Bishkek, T minus 10 hours

Leaving Bishkek tomorrow morning for Dushanbe. Another day, another city.
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Had dinner a while ago at Pit Bull Cafe-- a Western-themed restaurant which serves what seem to be Russian dishes. I had a dish of something like a cross between an omelette and beef cordon bleu. It was good, actually. I ate it with rice, although rice here is considered a side dish and is usually "stewed"; i.e., cooked in both water and oil. In case you're interested, the staple in this part of the world is bread, or khleb.

Taking a cab back to the hotel, we (the driver and I) were stopped by the police who stopped us by waving one of those lighted sticks usually used in airports. I don't know what the offence was (if any), but the driver was free after paying a bribe of 30 soms. After his transaction with the cop, the driver started to be chatty. In broken English, he asked me where I was from. In broken Russian, I answered, "Ya Filipinyets." He followed by asking how I liked Bishkek and Kyrgyzstan. Being the polite visitor, I said it was "very nice (ochin harasho)". Visibly still irked by his encounter with the militsia, he asked me, "What's so nice about Bishkek?"

"Bishkek and Manila are very similar," I answered. At the time it was a dismissive answer mainly said to duck a potentially difficult discussion, but the more I think about it the more it rings true. Like Manila, Bishkek has its share of bad roads, kotong cops, and even People Power. Like Manila, you see lots of small stores and micro-businesses in Bishkek-- a proliferation of mom-and-pop enterprises typical of developing economies. Like Manila, people in Bishkek seem to be so tired of politics and the economy, but not of life and family. It is interesting how two cities so distant in geography, culture, and history could still have so much in common.