Grey Eyes and The First Jurt Stay

13th of September:

 

We are driving through the valley and pass several small villages. We try to get a Нан (Indian bread) but everybody is baking own bread. The only thing you can get is Wodka or Конфекты. In a bigger village we can get what we need. Although there is a lot of water in the river, the valley itself is just covered by grass and you can find some trees along te river. It is very dry which means that we also can get only a view vegetables. The valley gets wider and more desert like. Thanks to the Russian military maps and the few local people we met on the way we find the dirt road which will lead us to the 1500 m higher located Song Koel. We driving through the steppe and in front of us a mountain chain builds up. The entry to the valley which will lead us to the pass of the Song Koel looks like someone used a sword to cut it in the rocks. At the entry of the steep valley a guy from a farming house waves to come in. There we find two young families with there kids. We get the obligatory tea, marmalade, butter, Нан and finally Шорпо (Sheep Meat Soupe with potato and some spices). Some other guys join and they all have like grey eyes. I recognised this already with a lot of mans I met when I was asking for the way. Later I found out that the grey eyes come from heavy Vodka drinking. Anyway one of the young fathers Касен ask us if we can bring him, his wife and his small daughter to his house which is just a few kilometres more up the valley. Since we have not enough space we put the baby car and Касен at the roof of the car and his wife and daughter share the seat together with Kotomi. Before we leave I buy a Кумыз  from him and we climb up with the car to around 3000 m. It is getting cold and quite windy on top, the valley was still warm and green. After the highest point we drive through hilly grass covered landscape, from time to time a Jurt, a lot of horses and sheep. We can see the Song Koel (Koel stand for lake) already some while before we arrive there. We look for a place at the lake, it is windy and cold. A drunken man, again with grey eyes, comes to us and explains we better not stay here. We decide to go on and find a tourist Jurt camp for the night. The woman who runs the place is very nice and we decide to stay there. Compared to our tent which would e very cold at this windy place the Jurt is like heaven. It is filled with warm carpets, and since there are not many people we have one Jurt for us alone. On the carpets there are 4 colorfull samt mats, the same which are used when sitting around the table. The brother of the lovely woman heats up the oven with cow shit and it gets cozy and warm inside the Jurt. Kotomi is really happy and now she want to have a Banja and a Jurt when we are in Germany. It is really nice in such a Jurt, it feels very cozy and comfortable. The night cost per person 250 Som (60 Som is around 1 EUR). 

 

We decide to have a meal together with some other tourists from Germany, Swiss and Austria. Today’s meal is fried fish. Since long time we did not eat the fish and we are happy that meal is not only meat. After the meal everybody has to sing something. For the lovely woman and her mother it is not difficult to find a song. The Austrian guy sings a funny drinking song, the German some folklore song and Kotomi and I really can not remember a song completely what a shame. The translator of the tourist group explains us that such a Jurt cost around 1000 USD. From the money they make in the 6 month summer up here they bought last year a Jurt, since renting the Jurts from other people also cost them a lot of money. To bring all the things back to their village Куртка before the winter is approaching they have to hire a truck which cost them 10000 Som. Basically they combine the nomadic life with tourism. They still have their cows, sheep and horses. The horses you can rent for 100 Som/hour. (N 41.75747°, E 75.12183 °)