Larry Memmott's Blog

Alex, Chris and William brought a “Gingerbread House Kit” when they came for Christmas. They were not so excited about making it, though, and only got it out of the suitcase when it was time to pack for home. Anyway, Aliciya liked it, so she ended up making it.

From the Burana Tower, we went up the mountains to Issyk-Ata, a Soviet-era “Sanitorium.” Traditionally, in this part of the world, whenever you had hot springs you turned them into a place for treating the ill. Issyk-Ata means “Father Heat” and it is a hot spring with a large complex of treatment facilities, a couple […]

We spent one day visiting the ruins of the ancient Silk Road City of Balasagun, including the thousand-year-old Burana Tower. Balasagun was the capital city of the region when Genghis Khan showed up in the 13th Century. He didn’t destroy the city (which was apparently quite out of character for him), but just renamed it. […]

William, Aliciya and I took a great trip up Alamedin Gorge to play in the snow and the hot water of the Teplye Kluchi Hot Springs. We started out playing in the snow. After we got good and cold, we decided to warm up swimming at the hot springs. There is an old Soviet-era swimming […]

This is one of our family traditions, everybody makes their own pizzas with whatever they want on them.

We drove up to Ala Archa to take a walk in the snow.  It was beautiful, as it always is.

Alexandra, Christina and William came to visit us for Christmas and New Years. We had a great time exploring Bishkek and some of the mountainous areas around the city. Although we were disappointed with the light snowfall (and they missed the Blizzard of 09 back at home), the mild weather did allow us to have […]

Over the past few days we’ve been getting seriously into the Christmas spirit! The Embassy’s local employees organized a major party at a local cafe for the adults of the embassy, with plenty to eat and drink, and lots of dancing and partying. It was a blast! And then we hosted, at our house, Breakfast […]

Lake Issyk Kul is the tenth largest lake in the world (by volume) and the second largest mountain lake (after Lake Titicaca, which I have also visited). It is also the second largest saline lake in the world, after the Caspian Sea (so, bigger than the Great Salt Lake). It’s not heavily salty, just enough […]

We got our jeep and immediately had to get out of town and see a bit more of the country. The first weekend we were going to drive up to Ala Archa, a mountainous national park just 25 miles south of the city. However, as we were leaving town we were passed by a motorcycle. […]