Welcome to Kyrgyzstan

6th of September:

 

At the Kyrgyz border post we have trouble with Kotomis passport as expected. They want from her a Visa, which she actually does not need. But after 5 mins we are in, the Custom is very friendly and helps to fill out everything. Basically he wants to chat; he just stood up from his bed when we came. At this border post not that much to do, which may make him bored and sleepy. Finally everybody want to have a present, Kimono, or Ikebana!?, or anything. The guy is hungry; so he gets some horse speck from me and everybody is happy. It is getting cold and windy in this height. Following a line upward with your eyes Green changes suddenly to White, green grass of the meadow until the LINE where the snow starts. Below there are some Jurts, cowboys and their herds. In this valley they mostly have these wagons instead of the Jurt. It is more modern, but some people told us later that it is much colder and less comfortable then in a Jurt.

 

Before it is getting dark we find a place 200 meter below the snow line which promises us a cold night.

(N 42.74661°, E 78.95669 °)

 

7th of September:

 

The day before we made the camp on Nuriks ground close to a small river. He has its wagon and his animals 100 m above us.  In the morning he visit us and we have a short chat. He tells me that he as an average salary of 200 USD/month and with the money we bought our Landruiser he could be trunken 100 years he says. Nevertheless he likes his job in this nature where he stay from may until end of September, with his horses, cows and sheep. In the winter time he will go down to his village close to the lake Issyk-Koel. Koel means lake in Kyrgyz, in Kazakh it was Kol.

 

We driving through the valley in the direction of Issyk-Koel, at a check point we have to pay a fee of 500 Som (ca. 9 EUR) to enter a National Park with our car. We take a mountain route to go to Karakol, the next bigger town. This time the herders mostly live in Jurts. We meet the first herders with the traditional cap siiting proud on their horses and bringing back the sheep herd to the village.

 

In Karakol we are getting a new SIM card and some money. This time the money is called Som. It reminds me at a collegue from universitty whos abbrevation was always Som. Everything feels a little bit more like in Russia. We decide to drive around the lake at its North side. There we meet a Japanese who is biking from China to Europe. It seems he is not in the mood for a conversation and his travel is more a challenge or an escape from something in Japan we think. No need for any contact with locals or other people. But maybe we are not right!

 

We find again a wonderful camp side directly at the sandy beach between the snow capped mountains of the Altau in the north and the Tian Chan in the South. We are surounded by sanddorn which will be our Vitamine C supply for the next months in Central Asia, where we could find it very often.

 

(N 42.68808°, E 77.65602 °)

 

 

8th of September:

 

We are driving along the North side of the lake. New buildings, hotels and advertisement for hyper modern luxury houses which will be build along the way. In between traditional villages, donkeys, and grandmothers selling the vegetables from the garden. After the lake we have to drive through a wide valley/canyon on our way to Bischkek. We just sleep some kilometers before Bischkek.  (N 42.89255°, E 74.81908 °)