From Karakol lake, I continued by shared taxi on to Kochkor, the base for excursions to Son Kul lake, which I intended to organise with the local CBT (community-based tourism) office (local agencies to promote local home stays and tours with local guides to promote responsible tourism and provide for an income to villagers...) I waited there for a while to convince the very few other travellers who passed by to share transport, but unfortunately on this day, everyone else seemed to be only interested in horse trekking (including the French couple I had dinner with in Karakol). I even considered this as an option for a moment, but for it to make sense, I would have needed an extra day, which I did not have as I had to cross over to China before the weekend. So I would have to go - yet again - alone :-( The more surprising thing was that at the CBT-office, I finally met - by coincidence - Yosef, the Israeli guy whose contact I got from one of the travel agencies as he was also interested to share transport over the Torurgart pass to China. While I went on my 5 days trekking, I had sent him my passport and visa copies as he wanted to care care of the formalities,mount then I did not hear anything anymore, despite my numerous reminders. I was even asking around in Karakol whether anybody had seen him anywhere (I knew he was in Karakol at the same time...). I was really angry as I could not organise any alternative either as I did not know whether he perhaps had confirmed for me and just has no internet as he is on treks... But after almost a week, I was clear that that could not be the case and I was really angry, so i started my own preparations. And now, there was his guy in the office, introducing himself to the CBT-guy as Yosef and I knew it had to be him. So I introduced myself - much to his surprise - and he started tottering trying to find excuses why he did not reply. He really felt uncomfortable and rightly so! ;-) That should had taught him the lesson that you always meet people at lest twice in your life ;-)
I also booked my homestay with CBT and specifically asked for a guest family with satellite TV which has the programme to watch the football semi-final Germany - Brazil. The very helpful guy at the office then really found one and when I arrived at their house, the guy had already put on "Russia 1", where they broadcasted some previous matches... Fine! But the match would only be at 3am at night... But when I got up in the middle of the night and switched on the TV, there was no football... I zapped through all channels... Nothing.... It turned out later that tonight's match was broadcast on "Russia 2"... :-( what a frustration!!! When arriving at the CBT-office in the morning to start my tour to Son Kul, the guides standing in front of the office (some of which inhale briefly met the day before) all welcomed me with a big smile and one of them said "Germaniya sem (7) - Brasiliya adin (1)!" And I started laughing as I really thought he was pulling my leg. But when I went online in the office, I realised it was the truth - unbelievable! And I have missed this great match, what a shame!!!
It took about two hours to get to the lake, which is at 3.016m, and is about 20km long. To get there, you go over a much higher pass, where there are still some patches of snow. All around the lake, there are green summer pastures, herds of sheep, goats, cows, horses everywhere and even a few yaks, nomads and yurts everywhere...
Staying with a nomad family in their guest yurt was an experience and it was interesting to observe - at least from the distance - one day in a nomad's life. A lot of activity with the animals in the morning and in the evening, but during the day, at least for the men, it was rather cool, while the women did the cooking and some housework, but they also enjoyed life, chatting with the women from the neighbouring yurts over a cup of tea, having a nap... The kids played and the men (but also some older kids) were playing a game called Narda, similar to backgammon, but with slightly simpler rules. It was fun to watch and soon they invited me to join. I played four games: one against the older nephew of the family, in his twenties, (game lost), one against the 16 year old daughter (game lost!) and two against the younger maybe twelve year old nephew (first game lost, second won!) ;-) I really had fun, sitting there in the sun, with a view in the lake and the mountains, and playing that game.... (Just forgot to out on my sunscreen and got a slight sunburn... ;-) ) Later, I went for a swim in the lake. Despite the whole theatre an Italian couple was having about how freezing cold the lake was, I have to say that it was actually not cold, at least close to the shore, as the lake is not very deep and the sun quite strong. What I really enjoyed was that it is quite silent up here, the only noises being the flies and the bees (and the mosquitoes, which were everywhere, very big and aggressive so I actually did not enjoy those...), the cows, sheep and horses, from time to time a bird and the wind. From time to time some bits of a conversation or a dog barking. Wonderfully relaxing (except for the mosquitoes, but fortunately, I had my "anti spray" ;-) ).
