Once I finished the trek I made my way to Bishkek which took about four hours by shared taxi. My hostel in Bishkek was full of jaded Westerners who had spent way too much time there waiting for visas. One guy had been there 11 days! In some cities a long wait wouldn't be too bad, but you can see all the sights of Bishkek in approximately 25 minutes so as you can imagine he was getting very bored. There were five motorbikes and three bicycles parked up at the hostel, everyone seemed to be biking their way across the world.
I stayed there one night and then set off on the 11 hour drive to Osh to meet my sister. The road had two 3000m+ passes and was a showcase for the spectacular mountains and rivers of Krgyzstan. I can safely say this country is the most beautiful I have ever visited. It's kind of like Switzerland but with a much smaller population who mainly live in yurt camps instead of quaint little cottages and keep horses instead of cows with annoying little bells.
Osh itself is a nice town, and I had a great time visiting a family who my sister is friends with. It was the Fathers birthday so plenty of piva, vodka and plov was consumed!
I'm off on a bus to Kashgar in China tonight, I have no idea when I'll arrive. I've heard stories of six hour waits at the border.
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