Population Kyrgyzstan: 6.1 million. Average number of people per square km – 31 (India – 380, China – 150, New Zealand – 15).
Kyrgyzstan is all about high mountains, remote stunning valleys, horses and horse products, and friendly people. A great country for travel.
The border crossing into Kyrgyzstan at the small eastern border control point was the easiest and most pleasant to date and was a good sign for a great visit to the country. We were done with the border formalities in less than 20 minutes. The border officials were very friendly and were soon joking with us and wanting to know more about us.
The valley immediately west of the border, is richly covered by wild flowers. This means that there are numerous summer nomads with their herds of stock. This area also has a huge bee keeping industry. Beekeepers typically have several dozen hives, which they move about using antiquated Russian trucks. They live next to their hives. The honey is delicious, apparently, the best in Kyrgyzstan.
We headed directly for Karakol with a population of about 70,000, to get our bearings and pick up provisions for trips into the mountains. Karakol is a dusty hot city, but does however have a number of decent cafes and restaurants. One of the landmarks of the city is the Holy Trinity Cathedral with its yellow onion domes, constructed in 1895. The five onion domes were destroyed by the Bolsheviks, who turned it into a club in the 1930s. The cathedral has now been fully restored and regular services are held.
The main feature of the area is the huge 170km long, and 70km wide Issyk-Kol lake. The lake has dozens of rivers flowing into it, but no outflow. The lake never freezes over mainly due to thermal activity. The lake has numerous sandy beaches, very popular with Kyrgyz, Kazakhs and other foreign visitors. Also interesting is that the Soviets used the lake for testing torpedoes, far away from prying eyes of the Western intelligence agents.
We travelled all the way around the lake and the scenery is spectacular. We were not particularly interested in lying on a beach, and headed into the nearby mountains instead. On the way, we ran foul of the really mean Kyrgyz police. The locals and tourists alike, have had money extorted by these parasites. They will pull over anybody that appears to have money and fabricate a charge. In our case, it apparently was a genuine offence. The tint on our front side-windows, although legal in New Zealand, are not legal in Kyrgyzstan. They took a bribe of $40. We were pulled over several times in the following weeks by these corrupt officials and fortunately we escaped from most encounters without paying money.
The mountain track up the Grigorievka and Ak-Suu valley on the northern side of the lake follows the course of the river with spectacular mountain scenery all around. There are several alpine lakes on the way, the shores of one of which served as our very pleasant camp site. In the morning we took a walk to a nearby nomad home. They had two trout, freshly caught from the lake, which they offered to us for breakfast. We spent a most entertaining couple of hours in their company and they also showed us around their yurt home. They spend the summer months up in the mountains with their stock, and return to the village for the long winter.
Our intention was to drive up the gorge to join up with a track from an adjacent valley which leads up to the Kazakhstan border. On the way we saw a wolf… can it be?. We have found that sightings of wild animals in Kyrgyzstan are extremely rare. We spent a lot of time in wild remote areas and the only animals we saw were the cute looking gophers. All that is left are many concrete statues all over Kyrgyzstan, of the main wildlife, and sadly, this is the only game you are likely to see. Back to the wolf. We excitedly grabbed our camera, when next minute, the nomad appeared from behind the small hill on his horse. The “wolf” was actually his trusted dog.
There is a salt lake, located on the southern side of Issyk-Kol lake. The salt lake has no outlet, and as a result, the salt content has increased over the millennia to a point where one can now float on the surface. The water is made warm by thermal springs. The further attraction is the black mineral rich mud, which can be easily dug from the lake side and smeared all over one’s body. Supposed to be good for you. Barbara got stuck into it and was soon covered from head to toe. This was a great place for people watching, with a lot of people getting their health fix from the mud. The women of Muslim persuation were not going to miss out. They took to going into the water fully clothed, and plastered the mud over the clothes from head to toe.
