What Kyrgyzstan lacks in gracious buildings and fancy cakes, lt makes up for with nomadic traditions such as laid-back hospitality, a healthy distrust of authority and a fondness for drinking fermented mare’s milk. lt is perhaps the most accessible and welcoming of the former Soviet Central Asian republics, and boasts the region’s most dramatic mountains-the central Tian Shan and Pamir Alay ranges.

April to early June (spring) and September to October (autumn)

Hiking in the rugged Ala-Archa Canyon, within sight of the region’s highest peak Soaking in the thermal springs and spas of Lake lssyk-Kul and wildlife watching for big cats, ibex, bear and wild boar Stopping off at Karakol, famous for its apple orchards, Sunday market and backstreets full of Russian gingerbread-style cottages Travelling through the Kyrgyz Fergana Valley via the hair-raising Bishkek-Osh Road

Read Chinghiz aitmatov’s novel Djamila, which tells of Kyrgyz life and culture

Listen to Kyrgyz traditional music played on a mixture of komuz guitars,a vertical violin known as a kyl kyayk, flutes, drums, mouth harps (temir komuz, or jygach ooz with a string) and long horns

Watch Aktan Abdykalykov’s Besh Kumpyr (Five Old Ladies)

Eat homemade beshbarmak (large flat noodles toped with lamb or horse meat or both and cooked in vegetable broth) or snack on samsa (a meat pie with flaky puff pastry baked in a tandoori over)

Drink kymys (a mildly alcoholic drink of fermented mare’s milk)

or settle for a cup of green tea

Salam (hello)

Horse sausages; teahouses; yurts; mountains; felt rugs; nomads; horse riding

Bishkek, the capital, is named after a wooden plunger-a Bishkek is a churn used to make fermented mare’s milk the name Kyrgyz is one of the oldest recorded ethnic names in Asia, going back to the 2 nd century BC in Chinese sources

Kyz-kumay (kiss-the-girl) involves a man who furiously chases a woman on horseback in an attempt to kiss her. The woman gets the faster horse and a head start and if she wins gets to chase and whip her shamed suitor. This allegedly began as a formalized alternative to abduction, the traditional nomadic way to take a bride.