Waking up in an unheated yurt on a cold mid-September morning may not have been my idea of bliss but at least the view of the pretty ceiling design made me smile. As I mentioned before, the crosshatch shape is part of the Kyrgyzstan flag and it's also included on their license plates.
For two night in a row, we had had to sleep with all our clothes on because it was downright nippy in the yurt once the stove had lost its remaining heat. Under that lump was Steven bundled under every extra blanket the yurt family had!
After leaving Tuz-Ashun Yurt Camp at 9, we had just a short horseback ride our last morning as Joomart, our guide, needed to get all three horses back to the yurt camp where we'd started our horse trek a couple of days previously. That would mean he had a good eight hour ride ahead of him after dropping us off at the next yurt camp where a driver would return us to Kochkor several hours away.
We had noticed that often a row of white painted stones acted as the property line between communities of yurts.
In the best of all worlds, we would have had plenty of time the previous night or that morning to ride down to the shores of Song Kol Lake, the largest freshwater lake in the country, located at over 3,000 meters above sea level. However, because of the long ride ahead for Joomart, we only had time to ride partway toward the beach that morning.
Our three day horse trek had been a chillier ride than we might have hoped for but the experience of riding a horse with so few people around and coming across such breathtaking views each day had been spectacular and I wouldn't have traded any moment of those three days for anything.
Knowing it was our last few hours riding in Kyrgyzstan and likely anywhere made me want to stop and savor each plodding step my horse took so I could drag it out as long as possible.
I had never spent any time around horses growing up so the thought of this three day horse trek had filled me with equal parts of fear of the unknown and a sense of adventure as to what we might see and how we might fare riding horses for so long each day at our ages.
Spotting all the horses grazing with the snowy mountain backdrop was a pretty idyllic sight in my mind and made me almost forget how chilly it had been that morning in the yurt and how far away the outhouse was!
One of the most amazing and unusual natural sights I can remember seeing was the line of horses as far as we could see on the shores of the lake. I could only think they were drinking the water since it was a freshwater lake.
After turning away from the lake and back inland, there were snow flurries but the winds weren't strong so they didn't impact us much. Ahead was the Cemetery of Heroes, Joomart said.
I wish I could have gotten out my camera in enough time to focus it properly before this man and baby girl came riding across the wide open space from our left toward the lake as they were the only people we had seen since leaving the yurt.
A shot of the mountains on the north shore of Song Kol Lake:
Snack time!
More mice mounds:
Steven and I were both sad to see the yurt camp up ahead as it signaled the end of our horse trek and time with our very good guide, Joomart.
In one of the shepherd's yurts was a woman, her daughter and the same driver who had picked us up a couple of days ago in Bishkek and driven us to Kockor via the Burana Tower, to begin this amazing adventure.
We watched for a while as the woman was separating out minuscule black bits from the brown pile on the table. It looked like tiny instant coffee grounds but we realized later it was a sort of grain as it was boiled and served with vegetable for our delicious lunch later!
Steven and I took turns helping the daughter who spoke a few words of English. We were able to figure out that she was 17, her mom was 40, and she had five siblings, aged 20 down to 4 living in a village nearby. We only found out the mom's age after she had asked us our ages, by the way! We have been so surprised that Kyrgyz people, unlike people in most other countries, have expressed no reluctance asking our ages. Thankfully, they seem to show considerable amazement when Steven says he's 70 and I tell them I'm 64!
This had been the first time we'd seen an elevated bed in a yurt; all the others had thin mattresses directly on the floor.
It didn't appear there was any wasted space used for storage in the yurt.
Our yummy lunch included diced red peppers in the grain dish, a vegetable I had been surprised to see included in other meals served in the yurts as I wouldn't have thought the peppers would store well without refrigeration. Available with the entree were wonton-like bites to munch on, bottomless bowls of hot tea and raspberry jam as always. Of course, there was an endless supply of wrapped candies, too, if we felt for them too as was customary in all yurts at all meals!
We had been sad to say goodbye to Joomart and our horses and thanked him for his part in the wonderful experience we had had on the horse trek. We've been lucky enough to take part in some pretty fabulous activities over the last few years on our overseas trips but we both agree the horse trek must rank near the top of the list for excitement, adventure and something totally out of the ordinary for us! It was definitely more challenging than we envisioned as we climbed about 1,500 feet in elevation in the course of a couple of days, slept in unheated yurts and dealt with snow and cloudy skies but it was still a trip of a lifetime.
About an hour after leading the small yurt camp in the car, we encountered the largest one we'd seen yet. It had about 100 yurts - I wonder if that was the village the girl had referred to where her siblings were living?
Our diver stopped for a couple of minutes to say hello to his family before we continued the long drive back to Kochkor.
The 'roads' were pretty basic to put it mildly and also included some careful maneuvering through the water here!
The driver later stopped for a moment so I could take this shot of the road that skirted the mountain near its base.
I wonder how late in the year this road would be open to the yurts because it wasn't in very good condition.
This must be equivalent to the 'pure mountain spring water' that's always bottled in the US as the driver stopped to fill an empty Coke bottle with water from the creek here and drank from it on the way back to town!
I almost laughed when we saw when we saw the gaggle of geese along the side of the road.
In the valley, we noticed sheep, cattle and horses being brought to the lower pastures, in preparation for winter ahead, we thought.
We even spotted a few camels on the side of the road!
Since leaving Kochkor a couple of days ago, this was the only community we'd seen apart from a few families living in yurts.
We realized later that elementary-aged girls in Kyrgyzstan have the biggest bows - and always white ones, too - in their hair of any girls anywhere!
From the overlook, it was only 25 kms back to Kockor via a regular paved highway. Just like in the US and Canada, we noticed drivers flashed their lights to warn of police speed traps up ahead!
After picking up our duffel bags at the Kyrgyz Riders office in Kochkor, the driver kindly dropped us off at our guesthouse where we were staying for the night. On the floor and one wall were shyrdaks, homemade felt carpets made during the summer in the highlands of central Kyrgyzstan, that we'd seen in the yurts on the horse trek. Shyrdaks are made of applique, not pressed, felt so the designs are cut out from the felt and then hand stitched together with a border sewn onto the sides as a final touch.
Obviously there was no way we could bring back such a beautiful souvenir but a smaller one seemed plausible!
Kochkor was the sleepiest town we'd been in all trip. It seemed more of a way station for tourists getting to the lake area of eastern Kyrgyzstan and a market town for locals. We ended walking up and down the main street but saw only a few market stalls, grocery stores, etc. We saw no restaurants that held any appeal at all, certainly no museums, etc. The only reason we had decided to stay the night in Kochkor was we'd arrived too late to go elsewhere and there was a weekly animal market the following day, a Saturday, that we wanted to attend.
Strangely enough, there were, however, scads of modern looking salons and barbershops for those wanting the latest hair styles. Notice the man's hat? Look for more info on that in the next post.
There was a small mosque on the street near our guesthouse so we heard the imam's Call to Prayer a few times.
Since we would never have found the the only shop in town that sold the shyrdaks and other souvenirs (as it had no sign) without the help of the young girl who had checked us in, we brought her back 'dinner' and a bag of candy, the latter as a belated birthday gift.
Next post: Kochkor's Animal Market and onto the big city of Karakol!
Posted on September 26th, 2018, from Tashkent, Uzbekistan aka Toshkent, O'zbekistan, by the locals. Sorry for the delay as I had so hoped to get this post out before now but the poor internet has helped to conspire against me!
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