100 Countries Together

We traveled outside the city of Bishkek to the countryside of Kyrgyzstan to see the 11th century Burana Tower, the only remaining artifact from the Silk Road city of Balasagun.

We were able to have lunch with a local family, where we we treated to a partial recital of the Epic of Manas, a 550000 plus line poem which takes several days to recite. There are less than 100 people in Kyrgyzstan who can actually recite it from end to end, we were fortunate enough hear one of them.

The family were also well skilled at yurt building and felt making, and we were able to see demonstrations of both.

We traveled a short while outside of the city of Almaty to visit the Issyk State Historical and Cultural Reserve-Museum. We were able to walk among 80 prehistoric burial mounds. Later, we joined the museum curator and heard the mysterious story of the Golden Man – a skeleton discovered in warrior’s garb and covered by thousands of golden ornaments. The story goes that a farmer discovered the treasure when preparing a collective for planting. Of course, the surrounding scenery was also outstanding.

We arrived in Almaty early in the morning after flying over some incredible scenery.

The Ascension Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox church built entirely of wood and made without nails.  It was completed in 1907 and is claimed to be the second tallest wooden church in the world.  It is quite ornate inside, with most of the interior being made in art workshops in in Moscow and Kiev.

Panfilov Park and the Memorial of Glory.  The sculpture depicts representatives of 15 Soviet republics in the outline of the map of the Soviet Union. The words of Panfilov’s political commander were carved on the podium: “Russia is great and there is no retreat. Moscow is behind us!”.

It’s interesting how much influence still exists from the USSR – even though Kazakhstan received its independence in 1991.  The Soviet era is still much top of mind with everyone.

The Green Bazaar where you can find about everything imaginable (and some quite unimaginable).  (I spared you the photos of the meat department. )

The Golden Warrior Monument in Republic Square.  This is a Saka Warrior standing on a snow leopard.

I’ll caption these photos when I return.

The old city dates back to the 12th century, but much of it is a reconstruction, as the original structures have been destroyed by one of several occupying forces through the centuries. The Maiden Tower still survives and dates back to 1119.

We are just getting our feet wet after 16 hours of travel to get to country number 92, Azerbaijan.

Here in the capital Baku, the old melds with the new. We will set out to explore more tomorrow, but so far we have found everyone to be very welcoming. The streets are wide and clean, and we are afforded wonderful views of the Caspian Sea from our hotel room.

We were told Baku meant “Windy City” in ancient Persian. Not sure if that translation is correct, but it is indeed, a very Windy City.

To get to all these places we have been, we have had the opportunity to travel on many different airlines.  I bring this up – as one of the more frustrating carriers we have taken was Air Suriname.

Our original plan was to catch the last leg of the Air Suriname flight from Miami with a stop in Georgetown and continue on to Parimaribo.  Then, two days later – take the Air Suriname flight from Parimaribo to Miami.  Turns out, Air Suriname operates three airplanes.  One ferries the Dutch from Amsterdam to this vacation paradise, another the Miami flight, and the third is in receivership.  Our Miami flight had some issue, so it never got to Georgetown.

Eventually, we went back to the tiny local airport and caught an eight passenger plane to the old Parimaribo airport in the center of town.  They weren’t expecting foreigners, so we waited for a customs agent.  After that wait – we discovered there was no taxi service at the airport – so the customs officer nicely offered us a ride to the hotel (ours was the only flight in that day).

Then we waited.  And listened to maddeningly rapid Dutch recordings apparently telling us that there was no replacement flight (we did this for two days).  Finally, Air Suriname rented an airplane to take us back to Miami.  It was larger than our original plane (so they could combine it with other missed flights).  Remember the old seat assignment process with the stickers on your boarding pass – well it isn’t yet officially retired.

Needless to say, we did make it home, after two additional days in Parimaribo.

Here is the list of 74 air carriers we have used so far (not necessarily together).  Eric thinks some of the early ones I took may have even been bi-planes.

OK – Getting here and back to the States was a bit of an ordeal (more on that later), but there is a little more to Parimaribo than our previous stop.  The capital city of Suriname was originally settled by the Dutch and still is greatly influenced by them.  The main language is Dutch, and for some reason, the Dutch consider this a vacation paradise.  Still, some of the architecture is outstanding, and the wooden church in town is the tallest wooden structure in the Western hemisphere.

Not sure why the Dutch consider Parimaribo a vacation paradise, but we are surrounded by them at the hotel.  The town is 15 miles from the ocean, we can almost glimpse the river from out hotel room, and the food and rum is just okay.  The Dutch even traded what is now NYC for this place way back when because sugar was such a rare commodity.  Go figure.

There is a neat fort nearby, Fort Zeelandia, built in the 17th century to protect the Dutch West India Company, and much of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage site due to the architecture here.  I discovered a lovely place where an Arawak woman sold her hand woven purses.

Perhaps, had our flight to the interior not been cancelled, I would have some lovely photos of Guyana, but bad weather has prevailed, and our scenic views have been of airports.

The beach is mud, the coastline is three feet below sea level, and our beachfront hotel has actually blocked the ocean view because it is so unattractive.

The GT beer is okay, and this is the home of El Dorado rum, so it is not without it’s merits. Since we can’t get to the interior, we will save our stroll in the city for tomorrow, and perhaps I will find something to photograph at that time.

In the meantime, I think we are committed to meet up with an international group of wildcatters (or some sort of oil people) at the bar this evening. Apparently, oil and gas accounts for most of the economy here.