Saturday, 19 September 2026

 

 

When I woke up, the cramps and fever were gone. I merely felt like someone put me through the meatgrinder. Unbelievably weak too. I somehow managed to take a shower and Sonia helped me to the breakfast room. It was located on the seventh floor and the elevator only went to the sixth. Shaking, I dragged myself up. Sonia brought fruit and tea to our table. In slow motion, I got down the watermelon, melon and banana. So good. Luckily, the cramps didn't return right away. We got back to our room and decided that I needed a rest day. Here it was quiet and comfy, who knew what we might get in Osh. Better the hotel room you know. In any case, I was in no condition to do any sightseeing.

 

 

I fell asleep again. Sonia went in search of some food to get us through the day. The small shops in the hotel area only had prepackaged grub. Where were the fresh fruit and great breads that other travellers wax lyrical about? Probably at the market. Too far to walk. I wasn't hungry anyway. The cramps had returned. What a mess.

 

In the afternoon, I felt good enough to update my blog. In the evening, I decided that I needed some air and a bite to eat. One can't play sick forever. The warm evening air felt good. Seeing other people out and about boosted my morale. Life went on.

 

 

"Careful where you walk", Sonia said. There was an open canal that one only noticed at the last minute. These kinds of traps were numerous in Asia: stairs that simply stopped in mid-air (as in our first hotel in Bishkek), canals or other holes in unlikely places, ceilings that suddenly dropped so that you knocked your head if you didn't look where you were going. People seemed to take all this in their stride. Made you feel like an overprotected, immature child.

 

 

We found a nice restaurant just around the corner. The grilled chicken was great, though it made the stomach cramps come back. Is this normal behaviour for food poisoning?

 

Again, the waiter didn't have any change. I'd read on the internet, that Kyrgyzstan is still largely a cash society. This is so wrong. Everyone pays by QR-code, the Kyrgyz version of Paytronic. Most businesses accept credit cards too. But they are not happy about cash, as they never seem to have any change. So we paid our dinner (1350 som = 14 euros) by credit card. We would have to work hard tomorrow to get rid of our remaining 6000 som.

 

 

After dinner, we took a walk around the block. On the large square behind the town hall, girls and boys were playing ball. A preschool girl was rollerskating at incredible speed past us. In a dark corner, two teenagers were smooching. We strolled past a sportsteam, all wearing jackets with "Issyk Kul" on them. A football team? Or though nomad gamers? In any case, some of them were real cute. I like Jalal Abad.