HN user
Yer it's quite curious, the snapchat endpoint would be behind https surely. So nothing todo with the airport Wifi? The story assumes none of his friends reported him, which I guess could be plausible. Maybe snapchat has internal systems to raise the alarm?
There's quite of bit of interesting startup stuff going on in Bishkek, given it's size.
https://maddevs.io/en is quite a cool development consultancy based there, which has been involved in development of namba taxi, an uber type app.
namba itself has a whole host of projects similar to the more well known startups in Europe, e.g. Namba taxi, Namba food, and a video streaming service.
ololo (which was referenced in the piece) is a lovely community of different startups, and art projects fostering an entrepreneurial spirit.
I highly recommend looking through this site which extensively covers travel by train. http://www.seat61.com/
I've travelled by rail through Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. It's not always easy to buy (cheap) tickets online or in advance outside of Russia but it's worth taking the risk and buying in-country for the experience of the 3 + day journeys