Osh, Kyrgyzstan: Not So Large, but Contains Multitudes

Vastly different from other parts of Kyrgyzstan, travel in Osh is a chance to get to know the more devout Islamic heartland of the country.

Boo yeah, that is a Walt Whitman reference in the title!  Literary self-congratulations aside, the description fits our impressions of Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second city.  Often referred to as Kyrgyzstan’s southern capital, travel in Osh feels completely different than in Bishkek – less modern, more steeped in tradition, and more Islamic.  As we ventured even further south, to Sary Mogul and deeper into Kyrgyzstan’s Islamic heartland, stores even stopped selling alcohol and cigarettes.  Despite how Islam is portrayed by American media and, sadly, the incoming presidential cabinet, we found that as places became more majority Islamic, so too did their people become more friendly.

Though, to be fair, the comparison is mostly Islamic versus Russified.  And in comparisons of friendliness, I’m afraid Russians will typically not make the podium.

Truth of the matter is that we didn’t plan to be in Osh at all.  Our original plan was more of a Kyrgyzstan Best-Of itinerary, with stops at Issyk and Song Kul, as well as the remains of the Silk Road Caravanserai at Tash Rabat.  But being the esoteric traveler I am, I was drawn to the more exotic, less visited nature of the place.  The whole of the greater Ferghana Valley’s recent violent history is somber while fascinating. And despite the conflict between two nations that was created, to a degree, by the former Soviet state’s haphazard gerrymandering, the region felt hopeful to us. 

The short version of the history is this: when the Soviets took control of the disparate regions that would become the USSR, they were left with difficulty in parts of Central Asia due to the mixing of cultures that had been happening since the time of the Silk Road.  In parts of Southern Kyrgyzstan, the population was so Balkanized that, when it came time for the establishment of independent-ish Soviet republics, it made sense to gerrymander Uzbek and Tajik exclaves within the Kyrgyz SSR.  Not to mention the fact that before these forced borders were imposed on what became today’s modern five ‘Stans (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan – I exclude Afghanistan and Pakistan as they have never been under Soviet rule, despite attempts at the contrary for the former.), perceived differences in ethnicity weren’t as important, especially as arbitrary boundaries between the Tajik, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz majority parts of the valley would only serve to impose undesirable bureaucracy along the important trade routes from orient to occident.

The tensions between the nations (or manufactured ethnicities) did flare up in the years after the dissolution of the USSR.  Border disputes and simmering ethnic tensions (no doubt exacerbated by years of Soviet indoctrination) led to violent clashes along the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border in the towns of Osh, Uzgen, and Jalal-Abad in Kyrgyzstan, and Andijan, Uzbekistan – the most recent outbreak of violence being in Osh in 2010.  All of this said, Osh doesn’t live in the shadow of these recent tragic events.  Instead, it is an optimistic-seeming place, filled with friendly residents and thriving commerce.

I guess that wasn’t such a short history…

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We boarded an early morning flight from Bishkek to Osh, making our way through multiple security checkpoints, and taking note of the lovely mosaics in the Socialist Realism style occupying every available wall.  Roaming through the airport, also, were men in head to toe fatigues and balaclavas, armed with what appeared to be very automatic rifles.

The ride was quick on Air Manas – and cheap, about $55 round trip – and we were met by a taxi driver at the airport after our bags finally sputtered out of the rickety baggage conveyor belt.  The waiting area was outside, and the ticket offices were shuttering for the day, as most of the local flights leave early in the morning.

Our taxi took us into town and dropped us at our well-appointed apartment, located directly across the street from Alimbek Datka Square and the entrance to UNESCO World Heritage-listed Sulaiman Too mountain.  We arranged our things, planned an eight or so mile route around the city, and were off.

After getting our ducks in a row for our three-day trek starting the following day, we made our way to the Osh Bazaar – not Bishkek’s Osh Bazaar, mind you, but Osh’s Osh bazaar.  It’s kind of confusing, I understand, but certainly no more confusing than the streets in many Central Asian cities operating with two different names – the Soviet and Post-Soviet.  At the bazaar, I purchased about few kalpak, a type of traditional Kyrgyz headwear, a more traditionally Uzbek skull cap, and some educational posters for my four-year-old niece, in case she’s interested in learning the Russian words for various types of wildlife.

