Things were quiet when we landed in the capital city of Bishkek in the early-morning hours. This surprised me because in other Asian cities I’d traveled to, like Seoul and Bangkok, there always seemed to be people out on the streets.
Although our hotel was far from the city center, we did get to do some exploring later in the day.
As we wandered around Bishkek, we noticed the streets were wide, the sidewalks were clean, and trees offered shade from the summer heat. Buses rolled past us, with commuters heading home from work.
We popped into a Thai restaurant, where the owner took our order in English. While most of the population speaks Kyrgyz or Russian, we could still communicate with almost everyone in Bishkek with a little help from Google Translate.