The lake was looking gorgeous as I took breakfast with a Kygyz couple who were staying at the guesthouse. It had been a brief, but welcome stay at Tamchy. The family had made me feel really at home and I could almost have stayed another day or two in the tranquility of the place. Sadly it was time to head back to the big city as more administration and boring things like that await me. Plus the modern facilities are much needed!

I said my goodbyes after a breakfast of bread, jam and semolina and caught a shared taxi to Balukchi, the regional transport hub. From there I caught another one towards bishkeke with a bunch of friendly English students. For the most part the journey was dull until the driver decided he needed some petrol. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, you just roll up to a petrol station and an attendant will pump it in. However since we were close to the Kazakh border and the petrol there I much cheaper he tried to cross the border with us inside. Of course we were not allowed through and so had to wait while he sped across on his own (our luggage still in his car) and returned thirty minutes later with a full tank.

We continued towards the capital where I returned to a warm welcome to Sabybeck’s guesthouse and made myself at home once more before wandering the streets of Bishkek, visiting all my old “haunts”. It’s lovely to be able to go to a place you already know, and it is the first time I have been able to do it on this trip so far!