From Punjab to Kyrgyzstan

That doesn't happen everyday to fly from Amritsar, Punjab to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. And even to us, those two destinations seemed, at first, a little random. During the last week several people have been asking us : Why Kyrgyzstan? - Eh... why not? While travelling, we've been speaking for a long time with Tince about our next great trip, where we would go, etc... And Central Asia turned up being a destination we were keeping in mind for it. We were in India, looking in every directions where to go after our visa expire. Our first idea was to go to the South-East, do Thailand and some countries around (like every backpackers do). But we soon realized we were not very excited about that idea. And then we saw Kyrgyzstan on the map. So why waiting a next trip to go there if we can go now!

We went fighting for Communism!

After India, Kyrgyzstan is so normal. Being here feels like being back in Europe, or almost. An old school version of Europe, where one can buy pickled cucumbers and cigarettes one by one in the streets. Many things here remind Tince of her 90s childhood. Bishkek is a 100% soviet city. The map of the city looks like from some kind of boardgame. Parallel streets of gray blocks. Sometimes a park, featuring statues of heroic socialist characters, brings some "colors". Between blocks, two men are playing chess on a small table, keeping warm by sharing samogonka. Time to time a cheaply decorated caterring offers plov and kompot. Traditionnaly Kyrgyz people are nomadic people but Soviet union forced them into a settled lifestyle. For centuries Bishkek was a caravan stop on the silk road and only developped as a city during soviet era.

Over the skyline of the city we can see massive and snowy peaks. We can't wait reaching them. Unfortunatly we had to spend our first days in Bishkek to prepare our future trips. Everyday we walk through the long streets of the city from an administrative building to another, to Kazakh embassy, to Russian embassy, etc... Only once we managed to escape out of the city, and spent the day at Burana tower with two Kyrgyz friends. Hopefully starting from next week we'll spend more time outside of Bishkek and discover more about Kyrgyz culture.

Because Kyrgyz culture is not an obvious thing to catch in the streets of Bishkek. Everywhere here you read and hear Russian. Russification has been strong here and education system still supports it. Even two Kyrgyz persons would speak to eachothers in Russian rather than in Kyrgyz. And parents talk to their children in Russian too, often. They don't seem to care much about their language or their culture. This surprised us very much at first, especially Tince who comes from Latvia where language is so important. But I just wonder if they realize that's how a language slowly dies out.

Cinema theater "Rossiya"

This weekend comes an big celebration : Nooruz. Nooruz is the Zoroastrian new year and an important spring festival in Iran, Central Asia and Mongolia. In Bishkek the city is getting decorated and ready for celebrating. Spring is in the air and we're getting excited for the last part of our journey!

Goodbye, India!

We are back in Amritsar, the Golden Temple of the sikhs. Five months ago we started our journey through India from here. Tomorrow we are finishing it and moving forward.

If someone would mark all the countries of the world on one straight line, Iceland and India would be placed on the two opposite ends of it. We started our journey in Iceland, and Iceland and India are just so different in... everything. Lifestyle, people, esthetics, availability of clean and warm water, wealth, population, nature. I feel like we have had a chance to see two different worlds during this one trip.

When we just arrived in India we couldn't understand those many travelers who once have been here want to return again and again. We decided that it's worth to experience India, but ...once is enough. Now, after almost half a year spent here, we are already planning our next trip to North-Eastern states.

Of course, I am excited to leave tomorrow, our trip has took unexpected turns and we still have many unknown places to explore before returning back home. Still I'm a bit sad as during the time spent here I have learned to love India. I can love it as I can love a relative. I can see all its disadvantages, it can often annoy me, I can disagree with it on many things, still I love it. Incredible India.

