THE Spektator №10 May 2010

Your monthly guide to what’s happening in and around Bishkek

Grab
the
Goat!
Plus:
Diary of a
Revolution
The Rubies of
Badakshan
Bloggin’
Kyrgyzstan
. .
Tourist Map What’s On Restaurant Guide
0312 66 40 79
Boulevard Erkindik 27
 Focus

ContentsThe Spektator Magazine

The Rubies of Badakshan
A mild winter has allowed for early
travel to and around the Pamir region of
Tajikistan - a once in a lifetime chance
that no visitor to Central Asia should
14

pass up.

Editor-in-Chief: Tom Wellings

Managing Editor: Chris Rickleton
(editor@thespektator.co.uk)
Staff writers: Alex Ward (alexward@
thespektator.co.uk), Robert Marks
(robertmarks@thespektator.co.uk),
Andreas Hedfors, Natalya Wells,
Patrick Barrow, Pavel Kropotkin
Anthony Butts (anthonybutts@
thespektator.co.uk)
Guest Contributor: Ethan Zuckerman
Diary of a Revolution 18
Tom Wellings chronicles the series of
events across the country that led to
the ouster of Kyrgyzstan’s former presi-
dent Kurmanbek Bakiev. Features a
post-coup White House rummage with
Patrick Barrow.
This Month
News and Views
Trawling the ruins of a revolution, we bring 4
you all the latest news from Kyrgyzstan.

Design: Alena Krivyh The Bakievs of Bloomfield Road

Chris Rickleton on the paper trail of a 8
deposed clan, and their bizarre link with a
Advertising Manager: Irina Kasymova second-rate English football club.
(email: advertise@thespektator.co.uk)

Out & About

Grab the Goat
A Hemingway-esque look at a sport well
10
known all over the formerly nomadic
steppe lands of Central Asia: buzkashi.

Blogging.kg
12
Ethan Zuckerman reports on the rise and
rise of local citizen media portal Kloop.kg.

The Guide
Restaurants, Bars, Clubs
All the best bars and clubs in town.
22
City Map
Don’t get lost. 25
www.thespektator.co.uk
Want to contribute as a freelance
What’s On
The pick of the entertainment listings.
26
writer? Please contact:
editor@thespektator.co.uk Adverts
Beat rival goat-grabbers to a pulp by
27
putting your name in the Spektator.

ON THE COVER: Chopendoz compete over a

decapitated goat in a game of buzkashi (C.Wetham)
The Spektator Magazine is available at locations throughout Bishkek, including: (Travel Agencies) Adventure Seller, Ak-Sai Travel, Carlson Wagonlit, Celestial Mountains, Ecotour, Glavtour,Kyrgyz Concept,
Kyrgyz Travel, Muza, NoviNomad (Bars & Restaurants) Cowboy, Hollywood, Metro, New York Pizza, No1, 2x2, Boulevard, Coffeehouse, Doka, Fatboy’s, Four Seasons, Live Bar, Lounge Bar,
Meri, Navigator, Stary Edgar’s Veranda, Adriatico, Cyclone, Dolce Vita, Santa Maria, Golden Bull (Casinos) Europa, Golden Dragon, XO (Hotels) Dostuk, Hyatt, Golden Dragon, Holiday,

Spektator
Alpinist (Embassies and Organisations) The UN building, The American base, The German Embassy, The Dutch Consulate, CAMP Ala-too, NCCR, The Bishkek Opera & Ballet Society.
THE

.co.uk
The Spektator is now online at www.thespektator.co.uk
 4 This Month
In the wake of looting, the disabled sieze an opportunity
DALTON BENNETT
BISHKEK, 22 Apr (Eurasianet) - Not too long ago
the vaulted, shiny red roofs were the object of both
envy and scorn. It is widely believed that they be-
longed to Maxim Bakiev, the wealthy son of Kyr-
gyzstan’s recently ousted leader, Kurmanbek Bak-
iev. An angry mob ransacked the home on April 7,
looting the property before setting part of it ablaze.
But now, two weeks later, the house is the scene of a
grassroots experiment in social justice.
As the provisional government tries to foster
stability following the early April upheaval that
brought down the Bakiev administration, Maxim’s
compound, once the subject of folkloric tales of
decadence, has become home to a group of disa-
bled squatters. They harbor aspirations of turning
the property into a shelter and work center. A spray-
painted sign across the makeshift gate reads, “Disa-
bled Against Marauding.”
A handful of civil society organizations, includ- Above Disabled squatters on Maxim Bakiev’s front lawn (photo Dalton Bennett)
ing the Kyrgyz Republic Society of Disabled Persons
and the Union of Young Disabled of Chui Oblast, Despite widespread community support, the squatters from using the current instability to claim
seized control of the property the morning after the occupation is illegal under Kyrgyz law. And amid property. But it has also called the future of Maxim’s
president fled. Maxim was out of the country when the ongoing lawlessness, some question the sei- house and the disabled center into question.
the unrest erupted and has not returned. He is now zure. Across the street, one bystander, requesting “This house has come under the power of the
wanted in Kyrgyzstan for suspected money laun- anonymity, said; “I never supported Bakiev, but he people. If we unite, our future lives as disabled citi-
dering and fraud. [For background see the Eurasia legally bought this home over 10 years ago. No zens will be easier. Together, time is on our side,” said
Insight archive]. matter who they are, if the government gives them volunteer Daniyar Aidaraliev, who is crutch-bound
In Kyrgyzstan, individuals with disabilities often the property, it is breaking Kyrgyz law.” because of a childhood battle with polio.
struggle to find work. Monthly pensions of roughly Because of property disputes resulting from As they wait, the clotheslines stretching across
$15 leave many unable to keep pace with the in- the power vacuum following Bakiev’s exodus, on the perfectly manicured lawn indicate that these
crease in the cost of living. “If we get this land, we April 12 the interim government placed a morato- new occupants do not intend to leave the property
want to create not just a shelter for the disabled, but rium on the transfer of private property until June anytime soon.
a place of work for the handicapped who struggle 1. The decree was aimed at stopping looters and www.eurasianet.com
to find jobs,” said Muratbek Saparbekov from the
Union of Young Disabled. Saparbekov lost his legs in
an electrical accident and now assists handicapped
Bakiev in brief
children to find education and employment.
“A life unemployed and homeless left us with
no future. We went to Kurmanbek Bakiev but the
Kurmanbek’s new calling? Bakiev blames the Russians
government ignored us. They always promised MOSCOW, April 23 (Interfax) - Kyrgyzstan’s Ex- MINSK, Apr 23 (Al Jazeera) - Kurmanbek Bak-
things, but we never got anything. After trying for president Kurmanbek Bakiev said he does not iev has said that Russian anger at his decision
five years, we took what is ours,” said Amantur Ilikbe- want to be president any more, and plans to to extend the lease on a US air base was a factor
kov, a wheelchair-bound man from Sokuluk. settle in a former Soviet republic and start a toy in his overthrow. Speaking from the Belarussian
Over 200 members of the disabled community business. capital of Minsk, where he is in exile, Bakiev said
in Bishkek have gathered to assist with securing and “To be honest, I feel very tired after all that he had annoyed Russia by allowing the air base
cleaning up the property, removing the smashed has happened. Even if I were dragged into the to continue operating. Recalling a conversation
vodka bottles and other refuse left by looters. The presidential chair I would say: “I’ve had enough, he had had with Putin and Medvedev, Bakiev
occupants of the house have collected a list of 362 guys. Bring in fresh people and fresh blood,” said: “They told me ‘this annoys us.’”
individuals who would benefit from the transfer of Bakiev said in an interview with Ruskiy Reporter
the property and its conversion into a work center
and shelter.
magazine, posted on its website.
The former Kyrgyz president said he does
Rare animals discovered in
Since they took control of the property, on not want to lecture students at universities, like ex-president’s private zoo
any given day 20 to 30 handicapped individuals Askar Akayev did after he was removed from
office by Bakiyev supporters in 2005. However, BISHKEK, Apr 24 (BBC) - A pair of snow leop-
call it home. Within one garage, eight beds for the
Bakiev went on to claim: “I am a very energetic ards and two bear cubs were among the ex-
disabled homeless line the walls. In another area, a
person and I can’t just sit back doing nothing. otic animals found in the private zoo of ousted
makeshift kitchen stocked with donated foodstuff
Thank God, I am in good health. So I hope I will Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiev.
serves warm meals including soups and rice.
find a fitting job. Production is something that A golden eagle, two falcons, four African
On a recent, sunny day, as curious onlookers
appeals to me. I am a creator. I love making peacocks, an African ostrich and several In-
walked in and out to catch a glimpse of the ousted
things and hate crushing and destroying them. dian ducks were also found in the zoo at the
president’s son’s house, volunteers in wheelchairs
I will probably start a business and make con- family home in the southern Jalalabad region.
collected signatures on a petition seeking the trans-
sumer goods,” Bakiev said. Investigators found the collection when
fer of property rights. So far, more than 1,500 indi-
“Toys, for instance. Toys will make chil- they raided the estate after Mr Bakiev fled the
viduals have signed the petition.
dren happy. I could make non-hazardous country. He is now in Belarus.
“I don’t mind if they take Maxim’s property. The
toys that would develop their intellect and “The prosecutors are considering meas-
money he took from the country could have been
bring smiles to their faces” the former Kyrgyz ures to evacuate those animals for their pro-
spent on helping these people,” a supporter calling
president said. tection,” the prosecutor general’s office said.
himself Alexei told EurasiaNet.org.

