Back from Kyrgyzstan, and what's next

Hey there Folks,

We just got back from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Czechia and I’m still still sorting through all my photos of these amazing places. This was a big trip: far away, challenging, hard to get to, and absolutely stunning.

For highlights - we drove down a river, got pulled over and bribed in Almaty, hiked in the freezing cold and slept in 6 different yurts. It was the type of family trip that we will be talking about for years.

I’ll be sharing more details about this trip in the coming months, but today I want to share a few behind the scene moments.

Let’s talk about Almaty.

On our final day with our rental car (nicknamed the Stallion) We got pulled over by the police in Almaty. Yes we crossed over a double line accidently, but after driving for the last 10 days and watching everone around us break all the traffic rules, it felt a bit arbitrary.

The police asked Dave to get into their police car while the rest of us sat in the Stallion. One police officer ‘took a walk’, the other communicated over google translate with Dave, and the third officer slept in the back of the police car. After telling Dave he would lose his license for 6 months, the officer asked him to settle it between them and then asked how much money we had. While corruption is getting the crack down here (supposedly), accepting a bribe could actually mean jail time. Dave stayed firm, stalled, called our car rental company, talked to me, and waited while I took photos and recorded the incident. Eventually the officers got bored and nervous, returned his license and drove off.

It was the first time we’ve had this happen although we did have someone try something at a gas station in Mexico - another story for another time.

That wasn’t the only driving adventure we had on the trip.