Disclaimer: I wrote this on a 22 hour train journey so it is LONG because I had a whole lot of time on my hands!
Impressions of Kyrgystan
The people
Kyrgyz people are, in general, less friendly than Kazakhs. They’re still very friendly, but people didn’t stop to chat to me as often as in Kazakhstan. However I had more very friendly encounters, where people would invite me to join their party, or take me out for lunch.
The scenery
Breathtaking. Like seriously, wow. It is 94% mountains so wherever you are, there’s a mountain in at least one direction. Issyl-kul lake is beautiful. The southern mountainous region is stunning. It’s all just good. I can see why it is big for hiking and nature-based activities! On the other end of the spectrum, the cities are abysmal. Soviet in all senses, which can have a certain charm about it, but not in winter conditions. The grey blocks partially visible behind a curtain of revolting air pollution, along desolate roads covered in ice and snow mush did nothing for me.
The food
Basically the same as Kazakhstan. The national dish is even the same - beshparmark. I tried samsa here, it’s a pasty but in a triangle. This was the most delicious thing I ate, so I think that sums it up. I also tried horse here. The first time I had it I did not like it. It tasted like a horse smells. The second time it was actually really delicious, so perhaps it’s in how it’s prepared.
The vibe
Unlike Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan knows what it is. It’s a country of nomads with rich nature. And it’s nailing this vibe! Wherever you go you see people on horses, you see yurts, you see mountains and trees and lakes. It’s also capitalising on it, with a great network of community-based tourism centres which organise homestays and yurt stays and affordable activities like horse treks and cultural dinners. In the summer months, the nomad population actually becomes nomadic, moving to yurts across the country to live with their livestock. I will 100% be returning to Kyrgystan in the summertime to experience this - to hike some of the gorgeous multi-day treks where you stay with actual nomads in their yurts each night. But first, I need to learn russian! I would fully recommend doing the same if you’re into nature. Kyrgystan is in that perfect sweet spot of being off the beaten track but having accessible tourism infrastructure, making it easy to experience local life. It also has beautiful sights actually worth seeing (unlike Kazakhstan…).
Lenin is everywhere
I noticed a huge number of monuments to Lenin whilst just existing in Kyrgystan. From statues in every town, Lenin streets commonly seen, and the biggest mountain being named Lenin’s peak. There are several suggested reasons for why Lenin’s influence wasn’t completely scrubbed out, like in other former Soviet states.
- Lenin’s role in Kyrgyz history. Lenin is acknowledged as the person who brought Kyrgystan its statehood and the person who brought an end to the Great Urkun (a revolt against tsarist conscription in 1916).
- Creating continuity with the Soviet era to try and keep the international population in Kyrgystan, after the ‘brain drain’ which occurred immediately after the collapse of the USSR.
- Using Lenin as a symbol of safety and optimism, especially for the older generation. The transition from communism to capitalism did not go smoothly in Kyrgystan, like in so many other former Soviet states, and so there may have been a sense of nostalgia for the Soviet times. Lenin’s figure may have acted as a beacon of optimism, that Krygystan would once again prosper.