May 2010 The Spektator www.thespektator.co.uk


Kyrgyz leaders struggle with land wars
ASYL OSMONALIEVA
BISHKEK, Apr 22 (IWPR) - The new government in
Kyrgyzstan is under pressure to restore law and or-
der after violent clashes over land near the capital
Bishkek.
Although the land invasions are an anarchic
free-for-all driven by genuine grievances, some
analysts suspect there is a degree of coordination,
possibly by diehard opponents of the new regime.
The Kyrgyz interior ministry said five people
died and 40 were injured on April 19 as police bat-
tled several hundred people who had seized land
around the village of Mayevka, on the northern
outskirts of Bishkek.
Such land grabs, generally by migrant popula-
tions seeking a better life close to the capital, have
been a recurring feature of post-independence
Kyrgyzstan, especially at moments of political tur-
bulence. The latest wave was set off by the mass
protests in Bishkek on April 6-7 when President
Kurmanbek Bakiev was toppled and the opposi-
tion took over to form a new interim government.
Thousands of people marked out pieces of
land they wanted to take over in areas around the
capital, despite warnings from the new govern-
ment that action would be taken to stop them.
In Mayevka, incomers staked out plots and
then set off en masse towards the centre of Bishkek
to demand recognition for their claims.
Acting city mayor Isa Omurkulov, who went
to meet the marchers, said afterwards that he had
promised them only that the land issue would
be discussed by municipal officials. He told IWPR,
“There is no free land within the city perimeter. As
for private property and agricultural land, we won’t
allow anyone to grab it.”
When the would-be squatters returned to
Mayevka, violence erupted between them and the
village’s residents, who were alarmed at the inva-
sion of their home territory.
The village, several kilometres outside Bishkek,
is home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Russians and Meskhetian
Turks, a community which Stalin deported from the
Caucasus to Central Asia during the Second World
War.
An IWPR reporter who visited Mayevka after
the violence saw smoke still hanging over the vil-
lage, burnt-out houses and outbuildings, and cars
gutted by fire.
One resident, a Turkish woman whose house
was among those attacked by the raiders, said they
justified their actions by claiming they had been
part of the protests that ousted Bakiev, and now
they wanted payback.
She recalled that they said of the new admin-
istration, “We gave you the White House [seat of
government] – now you give us land!”
Like this woman, other villagers interviewed by
IWPR were still in a state of shock. While the invad-
ers were ethnic Kyrgyz, the residents believed they
were targeted indiscriminately, regardless of their
ethnicity.
“I’m not scared of living among Kyrgyz people,”
said one Russian from the village. “We have lived
peaceably for many years. But I am now filled with
apprehension about living in Kyrgyzstan.”
Police were sent in the same evening to quell
www.thespektator.co.uk
This Month 5
Kyrgyz film to be shown at
Cannes Film Festival
the violence, assisted by the “Patriots”, a volunteer
BISHKEK, Apr 26 (Kloop.kg) - Svet-Ake or The
civilian force, and arrested more than 100 people.
Light Thief by Kyrgyz director Aktan Arym Kubat
They say order has now been restored.
is to be shown at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival,
The following day, April 20, there was another
which will run from 12 to 23 May.
outbreak of land seizures, but this time the action
The film will be shown in Russian during
went off peacefully. A group of people, including
Directors’ Fortnight, a section of the festival
families with children and elderly people, marked
with an international flavour that runs parallel
out plots of land with ropes, and set up tents to
to the main competition. According to Gulbara
underline their intention to stay. No violence was
Tolomusheva, a Kyrgyz film critic, the appear-
reported.
ance of Arym Kubat’s film at the festival will be a
Mayor Omurkulov told IWPR that the area
cultural event for Kyrgyzstan.
claimed by the would-be settlers was greenbelt
Film-makers Cedomir Kolar from Slovenia
land, but that the authorities planned to develop it
and Karl Baumgartner from Germany, also par-
and build affordable, multi-storey apartments.
ticipated in the film’s production. Kolar was the
winner of the category “Best Foreign Film” for his
Authorities pledge firm action
picture No Man’s Land (2001) and collaborated
The day after the violence in Mayevka, interim
with Arym Kubat during the filming of Beshkem-
prime minister Roza Otunbaeva issued a state-
pir (1998) and Miamil (2001). Baumgartner has
ment saying that law-enforcement agencies had
made pictures with Emir Kusturica, Kim Ki Doek
orders to ensure public security, protect lives and
and Sergei Bodrov.
prevent attacks on homes and other private prop-
The film’s protagonist is an electrician who
erty, as well as on facilities such as military bases.
locals call the ‘The Light Thief’. The hero connects
She warned that police were under instructions to
electricity in the homes of villagers, who have
open fire on anyone committing such offences.
had it turned off during the course of a crisis.
Interior ministry spokesman Rahmatullo
Seeing the plight of the villagers, the Light Thief
Ahmedov said investigations were under way to
deliberately alters the counters, reducing the
establish the causes and circumstances of the vio-
amount villagers have to pay for their electricity.
lence, and to identify and detain ringleaders and
In her review of the film, Tolomusheva said:
other participants.
“The director has masterfully recreated the cur-
Following the removal of Bakiev from power,
rent difficult situation in Kyrgyzstan. The main
the Kyrgyz police appeared to waver in their loyal-
character embodies all the best features of the
ties, especially with the appointment of a new in-
Kyrgyz people: honesty, integrity, hard work,
terior minister.
ingenuity and the rejection of evil, injustice, tyr-
Hinting at this, Bishkek’s mayor insisted that
anny. These people, the ’salt of the earth’ as the
“the law enforcement agencies that were demoral-
Light Thief calls them, are the main reason our
ised during the events of April are now capable of
country is not slipping into the abyss.”
protecting the public”.
In an interview with the newspaper Vecher-
Residents of Leninskoye, a village near Mayev-
ney Bishkek director Arym Kubat said: “The idea
ka, were less convinced that the police would come
was to make a film without a script. The concept
to their aid in the event of a land invasion, and set
of the film was designed by the famous literary
up their own self-defence units after spotting some
and screenwriter Talipov Ibraimov. This story
people in their fields.
should not be taken literally. It’s is about a man
“We will not let them take our land,” said a
who brings light into the world in a philosophi-
resident, who did not wish to be named, adding
cal sense. I think the country today needs light
that Leninskoye was relying on its own resources
not only in the sense of electricity, but in the
as police had only arrived in Mayevka late in the
spiritual sense – a glow to guide people in their
day.
relationships with each other, to bring bright-
ness and kindness to each other.”
A hidden hand at work?
According to co-producer Altynai Koichu-
In Jalalabad in the south of the country, Bakiev
manova, after debuting in France, the film will be
supporters who invaded local government offices
released for viewing in Bishkek.
and a television station earlier in the week again
More English news at www.kloop.info
clashed with police on April 21. There are some sus-
picions that the land invasions have been covertly
encouraged and even coordinated by opponents
of the new government. A month of cold showers
“The actions of those who are grabbing land
are being skilfully coordinated,” said Omurkulov.
ahead for many Bishkekers
“If that were not so, ordinary people coming from
BISHKEK, Apr 29 (Spektator) - The hot water
outside Bishkek would not be aware of where land
supply will be cut off for about one month
plots exist.”
from May 11. The traditional shutdown that
One of the volunteers from the Patriot force
allows maintenence work to be carried out
which went into Mayevka to support the police
will reduce those without boilers to bracing
said that while the land claims were based on gen-
splash-baths in cold water, or lengthy waits for
uine hardship, someone seemed to be organising
saucepans of hot water.
those involved.
May 2010 The Spektator
 6 This Month
“The land raiders are mainly young people
aged between 15 and 25. We managed to talk to
them, and many of them had come from other
places and are working in the city. They really don’t
have homes of their own - they either rent accom-
modation or live with relatives,” said the volunteer,
Erlan Jusupov. “But some of the young people told
us they wouldn’t have resorted to such extreme
measures if their actions hadn’t been organised.
“The land grab is being managed by certain
individuals. They [protesters] are being fed and
given alcohol; we could see many of them were
intoxicated. I believe that this confrontation has
been organised so as to provoke a forceful re-
sponse and to suggest that the new authorities
are not in control of the situation, and also that
they’re capable of spilling blood [as the Bakiev ad-
ministration is accused of doing]. The ethnic factor
is an additional thing, once again designed to at-
tract attention.”
Ethnic politics a dangerous game
Tatiana Vygovskaya, a conflict studies expert and
director of an NGO called Égalité, said the land
clashes were really about economics, despite the
“ethnic colouring” they had acquired.
“There is no such thing as ethnic conflict per
se,” she said. “Conflicts are always centred around
wealth that’s in short supply. The main motiva-
tion for those who went off to smash up homes
was this – ‘You have everything, we have noth-
ing. There’s been a revolution so now we’re going
to take it all.’ Ethnicity comes into play only when
there’s a public perception that one ethnic group
has more wealth than another.”
News headlines about ethnic strife present a
real challenge to the new government as it strug-
gles to win credibility abroad as well at home.
The day after the Mayevka clashes, Russian
president Dmitry Medvedev – who has been
generally supportive of Kyrgyzstan’s new rulers
- ordered his defense minister to protect Russian
citizens and property in the Central Asian state. It
was unclear precisely from his statement precisely
what steps the Russian military – which has an air-
base in Kyrgyzstan – might take.
Although the Meskhetian Turks do not origi-
nate from Turkey, that country has also indicated
its concern for their safety. Ambassador Nejat Ak-
cal visited Mayevka, and his embassy is to provide
humanitarian aid to the village.
Chaos theory
Despite allegations of covert political backing for
the land invasions, local analysts agree that the
fundamental issues are real.
A young man who was among those who in-
vaded Mayevka told IWPR their actions were justi-
fied.
“It’s really simple – all they have to do is give
people land plots and the conflict will be over. We
don’t understand why they won’t give us land,” he
said.
He argued that similar land seizures that fol-
lowed the 2005 “Tulip Revolution”, which brought
Bakiev to power, had proved a success for those
who carried them out. “Since the land plots that
were seized after 2005 were later made legal, that
means our land will become legal as well, anyway,”
he said.
The head of Kyrgyzstan’s Communist Party
Iskhak Masaliev, who has been appointed speaker
May 2010 The Spektator
Above A gutted house after the rioting in Mayevka (Asyl Osmonalieva)
of parliament, said the history of illegal land
grabs dates back to around 1990, shortly before
the country became independent.
“It’s become a bad tradition to grab land af-
ter every change of regime,” he said.
Apart from the legal issues, Masaliev sees
the growth of squatter settlements as the wrong
direction, as in his view urban centres should
grow upwards with more high-rise blocks, rath-
er than outwards.
“Hastily-built settlements aggravate the
problems of poverty and crime, as the condi-
tions in which people live in these new settle-
ments are appalling – no roads, no communica-
tions, and no running water,” he explained.
Gulnura Abazbekova, from the human
rights ombudsman’s office, agreed that giving in
and parcelling out more land to squatters would
be wrong.
“This is barbaric – the land raiders have il-
legally seized the property and agricultural land
of others, and it needs to be stopped resolutely,”
she said. “Most of them are young people with
no stable income. Even if they were given land,
they wouldn’t be able to build anything on it,
they don’t have the funds. There’s no electricity
or road there, and the city cannot shoulder this
burden.”
Vygovskaya agreed that the new authorities
should take stern measures to suppress such
behaviour. “The mob needs to know there’s a
deterrent,” she added.
She predicts more unrest of a similar nature
in the months to come.
“Any violent change of regime entails law-
lessness, violence and aggression,” she said.
“Since the situation basically isn’t entirely
under the authorities’ control, outbreaks of con-
flict like the one in Mayevka may continue for a
long time. Over the next six months, they will
break out in one place or another all the time.
But of course, Bishkek is the main target for land
seizures, because people think that everyone in
Bishkek is well-off, and the mere fact of living
there makes life better.”
More news in English at: www.iwpr.net
Crossed wires
Whispers and rumours from the corridors of
power:
Energy bills may be falling but difficult questions
concerning inadequate infrastructure remain.
Uzbekistan has now achieved the capability of
supplying its own energy on its own grid, al-
lowing President Karimov to back out of the
Central Asian power grid. Worryingly, an Uzbek
withdrawal could leave Osh and Batken oblasts,
whose electricity is channelled through an Uzbek
substation, in the dark. In Bishkek, civil society
bodies have been exerting strong pressure on
the new government, securing their choice of
Elections Committee Chairman and getting more
candidates on the board than the political parties.
The state TV and Radio KTR fortress is hurriedly
changing its name to OTRK (Public TV and Radio).
The key question is who will get on the Supervi-
sory Board that controls OTRK’s management,
and if they will have the guts to keep interfering
politicians at bay. The interim government has
mended the doors and windows of the Jogorku
Kenesh, but chaos continues. Professional-
looking Russian Kalashnikov-wielding guards in
the service of Minister Atambayev were outside,
while the government’s official guards were wear-
ing trainers and seemed to have been recruited
from a local judo club. Inside, a circus of chanc-
ers with business proposals have been rubbing
shoulders with international envoys, whilst NGOs
say the government will need management con-
sultants just to keep effective schedules. Ameri-
can Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Tatiana Gfoeller,
has been scolded by the US State Department
who claim she had not made enough effort to
foster contacts with the opposition during Bak-
iev’s reign – this of course was likely a conscious
decision to keep feathers unruffled and preserve
the lease on Manas. Ex-president Akaev could
soon be strolling the streets of Bishkek again after
the interim government hinted it would not be
impossible for him to return. His politically ambi-
tious daughter has already been spotted in town.
Finally, May 17 is being whispered as the date for
a counter-revolution demonstration, although
nobody is holding their breath…
www.thespektator.co.uk
 8 This Month
The Bakievs of Bloomfield Road
CHRIS RICKLETON
BISHKEK, Apr 27 (Spektator) - When a revolution
unseats a government, the economic recovery is
seldom swift. To begin with, there are the days of
business lost to the turbulence itself, the poten-
tial cost of repairing damaged shop fronts and
replacing shattered windows. Then, as customers
gingerly trickle back, the creditors arrive, asking
for their money. But there is nothing with which to
pay them so debts are renegotiated, perhaps with
added interest, and costs are cut to pay for this. Yet
when a revolution unseats a clan, especially one
that had come to regard themselves as owners
rather than governors of the country, the effect on
the financial sector is cataclysmic. Suddenly, sev-
ered fingers are discovered in every pie. The depth
and extent of the rumoured corruption becomes
fact, transparent and repulsive.
The ruling family sank its teeth into every suc-
cessful enterprise, thus many such enterprises are
deemed contaminated and closed, pending ‘inves-
tigation.’ A new commercial elite moves in with its
political cousins, and businesses that enjoyed pa-
tronage under the old order are either discarded
or expropriated. That process takes time, and in
the chaos of the intervening period, money simply
disappears.
Asia Universal Bank (AUB) has taken a giant hit,
having previously enjoyed presidential privileges
and a role as conduit for most of Kyrgyzstan’s in-
vestments from overseas. Many of their staff are on
standby for the sack, and talk of a run on the bank
has set nerves on edge across the capital.
MGN, a conglomerate owned chiefly by Yev-
genni Gurevich, whose close ties to the former
president’s son Maxim Bakiev were well known,
appears to have withdrawn from the country com-
pletely. Their chain of classy entertainment ven-
ues closed down overnight and the management
weren’t available for comment. One of these ven-
ues, popular evening hangout Da Vinci, was half
atomized over the course of the riots that began
on April 7.
But if one vestige of the outgoing elite’s wealth
May 2010 The Spektator
has remained in tact, aside from a potential glut of
‘unofficial’ avenues, it reveals itself in the peculiar
form of a stake in second tier English football club
Blackpool F.C.
That investment is hardly befitting to a collec-
tive who had monarchic aspirations. When oligarch
Roman Abramovic bought Chelsea F.C, seeking in
part to shield himself from a Russian government
busy hounding the beneficiaries of post-Soviet
‘privatization’, he bought a blue chip, Champions
League outfit and immediately announced his in-
tention to take on the world in one mind-boggling,
free-spending summer. Blackpool, by contrast, are
nicknamed ‘the Seasiders’, their heyday was in the
1950s and their stadium, Bloomfield Road, isn’t ful-
ly enclosed. The gulf between the two clubs serves
to highlight Kyrgyzstan’s comparative obscurity, its
“The stripped shells of ‘Narodni’
stores all over the capital re-
flected the character of the out-
going regime - it was a smash
and grab presidency­”
poverty of resources, that even when embezzled
comprehensively, can’t buy a decent football club.
Yet if the vampire state the Bakievs were build-
ing in some small way benefited British football, it
did nothing for citizens trying to make their way
underneath them. While the more refined former
president Askar Akaev was content to sit primly
atop of the whole rotting edifice, skimming money
off big business and flogging parts of Lake Issyk Kul
to the Kazakhs and Chinese, the Bakievs wanted
fifty percent of anything with a pulse. Restau-
rants, nightclubs, Internet cafes and hotels were all
brought into the fold during a five year marathon
of greed. Then the common people were targeted.
Bills for utilities such as electricity and hot wa-
ter were raised massively in January 2010. A 60 tiyin
charge for successful connection was applied by
every mobile network provider in the country and
it was widely held, although never proven, that the
money went straight into Maxim Bakiev’s pocket.
Even more so than in 2005, the stripped shells of
‘Narodni’ stores all over the capital reflected the
character of the outgoing regime - it was a smash
and grab presidency.
In politics, however, the art of calculation is in-
tegral, and as much as the ruling family understood
the concept of profit, they never grasped that of
margins. ‘The patience of the people is not without
limits’ read one of the less defamatory slogans on
display outside the White House on that fateful,
airless afternoon of Wednesday April 7. As predict-
able as they were in hindsight, the events of that
evening and the days that followed on from it took
the Bakievs completely by surprise. They had been
busy making plans for future extortions.
It is said that power’s light blinds, and that
once cast out of its glare there is only eternal night.
At least the ex-president’s predecessor Akaev had
a Physics phD - he takes refuge in books, reads lec-
tures and immerses himself in the familiarity of aca-
demic life. But what could Bakiev lecture? He was at
best a smart thug, born for the cut and thrust of the
Kyrgyz political scene. And now he has been thrust.
Yet if he can content himself with one thought, as
he lives the life of a guest in a country that would
probably rather be without him, it will surely be
that at least in distant north-west England he has a
place where he would still be made welcome - the
directors’ box at Bloomfield Road.
Author’s note: At the time the Spektator went to
press, several of the businesses associated with
MGN and Maxim Bakiev had begun working again.
Moreover, Kurmanbek Bakiev had announced his
intention to quit politics and set up a factory in a CIS
country making “non-hazardous children’s toys” -
see ‘Bakiev’s Balls’, page 26.
Above Bloomfield Road, home to Blackpool
F.C and part of Maxim Bakiev’s trust fund
www.thespektator.co.uk
Visa Services Weekend Excursions Hospitality
Maps and Postcards Accommodation Transport
Nomadic Life Tours Torugart Pass Crossing

