Although it's been quite some time for that trip, I still remember the date, maybe because it was the best destination I've ever been to. I remember when I was told that our coming trip is to Bishkek-Kyrgyzstan. I was like, "huh?!" I had NO IDEA where this Kyrgyzstan is located or how it is like. Is it like Afghanistan?!! I would certainly fear going to a country like Afghanistan. I came to learn later that Kyrgyzstan was part of Former Russia, a Muslim country in faith with lots of non-muslim traditions. No problem.

It was July 31st, 2005. My boss and I landed in the airport of Bishkek late at night, at around 2:00 AM and we were taken to a hotel called "Dostok", which I came to learn later that it means "Friendship". I certainly made many friends in that place. I headed to my room in the hotel and went to sleep right away.

In the morning, I woke up and we had the first day of our meeting, then we had free time to do whatever we wanted. We went on a walk in the city, and wow, it is such a beautiful country!! It really made me wonder why it is not universally known as a tourist attraction point! The streets are clean, with few cars and many people walking, enjoying the refreshing air and the overwhelming greenery everywhere in the city! What fascinated me is the small water tunnels all along the streets! I inquired and I was told that this water flows from the melting snow caps of very distant mountains!!

On either sides of the streets there are small water tunnels, then a row of huge interwoven trees, then the people's sidewalk, and then again a row of trees!! A walker enjoys a calm, safe walk, with threes on either sides away from the street. I found this to be so fascinating. Everywhere we walked was a garden, the country is heaven-kissed. I certainly visualize heaven to be a lot like this country. There were swings (for adults) along the way, and I sat and swung on one. :-) We entered a huge shopping center (I can't remember its name now). I would have done some shopping, but most of the clothes sold there don’t fit where I come from. They are way too revealing. Oh, which reminds me. The majority of people in this country are small-sized, what we call "petite", just like I am. I think I was covered way too much compared to them, and I was wearing pants and a t-shirt!

There is this big yard which I can see very clearly from my hotel room's balcony in the 9th floor. It's called, "the Arch of Victory", as I was told. (I'm not 100% sure so if anyone can assure me, please do). In this yard, there are huge arches that meet at the center and statues of soldiers who scarified their lives for the liberty of Kyrgyzstan. That was all for the first day.

Next day after we were done with work, we decided to do more touring in the city. We heard about a traditional shopping center. We headed there, and suddenly it felt as if we were in China! Lots of Asian handcrafts and carpets. We didn't stay there much though. We left that place and went on a walk to another part of the city. We went to a place called Ala-Too square. This square is the entrance of the city's museum. Inside the museum are antiques and ancient handcrafts, and we found the Quran put on display, but it was put in a way that words read upside down!! It is a Muslim country for sure, but they don't speak Arabic nor can they read the Quran, so they just did not know! When we informed the people in charge in the museum about our little discovery, they were astonished. I don't blame them, how would they know?

In the Ala-Too square, there is a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig statue that must be at least 10 meters long, maybe more. There are also 2 soldiers standing at the gate. At first, I was startled when I got near them, but then I discovered that they are dummies put for display.

Opposite the museum is another square (shall we call Bishkek "the square city?"). :-) This time, the square had many fountains distributed along it, and people were just standing near the splashing water and enjoying their time. There is also this steel structure which you can climb up with a ladder. I climbed my way up for a photo. Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!!

After that we decided to have something to eat. Ice creaaaaaaaaam! We went to a store nearby to eat ice-cream. Two very pretty young hostesses asked us what we wanted. Them, talking in Kyrgyz, and us, talking in English, we had an evident communication gap. How can I make them understand what flavor we wanted our ice cream to be? Ah, the easiest way is to go by myself and pick the right flavors. I walked to the ice cream display and started to read the labels. Strawberry with Vodka. Hazelnuts with Wine. OHH, GIVE ME A BREAK! Even ice cream comes with liquor here?? No, thank you. We are Muslims, can't take this one.

Our next stop was the presidential place. We walked through its garden and took some photos, then we found ourselves in an amusement park. I don't know how this happened, but I swear to God, this is what happened! The park was mainly for small children. Enough for today. Let's go back to the hotel.

Dinner time. We had to make sure first that our food did not include any pork or liquor. Yes, it's a Muslim country, but they hardly know anything about Islam. They brought us the food. It looked fatty. I wonder how all those people keep fit if they eat such kind of food.

