Kyrgyz People
Trip Start
May 01, 2007
1
51
209
Trip End
Jun 17, 2008
Karakul Lake,
China
Saturday, August 25, 2007
As soon as I stepped off the bus I accepted a yurt for the night from an enterprising Kyrgyz man named Anondit. It's always a little nerve-wracking to allow yourself to be taken in by a tout, but looking around I didn't see too many options except one, the Chinese tourist building another kilometer down the road. For 20 yuan a night for lodging and meals, I figured I couldn't go to wrong.
Indeed I made the most of it and enjoyed my stay with Anondit's family. I spent most of the time either watching meals be prepared in the kitchen yurt or in his brother's house in the village at the other side of the lake
foreground, biscuits drying; back, Kongur Mtn
. I also paid (too much) to have his nephew take my by motor bike to the base of Muztagh Ata. By the time we returned from the base of the mountain it had reached dinner time, so my host insisted that I eat there with his brother's family. The nephew disappeared with the motorcycle. Dinner preparations took 2 hours, so by the time he and I ate it was dark and nearly 8:30. Dinner was excellent: stir-fried cabbage, mutton, and peppers with rice all cooked over a dung and coal fired stove, though they did have a fancy pressure cooker pot for the rice.
I still wore only shorts and a light jacket, so I was a bit cold on the 2 mile walk back to the yurts from the village. Walking back along Karakul under a full moon and a cloudless sky, I warmed up a bit. About 3/4s of the way back, the nephew swings by again on his motorcycle and all three of us ride back the rest of the way on his motorcycle.
All in all the beauty and tranquility of the area made every little bit worth it. Aside from the bus loads of tourists at the Chinese tourist center which I never entered, I felt as if I had the whole lake and the mountain to myself
Along Kharakoram Hwy
. I had a full stomach any time I came near the yurt. In the 24 hours that I was there they must have fed me milk tea and flat bread at least six times. Two highlights: first, this other Kyrgyz guy kept swinging by trying to drum up some business from me. He was this rail thin, skinny, sun-browned Kyrgyz man wearing these gigantic Elton John sized glasses and a tall, Dr. Seuss like Kyrgyz hat just like the one I was wearing. He looked so goofy I could just barely keep from laughing every time I saw him. The last time I saw him he attempted to barter for my shoes. He offered me practically every object in the yurt: carpets, hats, pots, you name it. I just kept thinking, I'm going to look damn funny walking around with a carpet strapped to my feet instead of shoes.
The second highlight was this cute neighbor boy about 4 years old who wandered into my yurt in the morning to see what I was up to. He didn't cause any trouble, just followed me around like a little puppy dog and stared at me no matter what I did. Adorable.
Staying in yurts, drinking milk tea, surrounded by livestock, lakes and beautiful scenery of course reminded me of Mongolia
Camels Grazing
. The yurts were slightly different than the ones that I saw in Mongolia. Here there was no center pillars supporting the center ring and the ribs supporting the roof were made from whittled branches rather than milled wood. As well these yurts all lacked furniture except for a chest of drawers. That might have been more economics of the family I stayed with, but it made for a noteworthy difference since every Mongolian yurt I stayed in at least had beds.The low point had to be the toilet near the yurts. The pits below all three holes had long exceeded capacity, a pyramid of feces creeping up and out of all three holes. Add to this broken beer bottles, cow droppings, and hay scattered all across the floor.
On the way to Karakul everyone on the bus had to pass through some checkpoint and show IDs. The line looked incredibly bogged down and I saw some people just walking straight through the kiosk. So, I did the same thing. Nobody said a word. On the way back to Kashgar I attempted the same thing. This time they stopped me.
At the same check point, also on the way back, I ran into a caravan company called Dragoman Caravans
Karakul Lake (13)
. It was the same truck and guides that I met at Hovsgol Lake in Mongolia back in June. I chatted a moment with Charlie again, the guide that I talked with the most in Mongolia, and then we both headed out on our way.After 24 hours at Karakul Lake, I camped out at the side of the road and flagged down a bus headed the rest of the way along the Karakorum Highway to Tashkurgan, the last town before you leave China for Pakistan. While waiting on the side of the road the weather turned from a nice, warm, sunny day in the mountains to a fierce downpour of hail. I also felt unusually tired and achy. Partly I had dehydrated myself. By the time I got to Tashkurgan and walked around I realized I'd come down with a cold.
Comments
Were they all Krygyz?
Cuz I swear I met some Tajiks there. Not that I was so sure, since my Chinese language is of no use there at all...All of sudden in my own country I cannot communicate with the people, like the cantonese phrase 'Chicken talking with ducks'. Amazing pictures by the way! Being at Karakul really reminded me of our times in Mongolia, though I did not stay with a yurt family like you did. I should have! Oh yeah, I just made an account so i could comment, should've long time ago!