Bishkek

Bishkek was the next natural step on from Almaty, only a five-hour bus drive through the vast, barren and somewhat underwhelming plains of rural Kazakhstan. Everyone I had spoken to suggested Bishkek resembled it's neighbour ten years ago, and not in a way which particularly romanticised recent history.

With a lack of enticing apartments on Airbnb and rather muted expectations on what to find in the city, 10 nights felt like it would be sufficient to get a gauge of the nation's capital.

I'll make several references and comparisons to Almaty throughout this as it's difficult to benchmark it against any more developed cities.

Late June in Bishkek was hot. Daytime temperatures reached 37°C with cooler air and much-welcomed light winds characterising the evenings. While I didn't find the heat debilitating, unless you are really craving such temperatures, the shoulder months of May and September are likely to suit most visitors better.

A couple of evenings brought unpleasant mid-summer dust storms, which aren't uncommon at this time of year, along with unexpected periodic downpours that quickly cleared up. Even without gaining much altitude, mountain temperatures drop significantly, so outdoor exploration remains comfortable even when the city is becoming uncomfortable.

How long do you need in Bishkek? It's hard to say. Compared to neighbouring Almaty, I'd feel less comfortable recommending a full month. In general, there's less ambience around the city and not a great deal to really get particularly excited about. But I would have happily extended my one-week stay with better accommodation.

Most visitors appeared to use Bishkek as a springboard to kick-start a wider journey around the country, so allocating additional time to properly see the more rural parts of the country would have been something I'd have explored if time had permitted.

Similar to Almaty, Bishkek feels incredibly dispersed. Everything is fairly spread out with nowhere particularly acting like a traditional urban hub. I've struggled to actually locate meaningful neighbourhoods to refer to, with the two largest districts, 'Lenin' and 'Oktyabr', covering too much space to give any meaningful reference points.

If I had to give any rough guidance it would be to find somewhere south of Jibek Jolu Ave, north of the train station, and then be within commuting distance of wherever you may plan to work from.

Without a great deal of quality accommodation options on the market, you likely won't be able to be too picky with where you opt for. Thankfully, I don't think that level of precision is too required in the city.

There's a decent number of coworking spaces spread throughout Bishkek, but without knowing your way around the city, it can be challenging to ascertain where to place yourself simply by searching on Google Maps.

Technopark and Collab Coworking look like two of the best options, but are both significantly away from the city centre with underwhelming accommodation options nearby.

The Ololo chain emerged as the best bet, with several sites dispersed across the city. I opted for their site at Ololo Haus Erkindik, which was as close to a perfect base for a week as I could imagine. With limited public transport options and significant traffic when getting across the city, I'd prioritise locating something relatively close to your accommodation.

Coffee shops are generally open late into the evening and can make for viable options for a few hours' work, with Flask and White Night being particularly popular places for locals to bring their laptops along for a few hours.

Within my first 24 hours in the city, I picked up on more international accents than throughout the entire month of my time in Almaty. Perhaps due to the nightlife being concentrated across a smaller number of venues, you are more likely to cross paths with fellow foreigners, but even when hiking in the mountains, I encountered a much wider variety of people than at any point in Kazakhstan.

The city's population features a similar split between native Kyrgyz and ethnic Russians, and in general, even though it is still definitely limited, English felt more widely spoken. Whilst its use is likely to be much more limited amongst older generations, I felt a marked improvement in the ability to communicate in restaurants and cafés and within the coworking space.

Perhaps as a result of this, I felt a much warmer reception from the Kyrgyz people. I had several people ask with warm curiosity about where I was from and how long I was intending to stay in the country, which on reflection didn't happen once throughout the preceding month. There was still a little distance from the men, but perhaps without the same level of hostility as you often felt over the border.

With such a nascent remote work reputation, you're more likely to find Western tourists in Bishkek arriving to explore the rest of Kyrgyzstan than remote workers in the coworking spaces. There's a small expat community in the city, mainly working for NGOs based there.