27 February 2025 😀

And here we go, my absolute fave part of Kyrgyzstan!

That morning I rolled out of bed super early, still dealing with my tired eyes, which I guess I could blame on being constantly wiped out. My eye muscles felt like they had hit the gym and weren’t doing their job right. But hey, I powered through because I got more sleep than usual (still within normal hours, I crashed after midnight). The lady serving breakfast was kinda rude, but I didn’t take it personally—I can be even worse in the mornings, especially before my coffee! If I were in her shoes, I’d probably be grumpy too having to deal with people at that hour. I managed to grab some scrambled eggs and bread, but since they didn’t serve coffee, I tried to get tea, which ended up being way too hot. We were in a bit of a rush to eat since we had to meet our local guide at 7 am—who was already waiting for us. So, I didn’t finish my meal or drink my tea because, well, it was too hot, and honestly, that was definitely gonna mess with my mood for the whole morning. Hahaha, food makes me happy, it’s that simple!

The morning was still super cold when we rushed out, and it was dark as we left our hostel. The chilly winter breeze greeted my face, blowing a cold kiss that really woke me up. Thankfully, it wasn’t snowing like it did last night, but there was still a pretty pile of snow everywhere. Since my allergies can act up with such a drastic temperature change, I was prepping myself with some masks. Also, there was this weird, strong smell in the hostel that morning that was really bugging me.

Our tour guide rolls up and greets us with a big smile in his car. They are two young gentlemen, both super friendly, and they speak pretty good English. He welcomes us into his ride, pops the trunk in case we want to stash our bags (but we don’t have any), and lets us hop in. Quick intro: their names are Jack and Anuar—I’m guessing they’re around the same age. Joey mentions that the drive to our first stop will take a couple of hours, so I’m thinking it’s the perfect time for a little nap!

Figure. Jack and Anuar are taking us on our first adventure! 🙂

But seriously, the view outside the car was way too awesome to sleep! I mean, it was just stunning. As we drove from Bishkek to the outskirts, the snowy stuff covering both sides of the road was a total treat for my eyes. Jack was giving a quick intro about his country (I was all the way in the backseat with Joey, so I missed a lot of what he said), and Karl was throwing out questions, but I totally spaced out. Sorry, but it’s just super hard to catch anything from back here! Slowly, the day got brighter as we got further from Bishkek, and morning was just perfect.

The road was nice and wide, super smooth, and thankfully no snow on it! It did look a bit wet though, so maybe it was a a bit slippery? There were houses all along the sides with folks all snuggled up inside, catching some Zs. We made a quick stop at a convenience store to grab some coffee—woohoo! It totally woke me up! This is the moment I’d been waiting for. Happy sippin’ on my hot cappuccino!

Weeeell, suddenly got a message from my collaborator early this morning to fix some documents. It’s kinda annoying ’cause I really didn’t wanna work on anything, but I had no choice—I need to get things sorted out ASAP. So, I missed a lot of the views since I started working on my Google Sheet on my phone. I heard Joey on his phone too (maybe chatting with a client?) and both of us got busy in the backseat. At least I got my stuff done before our first stop: Burana Tower!

—continue to Burana Tower—-