28 T. Moldo St, Bishkek

Phone: +996 512 622581
novinomad@elcat.kg
www.novinomad.com
 10 Out & About
Right & far right Scenes from a buzkashi match
in Tajikistan. Buzkashi is popular all over Cen-
tral Asia (Photos by Leah Jamele)
Below Ernest Hemingway, a great aficionado
of the bull fight, wasn’t fussed about buzkashi
(Archive)
Grab
the
Goat!
Like all good games, buzkashi (usually
known as kok boru in Kyrgyzstan) is based
upon a simple concept and requires little
equipment to enjoy: gather together your
horse, a headless goat, some friends, and Central Asia however, such wild scenes are part
you are ready to rumble...
May 2010 The Spektator
I
TOM WELLINGS
N THE WEST, THE MOST shocking sight on There are several schools of thought on the
a sports field is the occasional middle-aged ideal carcass. Some prefer the more mobile frame
streaker; stampeding horses, headless live- of the goat, although it is prone to disintegration
stock, and Kalashnikov wielding supporters during a long bout, others prefer the more dura-
are far from our sporting consciousness. In ble, but weightier, body of a calf.
and parcel of the region’s most popular game: Old lady: I see. Have the players experimented
buzkashi - a rip roaring reverberation of ancient with other creatures? Dogs perhaps?
traditions of the steppe.
Roughly translating as goat grabbing, buzkashi No madam, although there are reports from long
combines the quintessential skills of the Central ago that suggest animal carcasses were some-
Asian male - horsemanship, bravery and stealing - times substituted for prisoners of war.
and has been played since ancient times to hone
the skills of great warriors and to transform mere Old lady: Good gosh! A practice that has been dis-
horses into devastating weapons of war. What’s continued?
more, dear readers, the goat grabbing season is
almost upon us! As spring breaks, and the gentle For the time being, madam, I believe so. Returning
sound of leather upon willow echoes across the to the particulars of the carcass, allow me to elabo-
English countryside, the Central Asian steppe will rate a little on its preparation for it is a rather inter-
be alive with the whinnying of wild eyed stallions, esting topic. The body of the animal is beheaded,
the guttural roars of bearded rivals, and the dull, its four legs are cut off from the knee, and its in-
satisfying thud of goat on mud. sides are emptied. Occasionally, sand is packed
Your correspondent long ago had the honour inside for extra bulk, depending on the tastes of
of attending a goat grabbing festival in a far off the players. Once the carcass has been thus pre-
land, and now, with the intention of introducing pared it is known as the boz in the language of the
the game to the novice buzkashi-watcher, he shall Turkoman.
recall a dialogue that possibly took place between
himself and a fellow spectator... Old lady: It sounds like a ghastly business. May we
watch?
Old lady: I have heard that a goat will be used in-
stead of a ball in today’s game. Sadly, madam, today’s goat has already been pre-
pared. The carcass must be soaked in cold water
Yes, madam. Today’s match will be fought over a for twenty-four hours before the game in order to
goat carcass. You may be thinking of the sport of toughen it up and ensure it remains more or less
‘horseball’, the rather gutlessly named, sanitized intact. An unsoaked goat may be torn to pieces by
half-cousin of buzkashi that is gaining popular- the chopendoz.
ity amongst well-to-do horse-loving circles in
Europe. In buzkashi, the equipment is somewhat Old lady: Chopendoz? I believe am unfamiliar with
more natural. that term. Please explain, sir.
www.thespektator.co.uk
 Out & About 11

Certainly madam. Chopendoz is the name given strive to win at any cost. Buzkashi is a game in the horse halts and waits for his horseman to re-
to the buzkashi players - the horsemen. Whilst which the end justifies the means and all means mount. Once the boz is in the clutches of the rider,
in competition they are a sight to behold, tradi- are utilized. When horsemen are carried away the horse will gallop with unbridled speed back
tionally attired in high leather boots, a quilted,by their excitement, they are liable to ride their to the hallal. Those who train buzkashi horses feed
padded jacket over a long chapan, and a fur hat horses into the crowd to evade their opponents, them eggs and butter at regular intervals along
traditionally made of fox or wolf skin. To aid them
but they are still chased by other riders. If the with their normal feed of oats and barley - a diet
during the game they carry short whips which are game is played near a river, chopendoz have even often better than that of the average Afghan peas-
made of a handle attached to a piece of wood, been known to conspire to have their opponents ant. If the horse gets too fat, the trainer will per-
about one foot long and encased in leather. The drowned. form the kantar, which means standing the horse
chopendoz hold an esteemed position in Afghan You may also be interested to learn, madam, in the sun for many hours every day for weeks on
society. that in centuries past, the distance between the end. The sun not only burns away the fat but also
posts was many miles, and the game would be- teaches the horse patience. An excellent buzkashi
Old lady: Are you able to shed some light on gin at daybreak and continue till sundown. The horse can sell for upwards of 15,000 USD.
the rules as I must admit I am quite lost when it distance these days may be shorter, but the fierce
comes to the laws of the game? struggle to win remains. Old lady The chopendoz cut rather fine figures
too!
Do not fear, madam. Although the basic precepts Old lady: Most interesting, sir, but it appears that
of buzkashi are consistent, there are many varia- our game has already commenced! Yes madam. They are a tough breed of men, re-
tions of the rules which can be most confusing to markable horsemen, and frenzied competitors.
the novice enthusiast. For today’s game, a pit has So it has, madam. See how the chopendoz with Broken bones do not stop a chopendoz. The cho-
been dug and the boz will be placed into it so thatthe boz is being attacked by the others riders. pendoz will stop just long enough to bandage the
the top of the boz is level with the ground. A large
They are using their whips not only on their own break and then remount his horse and continue
circle has been drawn around the pit as you can horses, but also on the other chopendoz! In days the game. Smashed noses, wrenched shoulders,
see. This circle is called the hallal, which means gone by, the whips were made of balls of lead on and shattered thigh bones are not at all uncom-
“circle of justice”. Far to the right of the hallal is
strings tied to a wooden handle. The chopendoz mon.
a post, and far to the left is another. The chopen-of old also carried a knife and sometimes stabbed I would very much like to introduce you to
doz horsemen will encircle the hallal containing an opponent’s horse or even its rider when at- a chopendoz at the end of the game so that we
the boz, and on a given signal, compete to grab tempting to steal the boz. It was not unknown for may have a thorough discussion of tactics; alas
it and gallop away around one post and then the chopendoz to be killed in a fiercely competitive I cannot, as you are a woman and by rights you
other before returning and throwing the boz back game. Nowadays, play is a little more civilized, shouldn’t even be here.
into the hallal. The other riders try to prevent that
but riders still get hurt.
by attacking the rider and trying to steal the boz Old lady: Now I feel most uncomfortable.
away. The chopendoz who returns the boz into Old lady: Yes, it’s a frightfully vicious spectacle ...
the hallal is considered the winner, even if the and most enjoyable to watch! And the horses are Cutting my dialogue short for want of space, I now
boz was stolen only a few meters from the hallal. such fine beasts! recommend inspecting our website for forthcom-
ing Kyrgyz goat-grabbing dates and wish you a
Old lady: It sounds like a very Machiavellian con- Indeed. The buzkashi horses are bred specially for spring full of traditional sporting enjoyment. As
test! the game and possess unique qualities. When a Rambo may have said whilst playing buzkashi in
You are quite correct madam. The chopendoz chopendoz falls off his horse during the game, Rambo III: “Let the games begin!”

