In this blog post I will recount our days 7 through 20 in Kyrgyzstan. Almost nothing went as originally planned – and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. This is a long post—feel free to skip, move around, or read the entire thing. Day 7 It was a yellow, smoky day in Karakol.…

The goal was to get from Bishkek to Karakol, a city in eastern Kyrgyzstan, via marshrutka.  We woke up early after a terrible night of sleep. The bed was hard, the room was hot, and… there was only one bed. We headed down for breakfast, which included a number of Kyrgyz delicacies we had not…

It was hot and dusty; the situation was tense. We sat in the back of the taxi, crammed, trapped. He pressured us, but we would not give in. Please, sir, we can’t. Please, take us to the hotel. We cannot do what you ask.” “но вы должны попробовать ферментированное лошадиное молоко, это вкусно!” “We are…