Kyrgyz Horse Trip Part 2 of 4

After writing a few updates and them getting erased
I have lost a good bit of enthusiasm but still I have
a really long time to wait for my next train. I am
heading up to Mongolia but I am still in China. The
trains are so crowded and getting a ticket sometimes
requires you to wait in a line of 50 people. It is
ridiculous how many people there are here. I think
they should just cram them in like in India but they
try to have order which doesn't work too good because
everyone pushes and cuts in line. They must not have
the word manners in Chinese, maybe it is a taboo word.

Anyways since I arrived in China three weeks ago I
have seen some amazing things, places, and happenings.
For example I saw either the second or third largest
sitting Buddha in the world at 9 stories tall in
Dunhuang. Also I got to see the old town of Kashgar
with all of its artisans making all sorts of
interesting things. I got to see a Tibetan festival
which was really boring but it drew people in from all
over the countryside. They were wearing their finest
clothes and jewelry that wouldn't have looked out of
place 1000 years ago. And the most amazing thing I
have seen in China was a sky burial. You might ask
what might that be. Well it is a traditional Tibetan
burial where instead of just putting the body in the
ground they first let the vultures eat all of the
flesh, then they crush up the bones and bury the
ashes. I only stayed for the first part where they cut
the body, then walk away and 40-50 vultures swoop down
from the sky and begin feasting. It was an amazing
sight and one I won't forget for a long time.
Here is a link about Sky Burials:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/theme/fatal_attractions/fatal_sky.htm


Enough ranting and raving, the story continues...

McKay and I returned by taxi to Talas and we were able
to scout out the way that we would be going for the
first few days. This gave us confidence because the
pass wasn't really all that high and the road up to it
didn't seem like it would take too long.

We returned to Talas and spent the night with Willie
again and got all of our things organized and bought a
few more items in the small bazaar. I got my boots
repaired because I had torn holes in them sliding down
the snowy slopes on our strenuous hike the week
before. We took a taxi back to Bakai Ata and luckily
Gabe was home. We had run into Gabe in Osh at a
restaurant and he had told us that his host family
wanted more money for keeping the horse and his host
father had been thrown over the horse's head when he
was letting it drink and wasn't too happy. We were
also a little late because I had to renew my visa. For
these reasons we felt a little awkward returning to
face the music as they say. Also we had put Gabe in a
strange position by imposing on him and felt really
bad that things had lingered for so long. We had left
the horses for 15 days and really needed to get on the
saddles.

So we arrived to his house and the father had the
horse out in the field so we had to wait until he
returned around dusk, which meant we were going to
have to spend the night there once again. We went and
got the half-blind horse from the family down the
street who said that they hadn't actually used the
horse and that the horse had just sat in the barn and
eaten the whole time and it really showed. The horse
was quite fat but looked bigger than either of us had
remember. Once the father returned with the horse we
took them around the village for a test ride. During
our hiking trip we had somehow remembered our horses
as being quite small and with each passing day they
grew smaller in our minds. It was nice to see that
they were actually of a decent height, at least one
suitable to carry us and our bags and for us to not be
laughed at because we had puny horses.

The next morning loaded up the horses for the first
time and had a few problems. We made very little
progress the first day as it was hot, we weren't in
riding shape and the bags kept sliding all over the
place. We took a break in the middle of the day, drank
a few beers and shelled a lot of peanuts. Then we got
going again and rode until it was almost dark. All day
we had ridden around and across fields. Everywhere you
looked people were tending their fields with their
hoes. We hoped to find a campsite after they had all
gone home but they stayed until past dark so we had to
go ahead and find a spot where no one would bother us.
We crossed a canal and went into a small area with
lots of tall grass and some small trees. We put the
tent in a low area so that it would be hidden by the
tall grass and staked the horses on either side of the
tent. A man came up as we were unloading and said it
was a good place to camp and that no one would bother
us so we felt confident but still tried to keep our
lights low and our voices at a whisper.

We left the rain fly off the tent and had most of our
food and things on top of the fly when we crawled in
the tent to get some rest after a hard, hot day. A few
hours passed when I awoke with a strange feeling. My
hand was wet and I had no idea why. I put my hand near
my head and felt the bottom of the tent and it was wet
as well. I woke up McKay and told him that the bottom
of the tent was wet and we both went back to sleep
without thinking too much of it. Then five minutes
later I awoke because my legs were really wet. I
jumped up and found us to be in four inches of water.
I got McKay up and we began to move the tent and all
of our things to higher ground. I spent the rest of
the night in a miserable state as my sleeping bag was
soaked as were my clothes. I was cold but managed
until the alarm clock woke us out of a dazed state of
sleep at 5:30. It turned out that someone had closed
one of the canals and the water had no where to go so
it flooded the area around the tent. It was one of the
strangest things to wake up to and for a reason we
couldn't comprehend at the time.

