http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Kyrgyzstan , Yssyk Kol en-us Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:20:37 +0000 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:20:37 +0000 Day 12 July 6 2009 Monday DuishombuWe are back in Bishkek. I awoke this morning the first time at 5 am but knew that trying to stay awake would be impossible so I went back to the bed and slept again until about 830 am. Bishkek is warm and sultry this morning but there is something nice about being back to the familiar. A good shower consistent hot water food on demand and even when http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/Cholpan-Ata/blog-436453.html Day 11 July 5 2009 Sunday JekshembiWell yesterday's poor weather resulted in some new information and a fun day after all. I am always reminded of the quotation in Pooh's Birthday Book for July 2nd birthdays which is ldquoSuddenly Piglet realized that it was a much better day than he had thought it was.rdquo My friend Joe Weaver had one and he maintained it religiously always sending http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-436147.html Day 10 July 4 2009 Saturday IshembiIf it were not for this travel diary and my Mac I would not really know what day it is. I am not even sure how many days I have been in Kyrgyzstan at this point except that it appears to be day ten according to the diary. One loses all track of time except for sunrise and sunset in places like Lake IssyKul. And that of course is the point. Gulnara http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-436145.html Day 9 July 3 2009 Friday JumaYesterday's excursion was less than fully successful. And the problem was the 15 year old being a teenager all morning. First he did not want to go to town even though I tried to explain that there were things I wanted to do there. I needed to use the internet and I know that after 8 days of not having access that I would have an hour's worth of work on the ne http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-435976.html Day 8 July 2 2009 Thursday BeishembiSurprise surprise we are still in CholpanAta at the Cafe Chebek and the motel with the empty swimming pool. Our plans to return to Bishkek were changed around noon. Emil called from America to tell me that we were not going back to the city until Friday. When we had first worked on a bit of a schedule for me during this month without him we had discuss http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-435969.html Day 7 July 1 2009 Wednesday SharshembiToday is the last day that I can tell people I am AltimishAlti since tomorrow is my birthday and I will have to begin saying that I am AltimishJeti. Sixtyseven and I am celebrating my birthday for a second time in Kyrgyzstan and this time I am at the 2nd largest alpine lake in the world and probably the 4th or 5th highest in altitude. I think we a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-435960.html Day 6 June 30 2009 Tuesday SheishembiDid I mention the rain Yesterday was a washout no trip to the beach. The clouds darkened and gathered over the mountain tops and then brought the rain and cold down with them. It was snowing at the higher elevations and there is new snow on the mountain tops that we can see from our motel and our vantage points. I have tried to lookup just how high http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-435949.html Day 5 Monday Duishombu June 29 2009What an excellent day yesterday turned out to be. I finally made enough noise to get Timka out of bed and thinking about going to the beach around 10 a.m. No one seems to be ready to head to the beach in this country until nearly noon or later. I see very few people heading down to the water on the roadway that leads to the beach before 10 am and it seems http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-435923.html Day 4 June 27 2009 Saturday IshembiAnother early morning for me awaking at a little before 5 am. I forced myself back to sleep and managed to make it to 6 a.m. I am just constitutionally become an old man and waking at the same time each morning. Also in strange beds I seem to always wake up and not be able to go back to sleep right away. But it gives me time to think and read an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-435686.html As we set off on our next adventure to SonKul Lake I began to see why Kyrgyzstan has been dubbed the Switzerland of Central Asia. We drove through lush alpine mountains on hairpin roads all the way up to a pass at 3500m. By the time we reached that point it felt like we were really disappearing into the sky and the 360 degree views were incredible. Situated at 3016m SonKul Lake is frozen be http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-310783.html Wednesday 11 June Karakol to campsite 78 km 610m climbBreakfast in the courtyard rather disorganized bread and their very runny jam then some cheese and butter arrived then last the hot water for tea and coffee. There was meat soup that hardly anyone wanted.Today was not a nice ride the road surface was bad in many places and the last 30 km mostly very bad. There was a head wind som http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-297292.html I felt a distinct frisson of excitement as I boarded the flight and took my seat. This was no ordinary flight. Not only was I about to experience the unparalleled luxury of flying business class on Aviakompaniyasi Kyrgyzstan but I was taking my first ever flight on a Tupolev or to be more precise for airliner geeks a Tupolev TU134A. I tried to put my finger on what I was enjoying the most.W http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-274754.html 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 IssykKul. Lake IssykKul 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 La http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-193727.html Ok so I'm not actually in Issyk Kul but it is the only place in Kyrgyzstan that the Travelblog lists I felt like I should list it as where I am at least once. And I was there for 9 days and I would have added to the blog had I not been in the least frequented area of Issyk Kul the very small town of Tamchy. It was probably chosen as the place for the American School camp because it is much che http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-187053.html We are staying at homestays again and we got divided up into three after dinner we were serenaded with local music by our gracious hosts beautiful music and skillful playing. I bought a quilt carpet at the felt factory we went to the lady demonstrated how to make the felt rugs as well and she made one whose design is the likeness of Gisele our truck. We had a quick lunch afterwards and then s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-159933.html Saturday May 5thInstead of sitting around in Tashkent until the following Wednesday for the Chinese embassy to open I decided to cycle tto Andijon close to Osh and then take a taxi back to Tashkent to pick up a visa and then return to Andijon. The first leg was to Angren and old soviet coal mining town. Unable to find a hotel I was cycling slowly when a guy gave me the peace sign so I stopped. He http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-157632.html Spent two weeks... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-6523.html The exact date doesn't really matter so I'll leave it at today's date this is just a little post to say hello everyone. Sometime in August 2001 in Kyrgyzstan we watched a yurt being built for us to sleep in in an orchard near Lake YssykKol. When it was finished the sun was low in the sky ... so I could make this little self portrait. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Yssyk-Kol/blog-1705.html