Kyrgyzstan and Lake Issyk-Kul
Trip Start
Jun 10, 2006
1
9
32
Trip End
Jun 14, 2007
Loading Map
Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan
Sunday, August 20, 2006
For the last week I've been in the neighboring country of Kyrgystan in the mountains of Lake Issyk-Kul with Zhanara and her family. The weather was fantastic. Temperatures were in the 80's in the day, to mid 60's at night. While, in the town I've been staying in is around 90-100 degrees.
The lake is beautiful and clean. We were pretty high up in altitude. The area looked something like Aspen or Tahoe. Small Dachas or summer cottages were scattered around the lake. Oh, I could only see houses on the north shore where I was staying, because the lake is so big. Parts of the lake were beyond my view from the shore. The south side of the lake was ringed with mountains. In fact, the lake is entirely ringed with mountains.
Swimming in the lake was fantastic. The beach was sandy and ½ foot waves crashed against my knees on the shore. There was a pier and I noticed a couple of large boats on the lake. (I heard that this lake used to be a secret Soviet torpedo testing ground.) It appeared as if it were snowing in the mountains behind the beach just about 2-3 kilometers away.
After swimming for the day, we would all head down to this great little Dungan (Chinese Muslim) Restaurant to have noodles and fried dumplings. It was pretty busy for such a small kitchen. Generally central Asian restaurants are never busy but it seems as if this one had a monopoly on the lake. The wait time was around 30 minutes. We could drink tea and eat the bread on the table until the food came so it was ok.
We stayed in this place just around a ten minute walk from the beach.
damn, life is good
Just at the base of a rocky hill in a "Homestay". The family and place was quite pleasant (We stayed for the rate of 150 som or 3 dollars if you don't know the exchange rate.) and accommodating. Water came from a mountain stream just above us. They would feed us breakfast and dinner. The meals were typical Central Asian fare of noodles and boiled meat. For breakfast, they would serve us rice porridge. We also brought our own food to eat. Boiled water was always available for tea. Zhanara's aunt brought 2 roasted ducks that they raised themselves. The Duck was absolutely delicious.The trip was around 8-9 hours by road to the Lake from North to South through desert into rocky mountain passes. As soon as you get to the border the world goes from developed nation to 3rd world fast. The roads are pot holed in Kyrgyzstan while the Kazakh roads are freshly paved. The towns are like frontier Soviet style villages with stone fronted houses and dusty dirt roads. Apparently, the fall of the Soviet Union in this country wasn't an easy transition. Many of the towns seemed deserted. Old factories still with Soviet signs still existed yet were rusty and faded. Along the road you would see old Soviet statues of various types some damaged from vandalism. Despite all of this economic decline and revolution to topple the president, Northern Kyrgyzstan seems to be doing well off of their rich Kazakh neighbors. Many have opened tourist oriented businesses to bring in foreign money.
Sorry I haven't written more often. I hope everyone is doing well in their world. I'm having a great time here in Central Asia. The weather is changing here. The mosquitoes have declined. The nights have cooled off. It's quite pleasant here. We will be leaving to stay in Almaty in a week and a half. We will be staying in our apartment there for the rest of the year. We're talking about a trip to Uzbekistan in a month to see some of the old Silk Way cities. Also, I'm planning on going to Europe in the winter. Greece or Southern Spain. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd like to go to Turkey too. Let me know of any ideas you have on my traveling to Greece during this time of year.
Peace out,
Dandollars.