The not so nice thing was that the father of the family could barely walk straight when he came back from Kochkor with the purchases of the day, amongst them a quite fancy-looking new electricity storage / battery, with many different connections, to the happiness of the entire family as everyone seemed to find the right plug to charge their respective mobile phones. To me the father was friendly, but it seems his wife was not so happy to see hi in this state.
As soon as the sun set, it got quite cold and when we came out from the nicely heated yurt, where we had dinner. "We" included three Americans working for the US "peace corps", a government sponsored programme of volunteering, in Azerbaijan and who came here for holidays. On 4th July, I had already met about 15 peace corps volunteers in Karakol who were gathering there to celebrate Independence Day together. I have to admit that I had never heard about these peace corps before and so it was quite interesting to talk to those guys, two working in education and one in rural women's projects..
I was prepared for sleeping in a cold yurt, but I was positively surprised: the family also had put a fire in the little iron stove in my yurt and had already prepared my mattress, with 2 very heavy covers. I nevertheless added my sleeping bag, just to be sure I would not wake up during the night because I was cold.
Outside, there was a lot of noise, as the cows and the donkeys were not happy that they had to gather and were attached to a pole. It took a group of 5 men, one of them on a horse, a dog and later the support of all the women of the family, and quite a bit of time to get all the animals where they were supposed to be and it was quite a show... ;-) with animals and people running in all directions.. Really funny, actually, at least for me as an observer .. ;-)
I had a wonderfully relaxing sleep, without being cold and was woken up by the noise of the cows who probably wanted to be released from their poles. That was really early and I decided that I deserve a bit more sleep. Breakfast was at 9.00, just ok for me! ;-), and afterwards we left back to Kochkor as I still had to make it to Naryn.
Photos of Son Kul at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A65idkMwGYM9Ii
From Kochkor, I went by collective taxi to Naryn, where I had to do the formalities at the CBT-office to get to China the next day. The Director of CBT there is a young and dynamic woman called Gulnira. We talked a bit and she suggested to go for dinner that night with her colleague and a small group of other tourists. In the end, the group was delayed and her colleague had to wait for the group, so we went for dinner just the two of us. We had a very nice and interesting conversation. She has studied for a year with a scholarship in the US and has worked beforehand for an NGO working with local women in difficulties (domestic violence etc.)
Naryn was a necessary stop to get organised for the crossing-over to China via the Torurgart pass, but has nothing special to offer. Unfortunately, after the Israeli guy who initially wanted to share transport and costs for the expensive Torurgart crossing (400$ per car for up to 4 people) dropped out, I would finally be alone in the car, which is really stupid considering that I have written to at least 6 different agencies who organise these transfers to find someone to share within a certain range of days, but nothing... ! :-(
In my guest room in an old Soviet apartment block, which was quite ok and comfortable, I watched some traditional Kyrgyz television show, of which I just had to take some pictures (see photos). What was striking was not so much the folklore they showed, but the fact that almost nobody was ever smiling. All in all, it was quite entertaining. Anyway, do not really have anything better to do after my early dinner with Gulnira. ;-)
Photos of Naryn at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A65ejO17GoftLg
I also booked my homestay with CBT and specifically asked for a guest family with satellite TV which has the programme to watch the football semi-final Germany - Brazil. The very helpful guy at the office then really found one and when I arrived at their house, the guy had already put on "Russia 1", where they broadcasted some previous matches... Fine! But the match would only be at 3am at night... But when I got up in the middle of the night and switched on the TV, there was no football... I zapped through all channels... Nothing.... It turned out later that tonight's match was broadcast on "Russia 2"... :-( what a frustration!!! When arriving at the CBT-office in the morning to start my tour to Son Kul, the guides standing in front of the office (some of which inhale briefly met the day before) all welcomed me with a big smile and one of them said "Germaniya sem (7) - Brasiliya adin (1)!" And I started laughing as I really thought he was pulling my leg. But when I went online in the office, I realised it was the truth - unbelievable! And I have missed this great match, what a shame!!!
It took about two hours to get to the lake, which is at 3.016m, and is about 20km long. To get there, you go over a much higher pass, where there are still some patches of snow. All around the lake, there are green summer pastures, herds of sheep, goats, cows, horses everywhere and even a few yaks, nomads and yurts everywhere...
