Myself and Gary, with Miraj’s help were to go into Nookat to look for and purchase board games, and other things for children’s activities. In this region, Osh (the 2nd largest city in Kyrgyzstan) provides most of the infrastructure to surrounding rural communities. the town of Nookat (20 minute drive to the west of us) was in a way a staging area for the smaller communities and offered many useful goods and services. One would go to Nookat to buy novelties and items in bulk. The larger or “big ticket” items (as we say in the USA) would have to be purchased in Osh.
We walked out of the school about 300 pm. In much of Central Asia, you can get a ride somewhere from a private car rather than a taxi. Since there is limited demand for taxis in the rural areas, random people driving by will be willing to give you a ride for free or a small fee. It is a kind of cooperation/ consideration that I would guess exists in many rural communities around the world. I would also point out that just like hitchhiking in the USA, this approach can be risky. I had read about solo travelers getting kidnapped and driven to ATMs to withdraw their daily limit of cash.
If you need a ride somewhere you simply stick out your hand while waiting on the side of the road. Usually the palm of the hand is kept down, and the “thumbs-up” gesture we are familiar with in the USA is not common.
If someone is willing to stop, you give them your destination and hopefully they are going the same way. At least in Borbash, the drivers never asked for money. I offered one driver 50 Kyrgz som (~ $0.70) for a short ride once and he refused. A normal tip/fee for the drive would be 20 Kgs I learned later.
This is how we got a ride to Nookat. Balot joined us making our party a group of 4. It took only a few minutes for an empty car to stop. Miraj exchanged a few words in Kyrgz with the driver and we were on our way. When we arrived in Nookat I saw Miraj pass the driver a bank note but I could not catch the amount he paid.
Walking into Nookat made me feel like I was in a wild west trading outpost or maybe in that scene of Barter-town in the old “Mad Max: Beyond Thunder-dome” movie. The video below is not my own, but I have walked along those same paths and markets. It will give you a look just into the market area:
Butcher 
Hospital 
Delicious “cocktail” 
Lenin Statue
The gallery to the right are my own images. Click each picture for larger images.
The “cocktail” was a milk based sweet drink which I had never tasted before. Upon my return to the USA, I asked my friend Yuri about it and he said the closest thing we have here is a “milkshake”.
It seems the Kyrgz people are somewhat resentful of the Soviet past. In Bishkek I had asked to be taken to the statue of Nikolai Lenin, with some resistance. Small towns like Nookat have been slow to remove these reminders and remnants of Soviet times.We went from shop to shop looking for board games with no luck. We happened upon a place selling sporting good, including plastic kids jump ropes. We purchased 15 of them for a ridiculously low price which I struggle to even remember. I think it was 300 Kgs (a little over $4.00). Gary had bargained down the seller from 400 to 300 som. I judged from the facial expressions of Miraj and Balot that they did not like this. I had thought bargaining was common in Central Asia.
We ate a lunch of Samsa which is a meat filled pie similar to a Piroshki. It is eaten with bread, to my surprise.
We rounded out the trip “chatting’ with some of Miraj’s friends. A young boy walked by wearing a “San Francisco” t-shirt. The friends asked him to stop and I got a picture with him. I believe he did not even know what/where San Francisco was…..
I have on more story to tell on our trip into Nookat. However, it deserves it’s own post . Stay tuned!
That’s it for now. Please subscribe, comment, and share even if you don’t like these posts 😛
-The Rover
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