Osh Kosh B'Gosh

From: Osh, Kyrgyzstan

I arrived in Osh a couple of days ago. It's the second-largest city in the country, located in the South, near the Uzbek and Tajik borders. I'll be here for a couple more days until I can figure out onward transport (read on...), but it's interesting so far.

Southern Krygyzstan (and Osh in particular) is more conservative and outwardly Muslim than the northern part of the country. Although Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan are predominantly Muslim, I had never heard even one person mention Islam, seen anyone pray or listened to the call of a muezzin while I was there. On my taxi ride from the capital to Osh, I noticed the difference immediately; all the men in my taxi wore traditional skullcaps and said prayers as the car left the station. When I reached Osh, I found the difference in dress from Karakol and Kochkor was pronounced. Women (especially married ones) tend to cover their hair and dress more conservatively than northerners. Men dress similarly, but tend to keep their hear shorter, grow their beards out and wear skullcaps. Slight differences in the architecture (more Uzbek influence than Russian) give the city a more Persian/Arabic, and less Russian, feel.

The city is famous for two things: the great bazaar (the largest in the region) and the Throne of Solomon.

The bazaar is everything a good market should be: gigantic, impressive, chaotic and loud. The bazaar stretches along the river near my hostel into the center of town. I haven't counted, but I'd guess there are well over 1,500 stalls, shops and boutiques. They don't trade in a lot of silk these days, but you can buy spices by weight, cheap Chinese electronics, food (of questionable cleanliness, in many cases), strange pamphlets ("God's Secrets Revealed"), kitchen instruments, and dozens of other things I haven't come across yet. I just finished the book I was reading (Catch-22, a fitting text given the absurdities of traveling in this region) so I'm going to head back in today and see if they stock any English-language books.

The Throne of Solomon is a large, jagged rock formation in the center of the city. It takes its current name since King Solomon (of temple-building fame) supposedly traveled here a long time ago (doubtful, given the distance to the Middle East). I took an afternoon trip and climbed to the top. The Throne offers an impressive lookout over Osh and the surrounding region. There's also a tiny mosque at the top where you can say prayers with an old man for a small fee. Strangely, there are tiny caves in the mountainside on the way up where old ladies sleep and pray on small mats.

Here is a local-history museum built into the side of the Throne:

And a view of Osh from the Throne itself:

Apart from seeing the main sights, I've had a lot of fun hanging out at the chaikhanas (tea houses that serve food) near my hostel and soaking in the city. The chaikhanas in Osh have tapchans (raised, cushioned tea beds) where you can lie down while you drink green tea or eat your meal. I had dinner last night with two Australians staying in my hostel at a nearby chaikhana: grilled shashlyk, freshly-baked bread and cold Russian beer... fantastic. On the topic of post-Soviet beer, I'm a big fan of Baltika, one of the largest export brands, since I first tried it at the Russian bar in Washington. Baltika varieties are numbered 1-9 (e.g., 6 is a dunkelbier, 7 is a pilsener, 8 is a wheat beer), although this flavor diversity is irrelevant in Osh since they only have Baltika 7. Still, it's good to know that somewhere out there, people are drinking my Baltika 3's and 6's.

There have also been a few moments of Kyrgyz weirdness/funniness. When I was walking around town early in the morning, I came across a squadron of young army recruits working on the side of the road. They each had a branch of an oak tree and were using it to sweep the sides of the street, trying to get the dust off the shoulders, I guess. Some of the officers were barking orders in Kyrgyz ("sweep faster, dammit!") and a couple were arranging flowers on a podium by the roadside. I guess some politician was going to make a speech there and they wanted him to have fresh-cut flowers and a dust-free venue. The weird thing is that the group was working to some European techno song being blasted from an army truck - "your love is what I nee-eeeed..." Nothing gets a Kyrgyz corporal working faster than German electronica.

I've ended up staying in Osh longer than I would have liked. My original plan was to head south from Osh into the Pamir mountains of Tajikistan. From what I've heard, the Pamir Highway is matched only by the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan for its remoteness, hostile weather and stunning alpine scenery. Unfortunately, changing visa regulations, incorrect guidebook info and ambassadorial ineptitude (that's you, Tajik embassy) have thwarted this part of my trip: I have the required Tajik visa but am unfortunately missing the permit for the highway itself. Since the Pamirs are the only direct route into Tajikistan, I'm scrambling to figure something out. I have a few options:
- find some way to get the Pamir permit, then find transport into eastern Tajikistan. This is pretty doubtful at this point and I'm about to give up.
- try to get to Dushanbe via an obscure border crossing at Karamyk. The road is good but the cops demand a lot of bribes and the checkpoint may be closed to foreigners.
- get a car to take me to Tajikistan another way. This option is trickiest since the main road going to northern Tajikistan crosses through tiny Uzbek-controlled enclaves (such as Sokh) that would waste my Uzbek visa and leave me stranded in a tiny pocket of the country with no way out. To get to Tajikistan safely, I'd need to pay a driver to avoid the Uzbek checkpoints and go the long way round to the Tajik border. This option is really expensive but may be what I have to do.

Neither of these options is cheap or very convenient, but I'll work something out... wish me luck!