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For the first couple of weeks of the summer of 2012, Robyn and Zoë headed to Australia to visit Robyn's mom, and I headed to Kyrgzstan with Dave to travel.
Kyrgzstan was a great place to travel. Easy, cheap, friendly and beautiful. 94% of the country is covered by mountains. We saw almost no tourists in the two weeks we were there (less than 20 for sure.).
We flew into Almaty (in Kazakhstan), took a 4 hour shared taxi ride to the capital of Kyrgzstan (Bishkek) and then visited Karakol (for trekking) and Song Kol (for horse trekking.)
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The Kyrgz people seem rather ambivalent about the recent USSR. There are still lots of Soviet statues around. |
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A day hike just 45 minutes from the center of Bishkek. |
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Crossing a sketchy stream on our day hike. |
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We were lucky to catch a game of "buzkatshi" at the national stadium in Bishkek. I've been trying to see this game for years. Basically it's horse polo using the carcass of a goat. In this picture, you can see the goat being tossed into the ring the serves as an end zone. |
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The selection of cheese is not the best, but there is always a lot of choices in the vodka section! |
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Dave and I hiked up, and camped in, Karakol valley. We found an awesome spot and Dave was a real boy scout at fire starting! |
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I was the 3rd person of the year to hike over the Ala-Ko pass near Karakol. This was my campsite at 11 thousand feet above the frozen Ala-Ko lake. |
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The snow at the top of the pass was deep! I frequently sunk in up to my crotch - it was exhausting! Despite the snow, it was actually warm outside and a beautiful day. |
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On the other side of the pass, I met up with Dave, who had hiked and driven around the pass. This valley had some great hot springs. |
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Some disused logging equipment we encountered hiking out of the Arashan valley. |
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Duck tape is miracle stuff! Here Dave used it to doctor up some blisters and hotspots. |
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This animal market near Kachkor was as entertaining for it's people as it was for it's animals. It was a huge market without a single other tourist- pretty typical for Kyrgzstan |
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Our yurt stay for the first night of our 3 day horse trek. The yurts belonged to the family of our guide. |
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The scenery in central Kyrgzstan was very different but also beautiful, lots of open rolling hills. |
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My horse was very slow! I often walked it when I got tired of being on a horse. |
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Morning time was a hive of activity at our first yurt stay. 1) Milking the animals.... |
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2) slaughtering this goat right in front of our yurt - 20 minutes prior to this picture this goat was alive and well... |
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3) and making butter ( the fresh butter and bread was so good!). This was the mother of our guide. Like many of the older Kyrgz women we encountered, she was very warm and friendly. |
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For some reason Dave's horse would just periodically stop in the middle of nowhere! It also was some reason compelled to stop and sniff every turd it encountered! |
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Descending into Song Kol lake after crossing a pass. |
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Our stay at Song Kol lake at 9000 feet was sunny when we arrived (picture left), but it snowed over night, creating a beautiful landscape for the morning. |
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Dave and I often passed our downtime playing yahtzee, cards and reading. The beer in Kyrgzstan was surprisingly good! |
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