With the great peaks of the craggy Tian Shan looming over, surrounded by deep gorges and wild woods, Bishkek is a pleasant city. What it lacks in historical architecture, it makes up in modern curiosities. It’s marked by the fact that its Soviet past is as carefully preserved as its Kyrgyz personality nurtured. Marx and Engels on a bench in Dubovy Park, a whole museum dedicated to the Red Army General Mikhail Frunze who kept Bishkek in the Soviet fold during the turmoil of the October Revolution complement stylised yurts, the Manas Village and the Hippodrome where a peculiarly Central Asian game of kyz-kumay (kiss the girl) is held. It’s a city of wide avenues, green parks, cows on roads, discos round every corner, colourful bazaars and beautiful people.

You are bound to have a good time in the capital of Kygyzstan.