Kyrgyzstan's Report Card

For the 60-days free visa we got in Kyrgyzstan, we absolutely loved the opportunity to wander about around freely in this wild mountainous country.

Kyrgyzstan received a TCP/IP score of ★★★★☆

Important Pointers

People & Culture (PC)

• Smiley locals waving as we pass by, asking where you're from, where you're going
• Eating at a local's home is a must-try experience – there's homemade bread and jam (from fruit grown in their backyard)
• Often we'd see children coming out of their family yurt asking us to stay at their home for the night. It is unfortunately common for children to be used to get customers. They would also ask for chocolate and money
• In big towns and cities you can find refreshment stands almost every corner, offering cheap cold drinks for the hot sunny days

Infrastructure, Safety and Politics (ISP)

• Road quality varies a lot between the smaller villages
• Due to corruption, a local told us of a joke that "Kyrgyzstan doesn't actually have roads"
• We encountered no scams or nasty business, only begging from kids for candy, money or chocolate. Also men casually asking for money usually when drunk
• Homestay or guesthouse are more common here, offering meals and accommodation together
• Drink driving is common here but we only encountered it once and luckily we weren't on the road at the time donuts were made
• The 60-days free visa has attracted a lot of visitors and tourism in the regions are doing great
• For better phone service throughout the country, go with Megacom. We had Beeline which only offered 3G in cities and towns.

Landscape & Nature (LAN)

• There's lakes, mountains and rivers all over the country providing endless options to see and visit
• Son-Kul is low on visitors, so we enjoyed the lake mostly to ourselves every night we were there
• We saw mountains of all colours: green, orange, white, yellow and red
• Almost all villages will have a well or spring to collect drinking water

Value for Money (VM)

• Fruit and vegetables are cheap particularly watermelon, grapes and stone fruit
• Ice cream and drinks are cheap and tempting on hot days
• Guesthouses are usually $10-15 USD but some hostels allow tenting for cheaper
• Food at the markets are cheap, no one overcharging tourists (except just once and we bought nothing from that shop)

Camping & Outdoor Living (COL)

• Camping and outdoor living was very easy
• Most of the time we had either fresh running water, dried wood (or poo) for a campfire, and sunlight to charge our solar panel
• Many beautiful spots to camp overnight by ourselves
• Some stray dogs visiting our tent, but they're not dangerous and only want food and company, sadly we can't take them with us
• Summer weather here has been almost perfect: 90% sunny days

Return for a Retour?

We thoroughly enjoyed cycling in Kyrgyzstan. We've met so many other tour cyclists throughout and this is definitely the place to cycle. The beautiful landscape and camping opportunities here are fantastic, making it certain that we will return.

The post is added to Steem from our personal blog at https://pedallingcontinents.wordpress.com/2018/08/31/kyrgyzstans-report-card/

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