Attracted to nomadic lifestyle of Central Asia, this year, I went to Kyrgyzstan. I couldn't help comparitng this former soviet republic to MOngolia much as I strived not to.
Saving this nomadism, the yurts and an extensive use of milk in their day to day, I couldn't be more wrong.
From how you travel around as a tourist to what the main cities have to offer, to the fact that there are town in a more Western looking types, to landscape. Yes, i did know K was mountainious and a hikers paradise but I only found M style landscape at 3000 m altitude. Only. In Sonkul, from the places we visited, from my own experience of the country.
kyrgyzstan has an excellent network of public transport and decent well-signed roads, less of a problem with vodka, a stronger sense of its Russian past and they speak no word of English.