So for the next few days we continued through the
Talas valley. We bought some felt to place under our
horses saddles and after four days we had made it to
the beginning of the Otmok Pass. Everything so far had
gone smoothly and we had found some great camping
spots and had met some nice people but it was just the
beginning and we were ready for higher ground.

For a day we climbed up the windy road and got 2km
short of the pass by nightfall. We camped a hundred
yards from a yurt and the friendly shepherd asked us
to come up and drink kumis(fermented horse's milk)
when we got our camp settled. It was the first time on
our trip we had been invited into a yurt and it didn't
disappoint. The inside was dark, lit only by candle.
There were handstiched tapisteries on the wall and a
large metal stove near the door. The table was at the
back and we were seated on sheepskin rugs near the
wall looking out the door. As the man poured us two
saucers of kumis his wife and daughter alternated
working the bishkek which is a large barrel in which
they use a large plungerlike device to stir up the
kumis so that it will ferment.

They pumped and we ate flat wheat bread with homemade
kaimak(like sour cream but creamier) and sary mai(a
mysterious yellow liquid butter that results from
boiling kaimak or so I recall). I drank down my first
saucer of kumis and got an automatic refill and McKay
was struggling. Then as he reached over to get some
kaimak he spilled his kumis all over the table. One of
the little kids was summoned to clean it up and McKay
got an unwanted refill that I ended up having to
drink. We finally told the family we had to go and
cook our food and after three large helpings of kumis
I was feeling a little lightheaded as it has a small
alcohol content.

We crossed the pass and went down the other side into
the Suusamyr Valley. We camped the next night behind a
large group of yurts and got to watch them take their
horses up at night, a spectacular sight of 25 horses
running full speed up the green slope. The next day we
were invited into the yurt and again we drank lots of
kumis and even helped them to make lunch, dumplings
filled with onions and mutton. We sat with 6 others
and ate a large meal passing around the Tabasco to
help spice things up since they use no spices.

So we rode across the flat plains that evening and
somehow the red horse which we ended up naming
Liberachi developed a small saddle sore on his back.
For the next few days we crossed the valley with few
problems except for the half blind horse (which we
began to call Lionel because we kept hearing "I Just
Called To Say I Love You" by Lionel Ritchie everywhere
we went) hit his ankle on the nail of the horseshoe on
his other foot and it caused him to limp and some
blood was spilt. Another incident was when I was
crossing a small stream on Liberachi he didn't watch
Lionel go first and didn't see how deep it was. Once
he hit the deep part he panicked and tried to jump for
the other side. He got his front legs up on the bank
but struggled with the back legs. He scrambled and
scrambled and I had to jump off into the bushes as the
saddlebags were falling off and I didn't want to land
in the water. He finally made it up and nothing fell
in the river but I was shaken up and quite wet from
all the splashing. All this happened before we got to
the village of Suusammyr which we hoped would be a
good place to restock our supplies and maybe use the
internet.

Suussamyr turned out to be a terrible little village
with almost everything closed down and drunk people
wandering all over the place. We bought what supplies
we could find and we headed out of town as soon as the
daily rain stopped. From there we headed towards a
valley that would lead us further south. We camped
that night on an island in the Kokomeran river. It was
a beautiful campsite with the cliffs of the valley
downstream and beautiful wild ducks encircling our
camp making mating calls.

The next day we continued down the Kokomeran until it
merged with the Suusamyr river and formed a raging
river unlike any I have ever seen. It was a kayaker's
dream come true but possibly it would be too dangerous
for even the most experience. It was a good 10 miles
of whitewater with a nice road along it the whole way.


We followed the dirt road for a few hours until taking
a mid-afternoon break around 4. I dozed off after
eating some canned fish and bread only to wake half an
hour later to hear McKay say the most dreaded thing he
could say "the horses are gone". I asked if he was
joking to which he said he wish he was joking but that
he had already been searching for them for a while and
had no idea where they had run off to. We had tied
one's front legs together and had tied a rope around
the other's neck and staked it down. Somehow they had
both escaped while we were dozing. I put on my boots
without any socks and began to run back up the road we
had just come down. After a few minutes I saw some
fresh manure and then saw a knocked over bottle that I
had seen standing up when we had passed earlier. I
also saw some horseshoe prints going the other way.
All of these led me to believe that they must be
running back home. McKay was searching up in the
valley above where we had been sleeping and I couldn't
get his attention that I thought I had found their
trail.

