Friday March 22

Early start to be at Bishkek airport, still known by the old word for Kyrgyzstan, Frunze. We are very early and spend some of the last of our Com on the most expensive coffee and apple pie since being in Kyrgyzstan. Good tucker though and it was the second time I had latte done the American way with the layers of colour - or is it French?
All the way to the airport the trees are shooting, the willows vivid green and the grass coming to life everywhere. 




We passed many huge shooting poplar trees full of crows nests looking like bee hives.
Spring certainly comes quickly here. The last two weeks have seen enormous changes from our snowy start.














It is a bit sad to say goodbye but there is the excitement of the next week of sight seeing in China and the looking forward to being home for Easter with my Sydney family.
The flight is eventless and the mountains stunning with a mixture of black rock and glaciers. 

And I even saw what looked like terraced farming very high up.
Heaven knows what they're growing up there.

We flew back over Lake Issyk-kul and this time could see it in all it's glory and were able to pick out the villages we had visited on the south shore. We were even more aware of how quickly the mountains go straight up, and able to well believe what we were told, that 95% of Kyrgyzstan is mountain ranges.


Clear weather all the way back to Urumqi apart from the smog that seems to engulf every Chinese city permanently. We are back at the Sheraton and went for a walk further afield through back streets seeing the real life of many struggling people.

We ate at a local restaurant where they spoke no English. Had fun trying to get them to understand we wanted beer and discovered that in western China nearly all the dishes are VERY spicy - the spice of the tingling, make that "fizzing", lips and tongue - memories of the chilli dishes in Bhutan. 











 As we returned to the hotel we walked through a shopping arcade next door of very upmarket stores in stark contrast to the back streets just a block away.  This always distresses me.

We found the museum close by and will visit it tomorrow to get a glimpse of Silk Road days. We also have directions to find the International Bazaar, billed as something special, and the nearby large mosque. Have to fit all that in before we leave tomorrow evening for Xian.