This is supposed to be Central Asia not Scotland - Kyrgyzstan Part 2

- Friday 6th July - Sunday 15th July 2007 -

After several days hanging around in Bishkek waiting for my Tajikistan visa to be processed it was off to a town called Karakol which is located at the eastern end of Lake Issyk-Kul. Lake Issyk-Kul, which is set amongst the central Tian Shan mountain range is 170km long by 70 km across and is supposedly the second largest Alpine lake in the world after Lake Titicaca.

During Soviet times several health spa towns sprang up along its shores and the lake is reputed to be one of Kyrgyzstan's premier tourist destinations because of the spa towns and because of surrounding mountains which are said to have some wonderful trekking opportunities.

The journey from Bishkek to Karakol took most of the day and I eventually arrived in Karakol around 3 O'clock in the afternoon. When I arrived there were dark grey skies but even so, the bus station drop off point hardly makes for a pleasant introduction to the town being located in the centre of a large crumbling Soviet apartment complex. All those stereotypical images of Communist housing estates during Soviet times were certainly true here!

True to form, the LP's map of the town hardly gave me any indication as to where I had been dropped off. Fortunately, I struck lucky and bumped into the local English teacher who told me what number local bus to catch and told the driver to tell me where to get off for the guesthouse recommended in LP, Yak Tours Guesthouse. As the name suggests, the guesthouse also doubled up as a travel agency so I hoped I could get some trekking advice while I was there and perhaps join up with a group of trekkers.

There's not a lot to do in Karakol as the town is just a small Russian frontier town which is used as a base for trekking in the nearby Tian Shan Mountains. There is, however, a quite nice Russian Orthodox cathedral which appears to be mainly made out of wood and which was built in 1895. The cathedral seems to have had a bit of a history as it was destroyed by the Bolsheviks and turned into a club before finally being restored and reconsecrated in 1991.

Unfortunately, not only was there not much to see and do in the town, there was not a lot happening at the guesthouse either. Apart from me, there was just one French couple who when I mentioning going out that evening to a bar or somewhere just looked at me in horror - "we can't possibly do that"!! The food was quite good though, big helpings of Russian homemade food for dinner and breakfast.

Nor did I have much luck with the trekking either. Early on Saturday morning I bumped into Valentin who ran the travel agency side of the business. Valentin owns a guest/trekking house about 90 minutes away from Karakol in a little village with a hot spring called Altyn Arashan. From here, it is possible to do a number of treks. Not wanting to spend the four days that I planned to go trekking on my own I was anxious to find out if there were many other tourists up at Altyn Arashan - "Oh yes, there are plenty, it should be a really good atmosphere up there at the moment" replied Valentin. So we agreed a price which included transport up to the village, for accommodation, and for a trekking guide.

Altyn Arashan is located at an altitude of 3000m deep inside the beautiful alpine Karakol Valley. The village can't be readily accessed by normal motorised transport and as a consequence Valentin owns a little four wheeled buggie which he uses to take people up the valley.

Unfortunately, the weather changed as we were going up the valley and it started to rain. When we got to the village the rain really closed in. There were also no other tourists at the house - ‘which was no problem because they were all probably out trekking’! With the weather being as it was, there was no point trying to do any trekking so I decided to make use of the hot springs. Hot Springs, well not really, more like luke warm water which flows out of the ground. Nevertheless, the springs have been built over and turned into three small wooden bath houses which I made use of and had a luke warm bath - the first in a long time!

During the evening, (still no other tourists), I arranged a trek for the following day with a young Russian guide who was undertaking a tourism degree at the local university and who was employed on ‘work experience’ by Valentin for the summer. After a bit of discussion as to what I wanted to do and what would be possible in a day, we decided that we would hike up to a crystal-clear lake called Ala Kol which is located at 3530m. I'd heard that it was quite a strenuous walk and would take at least 10 hours there and back but it was supposed to be beautiful and well worth the effort.

Unfortunately the following morning it was absolutely pouring down with rain with visibility at a minimum. The guide was none too keen, but we set off. However, I also didn't fancy walking for 10 or more hours in the pouring rain so we altered our route and planned for an easier half day trek. Still, we got absolutely soaked and I couldn't see any of the surrounding mountains because they were shrouded in mist. It was more like walking in Scotland than in the middle of Central Asia!

After a none too enjoyable walk in the pouring rain where I couldn’t see anything of the supposedly beautiful scenery we went back to the guesthouse where I warmed myself up by eating a little Borshch (Beetroot and potato soup). Unfortunately there was no firewood to go on the fire so I ended up spending the rest of the day/ evening/ night dressed in practically everything I had which wasn't wet and rapped in my duvet - And still no other travellers!!

The next day it was still raining although not as hard as the day before. But I'd had enough, and arranged for Valentin to take me back to Karakol and to the bus station where I got a bus to a place called Cholpon Ata.

So, unfortunately that was it as far as trekking in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia's premier trekking destination went - which was all a bit of a disappointment as I’d planned to do a lot more!

It took about 3 hours to get to Cholpon Ata and I arrived just after midday. Fortunately, down the valley in Cholpon Ata it was sunny and reasonably warm!

Cholpon Ata is an old Russian spa town which is located beside Lake Issyk-Kul. The town has a beach which makes it one of the more popular holiday spots for Kyrgyz people. Surfers Paradise it is not, but after the cold and rain of the mountains, it was well worth spending an afternoon there.

Shortly after I’d arrived in the town I managed to find myself a guesthouse where the only beds still available were in the Yurt in the back garden and where a group of Russians were staying who were on their way to the Tian Shan mountains to do a week of trekking - I hope they got better weather than I did! - And very hospitable they were too, insisting that I join them for dinner on the outside table where we all had to do the obligatory toasting with shots of Vodka! Fortunately, I managed to refrain from too much Vodka and only had a slightly fuzzy head the following morning!

After an afternoon and night in Cholpon Ata, it was back to Bishkek and Nomads guesthouse to try and sort out how, and when, I was going to get to Tajikistan. Something which was to prove a drama and hassle all in itself!

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