Saturday, June 21, 2014
We had pre-booked a guesthouse that is a favorite with overland travelers called Nomads and headed straight to it based on GPS coordinates kindly provided by Craig. We arrived to find they did not have our booking.com reservation. We quickly worked out that we had incorrectly booked the Nomad Hostel (instead of Nomad’s Home). As luck would have it, Nomad Hostel was very nice, and more to our liking. The fact that we had one of their 2 private rooms, and that there were only a few other guests at the time also helped. We immediately got a much needed load of washing going.
Getting cash was a little more tricky than most places. ATMs seemed to accept Visa but not Cirrus/Maestro, which is what our ATM card uses. Fortunately there were about 10 money changers on each street corner. So, we quickly obtained the local currency.
After a brief walk around we headed for Obama Cafe and Restaurant for a very nice meal. It did not take us long to start to like this city.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
We relaxed and enjoyed Bishkek. There were not many sights to see as such, but there were nice parks full of sculptures, tree lined streets and the shops were modern. The drivers are a little crazy, but that was to be expected.
Based on advice from our Lonely Planet guidebook we did find the magic ATM which works with our cash card.
Dinner was at Sushi and Pasta, another very good choice. We stayed in for the night and watched Belgium defeat Russia in a very close match.
