Took a marshrutka to Karasu In the morning (30 minutes ride, 20 Som). There is a big bazaar in Karasu

and there were a lot of Chinese traders doing wholesale business at the market. Most of the products in Kyrgyzstan are made in China and many clothings and goods have Chinese brand name on it.

Took a shared taxi to Bishkek (1000 Som ~USD$22) at 2pm instead of flying.

Stopping for a break, with other passengers.

For the first half of the journey, the view was pretty flat.

However, when we drove around the mountains, it’s too dark to take pictures of the beautiful scenary.

Arrived in Bishkek at around 12am. Went to Hotel Ak Sary which is quite dirty and Sakura guesthouse was closed, so finally I bought the taxi driver food and drinks and slept in his car which was quite cold.

Dec 2nd

Osh University

Laghman again

City street

Yurt

Osh Museum (50 Som~ USD$1)

Shape of the country

Solomon’s throne

View from above

Lenin’s statue

Bazaar

Local housing

Manti (dumplings)

Walked to Munduz travel agency at the south part of town to get some information regarding transportation to Bishkek. Flight from Osh to Bishkek cost around USD50, 1 hour flight and shared taxi cost USD$30 for 10 hours ride. I think I will take the shared taxi just to see the scenery on the way to Bishkek.

Park

Chess

Moved to Hotel Sanadar and got a dorm room (150 Som~USD3.5)

because I find the road to the hotel in the bazaar a little dangerous at night. Plus, the owner is not friendly and the room is too cold. Went to Hotel Beijing to have a chat with the Chinese worker. He was quite friendly and told something about business in Kyrgyzstan.

Dec 1st
Met up with Bakhtiar at around 7am, walked around and visited the museum at 8am.

I didn’t know that Koreizmi and Ibn Sina were Uzbek from Andijon. Koreizimi is the famous mathematician and Ibn Sina, the famous doctor.

Fergana Valley

Cotton plant. Uzbekistan is the 2nd biggest exporter of cotton.

A medressa (islamic school) which was shut down by the government because the government is afraid of Islamic fundamentalist teaching.

Young center (A center for young people to hang out with facilities such as reading room and the first bowling alley in Andijon)

Crying mother statue

The security is tighter in Andijon because of the Andijon massacre in 1995 where the military killed around 1000 unarmed protesters. There were also a few terrorist attack, the most recent case being a bomb in front of the government building close to Hotel Andijon. I guess probably that’s why Hotel Andijon refused foreigners now.
Statue of Babur. He is from Andijon and is the founder of Mughal Indian empire. His great grandfather is Timur. There were statues of Timur everywhere in Samarkand but in Andijon, there are statues of Babur instead.

Since my Uzbek visa is only valid until Dec 1st, I have to get out of the country fast. Took a shared taxi to Dosytk at 12pm (around 45 minutes ride, 2,500 Som~USD1.30) and then changed to another taxi for a short ride to the Uzbekistan border.

There are many people waiting outside in the cold weather. Uzbekistan border crossing is very bureaucratic. They required me to fill up 2 similar forms as the 2 forms I filled when I got in the country.
Kyrgyzstan border crossing is slightly easier. A custom officer brought me to a room and checked my bags. He was acting a little weird and I am pretty sure he wanted some bribes so I just ignored him.
Then took a bus from Kyrgyzstan border to Osh which is just around 8kms away. Osh is the second biggest city in Kyrgyzstan and is an old city and some people mentioned that the city was founded by King Solomon or even Alexander the great. There are a mixture of Uzbeks and Kyrgyz people in Osh. Osh was a territory of Uzbekistan some years back and there were an ethnic conflict in 1990 between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz.
Kyrgyz looks just like East Asians which is different from their Uzbek neighbors.
There were a lot of money changers on the street and a lot of Mercedes on the street. These combination seemed like a place for Mafias.

Jameh Bazaar

Local Kyrgyz hat

Asked around a few hotels and found a hotel inside the bazaar, (300 Kyrgyz Som~USD7.5, 1 USD~43.80 Kyrgyz Som).

Laghman for dinner (40 Som ~ USD$1)