The best fashion and gift stores Kyrgyzstan

Timetable

Stores and shopping centers are generally open every day in urban centers and tourist areas. Small craftsmen also open the doors of their stores and workshops every day during the high tourist season, but may reduce their opening hours or days in winter. For shopping, the experience is often limited to Bishkek, which has a few small craft stores. In the rest of the country, you'll have to go directly to the craftsmen, or buy local products at the bazaar.

Budget & Tips

Throughout the country, you can find handcrafted souvenirs for next to nothing: small ceramics from the Ferghana Valley, silk scarves embellished with felt, knives... Felt is the main material used for "small souvenirs": stuffed animals, hats or clothes of all kinds, but real shyrdaks require more work and are much more expensive.

What's very local

Silk is an obvious choice when traveling in the footsteps of Marco Polo. The finest, highest-quality silk is made in Marghilan, Uzbekistan, and can be found in any Kyrgyz craftsman's or designer's store, where, for an even more local touch, it is embellished with felt. Felt is the main material used to make carpets, wall hangings, roofs and certain types of clothing.

In Kyrgyzstan, haggling is an integral part of business relations. You need to know the price range and try to reach its lowest limit, which is easy enough on the bazaars where you just have to listen to the negotiations in progress, but more complicated for handicrafts sold in stores, where it's difficult to know how many people have worked, and for how long, on a given item. If your range is wrong, you'll either lose out by overpaying, or offend your customer by offering too low a price. He'll leave the game immediately.

Tourist traps

In Bishkek's museums and small souvenir shops, avoid "chinoiseries", pale imitations of local crafts or Soviet antiques. Busts of Lenin and Stalin are legion in the country's shops, but not necessarily authentic!