www.thespektator.co.uk May 2010 The Spektator

 12 Out & About
Blogging.kg
Having braved Bishkek’s thug-infested
streets to post independent coverage of
this April’s events, Kloop.kg are busy driv-
ing Kyrgyzstan’s citizen media revolution.
Ethan Zuckerman reports. books. But then I realized he was talking about a
Get in the
Kloop.kg
* Kloop was developed in late 2005 by Bektour
Iskender and Renat Tuhvatshin. In July 2006
the Kloop project was presented to the Dutch-
based Hivos Foundation, which agreed to sup-
port it. The website was started in June 2007.
* The two main sections of the website are the
news and blogs sections. All articles at Kloop.
kg are written by young journalists aged 15 to
25, according to the educational program of the
Kloop Media Foundation.
* Currently there are more than 1500 blogs on
Kloop, which makes it one of the two biggest
blogging platforms in Kyrgyzstan, sharing the
top spot with blogs at Diesel.Elcat.kg. Blogs on
Kloop have their own system of ratings.
* In cooperation with the Bishkek Children’s Me-
dia Centre, Kloop staff hold regular free journal-
ism workshops for the youth of Bishkek. In the
future, Kloop plans to hold similar workshops
in smaller towns outside the capital that have
poorer access to the Internet.
*In January 2008 Timur Rayimkulov – a Kloop-
based blogger – was announced the “Best Cen-
tral Asian Blogger” in a contest held by media
platform neweurasia, while anonymous Kloop
blogger Real Uzbekistan took third place.
May 2010 The Spektator
ETHAN ZUCKERMAN
O
NE OF THE FIRST things Bektour there’s a lot to be said for “just the facts, ma’am” in
Iskender, co-founder of Kyrgyz blog- countries where soviet propaganda shaped many
ging community Kloop.kg, said when journalists’ early conceptions of themselves. An
we met was, “I read your book.” That early success story is Timur Toktonaliyev, discovered
surprised me, as I haven’t written any as a sixteen year old, who has been reporting on the
national Jorgorku Kenesh Parliament for four years
guide I’d written about anonymous blogging. He now, and who is alsd a paid freelancer working for
went on: “I was translating that guide at the same an international news agency.
time as David Sasaki’s book on citizen media, so the The long-term plan for Kloop is to achieve sus-
two of you tend to blur in my head.” As we talked tainability by teaching classes in journalism and new
about how Bektour got interested in citizen media, media. Bektour outlines a curriculum for involving
he mentioned a transformative trip he’d taken to classes that will help NGOs use social media, as well
Prague to study with Evgeny Morozov at Transitions as training bloggers and journalists in media ethics
Online. and offering workshops on basic programming for
As we sat in Porter Exchange in Cambridge yes-
social media users (customizing stylesheets, install-
terday, I realized I was having dinner with the next
ing Wordpress, etc.) Tutors for these workshops will
generation. Friends like Evgeny, David and I have likely come from outside Kyrgyzstan initially, but
been working since 2004 to ensure that citizen me- over time, the goal is to train a set of social media ex-
dia is a revolution that doesn’t just include Northperts who can help spread social media throughout
Americans and Western Europeans. Here, slurping the region. It makes sense for Kyrgyzstan to act as a
noodle soup with me, was a blogger trained by my hub for social media as the media climate is more
generation of bloggers, who’d read the guides we’d free in Kyrgyzstan than in any of the other Central
put out into the world and was now busily cultivat-Asian nations.
ing another generation of bloggers. The idea of Kyrgyz bloggers supporting their
What made it especially cool was discovering bretheren in Uzbekistan isn’t as strange as it might
just how impressive Kloop’s success has been so sound. Bektour tells me that much of the success
far. In a country where internet access is expensive
Kloop has had so far has come from the broader
and doesn’t extend far outside the capital, Bishkek,
community of former Soviet states. Bektour was
Kloop now hosts more than 1100 blogs on an instal- one of the active participants at a BarCamp New
lation of Wordpress MU. Kloop provides these blogs Media event in Riga, Latvia last February. Much of
for free, and they’re “freer” than blogs provided by
the technical support for Kloop comes from people
LiveJournal or other international blogging plat- he met at the BarCamp, and Bektour points to col-
forms, as Kyrgyz bandwidth is so expensive that laborations happening between bloggers in Central
some cybercafes and ISPs charge more for access- Asia and the Baltics.
ing international sites than local ones. Kloop also Most of Kloop’s blogs are in Russian, but the
maintains a citizen media portal, an edited news site
Chess photoblog, maintained by a filmmaker, is a
that draws on contributions from Kloop bloggers. nice introduction to those of us who don’t read the
That site has become increasingly important in the language. As of April 2010, Kloop have developed
Kyrgyz media space – Bektour tells me that Kloop an English translation of their citizen media portal,
reporters wrote many of the most linked stories on meaning that the latest news regarding Kyrgyz
a Kazakhstan block of LiveJournal in 2007 and 2008.politics, sport and culture can now be accessed at
Kloop is developing a track record for training
www.kloop.info.
young journalists in what Bektour refers to as “the
Anglo-American model of journalism,” a style that
focuses on facts rather than opinions. I think this
must be the dying Anglo-American model, perhaps For other Ethan Zuckerman articles visit
killed off by Jan Moir, but Bektour reassures me that www.ethanzuckerman.com
www.thespektator.co.uk
 14 Focus
The Rubies of
Badakshan
B
CHRIS RICKLETON
Tajikistan’s Autonomous Oblast of Gorno ULUNKUL, A MOUNTAIN hamlet more
Badakshan (GBAO) is a world unto itself, than 4,000 metres above sea level, is
legendary for its mountain lakes and well the embodiment of Pamir isolation,
concealed rubies. However, as discov- lying stark and pure under a pale sun.
ered Chris Rickleton on a springtime trip The snow that piles wholesale into the
valleys below is rarely more than a dusting here,
through the region, its true treasures are whirled around by the same, ceaseless wind of
found in the diversity and hospitality of which Marco Polo wrote with deep foreboding.
the unique Pamir people. In snapshots, life on such a precipice might seem
poetic. Near the pasture’s edge, bony goats ford
a glacial stream in nervous couplets, while at the
heart of the hamlet, boys with uncertain futures
beat a football between stout, stone and mortar
houses. From this soaring upland, Peak Karl Marx is
no longer so formidable, peering softly over lesser
peaks at a hardy civilization of herders, milkers,
mothers and infants. Yet ideas of Marx the person,
the Soviet Union, or even Emomali Rakhmon’s brit-
tle national government in Dushanbe have long
ago vanished into mountain air, if ever they oc-
curred at all.
Since independence, Tajikistan has been a
country of fragments, its ethnic, religious and clan-
based jigsaw suffering obliteration during the civil
war which started in 1991, before being put pain-
fully back together by a United Nations brokered
peace six years later. At least 60,000 people lost
their lives in the conflict, with a further 1,200,000
becoming refugees or internally displaced per-
sons.
“Of course we heard the guns, and often there
were shortages. But our men didn’t fight. Why
would they? Who would come up here to find
Above The Pamir highway is flanked by lakes us?” Muobab, proprietor of an ACTED sponsored
which inspire and amaze with their solitude home stay in the village, speaks to us through the
(All photos Ryan Erickson) translations of our driver, a dark Kyrgyz from near
Murghab, the administrative capital of Tajikistan’s
Right The lumpen youth of the Wakhan Valley Autonomous Oblast of Gorno Badakshan. Her face,
May 2010 The Spektator
although undoubtedly the product of a shrinking
Pamir gene pool, is beautiful. The eyes differ slight-
ly in colour and size, the cheeks are burnished red,
and her nose is long and delicate.
“See my ring? I bought it in Dushanbe.” She
displays a tenuous connection to the national
capital on a ruddy index finger. It is simple and sil-
ver. “They look at me as if I’m mud there, I barely
understand their dialect.” Muobab’s own dialect,
part of a Farsi sub-grouping that splinters into a
myriad of mini-tongues across the Pamir range,
is soft and mellifluous. Kneeling by our driver at
the low table where we are sitting, she is at once
warm and unfathomable, the plov - of which she
is modest - superior to any I would taste in neigh-
bouring Uzbekistan. Drinking viscous chai derived
from yak’s butter, their conversation slips into our
consciousness like a whispered lullaby, meaning-
less and soothing, guiding us gently towards the
edges of an alien slumber.
We left Bulunkul as if departing from another
universe. Our hostess proudly cradled her cousin’s
child beneath a light blue sky as we bought out-
landishly thick Pamiri socks, souvenirs we knew
would be redundant in any other climate. The
winter, an elder woman said, would be hard as al-
ways. No stray tourists to supplement a pastoralist
income, and the passes would be cut by mid-Octo-
ber. It was May now and the deluge had only just
started to clear.
On the long descent down into the valley we
stopped at a hill overlooking Yashil Kul, an aque-
ous ‘green’ lake which streaks across a tan, scrub
landscape, shimmering and saline as it recedes
from the fringes of the surrounding desert. Like
many lakes in Central Asia, it is shrinking, although
this is not because of irrigation as the Pamir plains
are too lofty for crops to take root. Instead, our
www.thespektator.co.uk
 Focus 15

His Highness
driver Salimbek shares, its diminishment is a result for instance, there are rubies…” Of course, Badak-
of a new, saltier sort of air, which sucks up mois- shan’s famous rubies. They were on everyone’s
ture and denies the clouds a chance to replenish. lips, yet no-one had actually touched or even seen

The Aga Khan

Looking back from the lake’s shores at our strand- one. Even more so than the region they inhabited,
ed jeep, perched on the hill and etched against a their beauty and abundance seemed remote and
skyline of jostling peaks, it was impossible not to cruelly inaccessible. Everywhere we went people
be overcome by a sense of loneliness. The land, ex- gestured upwards towards the likely locations of The Ismailis have come a long way from the
quisite and impossible in equal measure, sprawled these precious stones, until eventually their fingers meditative, hash smoking Alamut-based com-
skyward like a prone hostage, helpless to prevent pointed to places so high that thoughts of excava- munity that spawned the infamous ‘assassin’
the steady mutations occurring from its own cold, tion were nothing more than a fantasy. There were sect. Now there are modest Ismaili diasporas in
dry extremes. mines, for sure, but who worked there and who around 25 countries across the world, and their
But Salimbek’s honest, entrepreneurial nature owned them nobody appeared to know. relations outside of the Imamat (body of Ismailis)
railed against any such notion of pessimism. Never It is an understatement to say that Tajikistan’s are characterized by peaceful respect and strict
mind if the earth didn’t grow anything, he said. government, still composed largely of ex-com- neutrality on political issues.
People here have always munists, couldn’t give a Their leader, His Highness the Aga Khan, is the
herded. No matter how hang for the people of religion’s 49th hereditary Imam, a direct de-
arid, there would always be
“The Tajik population is Gorno-Badakshan. Local scendant of the Prophet Muhammad through
a patch of green to graze. growing more rapidly than leaders declared de facto his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, the first Imam, and
The goat and cattle here any other in Central Asia. For independence in 1992, his wife Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter. Having
were tougher than else- and put their weight be- assumed responsibility for the Imamat in 1957,
where, built for the chal- the six adults we met at this hind the rebel side in the the Aga Khan Karim has continued a recent fam-
lenge of subsistence. Wakhan stopover we could national civil war, two er- ily tradition of service in international affairs
“I won’t be a taxi again,” that saw his grandfather made President of the
he promised. “That old jeep
count almost forty children” roneous decisions that
lead to the region see- League of Nations and his uncle the UN High
is too much hassle. In sum- ing some of the worst of Commissioner for Refugees.
mer I take foreigners hunting, mainly Germans the violence that subsequently unfolded. Even In addition to various ambassadorial roles, His
and Americans. They pay $600 to kill one Marco amongst the ranks of the medley opposition, Highness Karim heads the Aga Khan Develop-
Polo sheep.” But aren’t those sheep endangered? the Badakshanis were an awkward fit. They are ment Network, a multi-branched charity that
“They’re not endangered.” He waved away the sug- Ismaili rather than Sunni Muslims, and thus, by helps relieve poverty in at least 35 different de-
gestion. “There are thousands of them. People just the standards of the Islamic Renaissance Party veloping nations. Administering the Ismaili Im-
don’t know where they live. Only Kyrgyz know.” at the forefront of the rebellion, dangerous, mis- mamat is also no small challenge. In 1972 he per-
He talked warmly of his sons, at university in guided heretics. To the northerners prosecuting sonally ensured that Ismailis and thousands of
Dushanbe, and also of his wife, but mainly through the counter-offensive, Badakshan was seen as other Asians were safely re-housed having been
the proxy of his father-in-law, whose blessing of a hiding ground for the wild and warlike Garmi kicked out of post-colonial Uganda by dictator
the marriage had made him the richest cattle clan, and as late as December 1993, at which Idi Amin. During the conflict in Tajikistan the aid
herder in his village. “Its possible to make money point pro-government superiority had been his network sent kept Pamiris alive, and for this,
from cattle - we have eighty now, fit and strong - largely reasserted, planes from Dushanbe were much of the population accords him the title ’our
plus the land is rich with other things. Over there strafing Pamir villages. God in Switzerland who sends us food.’

