The taxi there and back is about 30 minutes each way and the car ride itself offers some pretty decent scenery as your ears pop as you escalate up from the base of the mountains.
It's a popular enough place with pretty girls in heels very deliberately plotting paths across mountain streams, around landslide gullies, and on strategic footholds in the mountainside so as not to cascade downhill for hundreds of meters. Overall, a fantastic place that's very accessible.
We hiked about four hours up the mountain and, according to one бабушка, we were about 500m short of the glacier. So either we hiked a fair amount, or the glacier starts pretty damn low in these mountains. Then again, I don't know the first thing about mountaineering.
As we settled for a long rest at our summit, we met another travel guide on vacation and a traveling English teacher (from France) who we split the cab with back to the city after descending the mountain. The way back down took another two hours or so.
At the base upon our return, we were beckoned over to a small celebration. Not being rude enough to turn down local hospitality, we went over and had vodka and ate mutton fat with them. At some point it became apparent - or more accurately, I finally understood - that they were the tax police on a small retreat.
We performed a short prayer with them before being ushered away by the head бабушка. Of course, the men wanted us to stay and drink, but I think she had seen enough of our carousing.
It's an incredibly beautiful place that seems to be underappreciated by locals, but I suppose if you're from an almost entirely mountainous country, this is small potatoes.
The experience was great and the thunder, rain, and hail made it that much more so.
I'm heading back to the mountains next weekend - this time east of Bishkek around the infamous Central Asian resort lake of Иссык-Куль ('Issyk-Kul').
Cool scenery! Funny that the grandma told you to move along, haha. Sounds like a good time! Continue to enjoy! Talk again soon!
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