September 8th, 2006 | categorizilation: all categories,Kyrgyzstan
What can I say? Rugby played on horses where the ball is a goat carcass. The game is called ‘Buzkashi’. They are a hard bunch here in Kyrgyzstan!
The plan from here is to head towards Naryn in central Kyrgyzstan tomorrow. It is about 200km to Naryn, so hopefully I should be able to do a quick update there in about three or so days. If not, the update will be from Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city.
What, you didn't join in the game?
You could probably ride relatively unincumbered with a goat carcass on your recumbant! You might even be low enough to the ground to go right under a horse if you have to…for the win!
Give me a goat sack any day of the week.
Nice picture of the east end of a horse going west.
Are the helmets designed for this particular game or from the military surplus store – ex-pilot headgear perchance?
UP
That should have been 4th century BC Persian Empire!
wow, you've got far. I've been out of town for the last 4 weeks, living and working up by Darfield and only back for the weekends, your pictures are great – try drinking coca-cola, its antibacterial (I know, I proved it in 7th form science)
Hi Rob,
I just realised that even though you write your diary in Japanese too there haven't been messages left by your Japanese friends here!
Oops I didn't see that there was a Japanese mirror site 
he he I will go read their comments now
I remember seeing this game on TV in a Michael Palin documentary of his trip across the Himalayas.
It doesn't look like there has been much rain there lately. What kind of food do they eat? Quite different to the Chinese I would suspect?
Keep the photos coming, they are fascinating.
Hey Rob,
I have started packing for my two week holiday in the Kimberley (a vast rugged area roughly between Broome in WA and Darwin in NT). I will be going on a 4wd camping tour which is a very gentle ride compared to your adventure!! This is not a sort of tour that just takes you from A to B and a few touristy photographic opportunities in between but most of the time off the beaten track or trading routes which is very hard to navigate or manoever a vahicle without an experienced guide/driver. Even with the advancement of GPS's and EPERBs (emergency rescue beacons) people still go missing out in the open desert or the great plains and some unfortunately don't make it out of that. So I can say my trip is fairly adventurous, enough dirt in my mouth and every pore on my skin and lack of shower to keep me realise that this continent is mostly desert and the city life I enjoy is unreal!! I depart on Thursday this week so I think I will check your site again before I fly out of Perth
Hey you! I have this post-it on my desk from when you said that 'Avid Dictator' is an anagram of my name. Well I was was staring it (I am prone to staring at things during the work day) and I just realized now that 'Avid Dictator' is in fact NOT an anagram of David Victor. You scoundrel!
Hi Rob, great page, fantastic bike-trekking, nice pictures. I googled and got hooked, when I looked at the bike pictures from Kyushu and then noticed all the other pictures and your cross-country trip. I made a trip with my trekking bike cycling Shikoku and Kyushu for a couple of weeks in 1988! Came over from Germany by plane to Japan, didn't have a clou what to expect and it was a great experience. Everyday straight ahead into the unknown, without any language abilities. It was the best. I remember a lot of my experiences, when i read your stories. Your bike seems to be the perfect road runner. The best thing is that one meets these large amount of foreign people, you would never have met in your life and with a bike, it is so easy to hook up and become friends. People always gave me stuff to eat or drink while i was on the road. I follow your route by looking at satellite pictures of the area where you are now. I look it up at http://local.live.com/, details are down to 1/4 mile/cm. It will be a tough route for you the next days on the road to Osh. Stay dry and warm, wind from the back and Good Luck.
Achim
I hope you are alright. It's a while since you've downloaded anything! Keep checking in each day to see if there's anything new.
Hey Rob, what's up, what'going on?
What if people want to sponsor your trip, half a day, a day or more or donate( via paypal or which way).
Why not getting sponsored by "Hpvelotechnik" or "Schwalbe"?. I mean 81 thorns, no puncture, that's great!!!
Remember your experience being arrested and money-drained in Tuargun for nothing. You need more supporters in case of more corrupt and cash-crazy authorities to come and there will be (azerbaijan seems to be the worst in terms of corruptness).
Or camera pick-pockets.
If there would be an easy way to make a small donation without paying a lot of transfermoney, many readers would support you.
I think many readers of your blog would give you some and if it was just a equivalent to a stay in a youth hostel (10$,20$,30$).Why not?
You know, many raindrops make a river flow.
And here is another one:
WHEELS KEEP ON TURNING
Keep Cool, Keep Warm
Achim
Hey Rob – cool to finally get onto your website journey courtesy of KJ's help.
Sounds like you're having the joys that Anton had in his similar epic odyssey. Photos are so real – I can smell the dust, but thankfully not the goat carcass ball.
