David Rich 0. The Kyrgyzstan capital of Bishkek offers examples on every street, such as Playboy magazine on sale at magazine kiosks, readily understandable though written in Russian Cyrillic. Possession of Playboy in practically neighboring Afghanistan or Pakistan would be a near-capital offense.
Almost needless to say, few local women wear scarves or veils, except at the gaudily advertised strip clubs where ladies reportedly shed filmy garments with verve and abandon. But drink, particularly Russian vodka served with any excuse or no excuse at all, are displayed in all supermarkets and corner grocery stores, taking up more space than fruit, veg, and meat combined. Ladies not trapped in tatty cabarets trod the streets attired similar to those in any Western capital, wearing anything and everything from micro-mini-skirts and skimpy tops with bare midriffs to painted-on jeans and the ubiquitous baggy housedress.
In most Middle Eastern countries these saucy damsels would be stoned on the spot, including those in baggy housedresses. This is, notwithstanding the tawdriness, the hopeful future of world Islam, which is to say, female liberty to do as she wishes, or whatever it takes to bag a guy with money. The traditional Central Asian means of advertising female pulchritude would be found loco in Western society: front teeth plated with glistening gold, embellished by fancy hair ribbons habitually worn from earliest school days.
However, one hoary tradition, though outlawed in , remains: kidnapping a prospective bride by bundling her into a waiting car or unsuspecting taxi. It never freezes due to salinity, extreme depth, and thermal activity, on the nigh-tropical shores of which vacationers sunbathe standing up. Both the Lake and the sunbathing locals are a sight to evince marvel.
My first trek commenced on the lake from Grigorievka to a fluorescent gem of an altitudinous lake near the Kazakhstan border, looping back through high alpine valleys past hunters using golden eagles to bag prey ranging from rabbits to the occasional wolf. Alas, I missed the kok boru, an all-out brawl with horsemen in high felt hats aggressively disputing their respective rights to a headless nanny-goat, considered similar to croquet with a dead sheep; out of season upon my arrival.
