We started our trip in Bishkek, the capital. It is small and lovely town with nice parks and many soviet style buildings. In the evening Ala-Too square offer a show where everything, buildings includes turn into colors and the fountain at its center springs water dancing with classical music.
Bishkek is also a good starting point to explore the region. To get around we turned to a local association called CBT (http://cbtkyrgyzstan.kg/); they work with local communities in remote areas, a sustainable tourism that helps locals create a better living.
From Bishkek bus station, after 3 hours in a local taxi, we get to Kochkor, a small village where the CBT office is located.
From here we jump into jeep that after another three and half hours of really bumpy road delivers us at Song-Kol lake, a real beauty of this country.
We are welcomed by an intense blue sky and large pastures with hundreds of sheeps, cows and horses. There are children playing riding donkeys while attending their cattle.
We see the first yurts, nomad traditional housed present in the whole region. Marco Polo, the famous traveler who was the first western to travel the whole Silk Road from Europe (Italy) to China, used to describe them this way:
“their houses are made of wood and felt blankets, they have a round shape and they carry them around wherever they go”.
Today very little changed compared to that time, they are still made of wood and felt. The external side is treated with grease to make it waterproof, while the inner part is decorated with colorful blankets, carpets and pillows.
Every traveler who wants to get in contact with the soul of Kyrgyzstan should do 3 things: sleep in a yurt, taste the Kumys – fermented horse milk – and ride a horse in the immense pastures.
And talking about Kumys, at mid afternoon we are invited in our family yurt for a snack. On table there is jam, bread and a couple of glasses with something white and dense. We immediately think it is Kumys and we want to taste it! We are curious and very happy we found this traditional drink. Not bad, the flavor is very delicate and smooth. After few minutes another guest joins us, a girl from Kazakhstan; she takes the Kumys glass and… she spreads it on bread! We then realized we drank half a glass of melted butter… we felt like real idiots!
In the evening we have dinner with rice and vegetables. Unfortunately I am sick during the night, and the toilet is outside, about 100 mt from the yurt. I can tell you that finding a toilet in the night with simple torch can be a really hard challenge!
The next morning I feel like a tank passed on me. Luckily I can enjoy the magnificent blue sky, clouds like cotton, the silence and the immensity of the landscape.
It seems like being in a painting with mountains creating the frame.
After a full day spent at Song-Kol lake, we move to Naryn, a small and lovely town, a good stop for those who want to reach Tash Rabat, last frontier before the Chinese border. Built in the 15th century, thanks to its strategic position, this post has been an important place along the Silk Road both from a political and economic point of view.
We arrive late afternoon, locals are busy killing and skinning a lamb… I feel really bad, but it will be our dinner, the only option available. It was delicious.
We leave the camp for a horse ride. As usual, in these countries, people take things easily, our guide stays with us for a while then he turn back and tells us to continue, “it’s easy, the way back is straight and horses know the path”. We are alone, in the Kyrgyz mountains, riding horses we don’t know. We try to take courage from our sole other horse riding experience we had, it was in Bolivia…
At the beginning we are cautions, but after while we are galloping among fields and small rivers.
Suddenly my horse decides not respond anymore, he just don’t stop, I panic; Ale shouts to pull with all my strengths but it doesn’t work. I see my life passing in front of my eyes, I am sure I will fall and leave this world by crashing my head on stone, in a remote mountain, in Kyrgyzstan… then my arms pull with a strength I did not know I had and suddenly, we stop. No need to say I never rode a horse again.
In the evening we have dinner at the camp, the following day we are going to China through the famous Torugart Pass.
