Sunday, June 28th - Bishkek to  Tashkent

Today we were up at off at our usual time of 9 a.m.  Breakfast at the hotel was great with eggs, toast, yogurt, granola, breads, meat, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.  You would certainly not starve at breakfast time around here.

Our only destination for the day was the Ala Archa National Park in the Tian Shan Mountains.  We arrived around 10 and by 10:15 we were all hiking.  Myly and I tried the hike to the falls with some of the others but we were soon way behind and decided to take another trail that appeared to go around the side of the mountain as opposed to over it.  We started at about 600 m altitude in town and drove to about 2100.  By the time Myly and I stopped we were at 2355 m and the others were way beyond that.

The views were fantastic.  There are snow-capped mountains in the background and rugged high peaks just above us.  And all around us is beautiful green hillside with yellow, blue, purple, red flowers and probably even more colours.  The valley below has a river that is flowing very quickly and we took lots of pictures of the beautiful scenery - mainly because we needed lots of breaks just to keep going. 

We had just over 3 hours and the last group showed up at exactly 1:30 so we didn't have to call out the guards or anything.  We drove back to Bishkek for a late lunch at a lovely restaurant up on the terrace where there was a nice breeze and some lovely misters were cooling us off.   Everyone ordered separately and we had some great dishes.  I had fish and potatoes but the fish was cut into pieces and then deep fried so it wasn't quite what I was expecting.  It was good though.  After two small bottles of water on the climb in the park I drank one large bottle of water at the table.  I sure am glad it was partially cloudy during our climb or I might never have made it.

We left the restaurant and went directly to the airport where we had a couple of hours to wait before our flight.  That is where I am now as I write this blog so I guess I'll get back to it after our flight.

The flight was short and smooth and we were soon at Tashkent and in our hotel.  Some of us just called it an early night and others went out for a walk and a burger.  Personally, I called it a night and went to bed.  The walk up the mountain in the heat really tired me out so I needed to rest and recover for tomorrow's adventure in Tashkent.