Barreling Into the 21st Century

When our guide Eldar was a young boy, his mother rose early every day to milk their cow, separate the cream for a fresh batch of kaymak and make boorsak, the traditional Kyrg bread. All before he woke up for breakfast.

Eldar is 23 yeas old. He was eating those breakfasts about the time Facebook was being launched. His mother’s morning rituals were the morning rituals of millennia of Kyrgyz women feeding their men for a day of herding.

But by the time Eldar was 10 and living in Bishkek, such meals were history. He guffaws when we ask if women still prepare them today. “No!” He laughs. “They buy everything in stores now. It’s too much easier.”

Bishkek was late coming to the modern rat race, but it is catching up with a vengeance.

When Eldar was born, about 1 in 16 Bishtekians owned a car. In 2024, 1 in 2 did. Fewer than 1 in 10 people owned cell phones in Bishkek then; now there are 1.5 phones per resident. Less than 20% of adults worked in white-collar jobs in 2000; today, about 33% do.

Making our way in and out of the city to nearby national parks, Eldar weaves and dodges Chinese bulldozers, earth movers and tractors tearing up streets and bridges to make room for new, bigger, better streets and bridges. The equipment kicks up so much dust the sky turns to milk.

Traditional dress appears to have gone the way of fresh kaymak from the cow other than in touristic settings and on the heads of men wearing al-kalpak, the symbolic felt hat Kyrgyz men have worn since ancient times.

On the streets, well-known French bakery Paul has a Bishkek branch serving croissants and chicken cordon bleu from 8 am to midnight in Old Oak Park. Coffee cafes, nonexistent when Eldar was born and tea ruled, are on virtually every corner.

Other initiatives to modernize are less visible to tourist eyes. Eldar says drivers used to pay bribes to get out of being tested for driver’s licenses (which helps explain the insane driving maneuvers we see); now they go to jail for trying. A recent seatbelt campaign ticketed 400,000 drivers caught on camera without their belts on – in one week. There may be no fresh-made kaymak from the cow on the breakfast tables, but Eldar counts measures like these as signs of progress.

A friend who visited the Stans a couple weeks before we arrived aptly summarized Bishkek as “a big city trying to grow up.” For locals like our guide, the growing pains are a small price to pay to join the 21st century. 

COMING SOON! Our Accidental Roadtrip