We’re back for Part Three of Brian’s Karaoke World Tour. I was in Kyrgyzstan as part of the research for my book Where’s Wallis? and on my final night I hit the streets of the capital Bishkek in search of karaoke (as any good travel writer would!). It was there that I found most of the young cool set of Bishkek loitering on the footpaths of the main drag Chuy Prospektisi. Kids loiter on city streets at night in every city in the world, but these kids had a better reason to hang about than most. Every twenty metres or so along the street there was a full karaoke set-up, complete with TV monitors, large speakers, flashing lights and even plastic chairs for the audience. The combined cacophony of badly sung, god-awful soppy Russian love songs was both ear-and nerve-shattering, but I loved it. Read more →