9/15:Kyrgyzstan: Kochkor Animal Market & Onto Karakol

One of the reasons we had wanted to spend the night in the small market town of Kochkor was to visit its large Saturday Animal Market that took place west of town a bit. We got a taxi from the main street, about half a dozen blocks up from our guesthouse to the entrance of the market for only15 Kyrgyz som, about twenty cents!

Sheep, cattle and horses were each available for sale and purchase in separate areas, the same as would be the case in the other animal markets we made a point of also seeing later in Kyrgyzstan.

Only in Kyrgyzstan did we see men, and only older ones unless they were young men getting married, wear tall felt hats with the brims turned up called karpats.

Being an avid knitter when we’re home, I loved seeing all the hand knitted socks available for purchase. We could have sure done with some as warm as those when we were staying in the yurts on the horse trek as there had been no heat in them except for one that was halfway warm for a couple of hours!

I'm sure you gathered by now how very unusual the Kochkor Animal Market was as it comprised so much more than animals and was also a flea market.

I didn't realize how common the sight would be of men wearing karpats when I took this second photo of this gentleman wearing the native Kyrgyz hat!

I smiled when I saw the woman on the right using an old baby carriage to transport food and drink to sell to the vendors.

Andrew: I always think of you when I take 'people pictures' as they're in response to a request or suggestion for those from you on one of our previous trips. 

We literally had to shove our way past the cattle, pushing on their back sides to get to where we wanted to go!

I had a new appreciation for, and deeper understanding of, horses having just finished the horse trek the previous morning.

It was not only entertaining seeing all the animals but fascinating to see how many people were drawn from far and wide to the weekly market. Having attended other markets, it's always hard as outsiders to tell just how much horse trading goes on. The lure for us going to the market was seeing locals in a natural setting. We got that in spades, too.

After wandering around the grounds a bit longer, we took a $1.50 taxi back to the guesthouse to pick up our duffel bags and to the bus station so we could travel on to the city of Karakol near the southeastern edge of Lake Issyk-Kul. There we found out the next bus wouldn’t be leaving until 3, so we dragged our bags a few blocks down the main street to where there were lots of marshrutkas waiting. A marshrutka is a common term in this part of the world meaning a shared van plying defined routes in town or between towns. In towns, they act as minibuses since they accommodate locals not on specific bus routes. Between towns, marshrutkas only leave when full and the driver can set whatever price he can get away with depending on the passenger!

We were lucky and found a marshrutka that left in a couple of minutes for Balykchy, a much smaller town on the south shore of the lake about an hour away for only 150 som each, about $2.25. We paid the driver an extra 150 som so we would have the luxury of the extra seat rather than being squished. The small extra price was worth every penny as it also meant we could leave right away and not have to wait for another passenger!

Another sign to add to my bathroom collection - the mirrored 'K' meant it was the women's bathroom in Kyrgyzstan!

Bet you're glad you didn't have to use, and pay for using, the open concept bathroom at the bus station!

In Balykchy, there was another marshrutka waiting for the onward ride to Karakol about three and a half hours further east. We had some great views of the great inland sea that is the world’s second largest alpine lake after Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca and the second largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea, both of which we’ve now visited!

The local Kyrgyz called Issyk-Kul ‘Warm lake’ because, despite the altitude, it never freezes due to its slight salinity. Ringing the south shore of the lake were the Teskey (Dark) Ala-Too Mountains and to the north rose the Kungey (Sunny) Ala-Too Mountains.

It was neat seeing the huge colorful mural on the side of the wall that went for ever and ever. I just wondered what was on the other side!

Even from inside the marshrutka, the turquoise-colored Lake Issyk-Kul looked so inviting. 

The marshrutka stopped often along the way to drop off and pick up passengers. This little boy loved watching Steven play this game on his iPad and could hardly contain himself when Steven motioned he could play as well! Steven joked he has played the same game thousands upon thousands of times and I don’t doubt him at all since he has long played it at home and is his default thing to do when we find benches to sit down on to rest a while. I don’t have time to read at home since I am always either planning upcoming trips or writing posts about past ones so, for me, having time to read a book on my kindle our children bought me years ago for a birthday gift is blissful!

I’ve mentioned before how I brought along a gazillion granola bars to munch on since we almost always miss lunch. I have found on several occasions already this trip the granola bars have been a great way to share something from home with people we come across. Doing that has also had the added bonus of reducing the excess weight in my bag! 

After getting our breath at our guesthouse from getting up earlyish to go to the Kochkor market and then the long ride to Karakol, we walked back into town to get a lay of the land as we were in no rush seeing the small town’s ‘sights’ that afternoon. In our four days in town, we passed the rather forbidding statue of Yisup Abramadov, the first secretary of the Kyrgyz Communist Party from 1924-1925, facing the university scads of times as it was on our way into town!

We noticed lots of stands selling chicken on spits in Karakol and ended up buying one for a few bucks, figuring it would be great to enjoy on a sandwich or with a salad that night at our guesthouse as there was a full kitchen there. 

In the grocery store, we discovered open box after open box full of various types of cookies that could be purchased by the kilo just as you would buy tomatoes, for instance. Several of them looked particularly yummy but the funny thing one was we needed to buy about ten of whatever we wanted in order for the scale to register, according to the clerk in the produce/cookie department! Steven chose some chocolate marshmallow confections and I chose what appeared to be fudge stripe cookies - you can see we also have a love for chocolate in common!

Unlike in the States or Canada, there were no such things as tongs or gloves - you just picked up what you wanted and put them in a bag, germs be damned!

Next post: Another animal market, service at the Russian Orthodox Church and more!

Posted on September 27th, 2018, from Tashkent, Uzbekistan.