Off we go to another country today!

Today was the trek from Almaty, Kazakhstan to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan will be our home for the next week as we explore around the Issyk-Kul Lake region and take in the 2026 World Nomad Games.

Sold out!

There are 12 seater mini buses the leave Almaty on a 5-6 hour trip to Bishkek at 8am, 10am, noon, 2pm, and 6pm.

We decided to take the 10am bus and left early to get to the bus station to buy a ticket and also grab some breakfast.

After a half hour taxi ride out, we arrived at the bus station at 9am, a good hour before our bus would depart.

The kiosk that sold tickets didn’t look open but there was a sign with a QR code on it that translated to “buy tickets here”.

I brought up the website and, damn, it showed not only the 10am bus sold out but every other one too except the 6pm bus.

Our first bit of adversity had finally shown up for our trip.

Taking a 6pm bus wasn’t an option so we went back outside to the “taxi guys” hawking rides to Bishkek.

We weren’t more than 2 foot out of the station when a man approached us.

Instead of doing the usual wave off saying “no, no”, I asked him the price to Bishkek.

The bus ride would have been 3325₸ ($10) each and the taxi driver quoted us 6000₸ ($18) per seat but we’d have to wait for 2 others to join us before we could leave.

We could, however, buy the whole car for 24,000₸ ($72) which would be $36 each.

Not ideal but it was a solution so we told the guy we’d take the car after we got something to eat.

We ate at the little cafeteria inside and I decide, just out of curiosity, if the option to Yandex (their version of Uber) was available and how much it would be.

Turns out it was cheaper at 20,000₸ ($60) but also it would be a nice new air-conditioned car instead.

Sorry, taxi dude, you’re out of luck.

After breakfast we broke the news to him.   I felt kinda bad for keeping him on the hook for 20 minutes but, hey, all’s fair in love and taxis.

Crossing the border

The Kazak/Kyrgz border is about 200km southwest from Almaty and took us just under 3 hours to get there.

It helped that the driver was hitting speeds up to 160kmh which, I’m assuming, is much, much quicker than a bus would have gone.

And the time flew by as we play cribbage in the back seat while our driver zoomed along.

Now, I should mention that unlike the buses that go all the way into the city, when you book a taxi or Yandex to Bishkek what you’re actually booking is a ride to the border.

From there you have to find your own way.

That wasn’t a big deal though since I had already looked up how to get from the border into Bishkek.

The border crossing itself was pretty simple.

You walk through a gate, step into an office, get your passport stamped leaving Kazakhstan, walk through another pathway, another gate, another office, and another stamp to get into Kyrgyzstan.

Easy peasy!

It took probably 20 minutes to get through the whole process.

And just like that I had arrived in country number 67 on my list.

And, yes, I did the 67 meme cause, of course, I did.

Our times changed on our phones too as they’re an hour ahead of Kazakhstan.

Border to Bishkek

The reason I knew how to get from the border to Bishkek was because that’s actually the recommended way to get into the city even if you were on a bus from Almaty.

Yup, it’s preferred to ditch the bus at the border and take public transport into the city.

The reason?   While you quickly walk through the border, the bus gets stuck in traffic and you end up having to wait awhile for it to pick you back up.

There are a few buses you can take into town but we took bus #34 which took us to a stop a block away from our hostel.

We paid cash (40som, 65cents) and we were on our way for our hour long bus ride into the city.

And then, at 3pm we had arrived.

Police everywhere!

We’re staying in the central area of town and you can’t help but notice that there is a huge police presence all along the main road.

Like, literally, there are cops every 10 feet guarding the street on both sides.

It turns out that along with the upcoming Independence Day and Opening Ceremony festivities tomorrow, that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit of 10 countries was taking place this weekend.

Apparently presidents from China, Russia, India, and others were coming into town so whole areas of town were in high security zones.

Free Walking Tour

After grabbing a quick lunch of trout and fries, we headed down the police lined street to the Ala Too Square where a huge Kyrgyzstan flag waves over the city.

A pretty iconic starting point for a tour and, also, pretty easy to figure out where it is.

There were 15 of us on the tour and, despite the temperature being 34c, it didn’t feel too hot as we toured around the city for 2 1/2 hours.

It probably helped that our guide, Nurbubu, took us to places that had shade.

By the way, not to future tour guides – take your tour to shady areas, it’s damn hot out there.

Anyway, the tour was one of the better ones I’ve been on as Nurbubu had a nice style of talking and showing us the different parts of the city.

Things I learned:

-There are 40 rays from the sun on the Kyrgyzstan flag signifying the 40 tribes that make up the country.

-In fact, Kyrgyz translates to forty and Stan translates to tribe.

-We tried the traditional game of Chuko on the sidewalk throwing sheep bones

-Since people didn’t put the effort into learning the Kyrgyz language, a new law was passed in 2020 making it mandatory to know the language if you wanted to work in government or attend university

-Over 500,000 Kyrgyz citizens live and work in Russia making it their unofficial 8th region

-There are 7 million people living in the country with 1 million of them living in the city of Bishkek

Late night dinner

By 7:30 our tour was over and Nathan and I headed back to our hostel.

After a fruitless attempt to find a market selling water and a bank on the main road, we gave up and headed down the alley where our hostel is located.

Naturally, in the alley, there are 3 different 24 hour markets.

And a bank machine.

Anyway, after a much needed shower, we headed back out again at 9:30 for a very late dinner.

The main road was completely blocked off as they weren’t even letting pedestrians cross it or walk down it.

Eventually they allowed us to go so we walked a bit and finally found a restaurant to have dinner.

It was the first place we saw and, I have to say, I’m pretty proud of myself for adapting to finding places to eat.

I used to search and search for places that had gluten free options, now I just pop in and assume (or hope) I’ll be able to find something I can have on their menus.

Anyway, dinner was kind of meh.

I had a beet salad and sweet and sour chicken with a forest berry desert.

And, just like that, our first day in Kyrgyzstan had come to an end.

Tomorrow we’ll be attending the opening ceremonies of the World Nomad Games and then heading south around the country over the next couple of days.

Can’t wait!