put down by the Russian army. Kyrgyz lands became part of the
Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) within the
Russian Federation in 1918, then a separate Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast
in 1924 and a full SSR in 1936. Many nomads were settled in the course
of land reforms in the 1920s, and more were forcibly settled during
a cruel collectivisation campaign in the 1930s.
Despite conservative Kyrgyz leadership in the days of Mikhail Gorbachev's
perestroika, several groups were founded to fight the issues of unemployment
and homelessness - some activists going so far as to seize vacant land and
build houses on it. Land and housing were in fact at the root of Central Asia's
most infamous 'ethnic' violence, between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks
around Osh in 1990. Elections were held in traditional Soviet rubber-stamp
style to the Kyrgyz Supreme Soviet in February 1990,
with the Kyrgyz Communist Party (KCP) walking away with nearly all the seats.
After multiple ballots, Askar Akaev, a physicist, was installed as a compromise
president. In August 1991, the Kyrgyz Supreme Soviet reluctantly voted to declare
Kyrgyzstan's independence. Six weeks later, Akaev was re-elected president,
running unopposed. By the end of the year, Kyrgyzstan joined the
Commonwealth of Independent States. In May 1993 a brand-new constitution
dispensed with the last structural vestiges of the Soviet era.
Written May 10, 2006
Helpfulness
The earliest notable residents of what is now Kyrgyzstan
were warrior tribes of Saka (also known as Scythians),
from about the 6th century BC to the 5th century AD.
Alexander the Great met perhaps the stiffest resistance from Saka tribes
in his 4th century BC advance through Central Asia.
Rich bronze and gold relics have been recovered from
Scythian burial mounds at Lake Issyk-Kul and in southern Kazakstan.
The region was under the control of various Turkic alliances
from the 6th to 10th centuries, with a sizeable population living
on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul. Kyrgyzstan was the scene of a
pivotal battle in 751, when the Turks and their Arab and Tibetan
allies drove a large Tang Chinese army out of Central Asia.
Ancestors of today's Kyrgyz people probably lived in Siberia's upper
Yenisey basin until at least the 10th century, when under the influence
of Mongol incursions they began migrating south into the Tian Shan -
more urgently with the rise of Genghis Khan in the 13th century.
Present-day Kyrgyzstan was part of the inheritance of
Genghis's second son, Chagatai.
Peace was shattered in 1685 by the arrival of the ruthless
Mongol Oyrats of the Zhungarian Empire, who drove vast
numbers of Kyrgyz south into present-day Tajikistan.
When the Oyrats were defeated by the Manchu (Qing),
the Kyrgyz became de facto subjects of the Chinese, who
mainly left them to their nomadic ways. In the 18th century
the feudal tentacles of the Kokand khanate began to encircle
them, though the feisty Kyrgyz constantly made trouble from their
Tian Shan redoubts. As the Russians moved closer in the 19th century,
various Kyrgyz tribal leaders made their own peace with Russia or Kokand.
Russian forces slowly rolled over the towns of Kokand, their advance
culminating in the defeat of Tashkent in 1865.
The Kyrgyz were gradually eased into the tsar's provinces of
Ferghana and Semireche.
Written May 10, 2006
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The earliest notable residents of what is now Kyrgyzstan were warrior tribes of Saka (also known as Scythians), from about the 6th century BC to the 5th century...
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BEWARE! THERE ARE 3 OTHER TOWNS POSING AS THIS ONE, This Kara-Kol is the real one...The others were built after the town of Preshevalsk renamed itself just to confuse tourists. Well it wasn't...
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