Staying with a nomad family in their guest yurt was an experience and it was interesting to observe - at least from the distance - one day in a nomad's life. A lot of activity with the animals in the morning and in the evening, but during the day, at least for the men, it was rather cool, while the women did the cooking and some housework, but they also enjoyed life, chatting with the women from the neighbouring yurts over a cup of tea, having a nap... The kids played and the men (but also some older kids) were playing a game called Narda, similar to backgammon, but with slightly simpler rules. It was fun to watch and soon they invited me to join. I played four games: one against the older nephew of the family, in his twenties, (game lost), one against the 16 year old daughter (game lost!) and two against the younger maybe twelve year old nephew (first game lost, second won!) ;-) I really had fun, sitting there in the sun, with a view in the lake and the mountains, and playing that game.... (Just forgot to out on my sunscreen and got a slight sunburn... ;-) ) Later, I went for a swim in the lake. Despite the whole theatre an Italian couple was having about how freezing cold the lake was, I have to say that it was actually not cold, at least close to the shore, as the lake is not very deep and the sun quite strong. What I really enjoyed was that it is quite silent up here, the only noises being the flies and the bees (and the mosquitoes, which were everywhere, very big and aggressive so I actually did not enjoy those...), the cows, sheep and horses, from time to time a bird and the wind. From time to time some bits of a conversation or a dog barking. Wonderfully relaxing (except for the mosquitoes, but fortunately, I had my "anti spray" ;-) ).
The not so nice thing was that the father of the family could barely walk straight when he came back from Kochkor with the purchases of the day, amongst them a quite fancy-looking new electricity storage / battery, with many different connections, to the happiness of the entire family as everyone seemed to find the right plug to charge their respective mobile phones. To me the father was friendly, but it seems his wife was not so happy to see hi in this state.
As soon as the sun set, it got quite cold and when we came out from the nicely heated yurt, where we had dinner. "We" included three Americans working for the US "peace corps", a government sponsored programme of volunteering, in Azerbaijan and who came here for holidays. On 4th July, I had already met about 15 peace corps volunteers in Karakol who were gathering there to celebrate Independence Day together. I have to admit that I had never heard about these peace corps before and so it was quite interesting to talk to those guys, two working in education and one in rural women's projects..
I was prepared for sleeping in a cold yurt, but I was positively surprised: the family also had put a fire in the little iron stove in my yurt and had already prepared my mattress, with 2 very heavy covers. I nevertheless added my sleeping bag, just to be sure I would not wake up during the night because I was cold.
Outside, there was a lot of noise, as the cows and the donkeys were not happy that they had to gather and were attached to a pole. It took a group of 5 men, one of them on a horse, a dog and later the support of all the women of the family, and quite a bit of time to get all the animals where they were supposed to be and it was quite a show... ;-) with animals and people running in all directions.. Really funny, actually, at least for me as an observer .. ;-)
I had a wonderfully relaxing sleep, without being cold and was woken up by the noise of the cows who probably wanted to be released from their poles. That was really early and I decided that I deserve a bit more sleep. Breakfast was at 9.00, just ok for me! ;-), and afterwards we left back to Kochkor as I still had to make it to Naryn.
Photos of Son Kul at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A65idkMwGYM9Ii
From Kochkor, I went by collective taxi to Naryn, where I had to do the formalities at the CBT-office to get to China the next day. The Director of CBT there is a young and dynamic woman called Gulnira. We talked a bit and she suggested to go for dinner that night with her colleague and a small group of other tourists. In the end, the group was delayed and her colleague had to wait for the group, so we went for dinner just the two of us. We had a very nice and interesting conversation. She has studied for a year with a scholarship in the US and has worked beforehand for an NGO working with local women in difficulties (domestic violence etc.)
Naryn was a necessary stop to get organised for the crossing-over to China via the Torurgart pass, but has nothing special to offer. Unfortunately, after the Israeli guy who initially wanted to share transport and costs for the expensive Torurgart crossing (400$ per car for up to 4 people) dropped out, I would finally be alone in the car, which is really stupid considering that I have written to at least 6 different agencies who organise these transfers to find someone to share within a certain range of days, but nothing... ! :-(
In my guest room in an old Soviet apartment block, which was quite ok and comfortable, I watched some traditional Kyrgyz television show, of which I just had to take some pictures (see photos). What was striking was not so much the folklore they showed, but the fact that almost nobody was ever smiling. All in all, it was quite entertaining. Anyway, do not really have anything better to do after my early dinner with Gulnira. ;-)
Photos of Naryn at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A65ejO17GoftLg
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