Osh, 12-17 July

OSH

We stayed in Osh about a week. We had to wait for the fork sent from SJS Cycles to clear customs -- as it was valued at over 2oo Euro, there was customs fees to be paid. However, only a resident of Kyrgyzstan could pay them. What followed was a need to for a notary document to re-assign the package to a Kyrgyz resident, along with a translation fee. The staff at the Park Hostel were incredibly helpful arranging a notary and translator, and agreed to pay the fee on our behalf. The guy actually lived in South Korea, but had come back to visit Osh to help his family out who ran the hostel.

Newly fitted fork. The old one held up perfectly, so the welders in Khorog and Ishkashim did a solid job. But erring on the side of caution, we had decided to replace it and add the old fork to the 'bike graveyard', in the hostel

The rest of the time in Osh was very relaxed. There is a hipster style cafe which we visited almost everyday to indulge in croissant and a coffee. We also caught up with Dimar, who we saw in Sary-Tash -- he was heading up to Bishkek before flying to Sri Lankar.

We ate out a few times too -- this was at a Turkish restaurant

Next to Park Hostel was a small 'cinema' -- you could pay for a room with a large projector in it, and choose any film available on the internet to play. We watched Kurmanjan Datka, a story about the founding of Kyrgystan which our walking tour guide had told us about. A very good film and well worth watching.

the film Kurmanjan Datka in the 'cinema'

Largest statur of Lenin in the world in Osh.

The walking guide said, although there was a movement to remove the Lenin statue, it would be seen as a move against Russia (despite Putin being no fan of Lenin), which is why it still stood. Economically and militarily the ties between the former Soviet Central Asia are still strong in the form of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (kind of like an equivalent to NATO).

There was heavy rainfall further upstream from Osh. This caused the river to swell and this bridge was swept away. We had crossed this bridge coming into Osh a few days earlier.

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