We are now in Kyrgyzstan, after completing our tour of Uzbekistan.  There have been several cemeteries along the road, but one we stopped at today was particularly special. Looking at it from the top of a hill, it appears to be a small city (center above).  It is standard for grave sites to have photographs of the deceased on the headstones of those who died since the early 20th century (center two images on bottom row). The wealthy also often create elaborate crypts for the departed (top row).

Next stop was visiting a yurt with nomads in traditional clothing (upper row), then on to a horse farm where they milk the horses to prepare kymyz, a traditional fermented drink (center image plus lower right). While we were waiting for others in our group, we watched a man doing a crossword puzzle while his grandson watched (lower left).  When Evelyn tried to take the boy’s photograph, he was very serious. I therefore thumbed my nose at him, which got him to laugh.  He tried to mimic the expression, but put his thumb in his ear instead (center bottom), until his grandfather laughed and moved his thumb to his nose to properly perform the nyah-nyah gesture… ☺

Next to the grandfather was an old rusted shed.  We couldn’t resist taking some detail photos of the blue paint and rust, which have such an interesting abstract quality to them.

We next visited a small workshop that makes traditional textiles, many of which are used for special costumes for dancers and special events. The owner drove 4 hours from the coast where she had a workshop just to greet us and show us her place, where she provides jobs for local talented women. Returning to town, we had some time to kill before catching the plane, so wandered around a large government building (bottom row).

Last stop in town was the Osh Bazaar, a local indoor market selling every kind of food consumed here, spices to prepare them, as well as shoes, clothing and other dry goods.

Of course, markets are one of our favorite places for capturing interesting people photos.  Business was pretty slow here on a Tuesday afternoon, so there were more images of vendors interacting with us than with customers.  Top-left in lower block shows Denise, from our photo tour group, explaining to a vendor what kind of dried fruit she was looking for. For the most part, the vendors spoke to us in Russian. However the axe man (butcher upper right in lower block) put his arms around me and spoke in English saying “Kyrgyzstan.. and America…friends”.

As with Uzbekistan, the local signs are intriguing to look at.  Here there were much fewer with any English, though tourist spots did tend to have three languages (lower right).  Many had images, making it relatively easy to figure out the meaning, but others just left you wondering, if you are not fluent in Kyrgyz (upper left and middle).