From The Contested Histories Initiative, ”Statue of Lenin in Bishkek”, Contested Histories Case Study #93 (May 2022)
My travels
Day 1 - 3: Bokonbyaevo
Being my second Central Asian country, I felt a lot more comfortable with the peculiarities of travel here. I arrived by bus into Bishkek (the capital) from Almaty, Kazakhstan. The road was icy and an accident meant we were stopped on the side of the road for 2 hours. I was in the mood for nature rather than cities after spending so long in Almaty, so the next morning (after doing the new country admin of getting out cash and getting a sim card) I caught a marshrutka to a town on the south side of Issyl-Kul lake called Bokonbyaevo. The journey took 5.5 hours and we stopped at a strangely fancy service station on the way. I arrived into the town after dark and decided to walk the 40 minutes to my guesthouse to stretch my legs. This was probably a mistake. A conclusion I reached whilst zig-zagging my way past drunken men stumbling around and stray dogs. I ate a disappointing meal of turkey leg with the ends of the feathers still in it, noodles, potatoes and a bowl of meat grease on the side that the lady insisted I drink (I got away with just taking a sip in the end). A vegetable was a mystical being it seemed. The following day I ventured to Skazka canyon by marshrutka, taking note of the horrific condition of the road on the way there. I enjoyed walking around and getting lost in the ridges of rock, or the folds of a dragon if you believe the myth about the canyon (that it’s a dragon which turned to stone from shock in seeing the lake that had formed from its curse to flood the valley every full moon until the woman who rejected its advances agreed to them - weird). On my walk back to the road I spied a cafe on google maps and went to check it out, very much fancying a coffee to warm up. As I neared the cafe I was expecting it to be closed, but was elated to see people inside! I realised my mistake as soon as I’d opened the door - definitely not open, it was just a family having a party inside. Before I knew it I was sat down in the centre of the table, eating a plate of plov (rice with meat and a few veggies) and salad, giving a toast with vodka! I had a lovely few hours eating and chatting with the Kyrgyz family, who all spoke some english. I wandered back to the main road and stuck my thumb out to hitchhike back. The first truck driver that passed stopped and picked me up. I usually have a rule against hitchhiking in trucks but this man had kind eyes so I climbed on in. He was very friendly, although I made the mistake of answering honestly to the inevitable ‘Are you married?’ question, meaning the rest of the 30 minute journey was filled with him proposing marriage to me! We had a laugh and he dropped me outside the town. I bought a salad from the supermarket for dinner as an alternative to another meal at the guesthouse…
Day 3 - 4: Yurt stay
From Bokonbyaevo I got a taxi down to the lake’s edge to stay in a yurt for a night. I’m sure it’s packed with visitors in the summer, but it was completely deserted now. I enjoyed a day of stillness and nature. It was truly wonderful. I walked along the lake, stopping to write some poetry and just take in the impressive scenery. The huge lake, mountains just about visible through the clouds on the other side, mountains very much visible in every other direction. I found a stone circle look out point, complete with pallet seats. I did yoga in the sun here, more sitting in stillness, more writing. I warmed up in my yurt and changed into my bikini, going for a bracing swim in the cold lake. It was around 6 degrees I believe, but with the sun shining down it wasn’t too bad at all! I made some hot tea in my flask and went back out to watch the sunset. I watched ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ (not as good as the book of course, but I enjoyed it) cuddled up in the yurt and then went to sleep. The yurt was a bit too cosy, airing on the side of suffocating. It was heated with an electric heater (traditionally a coal fire) and I woke up in the night in a strange sweat and with a clammy mouth. Paired with the strange noises outside, I didn’t sleep well at all! After a delicious breakfast prepared by the group of women running the yurt camp, I set off to find the main road. It was about 4km away through desert like landscape hugging the lake, which made for a very enjoyable walk/adventure. I didn’t see a single person, but there were some little houses at points. I rounded one corner and the most perfect beach appeared. The sun was shining even more strongly than the previous day and I toyed with the idea of taking another swim. There was really no reason to not - I was in no hurry, I had my swimming stuff with me seeing as I had all of my stuff with me! I slid down to the beach and dropped my bags, changed into my bikini and scuttled into the water. It was even more magnificent this time. I finished the walk to the road, spotting a child on horseback herding a cow and some graffiti in english. Without even sticking my thumb out this time, a car stopped and offered to take me to Karakol for a small fee (hitchhiking is a common mode of transport in Kyrgystan, but often you have to pay a bit). I agreed and we set off, first stopping in another town to pick up a family who found my presence very interesting. The smallest girl showed me photos of her whole family and the earrings she makes. Disappointingly for them, I was so tired after my poor night’s sleep and morning walk and swim I quickly fell asleep in the car, having to be woken up by the driver once we’d reached Karakol.
