Larry Memmott's Blog

Tajikistan’s membership in the Russian-Kazakhstani-Belarusian Customs Union (CU) depends on how soon Kyrgyzstan joins the CU?

This is a nice day trip from Bishkek into the Ala Too Mountains.  This one is a little further down the road from Sokuluk, but further has its advantages.  It definitely doesn’t feel as “trampled” as some of the closer canyons. Attached is a .gdb file you can use with your GPS or open in […]

Using .gdb files

Getting maps for your Garmin GPS.

I got a few hours free on the weekend to hike up to the climber’s cemetery in Ala Archa National Park. The cemetery was established in Soviet times for fallen climbers (most often, literally fallen climbers). It is hidden away in a grove of larch trees — well enough hidden that I missed it the […]

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.

We had a good New Year’s celebration, shooting off fireworks at home. On New Year’s Day we went downtown to wander around a bit. That was about it for the kids trip to Kyrgyzstan. We are looking forward to having them here again in the summer.

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 […]