Karakol Lake
Trip Start
Nov 14, 2007
1
52
92
Trip End
Apr 20, 2009
Karakol Lake,
China
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
We were a bit unprepared for the close attention we received from the Kyrgyz nomads who come here, lakeside, for the summer'. In fact, most of their yurts seemed a bit more 'permanent' than befits the word 'Nomad'. On stepping off the bus we were swarmed by a dozen blokes offering yurt stays and food. We had to disappoint them by indicating with a triangular meeting of hands above our heads (thankyou Play School!) that we had a tent and some food already. But these guys were persistent. Throughout the day, repeatedly, offers were made for us to stay the night in a yurt (20 Yuan each). Any true feelings of hospitality had been eroded by the early afternoon as their insistance became overbearing and turned into harrassment
Big Scenery
. An offer of accomodation was typically accompanied by a man wrapping his arms around his body and dramatically shivering to indicate that our tent would be too cold. "We'll be fine thanks".All of this adverse attention had unfortunately estranged us from the beautiful setting- An azure lake nestled in a basin between the Muztagh Ata (7500m) and Kongur Tagh (7800m)mountains. On the way in to Karakol we had passed the Muztagh Ata and been in awe of its architecture- far more benign than anything we had seen in the Karakorams, Eastern or Western Himalaya. Here, its humane curves were contraindicative of our experience with the locals. In an attempt to arrest the slide in appeal of the place, we set out on a walk around the lake. It was very soothing and we had a new Korean friend, Kim, to accompany us.
Together, after our walk, we relented and ate dinner in a yurt. It turned out to be great food and company- we enjoyed watching the skill of a young lady preparing noodles- but conversation with the 'man of the yurt' was laced with a juvenile insistance that we stay the night in the yurt. We left quickly after finishing our meal.
At 10pm in the evening, sitting beside our humble tent, we had another visitor, this time a staff member from a nearby 'resort'- apparently camping within 10 kilometres of the resort incurred a fee of 50 yuan
Pat
. Pigs arse. Guide books, internet forae and other travellers all warn you of this stunt, we had hoped that we were far enough away from the 'resort' for them to bother- apparently not."We are not paying" I said,
"Ï am official!" he says, handing me his plastic name badge, all of which is written in Mandarin characters bar the Roman letters "No. 15".
"This doesn't mean anything to me," I say handing the badge back "We are not paying"
"We will get the police" the man replied in reasonable English, "He will make a cross on your passport"
"Good, get the police" i said
"We will bring the police here in half an hour!" he retorted,
"Good, if you think there is a problem get the police."
Lo and behold and to my great disappointment, no police showed up at the tent that evening, or the next morning and we never saw "No. 15" again.
So our plan for pleasant camping by the lake in the mountains turned out to be a bit more complicated, invoking memories of India. We hitched to Kashgar with our dignity and wallets in tact, happier for seeing the lake and the mountains, though it came at a strange cost.
