Kyrgyzstan's second biggest city Osh (300.000 inhabitants) was a major stop on the Silk Road and does have a UNESCO world heritage site: "Suleiman's throne", which is up on a rock dominating the city. But as I have mentioned before, this is not always a quality, which in itself merits a visit and that is pretty much the case here. One of the legends is that King Solomon (or Suleyman) was actually the founder of the city. His "throne" has been a Muslim place of pilgrimage for centuries, supposedly because the Prophet Mohammed himself once prayed here. Its slopes have many small caves, each reputed to have different curative or spiritual properties, one of them being a fertility mini-cave, the rocks of which are worn smooth by young ladies getting in to aid their motherly aspirations. I actually saw one in there (photo), or I should better say her shoes outside and her feet... The climb up of he hundreds of stairs to the throne was a sweaty affair, even in the late afternoon, but also necessary to get at least a little bit of practice for my quite ambitious trekking tours later on... (Well, we will see about that.. ;-) )
One of the nice things here was the "TES-guesthouse", a bit out of the centre, but with a nice garden and very quiet and the people I met here: Jacob - an English chef, David - an Australian government official dealing with immigration issues and on the road with his motorbike and - sorry for that - [name forgotten, so NN.] - a German IT specialist from Darmstadt travelling in his adjusted 4WD car for up to 2 years, depending on when the money will run out (which might actually already be after 6 months...). All of them were on the road already for quite a while - each of them on their own - and each of us had plenty of stories to tell, which was really nice. Partly, we had been to the same places or one had already been to a place where another one still wanted to go, so we talked for hours in the guesthouse's garden to exchange travel experiences, went for dinners together and - yes! ;-) - watched football matches (notably the Germany - Ghana, which took place at local time between 1 and 3 am... ) So, while Osh had nothing particular in terms of sights, it was still a pleasant experience to stay here for 2 nights.
The other nice place was the local "amusement park", something that any city in a central Asian country seems to have and which is - next to the bazaars - THE place where to experience everyday life of and observe local people. I spent the whole Sunday in that park and on the market (which was largely made up of old transport containers, see photos) and took photos (yes, the motivation to take photos came back, fortunately....;-) ). The best were the chess / backgammon players, mostly old men wearing almost all the traditional (and quite funny-looking) felt hats, which I observed quite a while. Many other men were standing around, watching the games and commenting the moves, sometimes with admiration, sometimes with laughter, which in itself was worth observing.
Photos at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A6J0DiRHGfrQJG
One of the nice things here was the "TES-guesthouse", a bit out of the centre, but with a nice garden and very quiet and the people I met here: Jacob - an English chef, David - an Australian government official dealing with immigration issues and on the road with his motorbike and - sorry for that - [name forgotten, so NN.] - a German IT specialist from Darmstadt travelling in his adjusted 4WD car for up to 2 years, depending on when the money will run out (which might actually already be after 6 months...). All of them were on the road already for quite a while - each of them on their own - and each of us had plenty of stories to tell, which was really nice. Partly, we had been to the same places or one had already been to a place where another one still wanted to go, so we talked for hours in the guesthouse's garden to exchange travel experiences, went for dinners together and - yes! ;-) - watched football matches (notably the Germany - Ghana, which took place at local time between 1 and 3 am... ) So, while Osh had nothing particular in terms of sights, it was still a pleasant experience to stay here for 2 nights.
The other nice place was the local "amusement park", something that any city in a central Asian country seems to have and which is - next to the bazaars - THE place where to experience everyday life of and observe local people. I spent the whole Sunday in that park and on the market (which was largely made up of old transport containers, see photos) and took photos (yes, the motivation to take photos came back, fortunately....;-) ). The best were the chess / backgammon players, mostly old men wearing almost all the traditional (and quite funny-looking) felt hats, which I observed quite a while. Many other men were standing around, watching the games and commenting the moves, sometimes with admiration, sometimes with laughter, which in itself was worth observing.
Photos at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A6J0DiRHGfrQJG
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