There is a red-brown rock formation that cuts through the landscape on the southern side of the Issyk-Kol lake. This rock formation has been scoured and gorges cut by the rivers over the thousands of years. These attract quite a few tourists and the rock formations have been given names such as “Broken heart” and “Seven Bulls”. The added attraction for us was that the valleys, particularly in the more remote areas, brought us into contact with the rural locals. Horse and donkey power is still commonly in use. The nomads were all very friendly, and sometimes just a bit too friendly. On one occasion we stopped at a yurt to ask directions and were immediately offered food and drink. The food we quickly declined because horse meat, intestines and who knows what else, is very much on the menu all over Kyrgyzstan, and especially in the rural areas, and that is just too hard for us to stomach. The drink turned out to be fermented cow’s milk, which was a bit of a challenge to get down. Fermented horse milk, also very common in the rural area and a great favourite of the locals, did not agree with our taste at all. We tried a bit, and the taste and smell were just terrible. They also somehow dry the fermented horse milk and shape it into balls or bite sized cylindrical shapes. These are sold all over Kyrgyzstan….nasty.
The Tosor pass is 3,900m high and gets you right up to the mountain peaks and several small glaciers, some of which have their toe next to the track. The pass is part of the track, which links Issyk-Kol lake to Naryn to the south. We plan to visit Naryn area later, and our intention was to try and loop up a different valley and thus get back to Karakol. We were told that the the scary rickety wooden bridges are safe because they were used by heavy Soviet military equipment. Yea right?, that was decades ago. It was an amazing trip with grand views of snow covered mountain peaks, wide green valleys with numerous nomad camps, together with their herds of animals, goats, cattle, yak and of course, horses.
A trip to the Engilchek Glacier in the high Tian Shan mountains adjacent to the China border requires a military permit. This is easy to obtain, the key being a few days and …. US$. The trip to the glacier took us along relatively good old Soviet military roads and tracks over the high 3,800m pass and on to Engilchek, about 140km from Karakol. Engilchek had a population of about 5,000 during the Soviet era, when tin was mined in the area. The town is now essentially a ghost town with only 10 families, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. We travelled a further 40km up the river valley towards the glacier, which has two arms, the North and South Engilchek Glaciers. The glacier is apparently more than 60km long, with much of it being in China. In the end of the day, our path was blocked by a fast flowing deep river. We however had good views of the stunning snow covered 7,00m plus Khan Tengri and Pik Pobedy mountain peaks.
The trip back to Karakol turned out to be a 200km nightmare (my view) adventure (Barbara’s view). The high 3,800m pass we crossed to get to Engilchek was closed due to a huge rock slide after we had passed the day before. Mid afternoon we bumped into locals in a 4WD minivan at the military check point, and who, like us, did not want to wait up in the valley for 3 plus days until the rock fall had been cleared. They said (hand signals and phone translator) that with two vehicles it would be possible to cross the mountain range further to the east. It was slow going, with our companions stopping at nomads to buy as much fuel as they could get, a few litres at a time, have a smoke, and seemingly, simply have a chat. Darkness fell when we were still crawling along a narrow track in the mountains. The couple of river crossings in the dark had the nerves going, however we had the benefit of following in our companion’s tracks. It was one in the morning by the time we reached Karakol. We will not try this kind of stunt again.
Having seen and experienced much of east Kyrgyzstan, we headed to Bishkek, the capital. We stopped off at a small village, Rot Front, 60km from Bishkek. This turned out to be one of our most enjoyable experiences in Kyrgyzstan. We had read about this small village before leaving New Zealand. Rot Front was established in 1927 by German speaking Mennonites originally from Friesland and East Prussia seeking religious freedom and exemption from military service. Our interest stems from the fact that Barbara’s parents were originally from East Prussia. This community suffered extreme hardship during the 1940’s when Stalin ironically thought that these pacifist people would sympathise with the Germans (take up arms? Yea right). All males over 15 were sent off to labour camps and very few returned. The women were put to hard labour excavating by hand, more than 150km and about 10m wide irrigation canals, which we saw and which are still functioning today. There are about ten of the original families living in Rot Front and the German teacher gave us a very friendly welcome and showed us around his small personal museum. The German perfectionism is very visible. Walk down the few streets of the small village and you easily identify homes where Germans are living…well maintained with tidy garden. Through good fortune, the German community was celebrating their 90th commemoration of the founding of the village. This was a whole day affair at their church. Church services have for the past eight years been held in Russian, rather than German, in order to encourage locals to the church. We were treated like royals and one of the ladies was on hand to translate the church service and all the proceedings to German for us. There were about 400 to 500 people at the service, and everybody was treated to a sit-down lunch. One has to admire this tiny minority group that has experienced so much grief, however simply got on with building a decent future.