Day 4 - 7: Karakol
Karakol is the fourth largest city in Kyrgystan, and is located in the East right by the Tian Shan mountains, pretty close to China. In the summer it’s the base for hiking, climbing, biking and any other nature-based activity. In the winter, it’s a little quieter but there are visitors around for winter sports like backcountry skiing and snow-shoeing. It is home to Dungan people, an ethnic group originally from China. Their traditional dish is Ashlan-Fu, which I tried for dinner one evening in the aptly named Ashlan-Fu alley in the bazaar. It’s a cold noodle soup dish, with scrambled eggs on top and an interesting sharp and spicy flavour. On my first day here I skied, being very happy with the long and fun beginners slope. If you’re a good skier the rest of the runs looked insane, with no markings and the option of traversing through the forest whenever you want. On my second day I went paragliding. It was one of the few activities on my bucket list for this trip, and as it was only £35 I couldn’t resist. This price was on my mind when we got to the top of the mountain and I eyed several pieces of duct tape on the parachute, and when trying to communicate with the non-english speaking instructor, but we made it through! It was even more fun than I imagined, and not at all scary (bar the initial running down a near vertical icy slope with a man shouting “faster” in my ear and my legs being left behind me). If I wasn’t on a budget, I would 100% have gone right back to the top of the mountain and done it again. The weather was perfect on this day, and I decided to make the most of it by going to some hot springs in the afternoon. Armed with the instructions on how to get there from the hostel and a takeaway flat white (the luxury!) I caught the correctly numbered marshrutka, which did not drop me off where I expected. No worries, I was happy to walk the 7km up the valley to the hot springs, enjoying spotting horses drinking from a frozen river and eagles in the sky. This was until an old man wanted to shake my hand, and then would not release it. I could smell the alcohol on his breath as he chortled at me in russian, despite my repeated “Я не понимаю по-русски!” (I don’t understand russian). Eventually I was able to wrestle my hand away and I sped down the road. Sadly this wasn’t the last time I saw the strange man, as he pulled up to me in a marshrutka and bundled me inside, then following me when I got off. Again, I had to wrestle myself from his grip. At this point I was feeling stressed out and my tolerance for him was at zero. I forcefully told him no in russian, and speed walked away. Luckily, I am a very fast walker, and he was old with a limp, so it wasn’t an issue to escape from him. As I walked I kept glancing behind me to see he was still following and shouting after me. I reached the hot springs which were beautiful, positioned in the nook of the valley, but I spent the first 30 minutes anxiously watching the road through the steam in case he appeared. He did not and I was able to relax into the hot water. My third day was spent hunkered down in a cafe while a snowstorm raged outside, and the temperature dropped to -19 degrees. That evening I bumped into a guy I’d met on Christmas day (Francis), he was travelling with a friend who had come to visit him. We went out for dinner and drinks together, and it was nice to socialise after spending the last few days alone.
Day 7 - 12: Bishkek
It was at this point that my time in Kyrgystan started to go downhill. I wanted to do a snowshoe trek to a yurt camp nearby Karakol, but the severe cold meant this wasn’t possible, and wouldn’t be for almost a week. The two day hike I wanted to do also wasn’t possible at this time of year it turned out. So I decided to return to Bishkek and continue my journey south. The bus journey was one of the worst so far, it took about 8 hours and was gruelling. I bumped into Karl and Niamh (the irish couple) in the hostel in Bishkek and the following day we visited Burana tower - an old minaret in a very picturesque location. The next day I explored Bishkek itself. Perhaps it is a nice city, but I could hardly even see it through the thick smog. The air pollution from coal fires used to heat homes, and the cold air keeping it trapped in the city, resulted in a horrific atmosphere and it made me feel ill and unhappy. The importance, and luxury, of clean air became startlingly apparent to me. I visited the museum which was very well done, with a floor on the ancient, nomadic and modern history of the country. I met up with a local lady for coffee and we chatted about being a woman in Krygystan, and the practice of bride kidnapping here (more on this sort of thing in another post!). I really wanted to see the traditional game of Kok Boru - imagine polo but nomadic style, with a beheaded goat carcass instead of a ball. I had managed to find the number of the Kok Boru Federation from instagram and had been in touch with a guy about it. He wanted to meet for lunch so I agreed, and he took me to a nice restaurant and we chatted. He said there would be a game tomorrow so I decided to stay an extra day in Bishkek to see it. After waiting around all day he finally messaged me at 4pm, and he picked me up to take me to a humorously named ‘Hyde Park”. Alas, there was no Kok Boru, but I did get to ride around the playing field and see a beautiful sunset. He also paid for another delicious meal, and this time with his whole family. His wife spoke good english and was very interesting to chat to, so all was not lost! He said tomorrow there would be Kok Boru, so again I waited, and again there was no Kok Boru. I bumped into Francis again and drowned my sorrows over pints of surprisingly good, scrumpy-like cider (Francis is from nearby Tiverton in England so we obviously had to go for cider). I was fed up of the air pollution and the disappointment so decided to move on the following day. You can’t win them all, and seeing Kok Boru was one I’d lost.
