Stage 112: From Sosnovka to Bishkek

We had the last stage ahead of us to the capital, Bishkek. The detour to the Chinese tunnel had caused a bit of delay, but on the other hand, we also experienced a lot and got to know lovely locals like Jaffar. We initially drove a few more kilometers through the valley before a wide plain opened up in front of us. Then we went through some small villages before Bishkek's suburbs started. By lunchtime, we were only 25 kilometers away from Bishkek, so we had plenty of time for a proper portion of Samsa. In the afternoon, we arrived at the cozy hostel with a dormitory in a yurt. The hostess spoke very good English, which was also a relief for Aman. After all, he had been acting as my interpreter for days. In the evenings, we cooked together again. What looked like a bell pepper turned out to be a completely oversized chili pepper (at least it tasted that way), but we survived that as well. In Bishkek, we took another day off, but we didn't explore the city yet. I had already booked a return flight to Germany from Bishkek in mid-June, so I knew I would come back again. Aman had plans to meet friends in Bishkek at the end of May and then had enough time to explore the city. So we used the day for rest and further planning. We realized that we would still make it together to Issyk Kul Lake, the pearl of Central Asia, but unfortunately our plans would diverge after that.