Lake Kalsuu is an alpine lake located at 3,500m in the Tian Shan mountains near the China border in southern Kyrgyzstan. The lake was formed through glaciations and has stunning sheer cliffs on its sides. We traveled 160km via Naryn, to reach the valley in which the lake is located. It was cold, overcast and snowing (late summer…great) when we reached the large river that needed to be crossed, in order to drive up to the lake. Why walk or go on horseback if you can drive? People from a local tour company however told us that it is best not to drive because the river crossing is dangerous, and the track up to the lake is more than dangerous. Mid afternoon, and yes, good idea, we would spend the night camping next to the river. Next minute, we see a 4WD approach at a relatively fast pace, cut through the river without hesitation, and head on to the lake. We looked at each other and said…Lets Go. We did not realise that we were following a madman. The water was fast flowing, and a touch too deep with the bow wave at bonnet level. Next we tackled the four sections of bog with the red 4WD we were following becoming ever smaller in the distance. Worse was to come. The very narrow track against the hillside was wet from the rain and slippery as a cake of soap. We were petrified fearing that we were going to slide off and roll down the hillside. We inched forward, passing a small waterfall, which was crashing onto the track, and eventually, with our nerves in tatters, reached the top of the pass at the lake shore. Our lead vehicle turned out to be a fearless daredevil, according to his colleague. He encouraged us to quickly enjoy the view, and follow him down…old story…two vehicles is better than one. Good logic, however our nerves were so shattered that we were going nowhere that day. The lake was absolutely stunning next morning, with perfectly blue sky and snow covered peaks. Then there was the little problem of getting back down out of the valley. The worst and most dangerous one km took us two hours to cover. Poor decisions…we will not do this again, from now on, dry mountain tracks only.
We headed towards the Tougart pass and the China border to a place called Tash Rabat, a 14th century carvanisaria, which was on the Silk Route. On the way, we had to cross a large wide river, because the bridge had washed away. We asked locals in a 4WD where to cross, as the track was poorly defined. Poor decision. We plunged into the river without first doing our own assessment. The river was fast flowing and deep. We headed for the closest opposite bank and got stuck in fine soft gravel, just out of the main stream. We were on our own, late afternoon. With a lot of huffing and puffing, we buried the spare wheel to act as an anchor for our winch. We moved one vehicle length and were then overtaken by darkness. Two nomads and their 8 year old daughter came across the river on their horses and signalled that we go back with them and sleep in their yurt. Kind offer, however the thought of horse meat and fermented mares milk kept us in our vehicle in the water for the night. Next morning, with ice on our windscreen and bonnet, we were back into the icy cold water trying to jack up the vehicle to pack rocks under the wheels. Barbara sat waiting for 5 hours on a lone track some distance away and with great fortune, flagged down a lone nomad and his daughter (with the back seat loaded with horse meat), who had driven down this remote valley in the early afternoon in his Subaru. His vehicle was good enough to serve as an anchor for our winch. We got our vehicle free and another big lesson learned. Always check out difficult terrain before crashing ahead.
Tash Rabad, is a fortified caravansaria, which served as a safe overnight stop for the caravans on the old Silk Route. The rectangular building, has 31 rooms, including a large banqueting, or meeting hall. This is the first real historical building that we have come across in the Stans that dates from the 10th to 14th century period. The old historical buildings are generally found more to the west of the country.
Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, has a population of about 1.5million and one of our most relaxing cities. There are numerous fine restaurants, great cafes with super coffee and the traffic is reasonably ordered. We had the good fortune of meeting a Kiwi, who has settled in Bishkek and owns several fine cafes. He was a great source of information and helped us sort out a number of issues…vehicle checks, hair salon, etc. Tourist wise, Bishkek did not have much interest for us. It was simply a great place to rest up.
