Kochkorka, Kyrgyzstan Travel Blogs

Yurt stay
Jun 19, 2008

Stayed near to caravanserai in a yurt

Homestay
Jun 20, 2008

Stayed in someone's wonderful home. Large bedrooms one shower.

Kochkor
Jun 19, 2005 (3 photos)

... English teacher with massive NHS-style glasses. Although her vocabulary was pretty wide (and random), her pronunciation was shocking and i felt sorry for her pupils. But again the people of Kyrgyzstan proved themselves to be a mightily hospitable bunch.

Song Kul Lake
Aug 9, 2006 (16 photos)

I was going to share a taxi from Bishkek, the capital city, to the countryside, since it was going to cost the same whether there was one or four passengers. As soon as I got in the taxi, thinking that I was going to wait for 3 more passengers to show up ...

Song Kol Lake
Jun 29, 2008

lamb roast number 2

Lake Issyk Kul
Sep 30, 2006

... lake, nice homestay, dinner in a yurt... but lake issyk kul is too large to be scenic. it's like standing next to the sea, the water color doesn't lend itself to photographs either... not sure how this is supposed to be the #1 attraction in kyrgyzstan.

Goat Polo it's the real thing!
Jul 10, 2009 (53 photos)

The road to Song Kul Lake does not exist on many maps, in fact the roads around Song Kul Lake do not really exist either. So we went up the valley, past some old soviet coal mines that have really scarred the landscape and over an unknown pass. This was ...

Sanitorium
Sep 6, 2006

After a night spent in the local Sanitorium being scrubbed to within an inch of our lives, we got up in the morning for a swim in the Issey Kul lake, which translates as 'The Warm Lake'. This just isn't true at 6 in the morning, although the random skinny ...

Cholpon-Ata
Jul 27, 2006 (3 photos)

To say our stay in an old Soviet sanatorium on the banks of Lake Issyk-kul was an experience would be understating the fact. We were all looking forward to some R&R after the rigours of more bushcamping - what we got was a cross between that classic film ...

Au milieu de nulle part
May 19, 2007 (9 photos)

On arrive vers 17h a Kochkor sous la pluie et on se dirige directement vers le CBT (Community Based Tourism) qui nous propose des logemement chez l habitant. Catte agence a un programme tres interessant de homestay en ville ou dans des yurts a la ...

I love Kyrgystan!
Oct 25, 2009 (37 photos)

Joehoe….het is nog niet zo gemakkelijk om de grens te vinden. Op de kaart ziet het er heel gemakkelijk uit: gewoon de rode weg volgen, het blijkt kriskras door dorpen te zijn en na zeker 10 keer vragen en een paar uur verder vinden we een slagboom. ...

The Jailoo
Jun 7, 2007 (18 photos)

So we were now a streamlined number two. We caught a cab to our next destination of Kochkor where we were looking forward to getting into the handsome countryside on horseback. The drive in the Audi was swift, lasting two and a half hours ...

When the going gets tough Nick gets going
Jun 6, 2007 (1 photos)

It was a pretty drive as we made our way in a northerly direction with the At Bashy mountain range to our right all morning. We greedily ate up the intermittent swaithes of concrete and at a wide point the driver communicated ...

"Excuse me, has anyone seen my goat?"
Sep 13, 2006 (6 photos)

Very cool 5 days living like Kyrgyz shepherds. We opened up the roof seats of the truck and whilst ducking power lines got very cold driving the truck off-road for 4 hours into the middle of nowhere, next to the Song-Kul lake where we found our homes ...

Yurt Life
Jun 5, 2007 (5 photos)

Well I can report that Kyrgyzstan is definitely green and full of sheep, goats and yak/cow looking things. I hate to overuse a term but tellytubbyland with rocky outcrops is the best way to describe it. After an hour we left the main road (which was a ...

Mad Donkeys and Sore Asses
Jul 11, 2009 (35 photos)

We circumnavigated the lake to a Yurt Camp on the far side. The road in required several river crossings as we drove across the Steppe on what were only summer tracks in the grass. How we will get out if it rains remains to be seen. The Yurt camp was ...

Mud Mud and Mud
Jul 12, 2009 (12 photos)

The weather has stayed grey and misty as we set off down very wet tracks on our way to a 3 day stay in the Jeti Ougz Valley. The tracks are now just slippery mud. We sit heater on wrapped up from the cold hoping that the truck will make it out along the ...

Song Kol
Aug 12, 2008 (5 photos)

this is a short post......very short post. go to song kol. it is good. go there on horseback. it is much better.

Yakshamash!
Jun 6, 2007

En route to Bishkek is the forgettable town of Naryn, a soulless place with nothing much to do but drink vodka.  We managed to find a place to stay, after some unnecessary faffing around, in what appeared at first to be an abandoned building.& ...

Kochkor Market Delights
Aug 13, 2008 (9 photos)

A delightful market, especially the car boot stalls. Maybe not the sheep in the boot though...

The Torugart Pass.
Jun 5, 2007 (5 photos)

... could become a lengthy process. Fortunately the Gods were smiling on us that day any everything went like clockwork.  The Kyrgyzstan officials even shook our hands and proudly welcomed us into their country, a complete shock to the system after ...

Koly-Kok
Aug 3, 2008 (4 photos)

We have split our 6 day horse ride from Kara Suu to Song Kol across 2 posts under the expectatoins that there would be a god-almighty amount of photos to put up, and also, because it is a good way of separating the two geographic highlights of the trek: ...

Kochkor - gateway to Song Kol
Aug 15, 2009 (28 photos)

... and dessert at her grandparents, a short drive down the road. The bread and homemade jam there was as good as any we tried in Kyrgyzstan, though the kymys was just as weird as the cup I'd tried back at the lake. After we'd eaten (again) the old man asked ...

From Kochkor to Tash Rabat
Jun 1, 2009 (11 photos)

... taken. It’s a hard life for the people of Naryn or in fact for many of the rural townships we visited in Kyrgyzstan. Wandering around the gallery looking at hundreds of photos of former Kyrgyz politicians was certainly not our idea of a fun hour to ...

Issykul to Kochkor
May 31, 2009 (12 photos)

... hair and green eyes and others looked slightly Mongolian in appearance. Apparently, there are 80 different ethnic groups in Kyrgyzstan; the main ethnicities being Kyrgyz (66%), Uzbek (14%) and Russian (10%). Minority groups with sizeable representation ...

Tash Rabat
Jul 22, 2008

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Song Kul Lake
Jul 23, 2008

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Kaji Say
Oct 26, 2008

OK OK, I know this blog has slipped into "life-support" territory, and the trip is winding down... but I'm going to make one last go at being a semi-regular blogger!  We came to Kaji Say, KG after our time in Karakol.  Let's say that Kaji Say ...

Filigranes de Kirguistan
Sep 25, 2008

Moltes gracies als nous comentaristes... i als habituals, obviament. Hi ha moments, trossets de vida, que arriben sense haver los imaginat ni en filferros. Ens trobem cavalcant a bon pas, en un grup de set cavalls, per les muntanyes del Kirguistan ...

Naryn
Oct 29, 2008

Well, sorry for the delay in this specific post (err, if you count a month as a delay). The lack of photos for Kyrgzstan is also my fault as I somehow lost all those I took in Bishkek and beyond. Russell has some and should be posting soon. Anyway, our ...