It happened in Sarytasch a small village in the Alaj valley, which belongs already to the Pamir mountains. Due to bad weather we had to stay up there longer than expected. Already during the first day we noticed lots of army activity in the valley close to the border to Tadzhikiztan. We noticed mobile units with tanks, radar equipment, howitzers, lots of army tents and MPs on the road. I am not really keen on army units when I take pictures, but we where never approched.
We asked at the next jurt and learnt, that a maneuver will take place in three days and that even the president will attend it. The mystery was solved. During the next days, trenches have been dug, a podium for the top brass and the president was build and some targets for the artillery spoilt the scenery. I really hope that the nomads will drive their livestock away before everything starts....
The weather changed, I got my shots of Pamir and the empty new silk road and we decided to leave after a morning shoot on the next day. The morning was great, at about noon it started to get cloudy (we had again heavy thunderstorms during afternoon) and we returned to Sarytasch. As there are no restaurants for the next 3 hours we picked one of the few options in Sarytasch and entered a small place. It was rather empty, only one table was occupied with a group of army generals, I noticed three, two and one stars on the uniform, some of the top brass of the kyrgyz army.
We ordered some chicken and I noticed the officers were talking about us, while having their meal and some Vodka. After a while an officer approached us and invited us to join them at their table. They wanted to share a drink with us, you should know, that Vodka is not drunk from shot glasses, but water glasses in the former Soviet Union, this tradition is sill alife!
While staying on the Suusamyr plain I already had an invitation to share a Vodka and learnt some local habits. You are very likely asked to say a toast, which I did. But a toast is not a short toast in Kyrgyzstan, it is much more a dinner-speech lasting several minutes, my hosts where not really happy.... but I learnt my lesson!
Of course I was asked by the officers to say a toast, which I happily did and this time it was a table-speech. Everybody was very happy and I contributed a lot to the international understanding between Germany and Kyrgyzstan, Mr. Maas will be pleased! "Auf einem Bein kann man nicht stehen" (look it up in google translate), Talant brought a bottle from our car as we payed the second glass, this time an officer did the toast/table-speech.
We could avoid a third one (Talant as the driver did not drink at all, this was accepted) telling them that we had an appointment in Osh. But two cyclers (bicycle not motorbikes) apeared on the scene, coming from Tadzhikiztan and an officer left the room. I learnt later that he was sent to buy another bottle. I guess the bikers stayed in Sarytasch.....
Good story, something I will never forget. But I did not take a single picture for the rest of the day....