Time Magazine recently published a survey showing Kyrgyzstan as the least heard-of nation on Earth. Yet even here I bump into someone that knows Rick Bowen.

Granted it was in the capital but that takes little away from the amusement.

Biskek was formerly called Pishpek, before taking the title Frunze, after Stalin's predecessor as War Commissar, who ransacked the city and helped envelope it into the Soviet Union.

We went straight to Nomad's Guesthouse, jam-packed with travellers; Dutch motorbike riders, French trekkers and a swede who had cycled over 10,000 miles around the world.

Here we met a group of 3 English, including Mike, who like myself and Pauline had left a house in Chorlton to embark on his voyage. He had been working at Sale Waterside Arts Centre but his familiarity with Rick didn't end there, his girlfriend works at the Royal Exchange Theatre.

In town we snapped statues and bought maps but were soon off to Kochkor with Mike, his friend Luke, and Carl, a chef from London. The purpose was the CBT organised Horse Games.

After a night in a homestay we took the CBT bus to Sarala-Saz, a remote region about 30 miles north. Despite the 'entertainers' there were no local spectators, only foreign tourists, so this was by no means a festival.

The riders first attempted to pick up a note from the ground while on horseback, before wrestling on horses and then began competing in Kok-Boru - the national sport of fighting over a goat carcass and delivering it to a 'goal'.....on horseback.

All good fun, if a little tiresome and over-priced. I was beginning to raise some questions regarding just how 'community-based' CBT really were. The homestays seem charitable so I reserve judgement.

We wasted no time and joined a Belgian family's transport en route to Song-Kol, one of the nation's prime lakes, and a hot spot for trekking.

We knew it would be remote and so hurriedly bought supplies. We seem prepared, but in reality we had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for...