So I began to run towards the direction I thought the
horses had gone. It was an educated guess that turned
out to be correct for I saw a tail flap from behind a
rock on a large bend. I ran around the bend and saw
the horses and they saw me as well. They took off
running, well they got away from me. Liberachi was
hobbling because he had his front two legs tied and
blind Lionel was running but seemed really tired and
kept slowing down after a few gallops. It was a game
of cat and mouse as each time I got close to them they
would take off again. After a few minutes I realized
there was a large enbankment that the road skirted. I
decided I would run full speed over it and try and cut
them off on the other side, it was a good opportunity
but I was a few seconds too late and they took off
when they heard me coming down. Then we came upon a
bridge and they were going pretty slow. I got within 5
feet of Lionel's blind side when Liberachi began to
hop away and Lionel took off. It was really
disappointing and I began to formulate a plan for we
had already been at it for half an hour and I was
quite tired. I decided that I would stop the next car
no matter what it took. Then I would get them to help
me retrive the horses. The chase continued for another
half an hour and I felt beaten but I hadn't given up
and they were still in sight when all of a sudden I
saw a really large coal truck coming towards the
horses. Lionel, who is frightened by cars, was on the
rocks contemplating jumping into the river and
Liberachi just stood there waiting for his getaway
partner to straighten up. I frantically waved my arms
in an x hoping to get the truck to stop. It rolled to
a stop and the passenger got out and grabbed the
reigns of both horses. I was so happy and relieved and
out of breath I could hardly talk when he asked me
some questions.

The trucker asked me from which direction I was coming
and if our stuff was a long way away. I said we had
been going the same way he was going and that it
wasn't too far away. I thought he would offer me a
ride but he just jumped in the truck and they drove
off. I noted the kilometer markers and began to drag
the horses back. I ran into McKay after a few minutes
and we walked back together both relieved and dead
tired. The truckers had told him that I had the horses
further up so he had slowed the pace and walked up to
meet me. The whole walk back I worried the truckers
might stop and steal our things, fortunately they
either hadn't bothered to look for it or it was hidden
well enough that they didn't find it. Either case it
was still all there when we returned. We took a short
break, had to talk to some locals who stopped their
car when they saw us and got back on the road. For a
few more hours we pressed on but never arrived to the
town Kyzyl Oi. It was getting dark and the road was on
a ledge above the river leaving us few options for
campsites. Finally as it grew dark we found a small
section of trees down next to the river and below the
road. We staked the horses on either side of the tent,
which was under a tree. That night a good number of
cars passed and with each one we turned off our lights
and lowered our voices for we didn't want any more
people stopping to ask us questions, especially after
dark.

The next morning it was Presidential elections for
Kyrgyzstan. We stopped by the balloting and took some
photos and I got in a unwanted conversation with the
police. The conversation rolled around to the police
asking to see the horses' documents to which I really
had no reply for we had no documents. We had not
thought to get anything after buying the horses so it
looked as if we had stolen them and had been warying
of talking to anyone about their documentation. We did
have one of the seller's phone numbers. We had
haphazardly run into him on our Sary Chelek hike. He
had driven right passed us then stopped and came up to
talk with us. I recognized him immediately and asked
him why he had sold us a blind horse. He said that it
wasn't blind and I asked for his address saying that
just in case the horse runs off we will know where to
look. I had been angry because he acted so innocent
but I knew it was our fault for not seeing the bad eye
before we had bought the horse.

Anyways I convinced the police that we were Americans
and that we didn't need to come and steal horses if we
were so rich. They all think we are rich and finally
this misconception worked in our favor. There were
drunks all over the village and some had been hassling
us to buy them some vodka. After we ate some fried
eggs the policeman offered to escort us out of town
which at first I had heard as first we need to go to
my office. I was quite relieved that we had gotten
away without any problems for he could have posed a
huge threat to our success.

The next day we got to our halfway point, Chayek. We
had decided to take a break once arriving to Chayek if
we could find someone to keep our horses for a few
days. At lunch we questioned the owner if he knew of a
person we could trust with our horses for 3 days. He
told us he could do it because he had a barn and a son
who was sitting at home doing nothing. It sounded good
and we gave him a price he agreed to. We gave the
horses to him, spent the night in a terrible
Soviet-era hotel, and the next morning at 6:30 we were
on our way to Lake Issyk Kul. Known all over the USSR
as a great beach resort we were really excited to
finally get to see Issyk Kul. We rode on the local bus
for 5 hours to Balakchy. Then we took minibuses all
the way around the southern shore to the old Russian
fort town Karakol. It had taken 12 hours and we had
been over a high pass and had seen some great views of
the lake but we were exhausted.

