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Published: August 4th 2016
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August 1 - Slept in today until 7am! Then I got up and started to work on the blog. I figured people were either sleeping or getting ready to leave, so the internet would be faster than last night when everyone was on. I think I was right. Breakfast at 8:00 and then finished the blog and got ready to leave. We got directions from Taalai, the owner of the guesthouse. He also called the CBT in town and had them reserve us a space at the yurt camp on the lake that we were heading to.
We had to walk about twenty minutes to get to the marshrutka that would take us to Ton, a small village near the yurt camp. The price was supposed to be 120 som but he charged us 150. So irritating. The 50 cents itself wasn't the problem - it's being taken advantage of that gets me. Grrrr. But of course we paid it and fortunately we didn't have to wait too long for the van to fill up, so we were on our way by 10:30. It was a two hour ride, with many stops for people to get on and off along
the way. I tried to take pictures of cemeteries on the way, since they look like proper cities of the dead, but it didn't really work out like I'd wanted. Photos from the bus window rarely work out, but I keep trying.
We arrived in Ton about 12:30pm and started off down a long asphalt road. Several cars passed us, but none offered a lift. We walked for about twenty minutes, and had to stop once for a break because Gaétan is carrying two bags that weight about 30 kilos (60 pounds) together. It's amazing he can walk at all. We made it to the camp, and it was adorable. Yurts on a beautiful lake. We told them our names and then we could tell it did not look good. Taalai may have called CBT in Karakol, but if so, we should have waited for the confirmation of the reservation before starting out. It turns out they were full and had no room for us. Such a bummer. When things like this happen, I get highly irritated. I feel like I did everything right, but now I was in an uncomfortable situation. They said we should go to CBT,
but that meant getting a taxi into Bokonbaevo and having to start over. Soon enough, the situation was remedied. A woman who works in the yurt camp - maybe the owner? - had a house just a little ways behind the camp and we could stay in a room there. It wasn't as nice as staying in a yurt for my last night in Kyrgyzstan, but it was better than many of the alternatives. Plus, we got a better deal for the room and still ate our meals at the yurt camp.
Once we put our things in the room and got settled, we had lunch at the camp and that was quite tasty. A salad and some concoction of cabbage, potato and meat. Afterwards we took some pictures and then changed and went to sit on the beach at the lake. The lake is called Issyk-kol and it is large and the second highest lake after Titicaca. It's at 1600m in elevation. I reapplied my sunscreen but did not put any on my legs. Turns out that, in conjunction with not changing positions for a few hours and wearing shorts for the first time all summer, was a
mistake. My left thigh got sunburned. What can you do? At 5:30pm Gaétan went for a walk towards town and I stayed on the beach a little longer. It was very pretty and calm there. I didn't swim, but it was nice with sun and a good breeze.
At 6:30pm I headed back towards the house to change clothes and ended up taking several pictures of chickens and turkeys in the yard. They were eating watermelon skins and who knows what else. I headed back for dinner at 7:30pm and it started a little late, but somehow everyone from the yurt camp knew when it was ready and started heading in to the tables. At our table were a German girl, a German family and two French guys. There was a salad, lagman (noodle dish) and a fruit salad, with watermelon and bananas. Very tasty. After dinner we worked out an early breakfast with the camp and settled on the price, to be clear. I used the toilet there (it was a real toilet!) and brushed my teeth and then headed back to the house. By this time I needed to use my headlamp to get back since it
was getting dark and I was cutting across a field.
At the house Gaétan exchanged some money with me, as I didn't have quite enough som to make it out of the country. I wanted to exchange $15 to get 1000 som, but only had a $20. Then he would owe me 340 extra, but he didn't have that. So then I gave him $20 and 150 som and got 1500 som back....confusing. But it all worked out. I ate way too much at dinner and was still stuffed a couple hours later, but then Gaétan produced some chocolate and a candle as a late birthday surprise, so I had some chocolate as well. Very nice of him to think of that. Very unfortunate that I ate some. So so full.
Before bed I wanted to go to the bathroom, and although I had seen the outhouse, I hadn't been there, and I could not find a path to it with my headlamp, no matter how hard I tried. Eventually, I saw the woman who lived there, and asked her, and she guided me there, waited for me, and then guided me back. Kind of funny, kind of
sad. The bonus was the stars. I could see the Milky Way and possibly more stars than I had at any other location ever. It was truly beautiful.
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Shelley and Scott
Michele Hutchinson and Scott Maberley
The perils of motion photography
One day we should compare photos of blurred trees and telegraph poles, I have a compulsion for taking photos from buses, and like you say they rarely work, but your cemetery shot came up good. Thanks heaps for blogging the Pamir Highway for us as we got there to early and couldn't do it, but to be honest we love our creature comforts and would have done a shorter version than you. Great photos.