www.thespektator.co.uk May 2010 The Spektator

 16 Focus
Above Children in Bulunkul
Right An Afghan caravan by the Pamir river
Pamir Packlist
Toothbrush, toothpaste and vodka to rinse.
Whilst the last of these is available at points
along the Pamir Highway, asking for it in kiosks
can cause embarrassment and sometimes of-
fence - the Pamir population as a whole is deep-
ly conservative. Avoid cans of fizzy drinks as
they can explode over the sky scraping passes,
and keep a ready supply of still bottled water
as this is also hard to find.
Bring basic foodstuffs too. Although
Muobab - the beauty of Bulunkul - will treat you
to an excellent plov, other home stays offer only
bread and butter, a dish that grates on the alti-
tude-weary traveller by the second or third day
of the journey. If you’re travelling in the months
either side of peak season (June - August), a
thermal sleeping bag is also recommended,
along with the usual winter gear.
Lastly but most importantly, remember
your GBAO travel permit, which in addition to
the visa for Tajikistan can be obtained at any Tajik
embassy. Together these documents should not
cost over $100. If travelling in a party of three
or more, you should certainly see change from a
budget of $400 for the whole trip.
For information about the first leg of the
Pamir Highway (Osh-Murghab), see issue 3 of
the Spektator ’Ride the Pamir Highway’.
May 2010 The Spektator
By mid-afternoon we were rattling along
dirt paths ridging sheer cliff faces, hunks of rock
bumping up against the chassis of the jeep before
plummeting noiselessly off the fragile track, down
onto the plain below. Salimbek grinned as we jolt-
ed around, terrified. The slightest slip from him and
we would be ashes, incinerated in a mess of metal
and glass on the narrow, rugged delta of the Pamir
river. That very river seemed to define the sur-
rounding territory, dividing Tajik Badakshanis from
their Afghan relations on the other side. It was a flu-
id, restless border marking the south-eastern limit
of Imperial Russian conquest, a separation (for the
main part) of Ismaili Muslims from the Sunni bulk,
and the watershed between post-Soviet and pre-
modern destinies. On its opposite bank, a herd of
buffalo milled along a trail that looked overgrazed
and sparse, led by men in baggy cotton trousers,
waistcoats and turbans; the unmistakable compo-
nents of the Afghan national dress.
Yet on the Pamir highway a few miles can make
a world of difference. Soon we were thundering
through a new land, green with promise and op-
portunity, warmer and muggier than anywhere we
had been since our original point of departure in
Osh. The Wakhan Valley is the most fertile part of
Tajik Badakshan, and fruit sellers hawking tasty
watermelons lined the roads and bunched at the
checkpoints. We had new passengers too - a hag-
gish old woman and her nephew, who wanted to
collect and sell a sheep somewhere further down
the track. From the boot she spat out statements
of international unison in coarsely reproduced Rus-
sian, punctuating a longer dialogue with her neph-
ew in Pamiri, a language which now sounded rasp-
ing and conspiratorial. In exchange for the lift, the
old woman set us up with a home-stay in a name-
less village where she had friends, providing her, us
and the overheating jeep with a vital night’s rest.
There was no telling whether we had arrived
in an infected paradise or a beautiful purgatory.
A brook with a series of mini-waterfalls tumbled
idyllically through the settlement. The local chil-
dren were playful but far from clean, inhabiting
the bowl of a region which doesn’t see hot water
all year round. Their mothers were noble and at-
tractive with Iranian features and colourful dress,
while the man of the house welcomed us hand
on heart, with gracious Wakhan hospitality. Yet the
place swarmed with flies and beneath the veneer
of innocence, the infants’ games were tainted by a
slapstick nastiness
While we waited for plov in a plain, single-
room, five pillared house - symbolizing the five
central prophets of Islam - the youths offered us a
metal can full of water to quench our thirst. Aware
that they had taken it from the nearby stream, I
wet my mouth, but my friend Rory drank deeply.
Less than an hour later, the children were jumping
gleefully on top of a tin-roofed outdoor toilet as he
squatted below, emptying his bowels into the long,
unforgiving night. We forgave them this horrid trick
and an extortionate tour around the village’s ‘petro-
glyphs’ - read rock graffiti - because they were poor
in the extreme, too far from school to be bothered
by it and too numerous to be cared for to any real
extent. The Tajik population is growing more rap-
idly than any other in Central Asia. For the six adults
we met in this Wakhan stopover we could count
almost forty children - the boisterous, unwashed
representatives of an untenable nationwide trend.
We dropped the hag and her nephew off in Je-
landy, where we bathed in hot springs and enjoyed
sweeping views of the emergent Hindu Kush.
www.thespektator.co.uk

The hag had grown increasingly haughty, em-
boldened by her friends’ kindness to our troupe,
finally advising us not to trust the “dirty Kyrgyz”
driver we had already trusted with our lives several
times over. Along with racist sentiment, however,
she had provided some dotted insights into Is-
mailism, a religion which by now had me wrapped
with an unabating fascination.
Ismailis, she said, prayed not in mosques but in
simple rooms and community halls. Women with
uncovered faces sat opposite men in silence, or lis-
tening to passages from the Koran read by a khalifa
religious leader. In soviet times, she said, khalifas of-
ten doubled up as village communist party bosses,
a combination of roles I found bafflingly contradic-
tory. The figurehead of the Ismaili religion is the Aga
Khan, a man whose lineage, traced to the Prophet
Muhammad, coupled with an unending generosity
towards Pamiris, has led to him being confused as a
God by much of the local population. For conserva-
tive Muslims in other parts of the country this is the
final infidelity, effectively severing Ismailis from the
Ummah, or body of Islam. But for me the religion
seemed beautiful in its vagueness, like a sort of Is-
lamic Quakerism, which had peacefully embraced
the world’s diversity instead of posturing against it
critically.
Khorog provides a chance to become ac-
quainted with the Aga Khan via his university, foun-
dation and hundreds of portraits tacked to walls in
shops and restaurants all over town. It also provides
modern comforts such as the Internet and bottled
water, and even in winter its climate is temperate.
The last stop on the Pamir Highway, it was here that
we ate shashlyk and sunbathed at a café near the
Afghan consular, sipping frozen beer as we waited
for our visas to be processed. The café owner ap-
www.thespektator.co.uk
proached us honourably, toasting our health with
a vodka of his own and apologizing for the antics
of a regular, alcoholic customer. “People here have
nothing, so they drink,” he explained. “How is it pos-
sible to live like this, without farms and industry?”
“But you have rubies,” I suggested, parroting a re-
frain I had heard a hundred times during the five
day journey down. He smiled sceptically, but said
nothing. We asked him some questions about Af-
ghanistan, and whether he could confirm or deny
the existence of ‘the three mullahs’, turbaned men,
who, according to traveller’s rumour, sat near the
“Badakshan’s famous rubies.
They were on everyone’s lips,
yet no one had actually touched
or even seen one... their beauty
and abundance seemed remote
and cruelly inaccessible”
border all day long picking off tourists with auto-
matic weapons. “It isn’t dangerous there,” he insist-
ed, “but they are richer than us. There, at least, they
have heroin. That is something.”
Ishkashim, a town of Afghan and Tajik halves,
is one of several starting points along the ‘smack
route’ that weaves its insidious path from Afghani-
stan’s poppy laden south into Russia and Europe,
via the same lanes as the old Silk Road. Despite the
contrary claims of international organizations and
NATO forces based in the country, this trade is still
flourishing, and when we eventually crossed the
border we would hear stories from locals of World
Food Program vehicles stuffed with kilos of opium.
Focus 17
Now we were heading in the opposite direction to
the drug, towards the madness, and once deep in
the guts of a war torn nation, we would long for the
gentle peace of Tajik Ishkashim, a town where bro-
ken Russian was still of some currency, and where a
cold bottle of lager could still be found.
Malik, the fourteen-year-old son of our hosts,
crouched with us on a giant boulder in the middle
of the khaki Panj river which rumbles through the
village. With a skull cap positioned lightly atop his
head and heavy brows knitted sternly above bullet
eyes, he had the look of an ancient Aryan philoso-
pher, straining at some eternal problem. When he
spoke, he did so in English, a language he preferred
to Russian - “its more useful” - yet his eyes moved
periodically away from us and latched themselves
onto the Pamir horizon, back to the problem. Oc-
casionally our questions caused him to break out
in youthful bashfulness, but apart from these fleet-
ing moments, I had the sense that we were talking
to someone much older and more world-weary. At
times he spoke with an unsettling solemnity.
“My passion is mathematics. Algebra. I have a
talent for this.” He flinched at questions about reli-
gion, resisting our attempts to place him. “Of course
I have faith. How can you not? Its…faith. But when I
study mathematics,” he smiled passively, basking in
the logic of a soulless doctrine, “everything makes
sense. Its…perfect.” Once off the boulder, Malik fell
into typical Central Asian roles; the dutiful son, the
doting older brother, the joyful friend. Yet even as
he waved us off with his mother and younger sister,
away into a land of uncertainty, I saw him as a bud-
ding Omar Khayyam, the 12th century Persian poet,
astrologer, philosopher and mathematician, who
from the distant metropolis of Samarkand imagined
“mountains of rubies, red like drops of wine.”
May 2010 The Spektator
 18 Focus
Diary
of a
Revolution
Although many had predicted a new sea-
son of anti-government protests, the scale,
speed and brutality of the April uprising
caught many by surprise. Tom Wellings
looks at the chronology of events that left
85 dead and Kyrgyzstan teetering on the
edge of disaster.
Top left Flowers threaded through the bullet
holes that pepper the south east gates of the
White House (all photos by Tom Wellings un-
less stated otherwise)
Top Right April 7th, outside the White House
(copyright Impact images 2010)
May 2010 The Spektator
T
TOM WELLINGS
HE FOLLOWING DAY-BY-DAY account Talas
of the April Revolution runs from the Tuesday 6th April, 17:00-24:00
disturbances in Talas on April 6th to the Five helicopters and two planes with about 100
first funerals outside Bishkek on April riot police arrive in the city. During the evening
10th. It has been pieced together from the riot police storm and retake the local admin-
first-hand experiences, eye witness accounts and istration building. However, a short while later
local news reports. the protesters return - visibly more aggressive
after the use of force by the police. Protesters sur-
Talas round and beat up a group of riot police before
Tuesday 6th April, 10:00-13:00 torching the administration building. Looters
Authorities detain Bolot Sherniyazov, deputy raid the building throughout the night before the
head of Omurbek Tekebaev’s Ata Mekin Party, crowd disperses in the early hours.
who had arrived in the city to participate in a
gathering planned for the following day.
Talas
Talas Wednesday 7th April, 06:00-14:00
Tuesday 6th April, 13:00-17:00 A crowd of up to 15,000 forms outside the local
Sherniyazov’s supporters march to the local admin- police station as unrest continues.
istration headquarters. A fight breaks out at around
2pm when the local governor attempts to address Bishkek
the gathered crowd. Now numbering more than Wednesday 7th April, 09:00-11:00
500, protesters seize control of the building. Others Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov claims at a press
join the protesters throughout the afternoon until conference that the situation in Talas is under
they number close to 1000. control.
Meanwhile, opposition activists, civil rights
campaigners and journalists gather at the head-
Bishkek quarters of the Social Democratic Party near the
Tuesday 6th April, 16:00-22:00 Almatinskaya-Gorkova intersection to attend an
Tensions rise in the capital as news of violence in announced press conference. Police deny most
Talas filters in. Several opposition figures are ar- people entry to the building.
rested including Omurbek Tekebaev and former
presidential candidate Almazbek Atambaev who Bishkek
voluntarily gives himself up to authorities after a Wednesday 7th April, 11:00-13:30
stand-off at his home between supporters and Police encircle a group of protesters and attempt
police. Internet access goes down across the city. to take them away to waiting buses. The protest-
www.thespektator.co.uk
 Focus 19

Into the White House

ers, who according to witnesses had been peaceful wards Ala-Too Square and the White House. The
until this point, break out of the cordon and begin first attacks on the White House are reported at
pelting the police with stones. Police respond with approximately 14:00. At 14:25 a hijacked army

Patrick Barrow
tear gas, smoke grenades and rubber bullets. The transport truck is driven into the gates of the White
police quickly lose control of the situation, how- House, provoking intense gunfire from inside the
ever, and are overwhelmed by the crowd who take compound.
two armoured vehicles and numerous automatic Pitched battles take place on Ala-Too square
weapons. Nearby Madina Bazaar on Almatinskaya and in the vicinity of the White House. Witnesses re- I returned to the White House at 9am on the
Street is set alight. port bloody violence and bodies lying in the street. morning of Thursday 8th. During the night
Police use stun grenades and tear gas to attempt to the building had been taken, and Bakiev had
Naryn disperse the crowd. Protesters ram other vehicles vanished.
Wednesday 7th April, 12:00-15:00 at the White House perimeter fence in an attempt The mood was one of disbelief, excitement
Reports of unrest in Naryn city reach Bishkek. to gain entrance. Automatic fire intensifies and and freedom. There was a friendly chaos in the
snipers on the roof of the White House (and report- air and it was infectious. Attempting to enter
Issyk-Kul Oblast edly on the roofs of buildings on Kievskaya street) by the front door, I found it jammed by the
Wednesday 7th April, 12:00-15:00 fire into the crowd. gathering crowd, so I scouted the perimeter for
Reports of demonstrations in both Karakol and alternatives. Around the back I lifted myself up
Cholpon Ata reach Bishkek. All the northern oblasts Bishkek to a smashed window at shoulder level. Stand-
now seem to be in revolt. Wednesday 7th April, 15:00-18:00 ing on the sill, I hauled up about five other
At around 3pm, Askar Sarbashev, a 49-year-old Kyrgyz students into a ransacked office. Upon
Talas lawyer, climbs into an armoured personnel carrier entering, the students immediately began ar-
Wednesday 7th April, 14:00-21:00 under the control of protesters and returns fire on guing among themselves for the right to pos-
Protesters charge the local police station. Police the White House until the vehicle’s gun jams. Hos- sess a Kygryz flag that lay in the room, while I
open fire with rubber bullets and use tear gas pitals start receiving large numbers of wounded, stepped past them into a pitch black corridor.
and stun grenades but are quickly overrun by the mainly the victims of gunshots. Rumours circu- The first room I stepped past was smashed;
crowd who throw Molotov cocktails. Interior Minis- late that Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have closed the door off the hinge, tables, shelves and safes
ter Moldomulsa Kongatiyev, who had arrived that their borders with Kyrgyzstan. overturned, books and documents scattered;
morning, is among several people captured by then the next and the next. Even the doors to
the crowd and severely beaten. False reports of his Bishkek the toilets and storage rooms had been kicked
death are widely circulated in Bishkek. Wednesday 7th April, 18:00-21:00 in. A giant safe was flipped over in one room
Gun fire continues around the White House. Tele- with a hat rack still jammed in it, the door of the
Bishkek vision stations, previously off air, start broadcast- safe half bent off its hinges. The tools of bureauc-
Wednesday 7th April, 13:30-15:00 ing scenes of the day’s violence. Guns captured racy - computers, chairs, books and documents
Protesters, now numbering between three to five from retreating security services are disseminat- - could be seen scattered all around, thrown into
thousand march from Almatinskaya Street to- ed amongst the crowd as violence continues. celebratory heaps like wedding confetti.

