Emblems/Coat of Arms of Central Asia

A thank you to the lovely comment on my flag post which made me remember that countries also have emblems or coats of arms.  I searched my memory for what the USA's was, and I could not remember it.  Of course when I saw it, I said, oh yeah, the Great Seal, bark bark bark...

You know, like a seal?  Bark?  Get it?

So I decided to mock up the emblems of the Central Asian nations.  Turns out that they're pretty awesome.

A word of explanation - They are in the same order as the flag graphic, with Kazakhstan at the top, Uzbekistan in the middle left, Kyrgyzstan in the middle right, Turkmenistan in the bottom left and Tajikistan on the bottom right.  All of these emblems except Kazakhstan have both cotton and wheat in them.  Cotton is an important part of the economy in these countries, whereas Kazakhstan has large oil/gas deposits.  Tajikistan's book is clearly a Quran and the sun/crown combination is, to me, vaguely reminiscent of the Qajar dynasty's seal from early 20th century Iran.  Both have the rising sun and a crown, although this one has a ninja lion.

Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan all have mountains and the horse or bird motif seems to be the way to go with Central Asian emblems. 

Preferences?

The Flags of Central Asia

I've always loved flags and maps.  Not sure why, maybe it was hours spent staring at the flag and map in school, trying to avoid learning anything.  I became a teacher to apologize for my attitude as a student.  And, to paraphrase the Trinidadian Bard, aka Slinger Francisco, aka The Mighty Sparrow "If I had paid attention in school, I'd be a block headed mule."

So, anyways, I mocked up this little graphic, it's rough but pretty.  I definitely have a favorite flag, but I won't reveal it yet.  The flags are, by the way, aligned roughly geographically.  But, if you don't like maps, I'll tell you which they are.  The top one is Kazakhstan.  The middle left is Uzbekistan and the middle right is Kyrgyzstan.  The bottom left is Turkmenistan and the bottom right is Tajikistan.

Which is your favorite?

Travel Warning! Alamedin Gorge

Our third hike of the season was to a different location.  Rather than a return to Ala Archa, we headed to nearby Alamedin Gorge.  It's not really any further by car, just a little to the west (I think?) in the same mountain range, the Ala Too, which is a branch of the Tian Shan Mountains.  Mountains which, as you well know, are also know as the Celestial Mountains.

Alamedin was a lot easier of a hike than the others we had done.  It was more of a gentle, constant uphill stroll than a steep ascent.  It might have been more beautiful than Ala Archa...but there were two problems with this hike...

1.  ANIMAL POOP EVERYWHERE!  This valley is one of the places people go horseback riding in - fine.  But it's also where people bring livestock to graze at a high altitude due to the cooler summer climate at this altitude (probably between 2100-2500 meters).  And grazing livestock eat a lot.  Animals that eat a lot, poop A LOT. Seriously, a lot.  The path was frequently fully saturated in animal waste.  It was fairly old poop and had lost its stink but, when you thought about it, you remembered you were still, about half of the time, walking through animal poop.

2.  THIS BRIDGE!  If you are related to me, do not look at these pictures.  You will think I am insane and scream at me for crossing this bridge.  No moms allowed.  Skip ahead moms.  And yes, we carried a two year old, on our backs, over this bridge.  It was character building for him.  For more pics of this, and other bridges, click this sentence...

Here the bridge is whispering to us, saying, "Come and see, come and see."

This charming bridge beckons to us, "Come closer.  Yes I really am made of pipes that sway when you cross them AND covered in a wire mesh that will barely support your weight.  But look how cool I am."

Convinced, we crossed as quicklyas we could.  Here Berndt kindly holds the bridge steady for Angie.

Angie negotiates the low and thin support wire and Josh, wisely, decides to film his crossing. Because why wouldn't you film this?  And yes, the bridge is a bit tilted.

Wow.  Looking at this pictures again, I can't believe we crossed the river here.  Valeri was our guide again and he basically waltzed across this bridge.  He did so without comment about the structure and his confidence imbued us with false confidence.  But, we all made it, or at least, we've blocked out the memory of the several people who fell off.

Then it was walky walk time and we strolled and walked up a slight slope.  Always going up, but always at a nice gentle slope in this broad and sunny valley.

Mike went to investigate this conceptual art rendering of a yurt.

And we walked for about 2 or 3 hours through this lovely landscape.

