Stan 1.3

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After a few admin days in Bishkek sorting our visas and permits for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan we headed off to one of the places we'd been looking forward to from the time we started planning our trip.

Song Kol is simply beautiful. We stayed two nights in a yurt, which was warm and comfortable and which we had to ourselves. Did some horse riding, for which I'm still paying the price every time I sit down, walked kilometres, and for the rest of the time laid about in the sun, for which I'm also still paying the price after burning my belly - I'd forgotten how strong the sun is at 3000m elevation. For perhaps the first time on this trip we've found somewhere we'd like to come back to in the future to do some biking, hiking and riding. It's a magical place.

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Photos

Cowboy
But as they're sheep should it be sheepboy ?

Yurt
Owner checking all is OK.

Lada
In the environment that killed it.

Road Around The Lake
The black dots are a swarm of non biting mosquitoes that followed us for a long way.

Matriarch
The matriarch of our host family gets the kettle on.

Atsuko
A combination of my poor horse riding skills and photographic ability fail to show how dramatic the scenery was during our ride.