a tough but warm welcome in Kyrgystan

So here we were at Munich airport finally having spent one day maniac shopping to get all the things we needed and sorting the final things out till 4 in the morning...
At the check in we had the first signs. We were not booked on the flight to Bishkek and our luggage started to get pinched with all sort of coloured tags... obviously they were sure everything would have arrived at destination... not so in Bishkek where after a long journey and a funny visa check we were to find a nice lady from British Airways to present us the claim form for the lost luggage... outside the hostel owner had been waiting for 4 hours ... but mostly we had finally got there and ready to shop again !!!
I got mad! After a tiring journey the only thing I wanted to do is to have a shower and creep into my new silk bed inlays to catch up with some sleep. Obviously shouting did not help so we left the airport with 2 little daypacks ... to find our driver standing there almost alone with his little "Welcome Fabrizio & Simone" sign. Incredible - I was really taken by this kind of hospitality. And this is actually what we experience day by day in Central Asia. The people here are just wonderful. Friendly, open, not intrusive at all but helpful and truly interested. Just amazing.

So we arrived in Bishkek - in a Mercedes from the 80ies with a ADAC sticker !!! By the way - I am sure that all cars which got stolen in Germany between 1970-90 arrived here. The mini-buses (actually one of the most efficient public transport systems we have experienced) have stickers like "Baeckerei ABC - taeglich frische Broetchen" etc! In our little hostel we were expected with a good breakfast and a lot of helpful information where we can go and shop for the stuff we needed. So we made our way straight into the soviet-style, but incredibly green city to check out the local department stores, evaluate the quality of the faked North Face gear and try on the latest trends of Tom Tailor and Betty Barclay ;-) (yes - these Germans are really everwhere... ;-)