Today was the last day of the 2026 World Nomad Games.

After some ups and downs during the week, we were really hoping for an amazing day today to close it all out.

And, you know what, it was amazing albeit with a bit of chaos and insanity mixed it with it.

Then again, we’ve of learned that that’s kind of par for the course when it comes to these games.

So, let’s get on with the day, shall we?

There were a couple of things on tap for today.

First there were back to back gold medal matches in Kok Boru and Kokpar during the day and then the closing ceremony celebrations at night.

A detoured taxi ride

The weather today finally had let up as the overcast skies we’d had our entire stay here were replaced with nice sunny skies.

Still a brisk 13c out so it would be a day of pants and the game of jacket on, jacket off throughout the day.

We left at 8am this morning despite the gold medal matches not starting until 10am.

No breakfast today as we wanted to get straight to the stadium to get some nice, prime seats.

Getting a taxi and riding there would take about a half hour so we’d arrive a full hour and half before the gates opened.

Oh, silly, little naive me…

Anyway, our first obstacle came when our taxi ride came upon a roadblock on the main road.

Apparently the entire section in front of the Hippodrome which would be hosting the closing ceremonies later in the day was blocked off.

So, with a left turn, we started up bumpy dirt roads through a residential area on a nice little detour.

Our 9 minute ride turned into a 29 minute ride and, even then, we still got let off a good 15 minute walk away from where we wanted to be.

Utter Insanity!

Finally, at just before 9am, we arrived to the roadway leading to the horse arena we had visited yesterday.

And it was…

Utter insanity!

There’s just no other word to describe it.

Hundreds of people pushing against each other trying to get through one little chokepoint where dozens of guards in military fatigues tried to gain some semblance of order on the other side of the metal gates.

After 10 minutes of just following the herd and basically being dragged through the gate we had finally made it to daylight again.

Oh happy days, that was insane!

The rest should be smooth sailing from here…

More Insanity!

A little bit up the road, volunteers were checking tickets which, unlike other sporting events, were required for this coveted combo of gold medal matches.

The process was actually pretty quick and we headed further down the road to where the actual entrance to the stadium was.

And, well, it was more insanity.

Have you ever been in a crowd where you didn’t move your feet and was just pushed forward?

Well, that’s what I experienced this morning.

Again, there was just one little gap in a gate surrounded by army personal that dozens of people were trying to squeeze through.

I kind of found it amusing and just went with the flow treating it almost like an amusement ride.

Until one one of the guards in front started forcibly pushing us back.

Like, really hard.

At that point I was really worried of tripping and falling down.   It didn’t help that there was a metal bar right under my feet that I had to navigate over.

By the way, the reason we were being pushed to the sides was because a truck had to get in the gate.

Like, what the actual f*ck?

That was insane!

Finally the group started pushing forward again and as I neared the top one of the guards reached out his hand to pull me up to the entrance yelling “tourist, welcome, welcome”.

Now, that was hilarious!

The Kyrgyz people are very self conscious of putting on a good image and part of that is treating their visitors very courteously.

The irony of it all was what we just experienced was anything but a show of courteousness and hospitality.

We just kind of laughed and were happy to finally be inside the gate on our way to find some seats.

Kok Boru

Obviously our dreams of finding an ideal seat right in the middle of the field were completely out the window and by this point we just wanted to find any seat anywhere.

The police presence was turned up a notch too as now the cops were lining the field of play shoulder to shoulder.

Seriously, there must have been hundreds of them here all in their bright yellow high-vis vests.

We kept walking down the grandstand finding section after section full until we finally found a section with empty seats way at the far end of the field.

By that point we didn’t care.   We were just happy to finally find a seat.

It was 9:30 and it the first match, Kok Boru, was to start in just half an hour.

The best way to describe Kok Boru is imagining a game of rugby played on horses but instead of a ball, they use a goat carcass.

There are only 4 players to a side and the goal is to lift up the 70lb carcass from the ground and carry it on your horse to a big tub at your opponents end of the field.

Drop it in the tub and you score a point.

Most points win.

Obviously there’s rules and other intricacies involved as well but, basically, that’s the game.

We were also told that this match was like the World Cup or Champions League Football to the Kyrgyz people.

Basically, it was the biggest ticket in town and the fact that it was the host country playing their arch rivals Kazakhstan made it even bigger.

The match was amazing and seeing the crowd so heavily involved in the game cheering and chanting “kyrg-gah-stan, kyrg-gah-stan” just made the experience everything I wanted it to be.