www.thespektator.co.uk May 2010 The Spektator

 20 Focus

mally only the untouchable elite were allowed The prosecutor’s office near Ala-Too Square, is
(Continued) I kept going. People were walk-
to tread – in only twenty-four hours it had been set on fire at approximately 20:00. Legal records
ing everywhere. Most looked fresh, as if they’d
overturned, now theirs, a people’s parliament. rain down on the street as looters ransack the build-
slept and just come into the centre first thing,
There was a feeling of common ownership, a ing. Shortly after, protesters take the Parliament
as I had. Students, young women in heels with
right to take whatever they could, whatever they building several blocks to the north. The headquar-
hand bags, and old men in kalpaks were roam-
wanted, to seize compensation from a stifling, ters of both the National Security (SNB) and Inte-
ing through the wreckage in pairs or small
ousted government. rior Ministry headquarters soon fall to protesters. It
groups with mouths agape, taking pictures
In a large auditorium with a few padded min- seems it is all over for President Kurmanbek Bakiev.
with mobile phones and sifting through post-
revolution debris for trophies. Occasionally ister’s chairs facing hundreds of empty seats, a
youth was pretending to make a speech. A teen- Bishkek
someone rough would pass; eyes sunken, and
age boy sat in the head chair behind him, clap- Wednesday 7th April, 21:00-00:00
wearing a ‘Don’t mess with me’ glare.
ping with ministerial ruckus and smashing his fist Bakiev flees Bishkek in his presidential jet. Reports
I walked past some toppled pot plants to a
on the table; his parliamentary college was giving alleging his intended destination as America or Eu-
window. Outside in the grounds people were
a fine and agreeable address. A dozen onlookers, rope prove false and he lands in Osh. In the capital,
doing the same; inspecting the aftermath, rifling
young and old, clapped and laughed. I sat in a a night of looting and destruction begins. Many
for souvenirs and trying to piece together the
minister’s chair, facing the auditorium. The four or key retail centres, supermarkets and stores are at-
night’s events. I headed upwards. Past the gov-
so chairs beside me quickly filled with old Kyrgyz tacked by hordes of marauders. Observers note
ernment canteen and more ransacked offices
men, a couple in kalpaks, and a new democratic that many of the looters are drunk.
and found myself in the government barber’s;
bench had been formed. We sat laughing like un- Roza Otunbaeva emerges as the head of
the mirror smashed, hair and shavers all over
parented children, shaking hands, sealing deals a proposed interim government, backed by a
the floor. In other offices I picked up the books
and posing for mobile phone pictures. clutch of familiar opposition faces, some only just
and personal diaries abandoned by disappeared
A guy in a kalpak, draped in a Kyrgyz flag and released from jail. Key figures include Almazbek
staff, traipsed through piles of papers to inspect
carrying a flagpole walked into the room, a fat Atambaev, Timur Sariev and Omurbek Tekebaev.
every corner and see what had been demol-
old man trotting after him with a wooden pole, At some point in the early hours, the White House
ished around the next. People flowed in and out
yelling. Then another man started shouting and is abandoned to the protesters.
of every room; some people still turning things
over, but mostly now for fun or treasure hunting. rounding people up to get out. There had been
enough looting. Some wiser heads had begun Bishkek
All portraits of Bakiev had been torn from the
to realise that they’d be needing a functioning Thursday 8th April, 08:00-12:00
walls and ripped to shreds. One man sat at an of-
building in which to install a new government, Ala-Too Square and the White House region see
ficial’s desk, vigorously polishing his shoes - still
and that repairing it would cost money. Sens- large crowds that have come to inspect the dam-
with a keen eye to priorities. People everywhere
ing the possibility of a shift in mood, I made my age. The White House is unguarded and open to
were smiling, in awe and overcome by where
exit. Nearly an hour after climbing into the White looters who roam freely throughout the building.
they stood - inside the main and biggest build-
House I walked back out into the morning sun. Attempts to remove looters and restore order in
ing in their country, a prided place where nor-
the building begins at around midday.
May 2010 The Spektator www.thespektator.co.uk
 Focus 21

Bishkek Manas Above: Two lines of freshly dug graves at the

Thursday 8th April, 12:00-18:00 Thursday 8th April ‘Graves of our Fathers’ hillside cemetery
The streets are quiet but tense. Sporadic gunfire All flights through the Manas Transit Centre are sus-
occasionally disturbs the calm. People leave flow- pended, as the American military begins to worry Top left The White House bears its scars
ers, photographs of the dead, signs and messages about the long term future of the base.
on the fence of the White House as an impromptu Below A memorial to those who died set up
memorial grows quickly. Bishkek at the gates of the White House, April 8th
Friday 9th April
Jalalabad Friday and Saturday are declared national days
Thursday 8th April 16:00-22:00 of mourning. An uneasy calm continues in the
Bakiev resurfaces in his home city of Jalalabad in capital.
Kyrgyzstan’s south-west. In interviews with interna-
tional media, Bakiev states rather bizarrely that he Tokmok
has no real power, but refuses to resign. He accuses Friday 9th April
the opposition of having blood on their hands. Unrest reportedly escalates into inter-ethnic
clashes in the northern town of Tokmok with the
Bishkek Dungan and Uighur minorities bearing the brunt
Thursday 8th April, 18:00-24:00 of attacks. Eleven are reported hospitalised, five
The newly formed interim government declares with gunshot wounds.
it is in control of the country, has dissolved parlia-
ment, and will rule for six months. People’s militias Ata-Beiit (Graves of our Fathers)
are formed to prevent the widespread looting that Saturday 10th April
occurred the previous night. Small bands of citizens Several miles outside of Bishkek, at the Graves of
wearing red or white arm bands sit on the corners our Fathers hillside cemetery, sixteen victims of
of city blocks, hoping to keep the peace. The volun- the violence are laid to rest. Many more funerals
teer militias battle looters throughout the night as will follow.
marauders head for the suburbs. Kyrgyzstan’s latest revolution is over and recent
history dampens any optimism for the future. How-
Moscow ever, a second, bloodier warning has been issued
Thursday 8th April that if national leaders fail the people once again,
The Russian government denies it is behind the un- they will suffer the same inglorious end as Askar
rest in Kyrgyzstan, however, an anonymous official Akaev and his successor Kurmanbek Bakiev. A hope
comments off the record that there is only room for remains that this time round, somehow, Kyrgyzstan
one foreign military base in Kyrgyzstan. will manage to get things right.
www.thespektator.co.uk May 2010 The Spektator
 THE GUIDE
22

Bishkek life
Bars
Chuchuara Hoga (117, Chui) International
and
With this Chinese restaurant, a little out of the way
and rarely visited by tourists, you really feel you 2x2* (Isanova/Chui)

restaurants are getting the real deal. Request a хого (your own
personal Chinese boiling-pot) and randomly select
Trendy drinking hole with a circular bar and
friendly staff. A good place for knocking back a
few pre-nightclub cocktails. Slouch into one of the
There’s a fine line between ‘bar’ and ‘restaurant’ in a variety of unusual Chinese delicacies to throw in.
comfy lounge seats and try to look cool. $$$
Bishkek. Places more suitable for drinking sessions Beware, the ‘spicy’ sauce, although delicious, may
are marked with a star * leave delicate stomachs in some distress several
hours later - consider the ‘not-spicy’ sauce as a suit- Bacardi (Togolok Moldo 17/1)
Price Guide (main course and a garnish) able alternative $$ Elite lounge bar affair with separate rooms for din-
$ - Expect change from 150 som ing, dancing and whiling the night away smoking
$$ - A little over 250 should do the trick Frunze hukkah pipes. Urban grooves played at a reason-
$$$ - Expect to pay in the region of 350 (Chui/Pravda) able volume and a full menu that includes a range
$$$$ - A crisp 500 (or more) needed in this joint Free semechki is one of many reasons to check out of tasty platters. $$$$
this lively hangout, rammed with Chinese at lunch
Blonder Pub (Pravda/Kulatova
American and dinner time. The menu is encyclopediac in
terms of scope, but if you’re feeling bewildered, Blonder Pub is the new brewery-restaurant to try
Cowboy* (Toktogul/Orozbekova) just point to something tasty-looking on a neigh- out. Cavernous yet cosy inside, there’s decent blues
Bishkek’s all-American restaurant-cum-dance club bouring table, like we did. $$ every night, live Premiership football, Eurogrub
has now gone a little more up-market, but wild and a good selection of ales. In regard to the latter
Peking Duck I & II we recommend ‘Datski Shnaffer’. $$$$
nights are still to be had. Dig in to a kilo of chicken
(Soviet/Druzhba & Chui/Tog. Mol.)
wings and then hit the dance floor. $$$ Beatles Bar* (Gorky/Sovietskaya)
Huge portions to feed even the biggest of glut-
tons and an English language menu that provides A Beatles themed bar to make Bishkek scousers feel
Hollywood*(Druzhba/Sovietskaya) at home. Huge screen outside for sporting events.
plenty of amusing translations. $$
As you would probably guess, decorated with Shashlyk and cool beer. $$
movie posters, photos of cinema icons and a bunch Shaolin (Zhibek Zholu/Prospect Mir)
of American kitsch. Hollywood is popular with a This tidy looking restaurant sticks out for its sheer Buddha Bar (Sovietskaya/Akhunbayeva)
younger crowd and is usually packed from mid- range of oriental dishes and its large, round tables Buddha bar offers a taste of the East inside a tastefully
evening onwards. A fun place for a few drinks before that make it ideal for extended gatherings. $$ constructed zen log cabin. The sushi is excellent, and
heading off to the clubs. $$ for those on a budget, the stir-fry noodle dishes make
Metro* (133, Chui)
Dungan an excellent lunch. Recommended! $$$$
In the impressive location of a former theatre, Metro Hui Min (Relocated to the Hotel Dostuk) Captain Nemo’s (14, Togolok Moldo)
remains the première drinking hole for ex-pats. A A former favourite, we have been told that Hui Min Small nautically themed restaurant with a selection
high ceiling, a long bar and friendly staff compli- has now relocated to the Hotel Dostuk. Apparently of evocatively named dishes including ‘Fish from the
ment a good Tex-Mex menu and a wide selection the menu has been revamped and the prices in- ship’s boy’ and ‘Tongue from the boatswain’s wife’.
of drinks. Metro is one of the best bets for catch- creased. The Spektator will be checking it out soon. Cosy wooden interior and porthole style windows
ing sporting events on TV, although thanks to the We hope they still serve the special Dungan tea, as create an underwater log cabin experience. Spirits,
hideously late kickoff times for Champions League it’s rather good. cocktails and a good business lunch. $$$
football matches, don’t count on the staff waiting up
Coffee House (9, Manas & Togolok Moldo/Ryskulova)
unless it’s a big one. $$$
Georgian Treat yourself to some of the finest coffee and
New York Pizza (177, Kievskaya) Mimino (27, Kievskaya) cakes Bishkek has to offer at the imaginatively
Decorated with pictures of the Big Apple and serv- Mimino is nice, cosy and serves up bowl-fulls of steam- named ‘Coffee House’, a cosy boutique café with a
ing a fine selection of steaks and other American- ing, hearty Georgian fare with pomegranate seeds European flavour. Curl up and read a book, or just
themed dishes, NYP is sure to get New Yorkers think- a-plenty. We recommend the kjadjapuri, khinkali and drop in for a caffeine hit and a chocolate fix. $$$
ing of home. For home delivery ring (0312) 909909. anything that’s served in a pot. Watch out for Uncle Joe
Concord (Alatoo Square)
$$$ at the door. $$$$ Waiting staff dressed as airline stewards and an in-
terior featuring some aeronautical paraphernalia
Armenian German attempt to lend a little glamour to this small diner
Landau (Manas/Gorky) Steinbrau* (5, Gerzena) just off Ala-too Square. Good, cheap food and fur-
Fancy something a little different? If you can tol- Don your beer drinking trousers and head down ther deals for lunch during midweek make this a
erate the arthritic service, Landau isn’t a bad spot to Bishkek’s take on a Bavarian-style beer hall. They popular spot during the daytime. $$
for a pork steak or some other Armenian culinary brew their own stuff - such a relief from the insipid Cosmo Bar* (Sovietska/Toktogul)
goodies. Also, treat yourself to some decent Arme- bilge that’s normally sold as lager. Compliment your Board the sweet smelling elevator, ascend to the
nian conjac whilst your here, you’ll never go near pint with a plate of German sausage with sauerkraut. top-floor Cosmo Bar and splash the cash with your
Bishkek conjac again. Ever. $$$ $$$ fellow free-spending cosmonauts. Elegant interior,
plush sofas, fancy drinks and pretty waitresses.
Chinese Uighur Huzzah! $$$$

