My First Night Out in Bishkek
Ahh Bishkek. A city that the average person has probably never heard or could locate on a map. This mountain surrounded capital of Kyrgyzstan (one of my favourite countries in the world) was where I found myself on a solo trip through Central Asia many years ago.
Why solo? Well, when I floated the idea past a few friends to come with me to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan I was met with responses such as “what even is that?”, “why would you go there?” and “How about you come with us to Bangkok?”. While I love Thailand, I wanted something a bit more. This is how I wound up in Kyrgyzstan, in the middle of winter, by myself.
I arrived in Bishkek after a few hours’ drive from Almaty, Kazakhstan, where
![alcohol shop, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan]()
I made my way to my hostel and settled in. The hostel was almost empty except for one Peace Corps worker who made for some good conversation. He pointed me in the way of a bar, so I let the lady at reception know I was heading out for a drink and should be back not too late.
After a drink or two I struck up conversation with a Kyrgyz man around the same age as me. He invited me to drink with his friends. He and his friends spoke amazing English as several of them had studied in the US. We all left the bar and they invited me back to one person’s house to continue drinking. Completely ignoring everything I learnt as a kid about ‘stranger danger’ I went with them and had a great time before falling asleep on someone’s couch.
In the morning, one of them dropped me back at the hostel and explained that they were going to do a road trip that week and asked if I wanted to come. Of course! So, we made arrangements and that was that. Now, you might be thinking, this is where I get kidnapped or robbed or something worse, but no! They were absolutely genuine.
![Partying in Bishkek]()
The trouble I encountered was from the lady at the hostel caring too much. Bless her. I walked back into the hostel bright eyed and bushy tailed thinking about how cool it was going to be to go on a Kyrgyz road trip. “OH MY GOD, thank God you’re alive!” exclaimed Olga the young receptionist. I looked at her as if she was crazy. She then said that she thought something happened to me because I said I was going to get a drink and then didn’t come back. She spent all night calling the police and hospitals to see if I was ok. I thought this was so cute and caring. She did not. My giddy face quickly turned to a stern one as she explained she had to get the police to come just to show them I was ok, and they didn’t need to look for me. I thought it was a little overkill but was super happy to know that she was looking out for me.
A policeman walked through the door about 15 minutes later, said something in Russian to Olga, then turned to me and said “Benjamin?”, I replied “Yes, that’s me”. He grunted and left. That’s it. Even I was shocked, no attempt at a bribe or anything.
I ended up going on the road trip with my new made Kyrgyz friends later that day, but before I left I made sure to bring Olga as many chocolates as I could find at the supermarket to say sorry for the trouble I caused.