DAY TWELVE:

The trip report will be a little light here as I already have an extensive report on Bishkek, but for the sake of completeness, here it is!

There are quite a few bazaars in Bishkek, but if you can only go to one I would recommend Osh Bazaar. It is probably the most well known of the bazaars in Bishkek, albeit not the largest, and has a variety of things for sale from food to clothes and home goods. It is also the most touristy of the bazaars, but it is still Bishkek so that term is very relative. By touristy I mean there is basically one set of souvenir shops on a random street in the bazaar--as you can see it is not exactly what many would call touristy, yet it still is likely the most touristy of any of the options in Bishkek (or Kyrgyzstan for that matter).

So of course I had to go back and visit!


Entrance to Osh Bazaar

Kurut! These small ball shaped pieces of fermented milk are a unique snack from the region.

After wandering around for awhile and purchasing some souvenirs we went to lunch. One of my favorite restaurants in the city is called Plov Center so we went there to get... well plov of course! I will say that despite Plov being an Uzbek dish I almost prefer it more in Bishkek. For some reason it seems less oily. I'm not sure if it actually is or if I just like being in Bishkek, but alas I find it better.



Then my friend and I had the great idea to go to a tree climbing attraction thing. I'm sure it was safe, but it was easily the scariest experience I have had in the country. Trees are really tall it turns out.






That's about it. For dinner I went to a newly opened restaurant called Seven. It was fine, but I certainly wouldn't go there if you want local food--there are far better places to go eat in Bishkek. It is however, extremely atmospheric. If you like instagram photos this is the place. With that said, I managed to take a grand total of zero pictures of the interior... so...