By all the things we experience here in Kyrgyzstan, it's hard to keep up on our blog. Everyday is an own adventure and the lack of internet connection doesn't help.
And most of all, offline time becomes more and more quality time. The landscape of Kyrgyzstan is almost asking for it - those remote valleys, only visited by sheppards staying for two months over the season with their animals.
Mountain passes, accessable by (4wd) car, where back in Switzerland you would have to mount heavy climbing equipment to get up this high.
And once you passed the peak, you reach a plateau with plenty of water, over 3000 m altitude.
Over the last week, we spent time at the Lake Yssykköl, doing day trips up the mountains rowing up on the south shore.
The evening we would spend at the beach of Yssykköl, which is just more a sea than a lake, due to its waves and the fact, that most of the time you do not see the other side. The colour of the water is unreal, just like painted.-
A short visit at the well known "Fairytail Canyon" is worth the walk - another dramatic landscape, showing up just like this behind an inconspicuous hill.
One morning at the lake, right after tea and coffee, we get the visit from the mayor of a village called Bir Bash, next to the town of Karakol on the east tip of the Yssykköl lake. This village helds a few thousand people. Still, its vibe is quiet and sleepy.
The major makes us understand, that we are now his guests and we have to pack our things and drive to his house immediatly. We agree, and just a few minutes later, we find ourselves in a proud family house, welcomed by diverse clan members. The day becomes one to remember! The mayor takes us to Karakol, to eat the most famous dish in this region - "Ashlyanfu".
Cold gelatine (rice) noodles in a spicy-vinegary sauce, topped with scrambled eggs and cucumbres. Along with it, a deep fried, potato filled bread, "Pirozhki". It is the traditional meal of the dungan people.
Kyrgyzstans dungan community are chinese muslims, who fled the country 1877 to escape opression and spread mostly in the eastern region of the Yssykköl.
With a filled belly, mister mayor takes us up the mountains for a stunning view, before coming back to the family house, where the kids are happy to see us.
We are now getting splitted up - women into the kitchen, men out on the field. The mayor is keeping a number of animals and owns potato fields, enough to get an army fed. We take a visit at his uncle's barn.
He is dealing animals and fields for the family and since he is russian, we have to get Vodka for him. Just like about 90% of Kyrgyzstans people, the mayor and his family are muslims and do not drink alcohol therefore. To be russian or non-muslim, means that you are a drinker, so the mayor also buys beer for me, naturally expecting me to drink it just from the day dawning till bed time.
In the meantime, Aoife does womens routine program.
After baking, she gets taken to the Banja - the bath house, where she gets her back scrubbed of by old women after a sauna session.
When we finally meet again in the family house for dinner, both of us are pretty shattered by the tight program. Without excuse, i get taken to the mayors friends then, to secretly smoke cigarettes and weed and play cards. I skip the smoking part and stay with the cards.
It is midnight by this time and after another dinner, the mayor tells me to go the Banja for a wash. Since he told me so for the last hours, but expanding it for various reasons still, i really get tired and i'm trying my best to explain him, that i am now VERY MUCH ready for bed. He finally accepts and shows me our dorm, where Aoife is already sleeping for a while.
The next morning brings back some of my stomach issues. Therefore, i feel a bit opressed by the heart warming hospitality of the family. It takes us hours to tell them, that we have to leave now. After a last delicious meal, the majors father doesn't let us hit the road with a car dirty as ours and cleans it by his own hands.
Promisses have to be done to be back soon. The mayor was very clear about our future - we will have to make children ASAP (he tells me to get my future son's names ready now). After we did so, he would build us a palast such as his own and we would live together happy ever after in his village. We are leaving with a heart full of memories, thankful thoughts for their welcoming way - and relieve of our new found freedom of choices. After a very succesful day in Bishkek --- we got our russian visa, and it was a DELIGHTFUL experience compaired to Yerevan's embassy nightmare --- we are finally ready to explore the alpin world of Kyrgyzstan!
By the time we want to walk up to a waterfall in the Barskon valley, which finds its beginning at the village named just the same, we get into sudden rain and hail, which does not exactly motivate us to leave the comfort of our driver cabine. So we decide to just follow the road further up the valley. Crossing a checking point, where we get asked "Tourist? Ok go!" we enter the beginning of the mountain pass.
The Tossor mountain pass is one of the highest roads in the country with 3901m above sea level, located in the Issyk-Kul Region of Kyrgyzstan. If one would follow the road further into the mountains, ending up at the Kumtor gold mine would be the result, although this is only possible with a permit and invitation. This gold mine is operated pretty questionable, which is why we are more than happy with the pass itself and its overwhelming, harsh natural beauty.
Reaching the top, another large plateau opens up. The air really is thinner up here, as we have a walk at an unnamed lake on the top.
The weather got more friendly, at least as friendly as can be in a place like this.
We're looking forward to see more of this unreal and yet spectacular scenery. For this evening though, we drive back down to the lake again, where we meet up with two of my working friends, who came to Kyrgyzstan for mountain climbing for a month.
It's kind of bizarr to have a little fragment of home right here in front of us so suddenly, after so many kilometers and experiences we did by now. None the less, we enjoy to sit together, talk about here and there, about what we saw and felt, and the beer fades faster as butter in the sun.
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