The Jailoo
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2005
1
141
158
Trip End
Jul 21, 2007
Kochkor,
Kyrgyzstan
Thursday, June 7, 2007
The drive in the Audi was swift, lasting two and a half hours. It was a relief not to be dealing with such mammoth distances all the time now that we were in a relatively small country.
Kochkor is like Naryn but smaller. The buildings still yielding no clue as to their contents (unless you understand the nonsense written above the door), all requiring further investigation.
We went straight to the CBT (community based tourism) office and aranged a nights accomodation with a local family. The house was cosy and totally set up for tourists. The young girl that greeted us was friendly and that night we enjoyed a hearty meal of bread, mutton and potato soup and a tasty salad . After our forced abstinence in Tibet we were now becoming bloated.
We also arranged a two day horse trek with the seemingly reliable CBT office and went with our guide to change our dollars into Som. This prooved very difficult as no bank here would change anything less than a hundred dollar note!! We eventually transferred our money on the black market with a friend of our guide Beck, for a less than satisfactory rate.
The homestay happened to have a DVD player so we got even more addicted to LOST that night over some vodka and beer. Dan had sealed our fate in Chengdu when he bequeathed the whole 1st and 2nd series to us and we now choose our lodgings based on the availability of a DVD player.
The next morning we drove for two hours to a small village called Kyzart where we picked up our handsome steeds.
Cowboy Poyser
They were quiet cooperative horses although Kerrys was not too economical, constantly stopping for fuel intake and very high on noxious emmissions. We trotted off in the direction of Song Kol, which is a high altitude lake that lies on the other side of a mountain pass. The weather is sunny as the horses walk beside the cute streams that are particularly fast flowing after the rain. As the day winds on we ride through streams, gain altitude and ascend into the hills. The scenery is green and gorgeous. We continue to rise and just as the arse begins to ache and the sun begins to set, we come to a group of yurts which look out onto the most beautiful mountains, that look as if a green blanket has been casually thrown over them. The yurts are not as luxurious as at Tash Rabat and we sleep on matresses on the floor tonight. But the rustic flavour totally seduces us. We play rule three for vodka and relax into our nights sleep. This does not develop uninterrupted however and the night contains an audible mixture of horses chewing grass, shepherds talking, sheep 'marring' and pigs snorting.
No matter, we continue to ascend directly up the hillside in the morning and onto exposed rocks at the top. The horses are not willing at first as the gradient is not pleasing to them at this hour of the morning, but we really enjoy honing our skills guiding them through this more technical terrain, and cross the pass at 3700 metres with clear blue skies overhead, the azure waters of Song Kol in the far distance with white mountains on the horizon, and a cool wind blowing.
The horses are happy now as they know that it is straight down to their finish point and they are eager to get there, breaking out into a canter at the slightest opportunity as we descend onto the flat, green pastures known as the 'Jailoos', where in the summer the shepherds bring their livestock to graze,
We slowly come down to the vast lake, which has many yurt encampents on it's banks, and demount to give our mid-sections a rest.
First night digs
We walk down to the water and spend a while enjoying the sound of the waves lapping the shore, which we have not heard for so long. It turns out that our driver has arrived early so we take the opportunity to get back to save time and drive the two hours back to Kochkor. 
