I never used to be a big enthusiast of monuments, preferring the serenity of green spaces and clean mountain air. There’s something about Communist pride and the grandeur of that era, though, that makes me love exploring the endless epitaphs of Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan was part of the Soviet Union and nearly everyone speaks Russian. Not everyone knows why there is a monument that looks suspiciously like a UFO right in the middle of the city, however.

Every city and town we’ve visited in Kyrgyzstan is proud to have a statue of Lenin prominently on display. It’s always the largest statue by far.

Here in Bishkek, you get those socialist philosophers, Marx and Engels, too.

In front of the parliament building, there are two guards whose job is to convince you they are, in fact, also statues.

We’ve spent the last week in the mountains and pastures of rural Kyrgyzstan where there are cows and horses everywhere. Well, you see them, in monument form, in the city too.

We’ve really enjoyed our short stay in Bishkek but the mountains are calling and we must go.