The next day we explored Karakol and bought supplies
for the rest of the trip. Then we went out for a long
dinner with a French group and discussed politics. It
was a very interesting discussion and we had to run
home in the pouring rain. The next morning we caught a
bus across the north part of the lake to Chopan Ata
where we saw a huge petroglyph mural of tame snow
leopards helping a man hunt deer and ibex. It was an
interesting site with lots of petroglyphs, some carved
stone men called balbals, and an ancient stone wall,
as well as a ritualistic site for the Scythian
priests. We exited by way of an old runway and made
our way to the main road. We were going to catch a bus
to the next city to camp out but we saw a sign for
Georgian food. The restaurant turned to have just
opened the week before and the food was nothing like
the Georgian restaurant in Taraz, Kazakhstan but it
was pretty good. I recommend you eat Georgian if you
haven't before. They have super pork shashlik and some
really good salads and bread with goat cheese on it
called hachapuri. We asked if we could camp on their
land and got to camp right near the lake. We woke and
took an early morning swim in the crystal water that
is excellent for scuba diving because of the 5 ancient
sunken cities.

We rode back after taking our swim and arrived in
Chayek mid-afternoon. The horses looked fresh and we
loaded them up in the rain and took off out of the
city. We camped up on a ridge without any water. We
managed to collect a bit in our pots and pans during
the night's rain.

The next morning we rode up and over numerous ridges
really tiring out the horses. It was like a scene out
from Middle Earth with the high mountains directly in
our path and our only way was to go over them. We were
headed for a really large alpine lake called Song Kol.
It had been a main goal for us for the entire trip and
if we got no further we figured we would have been
successful just getting there. Liberachi began to get
really slow and when we stopped to take a break he was
very reluctant to let McKay climb back on him. It
seemed like a game he was playing but soon we realized
that his saddle sore was getting very bad. Our break
was taken a the beginning of the road up to the pass.
We had just entered a canyon and wanted to get a
little further in before calling it a day. An old man
rode up with his dog not far behind. He offered us
vodka and said that we should come with him and stay
in his yurt. He said he would be there at 9 pm, three
hours from then. We said our horses were really tired
and he rode off after saying we should stop in and see
him the next day.

The next morning we tuned into a crazy station on the
shortwave called The Word from Germany. They were
saying that the Catholic Church is evil for hoarding
their wealth and not helping the starving and poor of
the world. I couldn't tell if it was extreme right or
extreme left but it was really strange. We got going
but not after being joined by a young boy. He said he
would guide us up to the pass. He guided us up,
keeping us from making wrong turns and then
disappeared. We slowly made our way down from the pass
and to the lake. We passed numerous yurts and flocks
of sheep and practiced our galloping on the flat
pasture. Finally we were within feet of the still lake
but the ground turned into a bog and the horses would
move no further. Earlier we had decided to look for
some meat to make some plov. We went to the nearest
yurt and asked for meat. It turned out to be the yurt
of the old man we had seen the night before. He had
made it at 9 just as he had said and still seemed
drunk. We were seated outside on woolly rugs and
served fresh kumis. A circle of ten men questioned us
and asked us to take their photos. Then they sold us a
kilo of freshly smoked lamb. We were invited to spend
the night with them but we wanted to move on. We tried
for the lake once more this time succeeded and filled
up our water containers with the pure water.


That night we camped in a waterless spot that was
unvisible from any of the yurts. McKay was kicked
quite hard when he was brushing Liberachi and got his
revenge with the whip. The next day there was frost on
the ground and the sun was just rising over the
mountains to shine on the silver lake. It was a
beautiful view and reminded me of the many sunrises I
saw as a kid on Lake Sinclair.

Again McKay had trouble getting up on Liberachi and
dreaded getting off. He had to get off once after a
few hours of riding and I had to help hold Liberachi
for McKay to get back on and somehow while holding
both horses I got my shoulder injured. It might have
gotten dislocated but probably not. It really hurt and
for a few days I had trouble moving my arm but it has
since then fully recovered.

We stopped at a yurt on the way up to the pass and
bought some milk and they brought out two mugs of
kumis and some homemade bread. It was another example
of the greatly appreciated hospitality that made the
trip so worthwhile. We passed our first camel, it was
grazing far off in the distance and at first seemed
like a really funny looking horse. Once we crested the
pass we were given a beautiful view all the way to the
Naryn river and beyond into the mountains that we had
to cross to get to our main goal, the caravanserei
Tash Rabat. But first we had to get down from the
pass. The road was a eight really long switchbacks
that I thought would take and hour and McKay said
closer to two but really took more than three. It was
slow going and we decided to get off and walk the
horses because that usually made the going a little
faster when going downhill. We filled up our
waterbottles from a mountain spring that was gushing
from the side of the mountain and which we figured was
being fed from Song Kol.

