Day 454 - Goodbye money

We started the day early again, and managed to find a marshrutka to take us near the Indian Embassy (now near the Ak Keme Hotel off Mira St) - where we finally found it after asking for directions from many people! In our enthusiasm we had arrived almost an hour early, but a friendly member of staff invited us in to start the application process early. At 10am the man in charge came to talk to us and make sure everything was in order - we tried to ask him about flights direct to Delhi, but just like most people we ask they're not entirely sure ... The visas cost us more than double what we thought they would ($100 each), so we're not eating for a few days!

Afterwards we managed to roll our way to the cheap South Guesthouse where one of the current guests showed us to a couple of free beds - basically there are 5 beds crammed into a tiny room side-by-side in a 2 room apartment way out of town. Suits us though, because, well, anything that's cheap suits us!

Turns out we can't survive not eating for a few days so we found some take aways (burger for Adam, potato samosas for Liv) and ate on the side of the street and then found an internet cafe. We also tried to find a Kyrgyzstan Air office to clarify once and for all if we can fly to Delhi, but couldn't find it. Later on we finally had success and confirmed that you can't fly direct from Kyrgyzstan to India, so we'll be applying for a transit Kazakh visa and fly from Almaty to Delhi instead.

During the afternoon we wandered through town a bit, taking in the numerous huge squares and monuments scattered over the place - all seem to be owned and operated by a gang of pigeons! As we walked around we questioned whether kids go to school or whether they just play dress-ups in preparation for work in the future, as kids constantly seem to be wandering the streets kitted out in mini-suits!

A great thing for any drinker is that in Kyrgyzstan beer and vodka is available on the side of the street, just about anywhere and everywhere!

We picked up bread, cheese, and veges for dinner back at the guesthouse and spent the night preparing for our trip to Karakol tomorrow.

Adlibing it with information finally.