The Stans 2026

 A pleasantly easy day today - which is good because we're tired. We got the whole morning off and used it to sleep in and catch up on things. We've also got a couple more days here and I don't think there's that much to see (based on today's outing) so no rush. When we did go out, we started at 28 Panfilov Guardsmen Park. Named after some soldiers from the Battle of Moscow, which was a big deal in the USSR, it is largely a war memorial with suitably ugly sculptures. But in the middle of the park is a wooden Russian Orthodox Church. This was quite attractive but the interior was over the top with the gilded theme. Then we walked the couple of blocks to the Green Bazaar. We're pretty much over bazaars but to be honest this was better than most. It smelt better, was tidy and practically hygienic. When we wandered beyond the main building the rest was all drab, cheap clothes from China. We went to the chocolate factory and shop next door, but it was pretty underwhe...

 Not a lot happened today, which was fine really. It was essentially driving from the yurt camp on the south shore of Issyk Kul to Karakol at the eastern end. This was kind of painful; they seem to be upgrading most of the roads and so it was all uneven, gravelly potholed roads the whole way, just interupted by short sections where they'd got around to sealing it. It was still scenic - you can just see the north side of the lake where there is a continuous line of snow-capped mountain tops paralleling the shore. We stopped a couple of times at sort-of-scenic points (which involved turning up narrower but equally bumpy roads). The first time it was around eroded sand gullies. The second time there were large red rocks. Both were actually busy with tourists because this is apparently the touristy part of the country. As well as locals coming to the lake in summer, people come to hike in the mountains and there are snow fields in winter. It was about 3pm when we eventually reached Kar...