Holiday!!!!!!!!
Trip Start
Nov 06, 2006
1
10
Trip End
Ongoing
Batken, Osh, Arslenbob, Bishkek, Karakol, Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan
Sunday, April 1, 2007
After a week working in Khujand, we left by car for Batken, just over the border in Kyrgyzstan. We found a taxi to take us from Khujand and things went quickly until reaching the Kyrgyz side of the border crossing. Our bags were searched and they did not like the plastic bag of vitamins that I had and made me take one with some scolding-hot tea, I guess to see if I instantly died or went into an ecstasy-fueled fit of some kind. Then they became enamored of Erica's map of Central Asia, which they studied intently and begged to keep as a gift, and ultimately tried to buy it from her. Seriously, they must have spent 45 minutes trying to convince her to give it to them and only let us go when we promised come back and give them the map after our holiday. Suckers.
We took a long car ride to Osh, where we spent the night, and then the next morning headed out early to Jalalabad and then to Arslenbob, a small village in the mountains. On the way we ran into: a man who took photos of Erica's multiple earrings (he was amazed) and a woman who, when she discovered neither of us really spoke with Russian, decided to sit right behind us on the bus and scream louder and louder into my ear the questions which I did not understand. I was glad to reach Arslenbob. We stayed with a Kyrgyz family in their home and were finally able to relax from all the travelling. We arrived to cloudy, rainy weather but the next day was perfectly clear and we went hiking in the surrounding mountains to a couple of waterfalls and just enjoyed the amazing views, ending the day in a snow shower. We were the first tourists of the year in Arslenbob, and we heard for the first time the question that all Kyrgyz people would ask us the rest of the trip: Why didn't you come in summer???
After a couple days we left for Bishkek...now, Bishkek is not exactly close, but we wanted to do the road there as it was supposed to be beautiful. After finally negotiating our transportation (neither of us speak much Russian, so we could only travel in extremely dirty vehicles so that we could write our prices on the dusty parts of the car during the negotiation process) we began the 8 hour drive to Bishkek. The drive starts in red and orange rock formations surrounding huge blue-green reservoirs, before climbing to 3600 meter passes blanketed completely in snow before going thru a tunnel and coming out to a rock canyon with absolutely NO snow, and finally curving down into Bishkek...an amazing ride.
In Bishkek we went to the Uzbek embassy and attempted to get our visas for Uzbekistan, and to make a long story short, we spent a lot of hassle only to not get them in the end - the woman working there told us in the morning we could get them in 3 days, and then when we returned in the afternoon with all necessary documents the same woman told us we couldn't get them for 2 weeks. Ah, Central Asian bueracracy.
So we had 10 more days in Kyrgyzstan, which ended up not being a problem at all. We traveled along Lake Issyk-Kul and onward to Karakol, a town east of the lake and not too far from the Chinese border. This region has some of the best hiking in all of central Asia, but a lot of it was inaccessible at this time (Why didn't you come in the summer???). That being said, we were still able to do some amazing hiking - we hiked into the Arashan valley, towered over by amazing peaks on all sides, everything covered in snow, and spent the night at some hot springs...we went to Jeti-Oguz and just wandered about the red-rock canyons surrounding the town...we woke up early to go to the animal bazaar, a meeting of thousands of people and even more sheep and goats and cows and horses for sale. Tajikistan is famous for sheep with extremely large asses, and Erica promised to buy me one, but apparently the Kyrgyz sheep asses are not as large which I must say was a huge disappointment...so no sheep.
Anyways, Karakol was great and next we went to Bokonbaev...which was not so great. In fact we both agreed that it was actually one of the most depressing places we have ever visited. There just seems to be no life there, and the most interesting place was The National Endowment for Democracy office, which apparently, by the description of the man working there, specialized in giving massages. But we got to walk around Lake Issyk-Kul, and then the next morning we got the hell out of there.
Next was Kochkor, which ended up being our favorite place of the trip. Kochkor is a very traditional Kyrgyz village and is surrounded by wide open space and big mountain peaks, kind of what you imagine Kyrgyzstan to be when you see photos in guide books. We stayed at a house with a great Kyrgyz family and had great weather the whole time. We just started walking away from the town and found our own great hikes walking in the hills outside of town. Lake Song Kol is near the town, and we were told it was inaccessible this time of year (Why didn't you come in the summer???) but one person thought they could get us out there on an alternate road but guaranteed nothing...so we decided to go for it. We drove for a couple hours, leaving the main road and entering the park where the lake is located, driving into an amazing valley and upward over a zigzagging road to the top of a huge mountain pass - we had a great driver who manuevered us up snow-covered roads that no one else had driven on. After the pass we went down a little and drove a little further until hitting snow that we were unable to get past. We were still 30 km from the lake but we were both happy, as the drive there had been incredible. We decided we would find a nice place to eat lunch and walk a bit, then head back. First we would get down off of this pass, though...which ended up not being as easy as we had first thought. We had come down this kinda steep hill, and going back up it we got stuck. So, the driver and I got out and shoveled out some of the path and we went about 20 more meters...and we got out again and shoveled and went 20 more meters...so for about 1 and a half hours Erica, the driver and myself repeat this process and the driver is breathing hard and looks like he's about to fall over. Finally it ends with Erica and I pushing the car and we finally get it over the hilltop. On the way down the hill the driver is really winded and asks me if I know how to drive the car if he passes out - I think he is joking until he begins to show me the 4-wheel drive, clutch, etc. Just want you want to hear from your driver. Anyways, it was a beautiful trip and a great day.
Finally we returned to Bishkek only to find our flight on Sunday was completely booked...so we spent the afternoon going back and forth all over the city before finally getting tickets for the Saturday flight. We had a great dinner at our favorite Bishkek restaurant Navigator (get the fish!) and stayed our last night at the International School of Business & Management (where else would you stay in Bishkek?). Then back to Dushanbe.
The trip was incredible, I would recommend Kyrgyzstan to anyone, it is an amazing country and the people are extremely open and friendly. I also had an excellent traveling companion in Erica, which made the trip even better. We had a great time and the 2 weeks definitely went by way too quickly. But at the end of the trip, I can only think one thing: Why didn't we go in the summer???
Comments
Hello From Kabul!
Hey Tom...Loved your blog...photos look amazing...looks like you and Erica had a great time! Really great photos of Erica! Miss you guys both! I am here in Kabul, you are welcome to visit at any time. Having a wonderful time in Kabul! I am planning to come to Dushanbe at the end of June...are you going to be around this time?? All the best! Brett
I met in us a beautiful girl from kyrgyz and i will try to go to batken but this time i might travel in summer time!!!