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Published: August 14th 2008
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Sultanet
it was so bizarre meeting her as she looks like me when i was a baby! the resemblance is uncanny! As we set off on our next adventure to
Son-Kul 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, Son-Kul Lake is frozen between November to May and in summer, the temperature of the water reaches a maximum of 16 degrees! Being one to go swimming wherever there is water, knowing that the water was going to be cold was not enough to discourage me.
When we arrived to our yurt camp though, I walked down to the lake and this particular spot was quite marshy and there were thousands of tiny mosquito like sounding insects buzzing around, which made it even less enticing than the "lake" we swum at in the desert in Uzbekistan. I never knew I was going to have this much bad luck with lakes on this trip! I know people that have been swimming in Son-Kul though, so I was determined
but our guide explained that there wasn't really going to be an opportunity to swim 😞
I resolved to just enjoy the crystal clear air, open landscape, and the peace and quiet of our surroundings. The region around Son-Kul is completely untouched and pristine. A surprising fact is that around the lake, there are no trees. Instead, there are plenty of medicinal herbs and flowers which were to my detriment! I had the worse case of hayfever I've experienced in a while so I dosed up on anti histamine and was completely knocked out for the night and until lunchtime the next day!
Our hosts were a Kyrgyz family which was great given I'd felt that we had only really had a Russian experience since being in Kyrgyzstan. The family spend the summer on Son-Kul hosting tourists and they spend the winter back in the villages. Community based tourism has become a large part of the industry here, and so foreigners really have the opportunity to have grassroots experiences, meeting local families and soaking up the Kyrgyz hospitality.
After a tough hike up a mountain, Regina our guide made my day by saying she had found a
spot we could swim in. She neglected to tell usshe brought a bottle of vodka to share with us! She is Russian so enough said I guess! haha. I jumped straight into the lake ignoring the fact that it was going to be icy cold and I think I swam the fastest and furthest I ever have in order to warm up. The water was so refreshing and clear, a vast improvement on the last lake I swam in, so I was very happy.
Before I even had a chance to dry myself off, I was handed a shot of wwooodka and taught how to drink it the Russian way - check the video. The impromptu drinking session by a beautiful lake at 3000m altitude was a stark contrast to our last one we had in the middle of the desert in 45 degree heat! Either of which I will not forget I'm sure. It was definitely one of the highlights of Kyrgyzstan given it all felt so surreal, I'm sure the vodka assisted in making it so much fun.
As much as I enjoyed staying in yurts and living life like a nomad, we headed to the
town of
Kochkor where we stayed with another Kyrgyz family in their house. One of the girls Ryskul knows how to speak English very well so I took the opportunity to find out more about Kyrgyz life. Ryskul is only 17 and we ended up talking for most of the evening about family, life and love. She told me how she heard that if you love somebody, then you don't care if they are shorter than you or not good looking - very cute!
In 3 days, she was going to be leaving for the States for a 1 year exchange. For someone who has not spent time away from her family, been out of the country or even seen a plane, it's going to be such a daunting experience for her so I'm going to keep in touch with her to see how she goes once she settles in.
After my icy cold swim in Son-kul I was looking forward to swimming at
Issyk-Kol Lake which translates to "warm lake" as the combination of depth, and salinity ensures that it never freezes. It is the 2nd largest alpine lake in the world, after
Lake Titicaca in South America. The region is made up of an array of ecosystems, from desert in the South West to steppe, meadows, forest an glacial in the North.
It's just a shame that the infrastructure that has been built around the north side of the lake spoils the scenery a little. We definitely didn't feel like we were in Kyrgyzstan any longer, as we witnessed rich Kazakhs and Russians parading along the shores of the lakes around the tacky solace resorts. The water was definitely warmer though, well for me anyway - the others who went swimming thought it was just as cold as Son-kul! It was so surreal lying on the "beach" sunbaking with views of snowcapped mountains in the background! It ended up beıng an entertaining afternoon though as we watched a Russian grandma play badminton with her grandson. She got so into it and was huffing and puffing all over the beach.
We ended our trip in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan and I have to say I didn't really feel the vibe there. The north of Kyrgyzstan is evidently more Russia-fied than the rest of the country and the rest of the
stans (excluding Kazakhstan) which is apparently very Russia-fied also. Not that I have anything against Russians, but I guess I just expected to have more of a true Kyrgyz experience during my time there.
The other thing that was a little frustrating was not getting the opportunity to stop and get out of the bus to take pictures when I wanted so a lot of the pics are taken with my compact camera from the bus...There were some fascinating looking men with their traditional hats that I missed out on too!
The one bizarre thing we saw was people walking around with Sportsgirl bags! For a minute I was transported back to Aus! The bags are produced in China and for some random reason, Kyrgyzstan get sent them to be used as normal plastic bags.
So we're off back to Tashkent for a couple of days before saying goodbye to Central Asia!
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