Two years ago, Helen and I visited Central Asia for the first time including Uzbekistan and Almaty, Kazakhstan; plus a few days in Istanbul. We enjoyed Uzbekistan’s rich history and cuisine including plov – their national dish of rice, meat, and vegetables – and shashlik meat skewers; while Shymbulak Peak in Almaty was a decent day hike. Since we wanted to further explore that part of the world and get some serious hiking in, we visited Kyrgyzstan this year including an eight-day trek in the Alay Mountains. I will do a separate post about that trek and will use this post to briefly recap Kyrgyzstan.
