Goodbye Central Asia

It is time to leave Central Asia. Of course, my prepaid taxi driver is not answering his cell phone so I may have to stay here a few more months. My Kyrgyz friends told me not to worry, they will take good care of me. Oh well, the hotel arranged a different taxi for me. I leave the hotel in 30 minutes, at 12:30 in the morning to catch my 3:10AM flight to Istanbul (who scheduled this flight at such a horrible time?). The flight is six hours long and then I have an eight hour layover in Istanbul (hmmm ... check into a hotel to sleep or go to the city? ... hard choice). Then I have a 3.5 hour flight to Paris, a taxi from the Orly airport to the CDG airport, a nice overnight sleep in the airport hotel, and then an 8.5 hour flight to Newark.

Kyrgyzstan Museums

Today I went to the history museum and the art museum in Bishkek. Quite interesting. I also did some shopping in some nice art shops. I had a wonderful lunch at a sidewalk cafe and a light dinner on the roof of my hotel to get a final view of the mountains and the sunset. Here is a photo of me joining the Russian revolution in the history museum.

Kyrgyzstan - still working!

Oh well, I guess the fun stuff is all over. After traveling up and down the mountains in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, swimming in the lakes and rivers, meeting with wonderful people, it is now time to pay for my trip. Tuesday and Wednesday I spent working, fixing three laptop computers, adding software and checking Skype and Messenger so that I can keep in touch with my Kyrgyz colleagues. I made all sorts of reservations (with Mary's help back at Rutgers, thank you Mary!) for the visit of my Kyrgyz colleagues to the U.S. scheduled for the last week of August and the first week of September. I even went to collect more samples for our research project at the Chua Canal that runs through Bishkek (see photos of me in action again!).

Kyrgyzstan working again

Monday the 6th I spent the morning helping Asel study for the GRE exam. Then in the early afternoon Tinatin and I met with the Rector of the Kyrgyz Turkish Manas University. We discussed my new NIH funded project to work with Tinatin and how the university will handle the subcontract. The rector is very eager to use our project to improve research at the university. Then I went shopping for art and souvenirs, went for a walk around town and through a nice park which had a lot of nice small sculptures, and had a nice dinner at a small cafe on the edge of the park. I have to remember this cafe ... they had wonderful homemade ice tea. Sorry, no pictures.

Kyrgyzstan Sunset

Sunday night I had dinner on my hotel roof and watched the sun set over Bishkek.

Kyrgyzstan - expedition to the mountains - roadside stand

We passed many roadside stands by local people selling fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. We stopped at this stand to buy some stuff. The white liquid in the bottles is fermented horse milk - a traditional Kyrgyz alcoholic drink. The whitish balls are a type of cheese or hard butter made from horse milk. The yellow liquid is a type of greasy liquid butter made from sheep milk.

Kyrgyzstan - expedition to the mountains - lunch time

Here is the roadside cafe where we had a nice lunch. Do you recognize the word cafe in Russian in the restaurant sign?

Kyrgyzstan - expedition to the mountains - sampling!!

So, we had to do some "business" to justify our trip into the mountains so here I am collecting soil samples with Tinatin and Asel. Note that in these and in my previous sampling pictures that I am holding my infamous high-tech sampling device - a stainless steel soup ladle - in one of my hands.

Kyrgyzstan - expedition to the mountains - nature photos

Here are some photos of moutains and rivers.

Kyrgyzstan - expedition to the mountains - road photos

On Sunday the 5th we went for a drive on the main road southwest of Bishkek, toward Osh. We drove about three hours up into the moutains and over the main pass at the highest point (about 3,000 meters) on the road (and, of course, drove about three hours back). The reason for the trip was to re-collect soil samples at some sites that we already proved valuable for our project. Of course, the mountain scenery was a much better reason to make this trip. Here are some photos of the really nice road, including two tunnels (one a major tunnel through a mountain), the toll both (yes, New Jersey is not the only place that has toll boths), and some of the animals with which we had to share the road.

Kyrgyzstan - at the Datcha

Saturday the 4th Tinatin took me to her datcha in the country southwest of Bishkek. We had a nice picnic (Kyrgyz style BBQ chicken, fruits, juice, bread, etc.). Of course, since there was a small stream on the edge of her datcha property, I could not resist taking a sample for our research project.

Kyrgyzstan Boring Work

Thursday and Friday August 2nd and 3rd were all work in Kyrgyzstan. Thursday I spent several hours with Dr. Akimaliev the leader of our Kyrgyz project. Friday I spent a few hours helping Asel start studying for the GRE exam. Otherwise I caught up on e-mail and other work-related items. Sorry, I have no pictures of me working in my hotel room, by the pool, in the lobby, etc. My hotel has good wireless internet so I can work almost anywhere.

Kyrgyzstan Bishkek again!

On Wednesday morning we drove from Almaty to Bishkek. In the evening Tinatin, Asel, and I went to a very nice restaurant in the mountains to celebrate Tinatin's birthday (which was a week ago Sunday).

Kazakhstan Almaty mountain resort

Here we are at the mountain resort outside Almaty. It has an outside ice skating rink and (higher up) a place to ski in winter (which we visiited last January)

Kazakhstan Almaty Mountains

Also on Tuesday the 31st we went up into the moutains. Here we are by a small river. Guram the Kazakh team leader joined us for the excursion.

Kazakhstan Almaty city tour

Tuesday afternoon the 31st we walked around town and saw some sights.

Kazakhstan Microbiology Labs

Here we are in the labs of our microbiology colleagues in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Tinatin and I toured their labs, gave another lecture/demonstration of our protocols, and had some tea. On the bottom I am with Ludmilla (left) and Almaskan (right) who will be working directly with Tinatin and me on our project.