Kashmir wears snow

A week ago we took a car to Kashmir. This was truly one of the most fantastic part of our journey in India. Stuffed in a minibus from Jammu we soon got to know that it is illegal to drive between Jammu and Srinagar at night. In case of a police control, we are asked to lie about our destination. We don't really understand if that's for political or climatic reasons. For a couple of hours we've been driving through the most norrow mountain roads as well as crossing a dry river, asking the locals for an alternative path. The night goes on and we have to wait on the way. People are cleaning the road from a landslide. We befriend with our neighbour, a truly kind person who offers us tea and sweets. There is only one way from India to Kashmir since the Partition between India and Pakistan. And that goes crossing a very long and old tunnel. The narrow corridors goes and goes and we wonder if it will end. But when it does, we come out in a beautiful snow landscape : we are in Kashmir!

View from our homestay

In Srinagar, no more snow. Kashmiris are known for being wonderful hosts. I wouldn't have believed how true this was before seeing it myself. The friend I mentionned earlier invited to stay at his family home on our arrival. He lives outside of the center in a big new house with his three sisters, his parents and his grandmother, a traditionnal muslim family. On our arrival we were offered salty Kashmiri tea, bread and butter. Here we traditionnaly eat and sleep on the floor. Everyone carries a hot pot of embers that one can put under his/her long coat for keeping warm. Everyday we are feeded and dressed. During the dinners we have long talks with the sisters. The eldest is very talkative. She studies sufism and speaks in quotes of the Quran. Once we asked about men and women relationships, and she explained us that the sun shows up in the day and the moon in the night and that is for the good of humankind they keep a definite distance. The second sister laughs all the time and the youngest is shy and very quiet. It was really a magical stay and we feel very thanksful.

 Tince in Sherwani with a hot pot

Nicolas waiting for shashlik

On our second day in Srinagar it started snowing. A very heavy snow. That day Srinagar looked a bit like Rīga, with its buildings of wood and red bricks, and snow all around. We bravely faced the snow to explore the mosques and shrines of the old city. Mosques in Kashmir feature interesting architecture, typically with a green wooden pagoda roof. At the end of our little exploration we arrived on a small mausoleum. We can barely see a huge grave from the window. Outside a quote of the Quran (translated in English) tells us about the prophet Isa (Jesus Christ) who didn't die on the cross (according to the holy book of the muslims). There is one controversial theory that I got to know in India during one of my readings. Some believe that Jesus survived his cruxifiction and travelled then to India with St Thomas. He'd die in an old age and would be burried in Srinagar. Well. I've read the famous Jesus live in India by Holger Kersten (inspired from the works of Nikolai Notovich). It's a fine fiction. First I was quite open to this theory. But the book is a total fantasy and hard to take seriously by someone with a minimum of religious culture. Not only Jesus survived and came to Kashmir, but he also spent his teenagehood in India with buddhist monks, Abraham was born in Kasmir and brought the Hebrew people from Kashmir to Canaan and Moses is also somehow burried in Kashmir! A little bit too much.

 

Kashmir is not India, we are regulary remembered. It is true it feels here like a totally different country. People's behaviour and faces bring us far away of what we have seen in India so far. Kashmiris are very proud of their Kashmir and always want be sure we find their land beautiful. The food also is different. We finally get to eat meat! And a lot of it. Kashmiris love kabab, shashlik, tandoori... Street dogs look healthy, almost fat, eating meat wastes. Unlike skiny Indian dogs on vegetarian diet. During the next days, snow disappear. However important landslides prevent us to leave the country. The only road is closed, and still today we don't know yet when we'll be able to take a bus. Hopefully tomorrow. Hopefully.

This gives us more time to explore the city. We are off touristic season here, and maybe the only whities in town! The rain force us to hide our face and the rickshaws drive without noticing us. We visited the museum of Srinagar. A part of it actually, most of the museum being closed due to flood. The content of the museum wasn't interesting but the museology was amazing! Some old statues from the 7th century BC put on the floor with no protection, piles of stuffed animals loosing their hair in open showcase... On a sunny day we took a boat through the canals of Dal lake. Many people live on the lake. We are discovering a second city! Different districts (for fishermen, for shopping, etc.) are here, and also a mosque and a hindu temple. See on the pictures!