Tea Time! I think it's worth mentioning that I'm a tea-addict, so I was certainly looking forward to a cup of tea. We were 4 persons sitting to a table: me, my boss, a Lebanese lady, and her boss. The teapot came… waiting for the cups. Four small round dishes followed. I call the waiter, "Excuse me, you brought us tea but didn't bring any cups." He said, "Yes, I brought you the tea dishes." What?!! We looked at each other in astonishment. We are not gonna drink from a dish… are we not? I decided to sacrifice and to be the first one to drink from a dish. I held the teapot and filled my "dish" with tea, then held it up and took a sip. Everyone looked at me. Their tea is too light for the tea we're used to. I said, "It tastes fine." They all then followed my path and poured tea "dishes" for themselves. This was an experience I will never forget. :-)

After we were done with dinner, we went each to his/her room. Our generous hosts came to our rooms to gift us. How sweeeeeet! I was all wonders what my gift could be. After they left, I opened it, and I found…. 1 bottle of pure honey (honey is very cheap in their country by the way. 1 kg of honey costs 1 dollar!), 8 small bottles of Whiskey, and 1 big bottle of Vodka!! My, oh my, what am I gonna do with this? I don’t drink. After giving it some thought I decided to give it to the cleaning lady in the morning, which I exactly did. "Spasipa, Spasipa". Thank you, Thank you, in their mother tongue. This is what the cleaning lady said to me. :-)

At one time we went out in a group of six to a restaurant to have a drink. We ordered Nescafe for all of us and 2 bottles of water. They brought us soda water instead. It turned out they rely on sada water for consumption and hardly drink our normal mineral water. It took us time to make them understand what we wanted. Just for the records, in case you ever visit Bishkek, Soda water is called "pani" in their language, whereas pure water is called "vada". Anyway, after we had our hot drinks, two of us ordered fresh juice. The total sum was only 6 dollars! This is so cheap! In Jordan a similar order would cost 20 to 25 dollars in a not-so-fancy place. The place had a singer too, and everyone was dancing. We were the only ones seated politely to our chairs! And it wasn't night yet. It was around 5:00 PM. The good thing about this restaurant is that I can see the dancing and hear the songs from my hotel room!! At night I stayed up a little to enjoy their music and songs, although I didn't understand a word.

At another time we went to another restaurant. This time we were a group of four, us, and the Lebanese. Around each corner in this city there is a fun place to go to. Tables in the open, a singer, and dancing. We had drinks and enjoyed our time.

I also got to know a Kyrgyz lady on board of the plane, whom I met later in a restaurant called, "the Navigator".

Best things for last. We were free for a whole day after the event was over. I turned into "Inspector Gadget" and inspected about a real good place to go to, and I found an excellent place to go to. It's a restaurant called, "Kaminow". The restaurant is miles away, it was a long trip to get there, but it was worthwhile. Remember the small water tunnels I told you about? Well, as we walked along the road, the tunnels got wider and wider, and a river started to form. We were heading towards the mountains from where the melting snow was flowing; the Tien Shan Mountains!

Here we are, Kaminov restaurant. The restaurant's main building overlooks one of the banks of the river formulating from the melting snow. You can either sit indoors inside the restaurant, or … sit where we did!! I know, I know, I didn't say where that is. It's a wooden bridge across the river, where water flows right beneath us and to our sides were 200 to 300 meters high green mountains and ahead of us are the Tien Shan snowy mountain caps! What a view, what a sensation. The cool breeze coming from the mountains blew our way, and I almost felt like flying! Wooden, engraved tables and chairs, the bridge is narrow, it can only take one table at a time, so the small wooden tables are arranged in a neat row. I sit to a chair where the mountains are opposite me, and I enjoy the wonderful sensation of the refreshing air mingled with the cold, splashing water. The water flows so fiercely it forms a foam! I took a leaf and threw it to the water to measure the speed of the water, it is certainly very fast. Birds flitter above, a couple of rabbits jump, and a wild brown horse approaches the river's bank, attempting to drink. "I wanna go and touch it!" I said. I approached the brown beauty but I didn't dare touch it. I feared I would scare it away. Another small bridge. I crossed it to the other side of the river, and I found wooden chalets. Renting a chalet is for $100 per day. Well, for a place like that, who wouldn't pay??

We ordered lunch. "Please, no pork, and no liquor, we are Muslims", I told the waiter. After an hour or so, no food arrives and I called another waiter. It turned out that the first waiter didn't understand what I said (He can't speak English well – or maybe he can't speak English at all), and he thought we told him we didn't want lunch!! So I again explained our order to the second waiter, and they brought us a very tasty lunch which consisted of grilled meat and sauce. I wonder if he took our reservations into consideration.

We spent wonderful time at that fascinating place, and then we went back to the hotel, packed our stuff and prepared ourselves for a long trip back home, to Jordan.

I can't say how fascinated I was with that beautiful country. I certainly would love to go back there, one day. I even forgot to call home for 3 consecutive days!! My family got so worried for me. :-)

A marvelous place. You'd better go there if you can afford it. :-)