Kyrgyzstan, anyone?

also, is this the guy who has the statue of himself that faces teh sun?

I'd hate to be the kid in the National Spelling Bee that gets K-Y-R-G-Y-Z-S-T-A-N.

I didn't know that!

I made it to the county spelling bee in my fifth grade year and the bloody lady pronounced "warily" as "wearily" and so I spelled "wearily" and they told me it was wrong. Wankers. I don't know why I never made it back there the next few times...I did go to the State Geography Bee twice though and would easily have made it a third time had I cared to do well on the test you had to take to end up in the Top 100 finalists. Anyone else have odd spelling or geography bee memories?

i like to imagine this thread title being the punchline to an imaginary bad joke

your litany of fellow students from various parts of the former ussr reminded me of this.

I just heard the BBC interview someone from the Open Society Institute, who explained that Kyrgyzstan is experiencing a pretty straightforward struggle between two different political groups, which is unlikely to spread inside or outside of Kyrgyzstan.

BBC: But surely this is going to contribute to some sort of ... regional instability.
OSI: Well, not really. Of course other countries are watching, but it's basically an internal affair.
BBC: But surely this is going to stoke, you know, simmering ethnic tensions.
OSI: Um ... no not really.

Some great(?) pictures here:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/crisis_in_kyrgyzstan.html

that's great xp

The US strategy of sucking up to the former dictator and his son to keep a US base there now appears to be backfiring a bit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/asia/08bishkek.html?th&emc=th

holy fucking shit @ those pictures

a woman on our course is kyrgyz...she's just this week gone back there to complete her studies and has emailed us saying that the situation is unbelievable and that she can't leave her house for fear of death

wonder if the new regime will be less dictatorial than the last

You mean the way this regime was supposed to be less dictatorial than the regime before them?

yeah, that

Would be nice but...

http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploaded/flyingpig-2795-20090429-370.gif

wow brutal, amazing pics. feel sorry for the police, but then i know nothign about the situation.

those are all fucking amazing pics; thanks nate.

I've got a bit of a yen to go to Kyrgyzstan, anyone done it?

Yeah, spent a couple of weeks in Bishkek for work a few years ago. Not much of a city tbh, you would probably have a better time travelling around the country. Issyk Kul lake is supposed to be lovely.

Is some Russian essential, would you say? (I have none)

If you like trekking, especially horse trekking, it's a gorgeous place. Also it feels legitimately off the beaten track (or did in 2008) which is rare these days.

Yeah I was one over by gising the landscape - also, pretty cheap to get to from the UK at around £350.

A bit of Russian would certainly go a long way, yes.

No need for a visa if you are a UK citizen either, which is unusual for the region. I was considering going this year but didn't think i'd have enough time to do it justice. It looks like the kind of place you'd need to spend a couple of weeks.

It's worth keeping an eye on what's going on politically and maybe wait until the election is out of the way before booking anything. Be wary of internal flights too.

Oh yeah if I did go it wouldn't be till the end of next year probably. Only a thought at the moment really.

which is unusual for the region

no kidding. i spent a month in kyrgyzstan waiting for an uzbek visa that never came through.

oh and i almost got into fights three times in Bishkek:

- drunk guy messed with me when i was reading on a park bench, until he suddenly became my best friend

- teenager tried to frighten me in front of his friends and didn't like it when i laughed

- wrestled a cop who tried to get me into the back of his unmarked Mercedes for no apparent reason - i dragged him across a gravel parking lot, saying "there's been a misunderstanding! everything is fine!" while he tried to break my fingers, until we got outside my hostel and the owner heard the yelling, ran out in his socks and shooed me inside. i still feel bad about bringing this to his doorstep since i think the hostel was unlicensed.

there are a lot of unemployed Kyrgyz guys starting the day with a cigarette and a Baltika 9. although i heard maybe Russia was going to start investing in military bases there again, so maybe the situation has improved.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3168/2641268143_e1a1f40b17.jpg

Kyrgyzstan: beautiful

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3278/2606965242_f2097b7749.jpg

Yup

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3014/2632291175_0552355194.jpg

Chill bros

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3159/2575390032_025c687ce5.jpg

A German guy trying to set up Bishkek's first bike messenger service

Does anybody need anything from the kitchen? Comfortable? Okay, so after Bishkek ...

per ShariVari's recommendation : I'm interested in advice on the utility of competence in Russian or Turkish for a career in diplomacy. this would be for my daughter, presently in her second-to-last year of high school, looking to burnish her skills in advance of choosing a university.

Yeah I would say if it's a toss-up between Russian, Turkish or (per your post in the other thread) German or Chinese, Russian would definitely be the one to go for. As far as Central Asia (a fascinating part of the world) goes, official business tends to be conducted in the country-specific language (i.e. Uzbek etc) but most people especially in the cities will also speak fluent Russian.

My Russian is very basic though and I have no idea how it stacks up against Chinese in terms of difficulty.

ok that's helpful! My daughter is intrigued by Russian (my uncle is Russian by way of Brazil) so it's kind of in the family.