Karakol

Day 16 - From Bishkek to Karakol "adventure capital of Kyrgyzstan"

Today kicked off at 9.30 with packing for checkout. I decided to cancel the flight from Dushanbe to Almaty as I knew it was going to be one big rush to get to Dushanbe on time, not to mention spending the visa expense and not even getting much time out of it.

After paying the outstanding balance and chatting to Nurlan, I bid farewell and walked over to the western bus station. Before I even arrived, there was already a row of parked shares taxis yelling out destination names. I decided to go with one of these for 500 som, for a 5-hour drive.

Some spectacular views of lake Issyk Kul after Cholpon Ata and of course the white peaked mountains in the distance.

Karakol

The shared taxi driver was nice enough to drop me off at the hostel and I promptly checked in. I was sharing traditional looking yurt with a couple of Austrian girls. I couldn't hang around for too long as that journey made me ravish so I went to a local restaurant. There I ordered a Lagman soup and it turned out I was sitting adjacent to a couple of Polish hikers. I spoke to them in Polish and after their initial shock and surprise, they invited me over to their table and ordered vodka for the occasion. We demolished that bottle pretty quickly in addition to a couple of beers and left at 11 pm when the venue was closing.

When I got back to duet hostel I actually walked into the wrong yurt where it took my drunk self a good few minutes to work out that I don’t know these people sleeping there and my stuff is missing.

Day 17 - Don’t drink Kyrgyz vodka

Feeling pretty seedy this morning, I decided to stroll around the small town and see whatever is worth checking out. The wooden Dungan mosque was pretty cool, a bit Chinese or even Buddhist in design which was unusual.

Exploring Karakol

I briefly checked out the tourism office and went to Fat Cat coffee for a coffee with last night’s drinking buddies. It is advertised to be the best coffee in town and to be fair, the Turkish coffee played its role in quelling the head-splitting hangover I was still experiencing.

Afterward, we all checked out the wooden orthodox cathedral and then parted ways as I went to the bazaar. The Holy Trinity Cathedral is one of the most popular and stand-out attractions of Karakol. It was built in 1869, when Karakol was a garrison settlement for the Tsarist army. More on that here.

In the afternoon it got so windy to a point where a light dust storm was pretty much whirling through town. I tried to hide from the wind and went to check out what I think was a derelict Soviet-era radio or tv station. For dinner today, I treated myself to another serving of Lagman, though this time at Cafe Dugbe (I think that what it was called), which had more of a middle eastern feel than the Kyrgyz style place from last night. Upon leaving it started to rain, heavily. Luckily a very friendly Russian passerby pulled over and gave me a lift to the hostel. I made plans for the next few days with the same German backpackers whose yurt I drunkenly entered last night.

Day 18 - Horse riding like a nomad

This morning was freezing and very cold for this time of the year and snowed for a good couple of hours. For a while, it looked like I would be staying indoors today. However sooner than expected, the clouds cleared up so I and the two Germans next door booked a horse trek today at Bulak Say Horseback and Trekking, which is located in a suburb of Karakol/village called Zholgot.

After a short bus ride followed by a 20 min brisk uphill walk, we turned up at an abandoned looking stable. We saw quite a few random cows strolling around and a few small kids looking at us suspiciously. We waited for a few minutes when a man showed up on a horse and introduced himself as Joki. After the brief formalities and advising him that none of us have horse riding experience, we hopped on our horses and followed Joki to the trail.

My horse was the most unruly of the bunch and a couple of times decided to go on a completely different direction. After coming to fetch me and the horse, Joki gave me a small whip and taught me how to use it. From then on things were much easier and my horse was, in fact, the quickest of the bunch. In two hours trotting through the valley, we turned up at a big hill with spectacular views of surrounding mountains and some farms.

Return to Karakol

The horse trek back took a bit of getting used to from a comfort perspective. I found myself literally bouncing on the horse as it was prancing very quickly downhill. After Joni’s horse kicked him off, I became the lead horse rider and led everybody back to the stable. We got back in just under 2 hours, met the owner's wife, paid the horse riding fee and were on our way back to town.

I shared a couple of beers with Nico and called it a night.

Next: Altyn Arashan valley