On my way to Bishkek..

Heathrow Terminal 3

Rachie the check in lady, you know the, ‘been there seen it all’ type, began to stumble, having clearly never come across a Charlesworth before. 

Adopting a pert position on her stool and curiosity clearly getting the better of her, she asked what’s in the box??.  Well a bicycle was clearly not computing very well because the immediate follow up, pitched a few octaves higher was, “a bicycle in Dubai?” Then checking my ticket, oh where is FRU? Ah yes that’ll be Bishkek.

The bags garnered attention too with, where’s your suitcase? and then as if clarification was needed, your bags are a bit well, unusual. I enjoyed embellishing “The bicycle and suitcase” scenario and yes really the panniers were all I could cary for two months which brought a somewhat unbelieving, oh ok (with a look that said you are clearly as mad as a hatter). My 42 kilogram load however was 12kilos over the limit and it took all my charm to reduce the excess baggage cost of £275 down to £125 claiming my carry on bag could have been 6KG heavier. I think she felt sorry for me. 

The transfer from Emirates to fly Dubai brought a scare too when on check-in the nice lady asked how much my baggage weighed. As I fumbled for an answer balancing their clearly not so integrated baggage systems with ensuring I didn’t stitch myself up thoughts had me stumble out, “about 30 something kilograms” which was so week and feeble but seemed to suffice, I just hoped it wouldn’t tip the weights and balances of the plane too much.

The realisation that my bike alone weighed in at 28 kilograms, was a bit of a shock, they made em strong back then! The thought, “just maybe a newer lighter version might have been a good investment”, came a bit too late. 

Bishkek is a surprisingly open friendly and fun city with kids playing happily even late into the night in the open parks, streets and even on the wide pavements outside the parliament. The buildings here are soviet style squarely built imposing, but somehow attractive too. 

For our Saturday nightlife a band played to enthusiastic club goers of all ages dancing and enjoying the evening together. It was fun and they were keen to engage us in their joviality with enthusiastic “ypa” (cheers in Russian) glass chinking celebrations. 

Cannabis Coffee would have been an interesting pick me up morning drink except that neither of us like coffee and our Russian was clearly not good enough to get a coffee free version. 

Off for a day trip to Almaty Kazakhstan and then the cycle to China so not sure when we will have internet connection again for more posts. But it will certainly be interesting!