Day 12 - 14: Arslanbob
I managed to find a shared taxi to Arslanbob and the journey took an excruciating 12 hours (perhaps because I was a bit hungover after the ciders the night before). The scenery was absolutely insane though, with us driving across two mountain passes, windows filled with rugged mountains and soft snow covered hills. I arrived at midnight to my homestay in the small mountain town. Facilities were limited. No running water but a kettle of warm water was provided for me to wash my face. An outside, squat toilet, the route to which was treacherous with ice and in the darkness I slipped and fell into a snowdrift. The room was cold. But I was happy, some excitement after the dullness of Bishkek! Arslanbob is a pretty town and is the home of the walnut. It is surrounded by ancient walnut forests and mountains. It’s off the beaten path in the summer, with only some of the visiting tourists venturing out to it for hiking. In the winter, there were no other visitors. The english speaking guy who had helped me find the shared taxi asked to meet for lunch and I agreed. He showed me around the busy market in the town centre, then to a small waterfall and a panorama point. He was very chatty and I picked his brains on Kyrgyz culture and current affairs, his opinions on being Uzbek but living in Kyrgystan (the entire village and region is ethnically Uzbek), his opinions on Afghanistan as a muslim - more on all of this in another post. After lunch we went our separate ways and I continued exploring alone. I saw children sledging down every sloping road, older children using a strange ice skate-like device. Children would either shout “Hello!” at me and want to practice their english, or stare at me like I was an alien, eventually breaking into a shy smile when I said “hello” to them. I wondered if it will feel strange when I’m back home where every single person on the street doesn’t stare me. I got lost walking through along the snowy streets to the mountains, and back through the little paths through the thick snow in the woodland. From Arslanbob I caught the one marshrutka a day, at 6:50am, which went to Osh.
Day 14 - 16: Osh
Osh is the second biggest city and is ethnically Uzbek. I couchsurfed here, staying with two Indian medical students. There’s not much to say about Osh to be honest, the only things to see are the little mountain in its centre, the bazaar, and a huge Lenin statue. The guys I stayed with were nice, and cooked some great indian food for me. The sleeping situation wasn’t ideal - they didn’t have mattresses for some reason so I slept directly on the bed frame. Like Bishkek, the air pollution was bad here, and it made me feel equally unhappy. I was looking forward to heading to Uzbekistan at this point!
Leaving thoughts
I really liked Kyrgystan. I had some very fun experiences here and felt like I had reached optimal travelling confidence. I was happy to hitchhike frequently and just see where I ended up each day. It was also the first time I’d been unable to do things I wanted to do because of the weather, with hiking and long horse treks being off the table. At first, this annoyed me. Then I realised I now knew I wanted to come back to Kyrgystan in the summer to hike, something I doubt would ever have occurred to me if I hadn’t visited it on this trip! Kyrgystan has the potential to be one of my favourite countries, with its insane nature and rich culture, but the horrific air pollution and things not going 100% smoothly means it’s not quite there after this visit. I had some real fun here, and often felt like I was really travelling alone across a strange place.