Hawaii in Kyrgyzstan

After our orphanage visit today, we (our in-country coordinator Saule, her husband, Song, and I) went to a place called Hawaii (yes, Hawaii) for a late lunch. This place is the most random restaurant ever. It's located right off the road on the way back to Bishkek from Tokmok. After miles of worn-down roads where you see shepherds in fields tending their sheep, security guards on lookout towers watching the Kazakhstan border, and impoverished people selling apples at the market, this is the last thing you'd expect to see.








It's kind of a like a gaudy theme park with plastic palm trees and strange sculptures in the manmade lakes. There are swans swimming around, wedding parties getting pictures taken on the grounds, and apparently during warmer weather, you can eat in a hut out on the lake or visit their petting zoo containing camels and eagles. We ate inside today, where it looks like weddings and other events are held, and the food was actually quite cheap and delicious (and not Hawaiian at all). I had some dumpling soup along with the old standbys (tea, lepyoshka, and lagman). Yum!

The views of the mountains from this place are incredible, and I can see how in warmer weather, it'd be a pretty place to eat dinner outside at sunset. While totally weird, I'm glad I had the experience of visiting Hawaii in Kyrgyzstan!