This stream marked the end of our forward progress.  I think we could have kept going quite a distance in this gorge, but we resisted the temptation to wander off and follow Przhevalsky.  There was very little shade on the hike, but near the river was a little copse of trees and we sat and had our lunch.  Actually, it seems like there was one tree, but it was a nice tree.  And, everyone else sat and had their lunch while my son and I played by the river.

The lunch spot was up on a hill a little and had a nice view.

And they ate while my son and I played in this stream.  My son is the restless variety of son, the kind that is in perpetual motion.  Even when he sleeps he flips and flops around.  So, I figured we could take off our socks and shoes - and his pants - and wade in here.  It's at most 3 or 4 inches deep and I figured that so shallow a stream at the end of summer/beginning of fall must be reasonably warm. It was not.  Within seconds we were both running out of the water screaming in pain.  If it were a cartoon, blocks of ice would have been frozen on our feet, little chunks flying left and right as we hopped up and down yelling.  For some reason though, we both kept going back in.  We perfected a method of scrambling up onto warm rocks in the middle of the stream.  And hopping on them and yelling and shaking the ice off our feet.  It was so painful and idiotic that it was fun.  Who doesn't want to have fun with a two year old in an icy mountain stream?

All fun must come to an end.  I ate while my wife repeated my folly in the icy river.  After lunch the final part of the hike was up to a nearby waterfall.  The waterfall was quite close, just a little bit further up the hill we lunched on and around a corner.  There was a sudden change from grassy plain to wooded glen.

And the last corner...

Behold the waterfall!  I'd put it at about 10 meters or 30 feet.  Maybe a little higher and clearly it was on the low flow side for the season.  Michelle decided to get up close to the falls with her fancy hiking poles.  The small little area by the falls was crowded, with maybe 20 people clustered in and around the falls.  They soon began to imitate Michelle's mountain goatery and we expected to see someone, perhaps a babushka or dadushka, come tumble down.  Fortunately they were all sure footed.  They probably could have even done it on horseback.

Here are some daredevils.

We sat and contemplated the falling water.

 Angie decided to show how tough she was by wading in the pool.  Can you see the pain on her face here?

And alas, it was time to go.  At least, when we have to leave the mountains, we're faced with a spectacular vista like this one.

On the way back, Valeri picked some late season berries.  Here's Michelle investigating some Barberries.

Valeri found two types of edible berries for us.  Both were pretty sore but neither killed us, so it only improved our view that Valeri is an Alpinist Extraordinary.  He was also a patient guide, for the third time, to a bunch of lollygaggers that slowed him down in his beloved mountains.  We appreciate him immensely.  This is Valeri and I walking ahead of the crowd.

And here is Karol, trying to slow Valeri down!  Hurry up Karol!

Mike, Michelle and I paused on the way back for a chocolate summit.  It was my tradition to eat an entire, or nearly entire, bar of Alpen Gold Hazelnut Chocolate.  Yummy fuel for a day's hike.

And back and back with everyone else leaving on a beautiful early evening in October.  This was the only hike where there were a significant amount of other people around on the trail.  They were lovely people that wanted to chat with us and we did so as we processed, progressed and egressed.

 And the shadows fell deep on us, and the sky loomed its bluer than blue above and we were undone, knowing that each autumn day would be shorter, each fall night would be colder and each step forward was another step away from here.

And of course, each step was one step closer to...
THE BRIDGE!  CRAP WE FORGOT THAT WE HAVE TO CROSS IT AGAIN!
We were a little smarter this time and enforced a "one person at a time" policy in order to keep the bridge from collapsing.

Here's Josh's crossing -

Goodbye Alamedinne, fare well.

Riding the Hippo

Begemot is our local fast food.  Homegrown, Bishkek fast food.  Begemot means Hippo in Russian.

At first I was really into it.  You can get a Gamburger ($1) or a Step Roll ($1.25) or Freets ($1).  Gamburger is - you guessed it! - a hamburger and a Step Roll is sort of a wrap/shwarma thing.  And freets are fries.  Well, most of us ex-pats here have at least one Begemot  food poisioning under our belts and it's been out of my rotation since September.

Shame, this location is right next to the amusement park and a five minute walk from both home and school.

 Two notes
1. Look at that bald dude.  He needs to pull it together.
2.  I have no idea what's going on behind Begemot on that wall.  I think the building is The National Drama Theater.