SNOWBOARDING IN KYRYGZSTAN

Paul and his siter Wendy, who is visiting for a while, invited Jonathan and I to go snowboarding with them at a local resort here near Bishkek. We've both skied before, but this was our first time trying this sport. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun, but the next day neither of us could walk all that well and it took a long time getting the feeling back into our fingers and toes. Brrrr..
Obviously being in a central asian country there are a lot of different dynamics that go into snowboarding that would maybe seem, let say absurd in any other country. Take for instance, the army training unit who hapened to also be training thier new troops out on the the very same slopes we were using, or perhaps the local villagers who bring thier horses up and charge people who are too tired to use the drag lifts to take them and thier skis or snowboard up to the top of the mountain. This is a thriving business as the lifts are very dificult for snowboarders to use and once of twice going up the mountain almost leaves you with no energy to come back down.

All in all we had a great day!! I look forward to going again soon!