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Bishkek

Sample tour: Bishkek in a Day: Ala-Too Square, Modernism and Osh Bazaar

Duration

6 hours

Group size

1 to 12 people

Format

Group

Difficulty

Easy

Starts in

Бишкек, площадь Ала-Тоо

Ends in

Бишкек, Ошский базар

A walking tour with a local guide: the changing of the guard on Ala-Too Square, mosaics and Soviet modernist buildings, lunch and tastings at Osh Bazaar.

Bishkek is a young green city at the foot of the Kyrgyz Ala-Too, and its history is best read in its architecture. In six hours we walk from the main square to one of the busiest bazaars in Central Asia. We start on Ala-Too Square with the changing of the honour guard at the flagpole, then walk through Oak Park and along Erkindik Boulevard to the Soviet modernist buildings — the Philharmonic, the circus and the mosaics of the 1970s. The guide tells how the Pishpek fortress grew into a capital in a hundred years. The second half of the day is Osh Bazaar: we taste kurut, tandoor samsa and fresh flatbread and pick spices and dried fruit. Lunch is at a chaikhana by the bazaar.