Category: Living abroad
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How to make friends when you’re living abroad
It can be difficult to make friends when you’re living abroad, but for me the friends I made were one of the best things about expat life. I would never have survived 11 years as an expat in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Romania without my friends. Together we have had some amazing experiences. We’ve been there…
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101 places to get coffee in Central Asia
When I first went to Central Asia, moving to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in summer 2003, it was almost impossible to get a good coffee in the entire city. Five years later, when I moved to Almaty, Kazakhstan, coffee lovers used to congregate at CoffeeDelia for the best cappuccinos in town and fast wifi. There weren’t a…
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How to get fresh food in Astana
I knew it was really spring when fresh vegetables appeared in the shops and a small market was set up near my flat one weekend. Getting fresh food in Astana was really a challenge. I’d been prepared for the food situation to be difficult after spending a week in Astana in winter 2010, when I found…
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Dordoi, Central Asia’s largest bazaar
Soviet Frunze has changed back into Bishkek, a stop on the Silk Road. The huge markets – Central Asia’s largest bazaar Dordoi, Osh Bazaar, Alamedin and the others – are flourishing, and the streets and underpasses of the entire city are turning into one great web of commercial activity. On my first day I saw…
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My first taste of Bishkek nightlife involves vodka, hitchhiking and a panzer tank chieftain
On Saturday I get my first taste of Bishkek nightlife. I hadn’t intended to. Constantly going through my head is the information from the “Dangers & Annoyances” section of the Lonely Planet: Bishkek smiles during the day but is neither safe nor well lit after dark. So I’d been intending to spend the evening writing…
Steppe in Style 