Hitching a ride

Nearing Jalal-Abad, the traffic picked up, and uncertainty crept in: should we continue pedaling or not?

When a few motorists drove by, casually sipping from vodka bottles, we’d had enough. We flagged down a truck and hitched a ride to Osh.

Inside the cab, it was comfy. The radio blared as our driver crooned along to popular Kyrgyz tunes.