Ak-Bata (108, Ibraimova) Karavan (Almatinkskoya/Chui) Crostini (191, Abdrahmanova)

This place must serve up pretty authentic dishes Excellent little stolvya (canteen) full of the timeless Situated inside the Hyatt, this is a joint to be re-
as it’s always full of Chinese playing mah-jong and regional favourites. Being an Uighur restaurant its gero served for a business lunch or marriage proposal
waving their chopsticks about. Smoky and stuffy, lagman or lagman pa Uighurski particularly stand out. only. Chef Taner Erdemir serves up mouth-water-
but in a nice way. $ No smoking, sit, eat and leave. $ ing international cusine, but at a price. $$$$$

May 2010 The Spektator www.thespektator.co.uk


Dillinger* (Gorky/Tynystanova)
Glamorous VIP complex including a restaurant, bar
and casino. A decedantly decorated and perculiarly
endearing homage to the notorious bank robber -
we’re sure he would appreciate it. $$$$
Bars, Restaurants & Clubs
Meri (33, Gorkova)
In the summer months, Meri has one of the prettiest
dining areas in Bishkek. International cuisine served 24
hours a day, more lively nights see jiving on the dance
floor to all your favourite Kyrgyz pop tunes. $$$
23
Cyclone (136, Chui)
Smart Italian restaurant with plush interior, efficient,
polite serving staff and a warm atmosphere to al-
leviate Bishkek’s winter chills. Pasta dishes stand out
among a menu of traditional Italian favourites. $$$

Fatboy’s* (Chui/Tynystanova) Navigator (103, Moskovskaya) Dolce Vita (116a, Akhunbaeva)

Civilized, friendly cafe bang in the middle of town and A pricy, but pleasant place to while away an after- Cosy Italian restaurant with smiling waitresses serv-
a popular ex-pat meeting point. Sensible spot for con- noon. Sit in the bar area over a beer or lounge in the ing excellent pizza. Also serves salads and European
versation, but if you’re alone there’s a mini-library to pe- cuisine. Small terrace outside for summertime din-
airy non-smoking conservatory. Attentive service
ruse (although literary classics are thin on the ground). ing. $$
Check out the American pancakes for breakfast, top and a refreshing selection of salads, a good place
for a light, healthy lunch when fat and grease are
marks. $$$
getting you down. $$$$ Japanese
Four Seasons (116a, Tynystanova)
Stary Edgar’s* (15, Panfilova)
One of the poshest places to eat out in Bishkek. El- Aoyama (93, Toktogula)
The concrete monstrosity of the Russian Theatre con-
egant, yet modern interior and polite service. Great Elegant sushi joint frequented by serious looking
place to splash out on a special occasion or just for suited-types concluding their latest dodgy deals.
ceals one of Bishkek’s finest attempts at a cosy base-
the hell of it. $$$$ The food’s excellent though - if you can scrape to-
ment bar. Friendly staff, a decent menu and a collection
gether enough soms. $$$$
of old bits and bobs decorating the walls make Edgar’s
Foyer (27, Erkindik ) Watari (Shevchenko, Frunze)
an attractive alternative to the city’s mainstream cafés.
Run by a friendly young couple, Foyer is an excel- A small Japanese-owned restaurant that serves su-
A blues band plays most nights and a pianist adds a ro-
lent place to enjoy an evening cocktail or check shi as well as dishes with a more indian flavour. The
your inbox with a cup of coffee. Free Wi-Fi, good mantic ambience on some Sunday evenings. $$$ refined atmosphere makes it ideal for a business
deserts and live music on Wednesday and Saturday. meeting or just a sophisticated night out $$$
Recommended! $$$$ U Mazaya (Behind ‘Zaks’ on Sovietskaya)
Possibly Central Asia’s only rabbit themed restaurant.
Griffon (Microregion 7) Descend into this underground warren and tuck in. Korean
A cosy log-cabin affair with a large meat-roasting Also check out the fairy-light adorned flagship sister-
central fireplace. On one disturbing occasion the rabbit-restaurant in Asenbai micro region. $$$ Petel (52, Zhykeeva Pudovkin)
waiting staff were about as plesant as a bunch of Operating in the back room of a Korean family’s
chavs, but hopefully that was a passing phase. $$$ Vavilon (Microregion 7) house, this is Korean style home-cooking at its most
Finely presented dishes, reasonably priced beer (60 personal. Closed on Sunday. Ring: 0543 922539 $$
Do you want to play som) genuinely friendly and attentive service and a

Football?
music playlist that mixes up a bit of soul, jazz, swing Santa Maria (217, Chui)
and classical tracks played at just the right volume. Plush Korean restaurant offering Eastern favourites,
We want to get a team together including exciting Korean barbecues where you get
Live music from 8-ish on most evenings. Definitely
for weekly five-a-side kick to cook your own dinner, plus an extensive Euro-
worth the trek out to the suburbs ( tell your taxi driver
arounds. If you’re interested pean menu. $$$
to turn left at the yuzhniy vorota and head towards
email:kickaround@thespektator.co.uk
Asenbai for about 1.5km) $$$
Lebanese
Jam* (179, Toktogula) Indian Beirut (Shevchenko/Frunze)
An underground oasis of cool. Jam is a cafe with a Now in a new location, Beirut continues to serve en-
full menu, kalians (shisha pipes) and a lounge bar The Host (Sovietskaya, opposite the Hyatt) ticing Lebanese goodies including falaffle, humus,
atmosphere, open till 3am . $$$$ A varied and interesting menu including fine Indian and tasty little meat pie things. $$$
food make this place a real treat. On midweek days
Jumanji (Behind the circus) there are also several excellent business lunch deals
It’s strange. This place is decorated with fake jungle offering a soup, salad, main course and dessert for Moldovan
foliage and is based on a crap kids’ film yet still sort 250-350 som. A real stand out and a Spektator fa-
of works. You also get to roll a pair of Jumanji dice vourite! $$$$ Moldova Restaurant (Kievskaya/Turusbekova)
before you order for the chance to win a special se- If it’s been a while since you last went out for a
cret prize - we like this. $$$ Italian Moldovan, this wooden paneled, sturdy-tabled ea-
tery may be the answer to your prayers. Also, the
Live Bar* (Kulatova/Pravda - near Ibiza club ) Adriatico (219, Chui) Moldovan Embassy is next door should you care
Twenty-four hour sports bar with live music at Reportedly suffering following the departure of to learn more about the world’s favourite budget-
weekends. Plenty of leather couches provide the its Italian chef, Walter, although we have been told wine exporting country. $$$
ideal place to sip cocktails whilst watching the that the soup is still excellent. $$$$
Champions league at three in the morning. $$$$ Regional/Central Asian
Bella Italia (Chui/Maladaya Gvardia)
Lounge Bar* (338a, Frunze) Adriatico’s former Italian chef, Walter, has moved Arabica* (Mederova/Tynastanova)
One of our favourite places to drink in the Summer- homes and is now serving a practically identical range This formerly sophisticated laid back shisha pipe)
time, when we can afford it. Outdoor balcony-cum- of dishes at this spot just behind October cinema. bar has moved to a new location and, by the looks
terrace high above the street with slouch-couches Enjoy the best pizza in town, gnocci and other typi- of the bath in the toilets, may still be under devel-
and fine views of the circus - which you can some- cal Italian numbers, washed down with a palatable opment. Three floors, VIP rooms, kaliyans aplenty.
times smell in hot weather. Nice. $$$ house red (600 soms/litre) $$$$ $$$

Spektator
THE

.co.uk
Find the best bars in town with the Spektator and thespektator.co.uk

www.thespektator.co.uk May 2010 The Spektator

 24 Bars, Restaurants & Clubs
Arzu-II (Sovietskaya/Lev Tolstoy bridge)
Twenty-four hour joint that’s a godsend for those
who get cravings for lagman or manti at four in
the morning. Sometimes smoking isn’t allowed,
sometimes it is, however the food and prices are
constantly pretty good. Comfy booth style seats to
dig yourself into after a heavy night. $$
Arzu-I (Togolok Moldo, next to the stadium)
Offers a hearty selection of Kyrgyz and European Technically an ‘Azerbaijanian’, but don’t let this fact
dishes and a homely atmosphere. It might yet be a ruin the best value kebabs in town. The menu is
little too chilly for al fresco dining, but there’s also a limited and if your Russian is too, just say ‘kebab’ and
great outdoor terrace. $$
Derevyashka* (Ryskulova, behind Dvorets Sporta)
Atmospheric drinking cabin that serves a range of
Central Asian and Russian cuisine, as well as cheap-
as-chips Arpa on tap. Well worth it on football
nights, when the locals are rather rowdy. $
Faiza (Jibek Jolu/Prospect Mira)
Possibly the best place to munch traditional grub
in town. Their fried pelmeni and manti are so good
that they have often run out by supper-time. Save
an appetite and go early. $$
Forel (Vorentsovka village)
Twenty minutes outside of Bishkek, Forel is a fish-
based ‘relaxation centre’ set amongst babbling
streams and offering fine veiws of the mountains. Fish
your own trout out of a pool and have it deep fat fried
for your pleasure. Only salads, bread, tea and juice are
sold on site but you are welcome to bring any booze
or garnish you desire, it’s also possible to rent a BBQ.
To get there take a taxi to Vorentsovka village and, if
Zaporyzhia (9, Prospect Mira) Apple (28, Manas)
Recently opened, Zaporyzhia is a cossack fla- Fat, old, lecherous foreigners not welcome, this
voured restauraunt in a varnish-scented log cab- place is for a younger cooler crowd. Multiple bars,
in. Hearty rustic dishes and a homely atmosphere. large dance floor, friendly atmosphere. Thursday
The medovukha is recommended! $$$ usually a big night. (Entrance charge 100-300 som)
Turkish Arbat (9, Karl Marks)
Ajar (On Erkindik between Moskovskaya, Toktogula) Tel. 512094; 512087
Smart ‘elite’ club popular with a slightly older
crowd. Strip bar and restaurant in same building.
(Entrance charge 200/350 som midweek, 350/450
som Fri/Sat. Strip bar 700 som)
something cheap and tasty will arrive. $
City Club (85/1, Zhukeyeva-Pudovkina)
Carlson (166, Sovietskaya) Tel. 511513; 510581
A good outdoor terrace and some hearty food, but So exclusive it makes the Spektator crowd feel like
the Karaoke style crooners who provide evening cheap scum bags, City Club is one of the posh-
entertainment are an acquired taste. $$ est clubs in town. Get past the ‘face control’ (ugly
people beware) and spend your evening with gang-
Huzur (Kievskaya/Togoluk Moldo,)
Convivial proprietor Ali claims to have Steven Ger- ster types, lecherous diplomats, Kazakh business-
rard’s 2005 Champion’s League winning Liverpool men and a posse of young rich kids who all seem to
shirt. If you don’t believe that, belive in free lipyosh- have studied in London. (Entrance charge: girls 200/
ka and good, affordable Turkish cuisine. $$ boys 300, Fri/Sat girls 300/boys 500
Golden Bull (Chui/Togolok Moldo)
Konak (Sovietskaya/Gorkova)
This Turkish joint used to be ‘Restaurant Camelot’ Tel. 620131
hence the incongruous suits of armour in the back A Bishkek institution. Full of ex-pats and tourists liter-
room, and the rather crappy castle facade. However, ally every night of the week. Long bar, friendly staff,
the food is often great, the salads are large and fresh, cheapish beer, everyone’s happy. (Entrance charge
and the staff are always pleasant. Recommended! [girls/boys] free/400 midweek, 150/400 Fri/Sat. ‘For-
(And now open 24 hours a day) $$ eigners’ free.)
Retro Metro (24, Mira)
Night
www.retrometro.kg

