Ocean Hotel

Booked for one night through Booking.com at US$37–a fairly low price for Bishkek.The owner kindly arranged for pick-up, which I accepted (10 US$ instead of the standard 9$ taxi-fare from the airport but the place is hard to find so I didn’t mind—and the driver got the whole fare. The hotel is located on the ground floor of a large apartment block in the midst of a grey soviet-style compound with trees and wild plants growing everywhere in the yard (“Good bye Lenin” atmosphere). The owner, Nura was quite welcoming and babbled away in fluent English. My room, a re-designed appartement room was large, clean, comfortable and well furnished (I would have wanted a bed-side reading lamp but it is not very common in Central Asia). The en-suite bathroom was perfect. On the other hand breakfast was a bit disappointing (2 puff balls, a cup of tea and a banana) and served on a tray in the room. Since I asked to prolong my stay, I was offered to stay in a studio near by. I accepted and was quoted a price that I understood to be $18 a night ( really dirt cheap in Bishkek where hotels are rather expensive. It turned out to be 34, still a fairly good deal given the property). I was moved in the late afternoon to a large studio in a fairly luxurious new building, with a balcony facing the Ala Too chain, a full kitchen, a full bathroom, including a washing machine), a hallway and of course a big bedroom. For breakfast, I will have to prepare it myself or buy a large cappuccino from a store by the university building nearby. And like the hotel proper this is within a five minutes’ walk of Chuy Avenue, one of the main streets of Bishkek.