Waving goodbye

Farewell to Kyrgyzstan on this day (farewell also to back blips today).

Kyrgyzstan rivals China and Turkey in the category of 'bright red flags', and this huge specimen stands over Bishkek's independence square.

The yellow sun in the center has 40 uniformly spaced rays representing, apparently, the 40 Kyrgyz tribes unified against the Mongols by local hero Manas. In the center of the sun is a red ring crossed by two sets of three lines, a stylized representation of the tündük or crown of the traditional Kyrgyz yurt.