Three visits and one stopover in Taraz Talas, Kyrgyzstan
Aelita's hometown.
During my stint with ACCELS, Aelita and I made three visits to Talas. We scheduled a third one to allow more students from the Talas Oblast to participate in the program.
My assistant is also from Talas, so her mother invited my driver and me to her apartment. Since my assistant's sister lived in Talas, her mother would send some food and vegetables to the driver. I enjoyed the Talas trip since I got to stopover in Taraz a couple of times and Karatau on a couple trips.
Kazakhstan is on the other side of the mountains.
We are heading to Talas.
I need to remember to call these the Alatoo Mountains, not Alatau as in Kazakhstan. Ala is a rusty brown color. It is not named for Allah as many foreigners think.
The Kyrgyz Mercedes back in 1999. We saw a lot of them on the Talas side of Kyrgyzstan. Talas was cut off from the country by a highway that went only through Kazakhstan. Hence it took forever for goods to reach this side of the country in the late 90s.
The Kyrgyz Alatoo.
Famous Kyrgyz Warrior.
Aelita's sister and brother-in-law lived in Bishkek. Each trip, her mother would send vegetables and food back to Bishkek.
Kirov Dam.
Kirov Dam.
The famous Talas River is below the Kirov Dam. The famous Battle of Talas in 751 took place nearby. The Arabs defeated the Chinese in this battle.
On this trip, I got hurt after falling on snow-covered marble stairs at the hotel in Talas. It took me several months to fully recover.
The driver did not expect it to snow on this trip.
The photo of this school is one of my fondest moments in Talas.
Reflection
I wish I never got hurt on the final trip to Talas. I should have told Aelita and her mother that I got hurt. That trip set the tone for the working relationship I had with Aelita at the time.
Map of the places
- Talas, Kyrgyzstan
The map is from OpenStreetMap. If you load it, OpenStreetMap may set cookies and may see your IP address. The places are listed above as text.
Use the arrow keys to move the map. Use the plus and minus keys to zoom. The numbered markers are for mouse and touch. The same places, with the same numbers, are in the list above.