Ala-Archa National Nature Park

They don't take care of parks like they do in Canada. This was not a bridge for kids.

The other picture is some old Soviet buildings--looked like some old farm but you can still see the look-out tower for guarding the place--kind of makes the imagination go of what the place used to look like.


The babushkas selling flowers on the way to the park.

This tree was in the park--it is a wishing tree. They make a wish and tie a piece of fabric to the tree for good luck and they say it is bad luck to take anything down--which really helps with the littering problem. We would hate to clean this place up!! National Park and there was still garbage laying around.

We set out early in the morning looking for this park. No signs for it--just have to ask the locals. We had to drive past the "President's Residence" to get there. If the fence around the place is any indication of what the place is like--he is doing alright--to bad about the rest of the people. Things were quite cheap in Kyrgyzstan compared to Almaty. The markets were way cheaper and eating out was really reasonable but the people were not rich and that was obvious. They were friendlier and way quicker to help us than in Almaty so that was great. They have the whole city on a grid and different hours for each section have the power out every day. The place we stayed at had the power out at all hours -- it was a youth hostel and not in the best area of town. The one restaurant we liked going to had the power out every day from 2:00 pm to 11:00 pm--not real convenient. Most places had generators but it was very dark in the city when the lights went out. The traffic light must of run on batteries but the street were very dark.