After Steven got kicked above his knee by a horse at the Osh Sunday Animal Market and then the exhausting 7.5 hour hike in the Alay Mountains the previous day, we needed a very relaxing day in Osh today! Getting up late and then walking slowly through several local parks fit the bill perfectly.
All these mini riding toys needed were some children!
A statue of the former leader of the Alay region, Alymbek Datka known usually as simply Alymbek, was in the park named for him.
For some visitors, the yurt's lure was being able to dress up in and take photos of traditional Kyrgyz clothing but that sort of thing isn't our cup of tea. We just preferred to walk around and look at the exhibits and its colorful interior.
I would think this was likely a painting of Alymbek but as there were no English information, I am not sure.
If you've read recent posts about our time in Kyrgyzstan, you've seen this design before on the country's flag. Known as tunduk, it's the center of all yurts in the country and has 40 lines, each one representing one of the 40 tribes in Kyrgyzstan as Kyrgyz means '40 tribes.'
From the small platform at the top, we had nice views of the park.
Remember my mentioning the crazy borders Joseph Stalin drew for Kyrgyzstan and other countries in the former Soviet Union and how it later led to ethnic strife? This map from 1953 pinpointed the territories of the country's tribes and clans. Osh is in the southwest part of the country. I believe Kyrgyzstan still has the same bizarre shape.
As almost all the displays were only in Kyrgyz and Russian, a young woman who had only started work that day took pity on me and explained many of the exhibits in her broken English which I appreciated hugely. She told me these clothes were worn by poor and rich people in the Osh region during the 19th century.
Each carpet had its own meaning and represented a different area.
Gulperi said these items were used in Kyrgyz kitchens during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Gulperi said the same 19th and 20th century weapons were used by both Kyrgyzstan and Russia.
We recognized this painting right away as it showed the Cave Museum that we'd toured on our first day in Osh on our way to hiking to the top of Suleiman's Throne, the mountain that overlooked the city. The museum exit looked just like a pioneer woman's bonnet, didn't it?!
Just outside the museum was this massive monument but I couldn't find out why it was built and what or whom it honored. While walking in the park, several groups of young people came up and talked to us, with each asking if we were tourists, what other places in their country we had visited, how long we would be in their city, what we liked about their city, etc! To a certain extent, they were indeed trying to practice their English but more than that, in my opinion, they were so curious about meeting foreigners and wanting to know a little about a world apart from theirs. Luckily, we had plenty of time that day to answer their questions and share our love of their country.
I noticed the fence had the same tunduk design I explained earlier.
One of the all-time strangest experiences we've ever had while traveling overseas was finally finding the post office in Osh only to be told by the woman working inside, we would have to go t Bishkek, the country's capital, to buy stamps for postcards! I wish you could have seen the looks on our faces when she told us that, and no, it wasn't a matter of being 'lost in translation' either.
In Navoi Park, a small one near the city center, there was a grounded Aeroflot Yakovlev-40 that was once apparently used as a movie theater or a cafe, depending on what you read!
Have I mentioned we have seen Ferris wheels in almost every city this trip? I don't know what it is with them and cities in the former Soviet Union! This one was just feet away from the old Russian plane.
We walked for well over a mile along the Ak-Burra River to see one of the largest Lenin statues still remaining in all of Central Asia.
On the way we passed a bike rental operation that had bikes built for three which was another first!
This huge old Russian mosaic, one of many in Osh, graced a building opposite City Hall.
The huge City Hall building seemed out of proportion for the size of the city.
Right across Lenina Street from City Hall was the Lenin Statue we'd walked a long way to see. Thank goodness, it was mighty impressive! According to the Lonely Planet guidebook, Lenin "appears to be beseeching the authorities to pull down the massive Kyrgyz flag flapping in front of him."
As we walked by the statue, three boys said so spontaneously "Welcome to Kyrgyzstan!" We did indeed feel very welcome in their homeland.
Lenina Street was about eight lanes wide but there was hardly any traffic on it, even though it was a weekday and therefore presumably a workday.
Next to and behind City Hall was another of Osh's many parks, Toktogul Park. The edge of the park, along Lenina, had many interesting sculptures. I think this was the WW II monument.
I was surprised there was such a significant monument in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, to the horrific event of April 26, 1986, when a drill went wrong at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in what is now northern Ukraine. It turns out that when the nuclear meltdown and explosion contaminated an enormous part of northern Ukraine and southern Belarus, about 4,500-5,000 of the Chernobyl 'liquidators,' people who were sent to clean up and contain the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown, were from Kyrgyzstan, according to a blog titled MondayBazaar.
The author wrote last year only about 1,300-1,750 of them are still alive today, 31 years later. Many, he added, were conscripted to go work at the site without having ever known what had happened thanks to the news blackout on the disaster in the aftermath." By the way, Steven and I toured Chernobyl in the fall of 2016 on a day trip from Kiev, Ukraine to see for ourselves what the site was like, thirty years later.
When I walked through a small gate to take this picture, the custodian noticed my interest and showed me more of his church.
Speaking only Russian, he then ever so kindly gave (lent?) me this Bible. I was very touched by his thoughtfulness but I gave it back as it was in Russian, it was heavy and I didn't feel comfortable taking one of his prized possessions.
