The Bazaar was heaving once again and I decided to delve in. I was actually looking for Breakfast but the number of different faces, hats and the amount of general chaos grabbed my attention. There were so many people that it was hard to move through the mass of bodies. The porters somehow had it down to a tee as they pushed  carts laden with goods through the corwd. I got behind one guy and muscled my way througth the corwd that way. It was clearly their turf and nothign would stand in their way - even a policeman was quickly put back in his place for blocking the alley!

Once again it was the meat section that caught my attention. A row of kiosks had opened windows with slabs of meat dangling down. Working behind this facade of raw meat a lone salesman occasionally popped their head through the strips to serve a customer. I politely declined numerous offers to buy the fly-infested meat.

At about the hottest part of the day I thought it would be a good time to climb Solomon's Throne and by the time I got to the top I was sweaty and exhaisted. And the fact that the view was not exactly thrilling made it slightly disappointing. But the old man at the top offered to say a prayer for me... for a few som. With that done, I clambered back down.

I went off in search of a money changer that was open on a Saturday and most of them seemed to be closed. Just as I was about to give up hope, and old man came up to me asking if I spoke French. When I told him I did he wanted to practice his French which up till now he'd learnt only on a cassette. And so whilst finding an exchange office we spent the next couple of hours chatting away happily in French before having a few pots of tea at a local Chaikhana. It turned out that Chengis was somethign of a historian and explained a lot of the SIlk Road history in Kyrgyzstan and why there were so few remains of its past heritage - an easy guess - the Soviets had destroyed them.

He also gave me an insight into the North-South split in Kyrgyzstan. In the south the average wage is just $50 (hlaf of that in the north) and corruption therefore is rife. I was surprised to hear that it is at its highest not within the police force, but in fact in the schools and universities, with students paying bribes to the low-paid teachers for improved exam results.

I returned to the centre and spent an unremarkable evening in town. Returning to the hotel the firendly young owner approached me complaining of a stomach problem. Having just had one myself I knew how unpleasant it was and wondered if she had the same problem. I offered her some of the pills that had made me better and suggested she lie down, trying to explain that I am not a doctor so perhaps she shoudl visit one if it gets worse. I went to my room and thoguht nothing more of it.

About an hour later I hear a knock on the door and it's my next door neighbour. He was a large and stubbly man with another impressive collection of gold teeth. He too seemed to have something wrong with him, but I couldn't understand what it was. If anything he'd probably drunk too much vodka. He kept repeating "Doktor" at me and I tried to fob him off but he persisted. In the end I gave him two paracetamol and told him he'd feel better in the morning. I left early the next day so wasn't around to find out if he was OK, but I'm sure he will be... inshallah!

Yurts of the semi-nomadic Kyrgyz community on the road to Bishkek