Central Asia: Getting to Bishkek from Urumqi

Airspace from Urumqi to Bishkek

Once I met up with sis, we took marshrutka 380 just outside of airport. We were charged 50 KGS per person including luggage. However there's a catch to this marshrutka, it drops off near Osh Bazaar in Bishkek. Marshrutka in Bishkek are really just van and you'll be amazed how many people can actually fit into a van. What I do admire is all younger passengers will always give up their seat for someone who is older than them. Never fails.

There's a reason why when I'm in a foreign land, I prefer trains or metro anytime compared to buses. Simply because I never know when to get off a bus. Same case here, we have no clue even when it reached the junction near Osh Bazaar. Lady Luck was on our side that morning. As I was talking to sis in Mandarin, a young Kyrgyz teacher overheard us and approached us as we were booted off the marshrutka as that was the last stop. After finding out where were are heading, she spoke to a couple of taxi drivers. So we thought she is helping us to haggle with the taxi driver. It turned out that she was willing to bring us to the hostel by another marshrutka. Yay!

We almost missed the sign to the hostel!

4 hours later, another cable car (10 KGS pp) ride and a long walk with our fatty backpacks on our back, we finally reached Hostel Nomad. It wasn't that far but unfortunately the kind-hearted teacher got the address mixed up as many road names recently changed. She is really kind-hearted, despite we have spent so long trying to get to the hostel and got on the wrong path, she didn't desert us.  By the time we reached the hostel, it was lunch time and perfect time to feed our tummies.

We had lunch at a nearby restaurant serving national food (just a block away) as recommended by the hostel reception. We actually ended up having a meal there a few times too. We were given a menu in Cyrillic and I could recognised compote and manti, many thanks to my ex-workmate T who introduced me to Russian food so that was what we ordered and another random dish. :P

Side note: I could do with some manti right now..!