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Published: August 29th 2013
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Setting up camp
First night in Isssyk kul We arrive in Bishkek after a thankfully smooth marshutka trip. It is fast and easy to get our Visas at the border and in no time we arrive at our hostel, where we receive a warm welcome from Marcus, Fred, Jule and Werner. Leah unfortunately has a stomach bug the first two days so she takes it easy at the hostel while the others and I explore the city.
Bishkek is another obviously communist city and the old Soviet Union leaders are still imprinted in the minds of the Kyrgyzstani people. You still see numerous sculptures of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin situated around the city. I went to the Mikhail Frunze Museum, to learn a bit about the Kyrgyz history. Sadly most of the descriptions were written Kyrgyz or Russian so I was unable to read much but picked up bits and pieces about Mikhail Frunze and the 1905 Russian civil war in the Kyrgyz area. In honour of his achievement, Bishkek was even named after Frunze between 1926- 1991.
The next morning Leah is fortunately feeling better, so we continue on to the Lake Issyk Kul. We catch the bus to Bokonbayevo, which is located to the
Bishkek
Ala-Too Square Bishkek south of the lake. Through the tourist information centre we find there is a yurt camp situated on the lake where we will be allowed to put our tents up for free and if we want we can pay a couple of Euros for Breakfast. We find a lovely place to set up our tents near the water, we light a little bon fire, open a few beers and sit down to enjoy the beautiful view across the lake with the mountains in the background. It turns out to be a really beautiful evening. The next morning we immediately jump into the crystal clear water for a swim and spend the afternoon bathing in the sun and playing cards. Generally having a holiday from our holiday. Later we keep moving to another yurt camp not far away from the first place, but in the mountains. It is even more spectacular. We are surrounded by huge mountains and set our tents up in the valley, where we are encircled by hundreds of horses, donkeys, sheep and cows, which roam free around us.
That same day we head out for a little walk up the mountain where we find an incredible
Family celebrations in the hills
Sorry Donkey! I wasn´t expecting our host to jump on the back with me. view over the lake and for the first time we see the border to China. The next morning we set out for a day trek that we plan will take 8 hours. Five minutes after setting out from camp we stumble across a party in the forest, where they insist we joined them for a delicious feast, a donkey ride and a few shots of port. An hour later and quite a few shots later we managed to convince them to let us continue our trek, but it takes us another hour to sober up and get our pace back. We hike through the valley passing a few villages and many animals on the way before deciding to take a steep trek up one of the mountains. It´s very steep and we are basically on our hands and knees to pull ourselves to the summit, but it is definitely worth it. The view is incredible. We can look out across the lake to the adjacent mountains and see the sheep being herded, the horses and donkeys below, which are now all tiny dots.
We make it back to the yurt exhausted but just in time for dinner, which we
The Germans
Werner, Marcus, Jule and Fred have in one of the heated yurts before borrowing a few blankets to get us through what will be a very chilly night in our tents.
The next morning we head quickly back to Almaty, to catch the train to Urumqui/ China.
Hoping our visas will be accepted on the border.
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georgina
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this blog
Fandamtastic and the photos are spectacular!