Bishkek,
Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan
Friday, August 14, 2009
We have been in the spectacularly beautiful (and mercifully calm and serene) country of Kyrgyzstan for 4 days now, and at last, access to internet. Kyrgyzstan is not known for its dazzling cities or historical relics, but rather its stunning scenery of snow capped mountains, green hills, turquoise alpine lakes and rich pastures. We crossed over four days ago from the Torugat pass, a border crossing technically not open to foreigners, but as always in Asia, there are ways around every rule. Driving through dusty, bumpy roads flanked by desolate mountains, we passed through checkpoint after checkpoint after checkpoint on the Chinese side. The Chinese customs and quarantine station was the real fascinating part. Taking almost 2 hours to pass though, we had every piece of luggage scrutinized, our passports checked page by page (to questions of "where is this stamp from? What is this visa for?) and then they told us to turn our cameras on for photo inspection. There was an immediate flurry of action as we all flipped through our images to delete any 'naughty' pictures. By naughty, I do not mean of the bedroom kind - in China, a naughty picture is one that does not show 'great and glorious China.' So in other words, pictures of soldiers, barbed wire and impoverished communities (which pretty much sums up our 13 days in Xinjiang) do not really show great and glorious China. After 2 hours there, we drove to the next checkpoint, then the next, then the next, then the next, then the next...do you get the point? There were a lot of check points. At each one, Chinese soldiers boarded the bus, barked at us, flipped through our passports over and over again, then sent us another 100 metres to repeat the whole process. At last, we began the labourious climb up 3200 metres to the Torugat pass border. At the top, we were in the clouds. The wind raced furiously through the peaks, and rain began to fall. The border was but an old tower, some barbed wire, with two unhappy Chinese soldiers on one side, and two unhappy looking Kygyz soldiers on the other side...they were indistinguishable from one another in their green army fatigues. After stepping through the barbed wire - voila - we were in Kyrgyzstan. Immediately, cell phones started buzzing with text messages pouring in from the last 14 days without any connection to the outside world. I have so much to tell you about our time in Xinjiang, but I will go back and do it in another blog, later. For now, I will tell you that although our 13 days there were fascinating, I cannot describe the elation I felt in stepping over the barbed wire and leaving China behind us.
We spent our first two days in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. Both nights we were at yurt camps; the first night near the famed Tash Rabat caravansarai, and the second night at Song Kul lake. The weather is very cold at 3200 metres. In fact, the winter season begins in about 2 weeks. Both nights the temperature dropped below zero, but we were warm inside the yurts, with a wood stove burning. At Tash Rabat, we had the added bonus of a Russian sauna t 3200 metres. It was very makeshift, and looked like someone's haphazard garden shed from the outside, but on the inside it worked like a bonafide sauna, completely with birch branches.
Kyrgyzstan is beautiful. The cities are not spectacular. Built during the Soviet years, they are mostly a dilapidated collection of Soviet style housing blocks. In fact, in the cities you feel more as though you are in Eastern Europe than in Central Asia, as everything is unapologetically Russian. But the villages and 'jailoos' (mountain pastures) are breathtaking. The mountains are snow capped, and waterfalls and turbulent rivers cascade over cliffs faces, turquoise lakes sparkle in the sunshine, and wild horses run through the pastures. I am pretty sure the horses outnumber the people in Kyrgyzstan, at least 3 to 1. The Kyrgyz people - a mixture of about 80 different nationalities, are friendly and welcoming. I wish we had more time in this beautiful country, but tomorrow we begin what has been described as a 'hideous' 15 hour drive through the Kazakh steppe to Uzbekistan.
I will keep this short for now. It is breakfast time. Thanks to the Russians, breakfast is edible. In China, it consisted of congee, pickled cabbage, last night's concoctions and some other unidentifiable things. But here, it is bread, porridge and cheese - thank goodness!
Comments
Eight days in Kashgar?
I look forward -- with trepidation -- to reading what was so fascinating about Kashgar to keep you there eight days.