Иссык-Куль & Көл-Төр

Last Friday 12 of us - students in the dorms, an English teacher, and two folks who work at the school - departed at 18:00 for Иссык-Куль ('Hot Lake' in Kyrgyz). We arrived around 22:00 at the 'Beach House' on the south shore of Issyk-Kul and immediately went in the water. It was cold but refreshing after sweating during the 4-hour drive. After a quick dip, we washed off in a natural hot spring. The Beach House is actually really nice and has quiet rooms with one long balcony looking north towards the lake and the northern mountains. Some beers and vodka later, we slept quite well.

The next morning demanded a swim at 07:00 which was fantastic. Some breakfast at 08:30 and we departed for the mountains, this particular one being Көл-Төр ('Top of the Mountain' in Kyrgyz). Upon arriving at the Jiloo, green pasture lands or fields at the very base of a mountain where animals can graze with a steady supply of clear mountain streams, we had a quick sit down before getting lunch bags to sling over our backpacks and headed off for the hike up the mountain.

Hiking was tough. Some parts, or angles, were steeper than others, but no one turned back. We met some local hunters on the way up. For hunters, they didn't really understand the concept of not pointing a loaded shotgun at our group as it was slung over the shoulder pointing back as they hiked up the mountain in front of us. We stayed back about 20 meters.

After about 5 hours hiking uphill, we reached the final destination - a 'lake' which turned out to be a pond about 30 feet across surrounded by yaks, cows, and yak-cows. We breaked for about an hour ate our lunches. Some played a frisbee at about 3000m and others just chilled in the sun.

Adilet, a friend and the ad-hoc guide from London School, pursued some of us to hike a little farther to reach a lesser peak which provided incredible views to the south of our current mountain. Mountain rivers, barren snow-capped peaks, other jiloos, and your typical beautiful, rugged mountain scenery made the few of us very glad that we took an extra 30 minutes to get there. A few quick pictures later and we headed down towards the pond. A clear mountain stream flowing into the pond provided fresh water for us - we had also filled up on the way up. With some apprehension I took my first sips and waited about an hour, but by the end of the day and the weekend, I likely drank about 6 or so liters of this water. Very clear, clean, and delicious.

As we were going towards the pond, we also noticed that the others began their descent and, in their stead, the yaks, cows, and yak-cows snacked on what was left of our lunches and our backpacks. Mine wasn't as bad as others'..

It took about 2 hours to descend the mountain without really breaking for more than a few minutes. On the way up, we breaked every 60 meters or so.. it's pretty tiring but can go quickly if you break at proper intervals and ascend in a zig-zag patterns to make the hike easier. The Kyrgyz, of course, are professional zig-zaggers. Dinner awaited us - a meat and potato dish, salad, fresh bread, and tea from a samovar. The best tea in the world, according to one of our hosts in the yurt. I tend to agree.

Saturday night we had a large bondfire before heading to sleep. A tent was optional, but I figured what the hell and stayed in the yurt. The girls had rooms in a small building. Funny enough, I wasn't tired and stayed up the entire night laying there. I got out of my sleeping bag and the yurt at 05:00 sharp and jogged up a small hill to the east to watch the sun rise.

Sunday was an easier hike to the east of the jiloo/camp. There were some harder parts as another local guide showed us a mountain stream, or spring as they call them, to refill water bottles. The shortcut, of course, was straight up instead of the leisurely road which wrapped around the same hill. A few hours later and we found a real mountain lake with ice cold water. A couple folks went in to clean the funk off, but I elected to omit myself from this. The view, relaxation, and lunch was enough to keep me happy.

Sunday evening, another home-cooked dinner over a fire awaited us - this time Kyrgyz-style plov with bread, salad, watermelon and honeydew for dessert. We departed at about 18:00 and drove to one of the small villages in the valley to meet up with a marshrutka to take us back to Bishkek. Of course, evening time in the villages calls for horse riding and we passed lots of men and children racing around or calmly trotting along, staring at the foreigners in the four-by-fours.

Viewing north from my balcony - the south beach of lake Issyk-Kul. The dome-shaped objects are yurts - traditional nomadic dwellings found in Kyrgyzstan and other parts of Central Asia. Similar concept to First Nation TPs, etc.
 

The beach house. I had the room on the far right of the second floor.

Leaving Issyk-Kul Saturday morning.

Adilet.

Village in a valley. Kol Tor is to the south in the background.

The Jiloo.

Inside the yurt.

Kasiet.

...a shqiptar.

Yes, it's loaded.

Lunch.

The 'lake.'

Yakkety-yak..

Reminds me of that dairy store on Innes & Trim or thereabouts..

My attempt at an Inukshuk.

The view from the lesser peak.

Yours truly. Notice the racing (see sweat) stripes.

Marmot hole.

On the way down...

Wild horses. Or from the villages in the valley. Either way, these make hiking a lot easier. We had none.

My quarters for the night - a yurt.

Sun down Saturday evening.

Self-explanatory.

Sunrise ~06:00 Sunday morning.

The second day's march.

Fill 'em up, cowboy.

 An actual mountain lake.

Village mosque.

Leaving heaven for Bishkek?

Three days, two nights, a few liters of sweat, and one t-shirt later. I'm proud of this.


The drive home was rather uneventful save for some beer in the marshrutka, someone being so ill that on Monday they had to call an ambulance to forcefully pump her stomach the old-fashioned way by drinking 20 liters of water and regurgatating it, and a colleague I study with running into an ethnically Tatar girl from Kazakhstan at some dried (and nauseatingly smelly) fish stands he met 3 years back while interning in Berlin.

Monday afternoon around 18:30 I picked up my Kazakh visa. I will head to Almaty August 1st with a friend, the same who ran into his friend at the dried fish stands, and also visit Shymkent on the weekend before heading back to Almaty and then back to Bishkek by August 7th.

A recent law which was signed by the Kyrgyz President Atambayev (just yesterday on July 24, actually..) makes Kyrgyzstan a visa-free regime for citizens of 44 countries - Canada is one of these countries. So, instead of having to fly back from Almaty on August 7 ($100 USD) and then paying for a tourist visa at the Bishkek airport ($60 USD), we can simply take a bus back. At least in theory; the border guards are notorious for either not knowing or purposefully forgetting about visa regulations in order to extract bribes from nervous foreigners. Once I have a print-out of the bill, I will feel a bit more confident. But I know everything will work out as it always does.

However, being stuck in Kazakhstan with friends doesn't sound that bad either.

1. Edited translation of Көл-Төр from erroneous 'High Mountain' to 'Top of the Mountain.'