We bounced back down in to Karakol from our mountain refuge to enjoy some of life’s little luxuries such as hot showers, wifi and soft beds in another lovely Kyrgyz homestay as well as restocking at the excellent market.
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| Karakol's container market |
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| Shoes |
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| Zebra crossing in Karakol |
Rolling out of Karakol we skirted the shores of the enormous Issuk Kul lake, the 2nd largest high altitude lake in the world after Titicaca in Peru. In the summer Issuk Kul plays host to lots of holiday makers from Bishkek, Almaty in Kazakhstan and also Russians coming to spend a week on the beach and splashing in its cool clean waters. But despite this it is hardly what you’d call over-developed, the North shore is dotted with small towns and villages but is mostly home to fields of corn and wheat and beautiful little isolated beaches accessible by small dirt tracks, in other words, bush camp paradise! We made one of these beaches our home for the night and a few brave souls even headed out for a dip - a lot of Aussie vs Kiwi rivalry ensued with the former being accused of being weak for refusing to swim, the latter being called crazy for going in the water at all.
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| Horse by Lake Issyk Kul |
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| Elizabeth & Ken on the beach |
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| Sunrise over the lake |
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| Smoke on the water and a perfect spot for a camp |
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| Tent with a view |
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| Lagoon near Issyk Kul |
Next stop - Biscuit, or Bishkek as it’s more widely known (trip member Richard’s nickname for it has caught on.) The capital of Kyrgyzstan is a modern, leafy, cosmopolitan-feeling city with wide streets, departments stores, lots of parks and a very European feel (including coffee shops - much to many people’s delight!) We stayed at the lovely Asia Mountains hotel and Said took everyone out for a city tour to explore the large plazas filled with monuments celebrating independence, memorials for those who gave their lives in the country’s struggle to establish itself since independence and some old remnants of it’s communist past in large modernist theatres, museums and galleries. It was a good chance for everyone to sate the city-lover inside them after so much time out in the wilds.
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| A new Bishkek pub, set up in response to the 'Obama' pub by rival student factions |
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| Simon & Emma caught on camera indulging in some tourist food! |
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| Rutger & Richard with their very manly drinks |
So thoroughly washed, watered and well-fed we heading back out of the city for our final leg in beautiful Kyrgyzstan. We headed South-West making our way towards the Fergana Valley and the border with Uzbekistan, the journey took us through some stunning scenery, high mountain passes, a bit of wrangling with local police - “yes we’re definitely a truck, no wait, only buses allowed, ok well we’re definitely a bus” and eventually another stunning Kyrgyz bushcamp by the Toktogul reservoir. Kyrgyzstan is a country rich in natural resources, water in particular is massively important to them for energy production and also for export to their desert-bound neighbours, it is one of its only cards in the current great game that goes on in Central Asia as it is squeezed by Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China, all richer, all more powerful, and all putting constant pressure on pretty little Kyrgyzstan. Said, our fantastic local guide, told us about how the Toktogul reservoir we were camped next to was very low, even for the time of year, following a very dry summer and most of it being sold to Uzbekistan to keep their farms watered in the absence of rain.
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| Said, our local guide, and Richard soak up the view on the pass to our camp |
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| Home sweet home |
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| Cooking at sunset |
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| VIP lounge at breakfast |
Our next stop took us through yet more stunning scenery, perfect valleys with turquoise pools, yurts dotting the hills etc. yet through a landscape that was slowly changing as we watched out the windows, the broad Asiatic faces of the Kyrgyz people were being replaced by headscarves and brightly coloured dresses as we entered the Fergana region that borders Uzbekistan. Here most of the people are of Uzbek origin - the ethnic group, not the country, the Russians did a very good job of splitting up the various ethnic groups when they drew-up the current borders, and whilst the whole of Kyrgyzstan is a mostly Muslim country it is in this area that Islam is strongest and the people the most devout. Our next stop was the sprawling village of Aslanbob (meaning Lion’s Gate in Arabic) set up in the hills next to the world’s largest natural walnut groves 27,000 hectares of walnut trees that have grown in the hills since before humans arrived in this valley.
We stayed in a couple of pretty homestays with friendly families, kittens, children and even a pet hawk and watched village life revolve around us. People in this part of the country are very friendly and every child we saw in the village would yell out “Hello!” “How are you?” every time we walked by. Tourists are still a novelty here it’s still early days since local ethnic tensions have calmed down after the 2010 Osh riots but the Aslanbob Community Tourism Network is an impressive example of how a village can take control of tourism and make it work for them. The advantage for travellers is a genuine, authentic experience of this unique part of Kyrgyzstan.
We were able to explore the village, heading out for a walk with a local guide and then we hired some old Russian jeeps to take us up to the walnut groves to walk in the shade of the trees and taste some of the early walnuts about 3 weeks before the season began in ernest.
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| Ken admires the view enroute |
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| Simon |
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| "Said - do you think you can throw a stone in to the middle of the reservoir for a photo of ripples?" |
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| Ripples in the reservoir |
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| Lunch in a disused fuel station |
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| Old school fuel pump |
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| Aslanbob - means Lion's Gate in Arabic - the fact that Aslan means Lion was definitely exciting fact of the day for many of us! |
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| Local boy selling melons |
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| Dried yoghurt balls for sale |
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| Local man |
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| Kitten vs hawk in one of the homestays |
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| Lunch on a traditional daybed in Aslanbob |
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| Homestay dinner |
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| Emma and our walnut forest transportation |
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| Walnut groves |
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| Walnut cow |
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| An early walnut |
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| Lucky walnut |
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| Diane with Said as he explains the history of the forests |
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| Our wonderful local guide Said |
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| Walking through the walnuts |
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| Barry cracks walnuts - always prepared with nutcrackers |
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| Local boy heads through the forest on his donkey |
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| The largest walnut groves in the world |
Leaving the forests and pretty village behind we headed for our final night under the Kyrgyzstan skies, the green hills turned to yellow rock and dust as we dropped down to low altitudes we hadn’t seen since China before setting up camp near a herder’s watering hole perched on a hill that makes up part of the edge of the Fergana valley.
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| Beautiful scenery heading down from Aslanbob |
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| You wouldn't believe the traffic jams here! |
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| Bushcamp near the border |
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| Elizabeth hitches a ride |
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| Cow at camp |
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| Our final Kyrgyzstan sunset |
We sat and watched the sun set and in the distance saw the haze and dust that hung over the valley which marked the start of Uzbekistan thinking back over our time in Kyrgyzstan. We are all fairly besotted with this place and many of us can’t believe that somewhere this beautiful can exist in the world without everyone shouting about it and it being over-run with tourists. The comparisons with Switzerland or New Zealand are absolutely correct, except imagine those countries with only about 1 million visitors a year and only 5000 backpackers!
Kyrgyzstan has been kind to us, it has given us tasty homemade food, soft beds, warm yurts, perfect weather, views to die for, stunning walks, hot springs, friendly people and some brilliant photos. It has been brought to life for us by our fantastic local guide, Said, whose passion for his country has rubbed off on all of us. People should be shouting about Kyrgyzstan and the word will spread in time, especially now it’s visa-free for most and as tourism grows, but one of the charms for us now is how visiting here is like finding a secret garden that no one knows about, tucked between the mayhem, heat and dust of Western China, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The joy of overlanding is going to places you might not normally visit and Kyrgyzstan is an overlanding paradise, a wonderful surprise and we’ve all fallen head over heels for it!
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