11 Reasons Why YOU SHOULD TRAVEL to KYRGYZSTAN 🇰🇬

Firstly, people. People are amazing here. Super hospitable. They give you their time, they go out of their way to help. I've had great experiences with the locals here. And so it's one of those places where if you land alone, you'll make friends. It's not hard to make friends here. Natural beauty. The landscapes here are stunning. Some of the most beautiful sights I've seen in the world. There's a Lake Issyk-Kul here, which no words or video can describe. You have to go experience it. It's just massive and raw and rugged and beautiful. Empty beaches. Massive peaks. Yeah. Landscapes are fantastic. Culture. It's a very interesting mix here. I mean, most people are Kyrgyz, but there are a minority of Russians and some other minorities, which makes for an interesting dynamic. You know, it feels somewhat like you're in Asia, but then sometimes it feels like you're in more of a European sphere. Yeah, it's in that part of the world, sort of in between everything. The geographic location here is super interesting. If you look on a map, China's not far away that way. To the south, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan. To the north, Kazakhstan, Russia. So it's in this part of the world where, well, a lot of powers have come through here and shaped it to what it is today and pretty much go in one direction and be in a completely, completely different place. Costs. It's 2019. Summer 2019. I have to say it's inexpensive. So what do I mean by that? The other day, I hit a guy. We drove for almost 13 hours around Issyk-Kul, stopped into the mountains, down to Bishkek. I think I paid him $80. That will give you some of the gauge on the transport costs. And that was my own personal vehicle. Take Yandex, which is the best way to get around, I found in the city. It's very inexpensive. You can eat a great meal for roughly around a dollar. So your money goes very far if you're coming in with a dollar, euro, yen or some stronger currency. Food. Food is, food is good. They have this one dish near the Chinese borders. It seemed to be pretty popular. Ashlan food. Noodle dish. You can get all different ways, but noodles, eggs, very spicy broth. If you love mutton, you'll love this place because they use a lot of mutton. History. I don't know much of the history. I know the basics, but you can tell just by traveling the country. There's a lot of layers to peel back here. And if you really want to get into this culture, I think you could be busy with reading up on your history for quite some time. It's a very, very, very fascinating corner of the globe. And it feels very much like a corner in a sense where it's, if you're coming in from Asia or from Europe, it's just far. It's felt safe the whole time. I mean, it's got the word stand at the end of a country and that's a curse because most people associate that with terrorism. They associate it with danger. I've been told there's some bad parts of Bishkek on the outskirts. I haven't been to those parts, but where I've been in Bishkek, mostly in the center, it's totally cool to walk around here. It feels very safe. And in the countryside, it felt very safe. Sure, things can happen, but for the most part, I think it's completely fine. Now, the stands are interesting in the sense that throughout history, there have been flashpoints and hot points that have come up. And so do your research, know where you're going. But to be an alarmist over it and feel like it's all super dangerous is a little bit ridiculous, to be honest, because once you're here, you'll realize it's quite a civilized place. Architecture. The architecture here depends what you like, but the architecture is stunning. And so if you like some of that older Soviet stuff, that constructivism, that brutalism, then you found your heaven because this place has some real gems. And then there's also like the yurts. Those are really cool if you haven't seen yurts before. So there's yurts up in the countryside, up in the mountains. And so I've been told these massive yurts can be put up in like 30 minutes. Transportation, super easy to get around. I came in from Almaty. It was just a shared taxi, which these shared taxis are really interesting in this part of the world. You basically go to part of the city, usually near the bus station. And well, you wait for a car to fill up. You're all going to one destination. Each person pays a fee and you wait for it to fill up and then you're on a road trip together. And it's cool, like depending on the car you're in, it can be really connected. It can be really fun. Most likely you'll stop for lunch together. And it's a really good way to say, get into the culture at a deeper level because you're forced to be sitting with four or five strangers for a fair amount of time. If you're thinking about it, definitely put this place on your radar. It's fantastic. It's really a cool place to travel. It's a bit wild. It's got some adventure in it, but it's civilized and set up well enough it's pretty easy travel. Yeah. I mean, even the cell phone plans work really well and are cheap. Internet's good. So that's my take on Kyrgyzstan. Definitely one of the cool corners of the world.