We got down and rode for a little longer before
stopping for a break. We took off the horses' saddles
to find Liberachi's back in dire straights. It was
gushing pus and we didn't know what to do. We made a
doughnut sort of cushion with felt and extra material
from our saddlebags. We put the saddle back on his
back and gave him a heavier bag to keep the saddle in
place. Then we rode the horse till dark and found a
place off the road across a small river. The moon was
almost full and it reminded us of a hairy journey we
had had at the end of our Sary Chelek hike.

The next morning we examined Liberachi's wound more
carefully and found it to be a lot worse than we had
thought. We knew immediately what that meant, that we
were going to have to walk him the rest of the way. It
was disappointing but it would have been murder to
ride that horse any more. The wound was a good two
inches long and an inch deep. It was disgusting to
look at yet we had to clean it. Since he didn't like
McKay at all it was my job. I got out a gauze pad and
began to wipe away trying to clean otut he infected
part. It was tough work and he didn't like me touching
such a sensitive spot. Eventually I got it partly
cleaned and put a clean gauze on with an ointment and
wrapped an ace bandage around his back twice to hold
the gauze in place.

We walked the horses through blazing heat that day
until we made it to the Naryn river. We crossed over
and took turns going to a small pond next to the river
to bath. It was infested with snakes but we had seen
some locals bathing there when we passed and found the
water quite nice.

So we walked the horses further to the town of Ak Tal,
which means white tree in Kyrgyz. It was a long fairly
nice town with good spickets for filling up our
waterbottles. As we walked through town we had lots of
people staring at us for foreigners rarely come
through town and never at dusk walking two horses. At
the end of the town we turned right at a red mud
stream. We crossed and crisscrossed the stream
numerous times before entering into a desert-like
valley. On either side of the stream there was nice
green grass but we wanted to get about an hour away
from town in case any of the men decided on finding us
and making trouble. An hour went by and it was nine
and the moon was about to rise over the mountains. The
grass had long disappeared and we decided to keep on
going for fear of what may happen if the horses got no
food that night after a long, hot day of walking.

For another hour we pressed on until a horse and cart
came across the river and passed me. They asked where
we were going and I said straight ahead to which they
said Tash Rabat. It frightened me as I was in front
and they had come out of nowhere without any sound.
They rode on without any further questions and we
pressed on hoping that around the bend further up we
would find some grass.

Out of nowhere we hear singing
but I couldn't tell where it was coming from until I
hear McKay say "Jeff let's turn around this guy is
drunk and has a gun". I thought for sure we were being
held up but it turned out that the gun was on the
guy's back and he wanted us to come to his house with
him. We were quite wary of the man and couldn't make
out his face as the moonlight was shaded in by his
tall white felt hat. The guy would not relent and kept
saying that we should come with him. He was swaying
back and forth in his saddle and began asking us
questions about where we were going and if we had told
so and so something different. We didn't know what he
was rambling about and just wanted to get away from
him. He began to get frustrated that we didn't want to
go to his "serai" which means palace in Kyrgyz and
barn in Russian, which he meant we didn't know. He
kept repeating that it was just beyond the corner and
that there was plenty of grass there. We said no that
our horses were too tired and he took the gun off and
I jumped behind my horse. When I looked up he had put
the gun under his leg and looked like he wanted to get
off. We just said that we would be fine and that he
didn't need to worry about us. Finally he relented but
also added that he would go home and then come back in
an hour with his friends. We said it was unnecessary
and began to walk off towards the stream and saw the
headlights of a car coming towards us from the
direction we had just come.

We tried to get out of
sight from the car and waited for the guy to leave.
After five minutes and the car never appearing we went
back up and crossed the road and went up to a gap in
the mountains that was still shaded heavily. It was
very dark up between the two mountains and we made as
little noise as possible as we staked down the horses
and got our bags off. I was really nervous to light
the stove because initially it makes a large flame and
it would give us away if anyone was looking up in the
valley. I got the flame down to a low blue hue and
began to cook. We ate quickly as we were very hungry
and then dug into the sweet sunflower paste known as
halva. We ate the whole half kilo and became giddy. It
was a relief that we had been able to escape unscathed
and since it was well past midnight we felt that it
was not likely the guy would return. While sitting
there McKay felt something crawling on him and turned
on his flashlight to find a small scorpion on him. We
decided to put the tent up for fear of scorpions and
risk being seen.

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