Kochkor

I head down to Kochkor with Nazik’s Brazilian couchsurfers Angelica and Gustav and find a really cheap slum to stay in.

The view just outside of Kochkor.

Deciding against doing much hiking in the area, I spend a day wandering around the town’s outskirts, chatting with the locals.

Kyrgyz man cruising for chicks on his donkey. I try to chat with him but he’s far too busy and won’t speak with me.

I see a sheepherder in a suit and decide he’s definitely worth talking to. He tells me that the two men who did the most good for Kyrgyzstan are Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze. Prior to the collapse of the USSR, everyone in Kyrgyzstan had a job and a secure future. Several large manufacturing plants operated in the country, employing a large percentage of the population.

Since the USSR collapsed, there has been less cooperation between the former republics and as such the plants didn’t receive the required raw materials and were forced to shut down. A highly incompetent corrupt leader post USSR (Askar Akayevich Akayev) didn’t help much either.

Outskirts of Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan.