The 'Stans - Osh (14 August 2019)

After a delightful sleep and an actual working, hot, high pressured shower, I head down for breakfast which was sub-par at best. I check out and pay but the receptionist motioned that she did not have enough to change to give me, so we settled on a large bottle of coke as change instead.

With the extra unnecessary weight (it was at least 1.5 litres of coke), I set off on the half hour walk across Osh to my new hostel, Park Hostel, for the next couple of days.

My first task is to decide do I a) take a 10 hour marshrutka to Bishkek or b) book a 1 hour flight. After spending the previous five days couped up in a car, the flight unsurprisingly won. And it turned out to be the correct decision. My Belgian chap ended up taking the bus earlier this morning, and it took him closer to 12 hours on roads far worse than the Pamir Highway and for a similar price to the flight. As not many people were heading to Bishkek, he had to buy up the remaining seats to get the marshrutka moving.

The hostel was very chill and a lovely place to recover after a ridiculously long road trip. My room mates were suffering with post-Pamir runs, so I kept out of their way and headed out to get lunch and stumbled across an absolute gem. Brio, a short walk away from the hostel, was perfect for a post-Pamir recovery. Great coffee, fruit juices, garlic mayo and fries. Safe to say the majority of my food intake in the next two days will be at Brio.

After indulging, I headed out to find the big flag pole and the Levin statue - Central Asian staples.

With those incredibly important boxes ticked, I head towards the market for a bit of shopping. On the way, I head through an old Soviet adventure park only noticeable by the large jet parked at the bottom of the stairs.

Yes, nothing says ex-soviet like a rundown and slightly bizarre playground.

I resisted the urge to give up my life riding any of these machines, but the local Kyrgyz seemed to be enjoying the odd array of rides. The market was rammed and one of the better markets so far in Central Asia.

Later in the evening I head up to Mountain Sulaiman-Too, one of the top things to do in Osh. A UNESCO world heritage sight containing numerous ancient places of worship. The only way up was a steep flight of never ending stairs. It took the wind out of me, so more respect to the babushkas (grannies) for climbing the stair, or even being shoved & dragged up as i saw on a couple of occasions.

The mountain is still a functioning place of worship and people travel far to climb the mountain and pay their respects. The views from the top gave a lovely view over Osh below.

With the climbing and the walking I was done for the day and hit the hay early for my departure for the Bishkek, the following day.