Greetings, Friends-
Here are a few images that say way more than we could with pages of words.
What you can't see in the pictures is the conversation that took place with the young security guard at this hostel on this computer using google translate in order to figure out how to get the photos from the camera to your eyes. It is often really fun to be on the road in other countries, but it is pretty much never easy.
Our first couple days in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan were spent assembling bikes and trailers, procuring a few maps, and jamming all of this stuff, plus food into our trailers.
Just outside of Bishkek, there are a few amazing canyons. We got rid of the boxes, but most of the rest of the stuff fit in the trailers.
Poppies
The view from one of our first campsites at a small ski area outside Bishkek.
A sight not uncommon on Kyrgyz roads, and the driver is no doubt asking, "Where are you from?"
Yurts are everywhere.
If you tell someone you visited Kyrgyzstan, they will probably ask if you have been to Issyk Kol. It was quite nice.
On our way from Issyk Kol to Song Kol.
Drive it like you stole it.
It is actually a really good thing that rock is there, and the others in the middle of the road, because that is how you can tell there is a piece of rebar sticking out of the ground. Who knew we should be so thankful for traffic cones?
Sometimes it is really nice to be inside a tent.
And sometimes it is nice to be on the outside.
When horses in other countries finish doing whatever it is that they have done there, we are pretty sure they end up in Kyrgyzstan, hanging out, doing horse things.
Not sure if we will be able to post any Kazakh or Russian photos, but there are some pretty good ones. And rest assured, even the boring ones have a good story.
Take care, and have fun-
Tyler and Adrianne.
Thanks so much for the pictures - Incredible!
ReplyDeleteSo proud of you both.
Love you,
Dad
Looks pretty awesome, makes me wanna go travel my motherland and other former soviet republics. This Russian sends you warm California hugs. Ride on.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for the pictures - every time I look at them it makes me feel like I'm with you. Really wish I was!
ReplyDeleteReally enjoy the blog. Never mind about the camera. Keep taking pictures with your mind and hearts, they can never be lost. I love that you are enduring, in fact thriving, in what has to be a grand adventure for you both. dad Here is a quote that hits the nail on the head - Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
ReplyDeleteRalph Waldo Emerson
I love your pictures even if you're not in them. It's surprizing to me, that I feel something seeing each of these. I'm hard to be moved by photographs in books or magazines. The difference must be that I know you were behind the lense or there seeing what I'm now seeing & I am imagining what you felt. Awe & wonder, divine peace & shared humanity, even if mingled exasperation, exhaustion or defeat at times. If I know you, there are more words I should add to that list & further depth of feeling than I can say. You are the person I learned how to openly feel & share with, naturally, as it should be, like I wish it was with everyone but have to wait on kindred spirits for such communion. I count myself blessed that I have found one in my husband (18yrs now!), while you are absent, which has felt like most of my life now. I know you'll grace us with your spirit again & look to the day you recognize the spirit within my daughter & son, who fell from the same tree but are far fairer sweeter fruit. They know you even if memory fails because I never fail to mention things that remind me of you & tell them why, & all the funny stories I can recall. S is 16 & G, 14 now. She's so much the young woman I wish I could have been...independent, beauty without vanity, doesn't date b/c "too much drama" & she won't settle. He is soulfull & analytical & thoughtfully kind as well as Beautiful & comfortable in his own skin. He is the best of his father, & the truest of me. Both of them are too old & too wise for their age, non conforming, seeing the world through a rare truthful filter, & possessing the sophisticated but ridiculous sense of humor Bob & I thought a must, in their rearing. Well I've gone & made this about us, but it's for you, b/c if you can imagine my true description of these teenagers who've survived having me for a mother, who these little persons are, I know you'd smile. Because i know you loved me & they're a part of me but so much better, you'd love them too. They make me think there's hope for the world yet. I hope your trip left you feeling that hope too, more than the rampant violation of humankind & Ive know as well, not having to travel anywhere to be assaulted by it. Your camera. Oh my dearest. It hurts every time; finding people devoid of love, giving nothing, taking all. I hope you feel the lingering embrace more than the Scars of your journey. I'm so happy for you to have experienced this. Your wanderlust may never be quenched but you'll be all the richer for it & the whole world will be your home, your place to hang your hat. ~Heidi
ReplyDeleteI Am
ReplyDeleteBY JOHN CLARE
I am—yet what I am none cares or knows;
My friends forsake me like a memory lost:
I am the self-consumer of my woes—
They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes
And yet I am, and live—like vapours tossed
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life or joys,
But the vast shipwreck of my life’s esteems;
Even the dearest that I loved the best
Are strange—nay, rather, stranger than the rest.
I long for scenes where man hath never trod
A place where woman never smiled or wept
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie
The grass below—above the vaulted sky.