Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Kyrgyzstan-ho!

Kyrgyzstan, the Land of the Kyrgyz.
Population 5 million, a little more than Croatia, a little less than London.
Where is it? Here, in the red oval:

Note for American readers: the red oval has been superimposed onto the map, and is not a geographical feature.
This is mountain country: almost 90% of the country lies more than 5000 feet (1,500 meters) above sea level.
I'll be living and working in the capital Bishkek, population 900,000, located at the top of the map below. Issyk-Kul is the second largest mountain lake in the world after Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca is more popular with tourists partly due to the lack of radioactive waste on its shores. Some people have no sense of adventure.
For more information about Kyrgyzstan, visit:
The current president originally trained to be an engineer. Being president appears to be an interesting alternative to engineering, one I hadn't considered yet. I shall keep my options open.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrgyzstan

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oi oi oi Mr Ben, sorry, Sir Ben goes on trip again...and of course he goes to a country with one of the most unpronounciable names in the whole world! Good luck! Just explain a bit what exactly you are going to do there!?

Anonymous said...

He'll be an english teacher, Joris! Ben, I was thinking...
Maybe you should inquire a bit if there is a civil war just waiting to start over there, or sth else just as deadly that the presence of Mr. Ben could trigger... As we've so often seen before... :p ;)

ceiling_fan said...

Joris, given that you speak Flemish, you should have no trouble pronouncing strange words.

Anita, I must protest: the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004 was nothing to do with me. It happened a couple of months after I left.

Musharraf's coup in Pakistan when he overthrew the government in 1999 was also nothing to do with me. It happened a couple of weeks after I left.

The bombing in Cairo in 1997 had nothing to do with me. It happened a couple of days after I left.

It might be a good idea to stay away from Germany for the next few weeks.

But I have done my background research: Kyrgyzstan went through the Tulip Revolution last year, so hopefully this means it's a nice, stable country now....