Kyrgyzstan Diaries #8

 Сокулук

On Sunday I'll travel to Budapest, so this is my last week and my last diary from Kyrgyzstan. These two months were very intense, and they literally fly between amazing people, wonderful landscapes and discovering a new culture. I think that what I will bring with me from this experience are human relationships, here I found smiling people, open to helping you and sharing their culture.

I also found some parallelism between Kyrgyz and Italians (at least people from Bishkek), they have the same behave on the streets, they honk, they get angry, they have their own rules. 

For the last week, in the flat, we decided to share traditional food: Italian, Kyrgyz and Vietnamese (I have a flatmate from there). As you can see, I prepared pizza, and the family that hosts me prepared Manti (манты), from the Vietnamese part it will be a surprise.

On Sunday I did my last hike, a friend invited me to an organised one in the Sokuluk region not far from Bishkek. We saw three different waterfalls, one 60 m high, and part of the trek was a test of a new route, so it was quite technical and easy to get lost.

We did 12 km with a 500 m altitude difference, much easier than the one I did in Ala Archa, the weather was beautiful and we enjoyed the autumn colours that start to appear on the trees. We also visit a beautiful gorge with a waterfall. These hikes are organised every Sunday and it's a pity that I knew it at the end of my trip.

August 31st was the independence day here in Kyrgyzstan and this year it was the 30th anniversary, even in the COVID19 period, there was a great celebration.    

That day I didn't participate in the celebrations because I was out of the city for a shooting, but before leaving I was able to take this picture of the parade, I know there was a handcraft market and fireworks at night.

In the last days, I tried to say goodbye to all the people I knew, and pass as much time as possible with friends and the family that hosted me, with them I did a family shooting, maybe I will share their pictures. I attempted to visit what I missed till now and have no regrets about what I was not able to see or to do.

If you like to get into the local culture when you travel, I really suggest this type of experience, volunteering allows you to immerse yourself in a community.