Stops No 3, 4, and 5: Central Asia, or “It’s Friday so We Must Be In Dushanbe”

The final week of my trip was in a way the craziest because of the many stops, but I had at the same time completed a lot of work and since we our presentations during the week had to be translated into Russian, also these had been completed in advance. Our first stop was in Bishkek, followed by Astana and Dushanbe. Due to the flight connections, we ended going through Almaty several times, and even stayed there one night on our way from Astana to Dushanbe. It was a lot of airports… But I LOVE Central Asia so I was happy to see so many places! It was also my first time in Tajikistan, and I wish I could have seen more but due to the flights we didn’t arrive until Friday morning and with a presentation Friday afternoon, we didn’t have much time to see much more than the office and the conference room. Still, we did have lunch at a small canteen where I got both a glass of kompot (sweetened fruit drink) and syrniki (cheesecake), so I was happy. Unfortunately, I didn’t take many pics, but here are a few:

Bishkek Circus

IMG_1408

Astana view

Kyrgyz lagman

IMG_1245

IMG_1409

Kazakh chocolate

Dushanbe International Airport

Alay Mountains with snow

Almaty Sunset View

Astana Night View

From the top: View from my hotel room over Bishkek with its traditional circus and a mosque // Children’s Day in Bishkek // View of Astana from my office // Lagman and dumplings – traditional Kyrgyz food // The grandiose conference room in Bishkek where our stakeholder meeting took place // My name written in cyrillic (or almost at least…) // Kazakh chocolates // Dushanbe’s airport //  The Alay Mountains seen from above // Sunset over Almaty // Night view of Almaty and good bye Central Asia for this time! More on our actual work can be found here