It didn’t hurt that Kyrgyzstan absolutely demolished the other side by a score of 12-0.

Yup, 12 goals.   That’s alot of cheering!

Kokpar

At noon was the gold medal match of Kokpar.

Again it was Kyrgyzstan vs Kazakhstan.

This game is very similar to its’ big brother with slight differences in some of the rules and gameplay.

The one glaring difference in that the tubs where the goat carcass was dropped was replaced by big plastic rings.

This match seemed much rougher with a lot for jostling for the carcass.

A couple of times riders fell off their horses and you could see one rider on the field trying to dodge all the hooves stamping down around him.

Play was stopped at one point to allow a ambulance onto the field which was pure hilarity as it got stuck in the mud.

No worries though as a bunch of the army guards ran onto the field to push it back off the field.

The game was another blowout for Kyrgyzstan finishing at a 7-2 score.

At 1:30 it was all over and the happy crowd started to disperse.

Thankfully getting out of the stadium was a hell of alot easier than getting in.

Overall, an amazing experience despite the insanity getting inside.

Once inside, the electric atmosphere and the games themselves made for one hell of great experience and I’m so happy we were able to be apart of it.

Food, finally

We exited the stadium and walked down the road to the main street where, I swear, every single marshrutka or minibus in town was lined up ready to take us all away.

We got dropped off just past our hotel and started to backtrack our way there.

On our way we stopped at the first restaurant we saw to grab some lunch.

It was now 2pm and we hadn’t eaten anything yet today.

This restaurant was pretty fancy with a nice bathroom albeit still with squat toilets, and nice booths lining the dining area.

Comically on the back page of their menu was a section that translated to “conflict menu”.

On it was a list of different flatware and their prices.

If you broke something like a plate or a glass you had to pay for it.

If you damaged a table or a sofa, that would cost you big time.

So, we carefully ate our lunch making sure not to break anything.

Again, I had non-traditional Kyrgyz food as I selected a beef entrecote filled with egg, fresh vegetables and rice.

Oh, and a pina colada smoothie, of course.

Ahhhh, that hit the spot.

Closing Ceremonies

By 3pm we were back at our hotel with plans to just relax for a few hours before heading back out for the closing ceremonies.

At just after 6pm we started making our journey back into town where the ceremonies would be taking place.

After a good half hour walk we reached a park and ride area where, again, bus after bus was waiting to transport people to the stadium.

Now, given all we’ve experienced with the games this week, we’d tempered our expectations quite a bit.

And, honestly, that was a much better mindset heading into the closing ceremonies.

I had bought tickets first thing when they went on sale last month and I was very happy to have been able to snag front row tickets.

Row 1.   Seats 1 and 2.

Sweet!

We entered the stadium gate and started walking down towards the front row and showed our tickets to one of the volunteers.

And that’s when my bubble burst.

Apparently, for some inexplicable reason, row one is the very last row in the section as it counts numerically up from the top.

Oh, and seats 1 and 2?   Yeah, those weren’t aisle seats but at the very end of the row.

I mean, c’mon, this was just comical at this point, right?

Like, I couldn’t have scripted any of this any better.

So, we walked all the way to the top of the section and planted our asses down in our seats.

At 8pm the show started and, I gotta be honest, they knocked it out of the park.

Along with the main stage, there were a couple of dancing waterfalls on either side, along with a lake in front.

On the stage itself was the most amazing high tech video show with streams of fire balls flying out of columns along the stage.

Over the next 3 hours we were treated to a concert of different vocal talents from around the world.

There were singers from here in Kyrgyzstan but also from Russia, Azerbaijan, Rwanda, Ecuador, Mongolia, China and France.

As each song played I tried to figure out the artist by using my Shazam app which worked pretty well I gotta say.

At just after 11pm the show came to a close and we found a shuttle bus taking us straight to where we needed to get off to do the short walk back to our hotel.

The little food stall we went to on our first day in town was still open at this time of night so, of course, I nabbed some late night plov for dinner.

And that was the day.

It was easily the best day we’d had when it came to the Nomad Games and despite some bouts of insanity and disappointment here and there, I personally am glad I came to Kyrgyzstan to experience this adventure.

Tomorrow we’re heading back to Bishkek to get ready for a very early morning flight the next day which will lead us into our Turkmenistan leg of the trip.

Yup, this trip isn’t even close to being over…