your taxi driver doesn’t know the exact location, ask a
friendly villager. Trout is 800som/kilo $$$
Jalalabad (Togolok Moldo/Kievskaya)
Basically the cheapest food (that won’t give you gut
rot) in the centre of town. While it should stand out
for its fresh lagman, Jalalabad is sometimes over-
looked. Probably at its best in summer, when the
shashlyk masters flanking the entrance offer their
creations straight to guests sitting at Eastern-style
tables – cross your legs and see how long you can
last before cramp sets in. $
Advertise with
Clubs
Bright, happy, 80’s kitsch bar, the DJ spins his rec-
ords from inside the front of a VW camper van. One
of the most popular places for post-2am partying.
(Entrance charge: 200/300 som midweek, 350/450
There are some Bishkek old-hands who say that som Fri/Sat. Reserve for 200 som)
things aren’t what they used to be when it comes to
nightlife in Bishkek. They talk of legendary nights of Live Music
carnage, vomit, and debauchery - delights that con-
temporary Bishkek struggles to offer. Promzona (16, Cholpon-Atinskaya)
Not so, we say. Take your pick from the list below and www.promzona.kg
we’re sure there’s still enough carnage, vomit and Promzona’s far-flung location sadly means a taxi
debauchery in town to keep everyone happy. ride or a long walk home are in order at the end
of a night. Nevertheless, this trendy live music
venue has a lot going for it: good bands, an exten-
Diskoklubs
sive menu, and a hip industrial interior featuring,

the Spektator
Heaven (Frunze/Pravda - in the Hotel Dostuk) strangely, a wind tunnel fan, make this one of the
As Heaven is found inside a hotel it is surprisingly best nights out in Bishkek. Tuesday is Jazz night.
unseedy. In fact it stands out for being a bastion of Rock or blues bands normally play at the week-
Rates from 1500 som per page. the well-dressed (if one is generous). Turn up in tatty ends. (Music charge 200-350 som)
jeans and a t-shirt and you may feel a little out of Tequila Blues (Turesbekova/Engels)
Email:
place; then again, you may not give a shit. Tables by A possible misnomer, the tequila is just fine but
advertise@thespektator.co.uk the dancefloor cost 1000 som but include drinks up the blues is non-existent. Russian studenty types
to this value. (Entrance charge 200-400 som) mosh away the nights to Rock bands in an at-
mospheric underground bunker. (Music charge
Russian/Ukrainian Fire & Ice (Tynystanova/Erkindik) 150 som)
A slightly grittier version of Golden Bull. Again, for-
Pirogoff-Vodkin (Kievskaya/Togolok Moldo) eigners can often get in for free. Popular throughout Sweet Sixties (Molodaya Gvardia/Kievskaya)
Classy restaurant with a turn of the 20th century the week. (Entrance ‘foreigners’ free) Live cover bands most nights. Full menu, popular
atmosphere serving Russian specialities. Have your with a younger crowd. $$
tea in a giant samovar. $$$ Pharoah (East side of the Philharmonic)
An underground lair packed with eyecatching nods Zeppelin (43, Chui)
Khutoryanka (Sovietskaya/Lev Tolstoy bridge)
to Ancient Egypt. Foreigners can sometimes negoti- Zeppelin is in the same vein as the old Tequila
Unassuming, to put it mildly, on the outside, this
ate cheaper or free entry, but be prepared for the big Blues but not quite so spit and sawdust. On the
place is a revelation on the inside. Delicious food,
sting inside - beer costs the best part of 200som. nights we’ve visited, there’s been a line up of young
reasonable service, Ukrainian brass band music
Charge ( 400-500 som) rock or punk bands strutting their stuff, heavier
on the cd player. We love it! $$$
beats seem to go down best with the young Rus-
Taras Bulba (Near the Yuzhniy Vorota on Sovietskaya) Platinum (East side of the Philharmonic) sian crowd. Full restaurant menu.
Like all the Ukrainian restaurants we’ve tried in Take a seat at the snazzy 360 degree bar and do bat- (Entrance charge 100-150 som)
Bishkek, Taras Bulba serves great food. We liked the tle with some of Kyrgyzstan’s most convivial ‘elite’ for
potato pancakes with caviar, the delicious soups gold-digging temptresses. (Entrance charge 400- Live music also common at Stary Edgar’s, Beatles
and fresh salads. $$$ 500 som)
Bar, Foyer and Blonder Pub (see ‘restaurants’)

May 2010 The Spektator www.thespektator.co.uk

 Map 25
vardia a Gvardia
Mol o d aya G Moloday

Jibek
Jolu
Kievskaya
THE MOUNTAINS

Chui
Engelsa
Lva Tolstogo

Toktogula
1 2 13
23 ve.
Manas a
ve.
Manas a4 5

Ryskulova

Jumabe
ve.
Manas a

Kievskaya
Moskovskaya

Isanova

k
6 11

T. Abdymom
Isanova 8 Koenkozo
va
Isanova 7
12 Dvorets
Sporta
9 10

unov stadium
oldo
Togolok M

Jibe
Michael Frunze
Spartak

k Jo
Chui
Toktogula

k o 14
Logvinen
Moskovskaya

va
Orozbeko
15

Juma

Baeto
16
Lva Tolstog

va
Orozbeko a
Razzakov
Bokonbaeva

bek

va
18
Razzakov
a 19
17 Erkind
Abdym

Erkindik
Tugolbay

Michae
omuno
o

21
l Frunze

a ova
Fatianov Tynystan
va

ova
Tynystan 20 AYA
SOVETSK
AYA
Circus

26 27 SOVETSK
Chui

AYA
Kievskaya

SOVETSK aev a 24
22
Shopoko
va
A. Usenb
Toktogula

25
Lva

va
Shopoko
Pravda
a
Elebaev
Tol

Pravda
sto

lya
Gogo
Ogonbae
Moskov
g o

North
Bokonb

lya
Gogo
va

www.thespektator.co.uk May 2010 The Spektator

 26 What’s On
Pinta Pub Opening
8th May
Frunze 418 (Manas intersection)
Everyone’s favourite draught beer shop opens a
new pub on the street behind the Kyrgyz State
Philharmonic. The Spektator will be there in full
force - pop down to sample dried fish snacks
and a range of tasty, locally brewed beers. Call
proprietor Azamat (0555 903838) for directions.
Victory Day - May 9th
This is one of the main holidays in the national
calendar, celebrating victory in the Great Pa-
triotic War (World War II to non-Russians) and
festivities will take place in Ala-Too square as
usual. A horse festival featuring Kok Boru had
also been planned at the city Hippodrome but
may have been cancelled due to April’s political
upheavals. Check our website for updates.
Dates for May
7th May
The Motherland (World War II themed)
Play written by Chingiz Aitmatov
5:00pm Tickets from 300 soms
Opera Ballet Theatre
Tel: 66 15 48
13th May
Lady’s Day
50% off entry (500 som) for women
Platinum Nightclub
14th May
Evening Dance Competition
Gloss Lounge Bar
Manas, 24
15th-16th May
Finals of KVN Kyrgyzstan
Comedy Contest
KVN is a tradition in former Soviet countries.
This two-day contest sees the cream of the
Kyrgyz comic crop compete for a chance to
crack jokes in Moscow. Begins at 18:00.
Palace of Sports (Frunze/Togolok Moldo)
Tel: 62 51 77
21st May
Evening Dance Competition
Gloss Lounge Bar
Manas, 24
Trekking Union Dates for May Entertainment Directory
8th May The Puppet Theatre
Paintballing Sovietskaya/Michurina
Show off your trigger-happy leadership qualities Performances on Sundays at 11:00am.
in an adrenaline pumping game of paintball just
outside the city. Same day return to Bishkek.
Russian Drama Theatre
Tynystanova, 122 (Situated in Oak Park)
9th May
Tel.: 662032, 621571
Trekking expedition to the Sokoluk Gorge
Hours: Mon-Sun, 10:00-18:00
Open air picnic and hike. Same day return to
Tickets 30-100 som
Bishkek.
A range of local and international plays in Rus-
15th-16th May sian.
Trekking expedition to Lake Kek Moinok
First day: visit and hike along the Tyuk Issyk Ata The Conservatory
gorge. Stay overnight in Viktorina mountain Jantosheva, 115
house. Second day: trek to Kek Moinok (2713m). Tel: 479542
Picnic and return to Bishkek in the afternoon. Concerts by students and professors.
22nd May Kyrgyz State Philharmonic
Paintballing Chui Prospect, 253
Show off your trigger-happy leadership qualitiesTel: 212262, 212235
in an adrenaline pumping game of paintball just Hours: 17:00-19:00 in summer
outside the city. Same day return to Bishkek. Tickets: 70-100 som (sometimes much more for
special performances)
23rd May There are two concert halls featuring classical,
Trek in Birbuylak and Chongerchuck Gorges traditional Kyrgyz, and pop concerts and a variety
Cross the 2400m pass, hike to a local waterfall of shows.
and return via the Chongerchuck Gorge. Same
day return to Bishkek. Opera Ballet Theatre
Sovietskaya/Abdymununova
29th May
Tel: 66 15 48
Trekking around the Issyk-Ata Gorge
Hours: 17:00-19:00
Trek along the left bank of the Issyk Ata river to
Tickets: 150-600 som
Mt Botvev (4008m). Open air picnic. Return back
Tickets for performances sell out very quickly and
along the opposite bank and visit a local water-
fall. Same day return to Bishkek. it is necessary to book a seat in advance.
30th May Live updates
Rafting season begins!
Boom gorge region, Chui River (Rafting category For all the Bishkek opera, ballet and concert listings,
2-3) Distance: 25 km. Estimated time 2-2.5 hours. check our frequently updated What’s On listings at:
www.thespektator.co.uk
Typical Prices for one day equipment hire
Tent sleeping 2-3 people: 160 soms
Thermal Sleeping bag 100 soms Bakiev’s Balls
Skis: 500 soms
Cross-country skis: 300 soms “Production is something that appeals to me. I am a
Coats: from 50 soms creator. I love making things and I hate crushing and de-
Pans and Teapots: 30 soms stroying them. I will probably start a business and make
consumer goods. Toys, for instance. Toys will make chil-
Groups meet the Thursday before the weekend of dren happy. I could make non-hazardous toys that would
develop their intellect and bring smiles to their faces.”
departure. Call (0312) 906 115 or email us at trek@
(As quoted in an interview with ‘Ruski Reporter’ 23/04/10)
elcat.kg. Website: www.trek-kyrgyzstan.com

Trekking Union of Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz Republic, Bishkek, Chui av. 4A, Office A4
Tel.: +996 (312) 90 61 15, 90 61 39
e-mail: trek@elcat.kg,
website: www.trek-kyrgyzstan.com, www.tuk.kg

Map: Location guide 7. Beta Stores Supermarket 14. New York Pizza 21. Stary Edgars
1. Tequila Blues 8. Derevyashka 15. Cowboy 22. TSUM Department Store
2. Metro Bar (American Pub) 9. Cyclone 16. National Museum 23. Jam
3. Watari 10. Coffee House (II) 17. Navigator 24. Mimino
4. Zaporyzhian Nights 11. Adriatico 18. Sky Bar 25. Arabica
5. Coffe House (I) 12. Santa Maria 19. Foyer 26. Konak
6. 2x2 Bar 13. Faiza 20. Fatboy’s 27. VEFA shopping Centre (RIP)

May 2010 The Spektator www.thespektator.co.uk

 l Asia’s only
tra
Cen Mex
ic an
c i ng

Ca
u
od

nt
t r
In

ina
Happy Ho
ur
Mon - Th
urs 5-7
60 som M
argaritas
60 som S
angrias
60 som D
raft Beer
Always fre
e chips

158 Chui and salsa!

50m from Beta Stores

www.kyrgyzcantina.com

11:30– 22:00 Daily

312 61 08 23
 Homemade tortillas and tortilla chips from hand-
processed masa harina corn dough
 Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas, taco salad, quesadil-
las, Mex-pizza, pesoli, and menudo from 150-300 som
 Six yummy vegetarian options
 Free chips and salsa
 Non-smoking dining hall
 Friday & Saturday American Grill specials
 Delivery (100 som charge)*
Slightly higher for distant locations

Coming in Summer:

Student Art Gallery

Most pieces under 2000 s
&
The American
Cupcake Factory