For at least the last hour, we had been so hoping to find a bench in one of the parks to sit and read for a while. It was the strangest thing, though, as the Osh parks contained lots of beautiful trees and sculptures and monuments galore but hardly any benches, much to our dismay!
As we walked past the Lenin Statue again looking for another park and some seats, another Kyrgyz resident welcomed us to her country without hoping to get anything in return. The people's instinctive warmth and heartfelt welcome did so much to ensuring we had a wonderful time in our two weeks in Kyrgyzstan. I noticed that generosity of spirit in all our interactions was almost exclusively evident among ethnic Kyrgyz rather than the Russian Kyrgyz citizens.
After finally finding the entrance to another park, we looked up and saw these ever-so-pretty umbrellas that brought a smile to our faces!
We may have been looking for benches but we found swings which were even better. While I sat in the shade, Steven sat in the sun on the other side of the park. When this woman and her son sat down on the next swing, we all began chatting as if we had known each other for years. The woman was 59 and had taught Central Asian languages at the university and her 28 year-old son, who acted as the interpreter, was a schoolteacher. Steven and I have never been asked as often as we were in Kyrgyzstan how old we were, by people young and also not quite so young! At first we were taken aback but by the time we were in Osh, we had almost gotten used to it!
As we were chatting, I saw the park was the place for newly married couples to come and have their pictures taken. That prompted the man to bring out pictures of his wife and adorable daughter!
Throughout this time, several teenage girls had sat on the swings and also got involved in the conversation. They all seemed to want to practice their English and I was glad to oblige as Steven wouldn't be disturbed, being far enough away. Nursolu, aged 17, hung around the longest after the mother and son finally had to leave. She told me she was the 'baby' of the family with an older brother and sister. As Nursolu was studying languages in college, that explained her additional interest to practice English with me. She said she would really like to visit Britain someday and also Paris; I hope her dreams come true. Nursolu and I still have kept in touch via texts and photos on Whatsapp! I was so grateful to have had the opportunity to chat at length with all three residents of Osh.
NO Kyrgyz wedding would be complete without a drone to record the happy day, I knew!
The groom was the youngest Kyrgyz man I had seen wear the traditional men's kalpak hat in our two weeks in the country.
I suggested to Steven we take a taxi back to the guesthouse as I didn't feel like walking a half hour or more then. It took Steven several minutes to show three taxi drivers and one interested passerby where exactly the guesthouse was on his iPad. It took a couple minutes longer than that for one of them to take us there for only .75 plus a generous tip!
Our guesthouse in Osh: We had the entire upstairs apartment that included a large sitting area, bedroom, minuscule kitchen and combined bathroom with washer. The cost was a very reasonable $45 a night including breakfast delivered to us exactly when we requested. Strangely enough, though, there was no sink in the kitchen, no pots or pans to cook anything on the hotplates, no detergent to wash dishes or clothes, and, on a somewhat gross note, only the small garbage can in the bathroom that had to be used for TP AND any other garbage!
In the same park was the Three-Story Yurt, a giant yurt built in three vertical sections. I read that it was the largest in the world until Turkmenistan decided to erect a yurt-shaped building.
A stone's throw from the yurt was the Silk Road Museum aka the Historical Museum that was opened in 2001 to celebrate Osh's 3,000th anniversary event. Unlike any other museum I've ever heard of, it closed on the weekends.
Gulperi, our sweet guide: I benefited from her knowledge of the museum's artifacts and she appreciated getting some help with her English so it was a perfect trade for both of us!
The author wrote last year only about 1,300-1,750 of them are still alive today, 31 years later. Many, he added, were conscripted to go work at the site without having ever known what had happened thanks to the news blackout on the disaster in the aftermath." By the way, Steven and I toured Chernobyl in the fall of 2016 on a day trip from Kiev, Ukraine to see for ourselves what the site was like, thirty years later.
In Toktogul Park was a large, brightly colored Russian Orthodox church.
The man, who kept calling me "Sister," told me of the large number of Kyrgyz people who have settled in Chicago. They were both curious about the Kyrgyz food I/we liked and when I mentioned the local bread was one of our favorites, his mum pulled out half a loaf of the round Kyrgyz bread I'd taken pictures of in markets, to give to me. That was followed by a bag of green grapes! I only had a snack-sized bag of raisins and almonds to share but luckily they seemed to enjoy them. Maureen: I knew there was a reason I wanted to buy both of those items on one of our many Costco runs in preparation for this trip! The man kindly offered to put us in touch with a friend in Tashkent, here in Uzbekistan, but I declined his kind offer.
I wondered if the reproduction of the Eiffel Tower was located in the park as a backdrop for wedding photos as I ended up seeing about six couples having their wedding pictures taken in the two or so hours we were there!
We were tired, having walked more and done more than we planned, so grabbed dinner at a Turkish restaurant just down the street from the guesthouse. Normally, we don't go to restaurants if we're the only ones there but we made an exception that night and it worked out well. For just $4.50, we had a pretty decent cheese and mushroom pizza, plus Pepsi for Steven and tea for me. That's the last pizza we've had and we both mentioned just yesterday how much we'd love another pizza fix right about now!
Next post: Back to the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek for our third and final time.
Posted on October 10th, 2018, on our last night in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
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