[Central Asia] - Five-day tour in Kyrgyzstan - Day 1
Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked country in Central Asia, bounded by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, and Tajikistan to the southwest. It is the farthest country in the world from the ocean. Also because of this, Kyrgyzstan is full of many inland country special natural landscapes, such as plateaus, alpine lakes and so on.
And it is because of the highly variable terrain in the interior, many places that are not suitable for living at all times of the year, that they will have nomads. There are still quite a few nomads :)
Map of Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan mainly visits an alpine lake called Song Kul Lake, which is a 3000m high lake, another area that many backpackers go to is along the different natural landscapes of Issyk Kul Lake, such as the beautiful mountains called Alxa and some different shapes of canyons.
Method of excursion
The main ways to visit the famous attractions of Kyrgyzstan are:
Join a local tour
by bus (transportation)
Find friends online/youth hostel to drive together
Shared taxi
A detailed comparison will be analyzed in another article.
Find the right tour
The more convenient and easier way for me is to join a local tour, fortunately I met an aunt in Singapore on the first day of arrival in Kyrgyzstan, who had done enough research online to find a reasonable price and enough number of tours. So I ended up joining a five-day tour worth $400 that would visit the attractions around Song Kul Lake and Issyk Kul Lake mentioned above.
The first day of joining the tour
Here are the times and events that happened during the first day of my entire trip for an overview and reference:
First day of journey
Time events
8:30 Boarding in the city of Kyrgyz Bishaik
11:00 Arrive at Branna Tower and excursion
14:00 Lunch
17:30 Arrive at Wong Lake and free activities
19:00 Song Lake Dinner
20:30 Go to bed
Meeting: Boarding within the city of Kyrgyzbez
The tour departs at 8:30 in the morning, first to a place called Olive hotel to meet, I stayed in the hostel last night very close, so walk a few 8 minutes to 🤭
The travel agency has an office at the Olive Hotel, so at first assembled in the office, the travel agency distributed me, each with a map and a scarf printed with local characteristic dolls. It's also quite courteous.
After waiting for everyone, we started to get on the bus. There were nine people in our group, Asians with me and Singapore, and the others were mainly European or American, so English was predominant by then.
The tour bus we took for five days was very clean and comfortable seats. Our guide was a 19 year old local youth, very energetic and responsible.
Inside the tour bus compartment
Inside the tour bus compartment
Burana Tower
First of all the first attraction we visited was Burana Tower, a former village where the tower was used to ask people to pray together (their faith is Muslim).
This is actually a damaged building, now much of it new, through stairs and a narrow section of road to get to the top! There are no tall buildings all around, so once you go up, it is endless, you will see the mountains that divide with China, and other green lands, the view is beautiful🤭
The top of the Branata
Branata
Branata
Lunch on the first day
Then went to lunch, very interestingly I thought to order local specialty food, asked the tour guide to recommend, finally served when I found that it was ordered a plate of food like dry fried beef river.
Restaurant for lunch
Stir-fried beef river for lunch
宋古湖
Then we took a two-and-a-half-hour drive, on the way through some places like window Luckily the day before yesterday I went to Osh Bazzar and bought a down vest.
Scenery along the way
Nomads in horseback riding
Local Activities & Mongolian Package Accommodation
Around 5:30 to reach our destination, Song Kul Lake!
Song Lake
And where we stayed tonight, Yurt!First time staying, was a bit excited.
There are some very primitive places, the yurt in the yurt is called lucky to have lights, but some electricity (supplyed by a generator) is limited supply, so the power bank is very important. Of course there is also no network there, temporarily hanging on to a life of disconnection.
Yurt
The day weather is general, so the photos are not so make, but the eyes are very make and will be more shocking, the lake in the plateau land, this lake if winter comes when it is ice, and where I live will be full of snow. So the people who live there are called nomads, their land will change their place of residence with the weather.
We went to take pictures, sit and look at the nature, feel the life of the nomads, see the cattle and horses, and it was almost dark to get ready for dinner.
The life of a nomad
The life of a nomad
Song Lake
Song Lake
Sunset at Song Lake
Since it is very cold at night here, they will use local materials and use horse/sheep poop as fuel in the stove to heat, so the place to eat dinner and the place to sleep is very warm.
That night ate some local food, some buns and fried rice, interestingly my Singaporean aunt and I bought some pretty cheap spirits before coming, that night each had a cup to drink quite happy
Nomads' dinner
Kyrgyz spirits
And where we live is 6 people sleep in a yurt, a bit forced, but there is no way, although it is very cold outside, but the bed in the yurt it is provided quilt is very warm. And the day was tiring, so I fell asleep quickly.
Inside the Mongolian bag
Which got up at 11 to see the stars, but it turned out to be raining, strong cold, but had to go to the toilet, so I ended up rushing.
It was an unforgettable experience, but not being able to take a shower, it was a bit hard, it was some one-time good experience. But the surprise is that his toilet uses some windproof material, which is very warm inside the toilet compartment.
Chong Hu Toilet
I met a Macau friend
It is worth mentioning that when I went to Song Kul Lake, I met two Macau people there, a couple who resigned from Central Asia. I was glad that after so many days it was even in a place where there was no network so far away to speak Cantonese, very friendly, we all ate together and talked to each other about their itinerary and travel experiences, it was a very pleasant and happy experience. We have since left everyone's contact details, together with each other, exchange the trip to Central Asia :)
And unlike coming as a tour group, they use a bus plus shared taxi to spend 12 days to and tour the entire Kyrgyz main attractions, compared to my group that went all in five days, they can have more time to communicate with the locals and stay at each attraction.
Personal feelings that day
In fact, the whole day's drive is very long, probably five or six hours, and is up the mountains, so I am there to take some dizziness pills for myself to adapt. And the first day on the tour and the other group members were not said to be very familiar, but felt everyone was quite friendly. Song Luk Lake is my first time to go to the alpine lake, feels very peaceful, different from the rich material life of the city, here are all things of nature, and indeed in this era is still whether there is a nation is living this simple life, the city people me quite a big impact, once again convinced that this world has many different lifestyles.