Osh, despite being such an old city, had its modernist goliaths as well.  The two we were fondest of were the Kyrgyz Telecom and Radio buildings, located right next to each other, just south of the bazaar on Lenin Avenue.  They both exemplify the Central Asian architectural tradition of mixing modernism with traditional cultural elements – in this case Kyrgyz symbols cast in concrete and framed by rebar.

 

Next to these buildings lay what appeared to be a meeting hub of sorts.  Part amusement park, part green space, and 100% where to be seen, Navoi Park is home to, among other things, a broke down Yak-40 plane, a ferris wheel, numerous shooting galleries, and a random mural depicting, of all things, Seattle’s downtown skyline.

From the park, it’s only a three-minute westerly traverse to the entrance of Sulaiman Too, the most conventional and popular attraction in the city.  And it’s easy to understand why: Hiking to the top of the mountain, one is afforded endless views (pending pollution or haze, typically coming from masses of residents burning their trash) of the city’s environs.  As opposed to the rest of the country, the area around Osh is flat and relatively fertile, a fact that makes Sulaiman Too’s presence even more dramatic.

 

Scattered around them mountain were various artifacts, either thoughtlessly placed or perhaps placed to compete for attention of day trippers.  A café, a sprawling cemetery, the largest mosque in Kyrgyzstan, and an ominous Soviet leftover of a museum were all within spitting distance of the Sulaiman Too trail.  The Soviet museum, for us at least, was the biggest draw (no surprise there), despite it being the source of some controversy.  Sulaiman Too is a holy mountain, you see, and the Soviet-era museum is seen by some as a desecration.  A desecration that, for the record, we had to pay twice local admission for the privilege of entering.

Walking back to our apartment on sore feet, I was struck by the compactness of the city, and how that, in a mere 15 kilometers, we were able to see vestiges of several cultures (Soviet, Kyrgyz, Uzbek), architecture spanning many centuries, and contradictions opposite of what I expected from such a conservative Islamic place.  Osh kept me guessing in the best way possible – in a way that’s hard to do considering the amount of preparation and research I do for every trip I plan.

 

The warmth of the greetings we received from people, regardless of their ethnicity was especially refreshing considering the state of race and religious tensions in the United States.  I make a point to not lie about where I’m from when  I travel, maybe due to my idea that citizen diplomacy is better than no diplomacy at all, and of all the people we met in Osh, only one took offence to my being American.  When  I think about my time in Central Asia, my mind keeps sending me back to the dusty roads and crumbling mosaics of Osh, a city that seems to want so desperately stay relevant in today’s modern global society, but is still trying to reconcile the old and new ways of doing things. 

In other words, go now, and you’ll be justly rewarded.

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In Osh we stayed in the Konok Apartment, part of the Konok Center.  Our apartment could have slept four people, and we paid $40 a night for it, $50 including airport transfers upon both arrival and departure.  The apartment was clean and had a ton of useful information on the city, including a map that we used to navigate our way around with.  The Konok Center also has a Hostel, which I cannot vouch for.  However, both the Hostel and Apartment are much more centrally located (in the shadow of Sulaiman Too) than the other main hostel in town, Eco House.

Downtown Osh is super compact and easily walkable, but it does get HOT there.  It was hovering close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) when we visited, so we were pretty much drenched the whole time.  We didn’t see everything (Chong Lenin, next time!), but could have if we had wanted to.   An extremely comprehensive map of Osh sites over at Mark Jahnke’s blog.  Mark is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Osh, and imparted much valuable wisdom to us prior to our trip.

Round trip tickets from Bishkek to Osh were cheap on Air Manas (also known as Pegasus Asia, for whatever reason) – around $50 bucks is normal.  Apparently there are cheaper flights on Tez Jet, but I could not figure out how to (or if it were even possible) to reserve those tickets online.  Pro tip for the Bishkek to Osh flight: if you want killer views, get on the plane early.  You’ll have an assigned seat on the plane, but you’ll soon realize that assigned seats don’t matter.  Once you’re on the plane it’s a first come first served type of a situation to get your preferred seat.  Board early if possible.