Kyrgystan travel info

Uzbekistan- Kyrgyzstan: 25 days - august  2004

• INTRO ABOUT KYRGYZSTAN

• THE TRAVEL IN KYRGYZSTAN (Conclusions)

• PHOTOS OF KYRGYZSTAN

• FUNNY STORIES

• TIPS

• KOCHKOR (SONG KUL)

• PRINTABLE FORMAT

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INTRO ABOUT KYRGYZSTAN

Kind of travel:
alone in a wholly independent travel

When:
july- august 2004 (25 days)

How I moved (in Kyrgyzstan):
mainly by bus, minibus (marshrutmyy), jeep, shared taxi and (I cheated) flying

Where I slept:
in cheap guesthouses/hotels (5-20$), in yurts and private houses contacted through Shepherd's life and Community Based Tourism (CBT) associations

What I liked:
staying in the yurts in Song Kul, the mongolian lineaments of the people, the colorful lada cars, the wonderful mountains, how fresh it's also in summer and the whole country still to be discovered

THE TRAVEL (common part for Uzbekistan and Kyrgystan pages)

Why in Central Asia?

Since my travel in Iran in the 2000, that part of world south of Siberia and encompassed between the Caspian Sea and China, in my mind has always been a mysterious jigsaw of countries rarely mentioned. I'm not speaking about pure desert, but about an area as big as Europe containing a meaningful percentage of the world energy resources, exactly as it happens for most of Africa.
However what definitely attracted me was the curiosity about which kind of ethnic groups live there, if exists and where is the "ethnic border" between Asia and Europe. Travelling in Iran let me to focus the southern border of this area, while being in Russia the northern one.
Once chosen the Central Asia as target I realised it's really huge and it hasn't been easy to select which among the five "stans" was worth to be visited. The must was not more than two countries for my 25 days trip. Turkmenistan seems too hassling to get the visa and travel freely throughout the country, furthermore too hot in summer, and baking my brain definitely is not my passion.
Kazakhstan is hot as well and a lot of people warned me as the least interesting among the stans. Uzbekistan was a kind of must to be seen and Kyrgyzstan seemed to fit better with travelling by public means of transport than Tagikistan. Hence there I ended up!

IMPRESSIONS ABOUT KYRGYZSTAN AND KYRGYZ

"The Laos of Central Asia", this is how I'd define this small forgotten country plunged among the Tian Shan mountains. For sure it's not its history or its culture that led you there and once back nor Bishkek, nor Osh will belong to your memories. What can push you there is the curiosity to explore the wildlife and how the inhabitants manage to live in this tough land. In short I think that Kyrgyzstan is more a target for travellers than for tourists.
I spent some wonderful days living in a yurt of the summer herders at 3000m near the lake Song Kul. Washing in the lake, riding horses (or better trying), speaking with the people in such relaxed atmosphere made me feel like on another planet.
Although it's very mountainous it's possible to travel by public means of transport; connecting the main towns there're comfortable buses, while coloured "marshrutnyy" (minivan) go almost everywhere. Obviously it takes times and Kyrgyzstan, unlike Uzbekistan, it's not the right place for a few days trip. What more charmed me was to see the change in the lineaments of the people passing from Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan; from a not identified strange ethnic mix like it's in the first country to a clear mongolian appearance in the last one.
The whole country, more than the neighbouring Uzbekistan, preserves a russian influence and also the attitude of the people in the main towns sometimes is close to the russian roughness; you'll feel it in particular coming from Uzbekistan.
Apart from the irritating police in Bishkek and the drunks walking in the evening I've not had any particular problem, as anyway in the whole trip in Central Asia.

ITINERARY IN KYRGYSTAN

[In Uzbekistan]

I entered in Kyrgyzstan from Fergana Valley sleeping my first kyrgyz night in the supersoviet and "really not uzbek" city of Osh.
From here I was to lazy to spend 15 hours on a bumping jeep to get to Bishkek and, shame on me, I flew: 40$ for 1 hour flight plus the wonderful view of the mountains: sorry but I think I'd do it again!!
My primary task in the kyrgyz capital was to get the kasakh transit visa. I got immediately disappointed knowing that on wensday the embassy was closed and 2 whole days were necessary to have it. Obviously I arrived at the embassy on Tuesday just after it had closed.
No way to wait four days for it, " I'll get it in the way back!". Then I left by minibus to Kochkor. 6 hours packed in a super uncomfortable kind of tonne can, moreover later I found out I didn't paid so much less than taking a faster shared taxi. Just to make my travel better, the road snakes at the feet of the mountains and the driver probably was feeling like Schumacher :-) so I spent part of the travel trying to avoid to throw up on the people around me!
Kochkor is a small town, but I found it more than a starting point for the trip to the Tien Shan mountains. Luckily I found a so nice danish guy, known to weeks before in Samarcanda, who was leaving for 3 days trip to the lake Song Kol sleeping the the yurt of the herders at 3000 meter. To share the expenses of the jeep I joined the group (him and some other travellers) and at the end such trip turned out the most interesting experience of the whole travel.(read about it)
Back to Kochkor I reached Karakol by minibus in 7 hours; there I hang around for two days visiting the animal market and the crowded beaches of the lake Issuk Kul. It was time to start my way back to Tashkent: I got to Bishkek where I freaked out for 3 days to have my kazakh transit visa but enjoying a lot to stay at Sabyrbek's B&B guesthouse with nice family of the owner!
Then by bus I entered in Kazakhstan and I stopped in Shymkent. After wandering in the town for few hours I easily got in Tashkent where I spent my last afternoon at a water entertaiment park relaxing and trying to gather thousands of impressions of my last month through Central Asia.

CONCLUSIONS

I loved Kyrgyzstan, and it's one of the rare countries where I would come back, maybe taking the chance to travel to Tajikistan.
What I liked mainly was the simplicity of the country and also how much it is still to be discovered. If you haven't planned particular excursions or climbs, 15 days it's an enough amount of time for visiting the country. You don't need special organisations: on the main ways there're many public means of transport and meanwhile so few tourists around.
Kyrgyzstan is definitely a place for people fond of the mountains or generally speaking of the nature, but not only. In fact how the locals manage to live in the mountains was one of the things that mainly charmed me. The days in the yurt near the lake Song kul observing the people living there were amazing. Moreover entering in Kyrgyzstan I felt entering in Asia, due to the mongolian-like lineaments of the people who looked so exotic to me: if you are a traveller hardly you'll get disappointed.

Alby