Today we had a distance of 330km ahead of us, we started along the lake until we got to the dam and the power plant; we now did follow the river, to finally hit the border to Uzbekistan.
We continued along the border and eventually made it to the city of Jalal-Abad, where we had a late lunch. We were now looking into an uneventful, postprandial ride to Osh, where we arrived in the late afternoon.
This night’s hotel was located straight at the shore of the lake with a nice little beach in walking distance. The hotel also featured a swimming pool (actually two of them – but only one was filled), various sport facilities, a celebration hall and a restaurant – though most of the facilities were not yet properly prepared for the season and looked somewhat run down.
The beach was a nice sand beach – covered by wild-growing Marijuana plants. The cows grazing at this beach must be some of the most relaxed and happy cows on the planet 😉
We left Bishkek this morning for our 340km trip to our accommodation at the shore of Lake Toktogul.
Initially the road was fairly busy, but eventually we had left Bishkek and the surrounding towns (along with associated traffic) behind. Traffic was light, when we hit the Ala-Tau mountain range, snaking our way uphill towards the Töö Ashuu Pass and its tunnel with a length of about 3km at an elevation around 3150m.
Coming out of the tunnel on the other side, it was downhill again. We had a quick stop at one of the street vendors, to get a taste of two of the region’s specialties:
We continued downhill into the Suusamyr Valley – still well above an elevation of 2000m. Lunch was had in a road-side chaikhana – the first noodle soup of many to come 😉
After lunch we continued along the valley – before eventually heading up again towards the Alabel Pass (3184m above sea level), passing into the Suusamyr-Too mountain range and facing the first and only (left-over) snow of the trip.
It was now downhill again towards Lake Toktogul, a reservoir feeding into a hydroelectric power plant and irrigation systems. We made a trip around half the lake, to reach our hotel.
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I made it into Bishkek in the early morning on a flight from Istanbul. After a bit of confusion related to the airport transfer, I eventually made it to the hotel – and after a good breakfast I did venture … Continue reading
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Another week – another business trip … and this one was bringing me back to Japan. Given the timezone difference and the much cheaper flight ticket, it was a quick decision to fly in on Saturday already. This way, I … Continue reading
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Business got me traveling again … this time to Markham in Ontario, Canada. With that stupid ‘stay Saturday to Sunday night’ rule still in place for direct flights from Frankfurt to Toronto, it turned out, that flying a day earlier … Continue reading
Quick impressions from a short business visit to Paris – with a bit of ‘sightseeing’ on the last night …
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Today was a free day. I used that opportunity for a bit of a sleep-in. After breakfast I left the hotel and made my way through the parks along the banks of the Svislach river. The week leading into this … Continue reading
Today a treat was waiting for us; we were heading to Dudutki with the full team for a team event. Dudutki markets itself as a museum complex of ancient crafts and technologies – which basically summarizes it nicely.
The individual crafts are represented by the corresponding workshop – often with an actual craftsperson giving a demonstration and our guide providing the explanation. We started in the old windmill – to then cover a bakery, the workshop of a carpenter, a vodka distillery, an apiary, a farm, a pottery and a blacksmith’s shop – before making it to the museum’s restaurant, where a wide selection of Belorussian specialties was waiting for us.
From the summer in Buenos Aires it was now on into the winter in Minsk, Belarus.
Another workshop was scheduled to happen here for two weeks following the week of my trip to Buenos Aires. This workshop in Minsk was basically the continuation of the workshop in Tokyo back in October.
Days were spent with technical discussions, while we had some good team dinners and activities in the evening. Below some photos of Minsk at night.
