Did you know that 7% of Kyrgyzstan is aerable land (that is not how I wanted to spell that at all, but I let my phone win this round), which means the remaining 93% is mountains. That is a heck of a lot of mountains! But thetwinsontour decided they were tired of the non-drowsy Dramamine making them drowsy all day.  So in our infinite wisdom on a 6 hour travel day, we skipped the Dramamine.

The day started out ok. We left Bishkek at 9am and headed towards the yurt camp at Son Kul Lake way, way up in the mountains.  The roads are pretty good out of the Bishkek, and we even got to drive through Kazakhstan for about 77 seconds because that’s where the road goes. Apparently, the borders and road locations did not matter during the Soviet Union time, and then after the fall of the Soviet Union, they just left it.  You can tell you are in Kazakhstan because there is barbed wire along the road. And then there’s no barbed wire, so you are back in Kyrgyzstan.  So that was super exciting. I don’t think I am going to add Kazakhstan to my list of visited countries just yet, though. My phone did not even send me a welcome to Kazakhstan message, so that was a little disappointing. Once again, we are being teased with these nearby countries that are just out of our grasp.

Anyways, after about three hours we stopped for lunch.  That is where we transferred to the smaller mini busses necessary to traverse the unpaved roads through the mountains. The roads were actually fairly straight with only a couple of switchbacks.  It’s not necessarily the winding that is the issue, it’s the road quality for sure.  But, let me tell you this, the views were breathtakingly beautiful. It’s hard to get pictures out the bus window due to the shaking.  You know when you played London Bridge as a kid and you got shook up like salt and pepper.  That’s what the roads do–shake you up like salt and pepper.  My head was just bouncing all over the place. The last hour I just had to close my eyes, breathe deep, and pray for the drive to be over.  

Oh, did I mention that we stopped at a scenic overlook and there were YAKS! Yes! There were YAKS! I’ve never been so excited! I guess it was actually supposed to be potty stop at a smelly outhouse, but we were so distracted by the YAKS that we did not realize the actual purpose of the stop.

Now, to answer the question on everyone’s mind, yes, the trip was worth it! Our final destination was a YURT camp on the edge of Son Kul Lake. A real live actual YURT! We got to sleep in our very own YURT! We didn’t even have a toilet, just 4 beds, a chest, a stove, and a little sink similar to what you see at swanky porta-potties. That’s it! The toilets and showers were in another building.

It was after 6 by the time we arrived and dinner was at 7, so that left us with very little free time. We started walking towards the lake, but got distracted by taking photos of cows. So, we had to turn around before we made it to the edge of the lake (really anywhere near the shore.)

So, what is it like sleeping in a YURT? Well, there is limited electricity. There is one light bulb. That is powered from 7pm to 11 pm. Then again at 7:30 in the morning until I don’t know how long. And, you are at elevation, so brrrrrr is it cold! There is a little stove that they heat up for you, but once that burns up all the charcoal, the heat does not linger. They light it at 8pm and then again at 11pm.  However, our guide said that some people have said that it makes it feel like you are sleeping inside a sauna, so when they came around at 11pm my sister sent them away. I think it was mostly because she did not want to get out of bed to open the door. It was still nice and toasty inside.  

I was really trying hard not to have to wake up and pee in the middle of the night because as I said, the toilets are in a separate building.  I woke up at 1:45 and said, I can hold it.  However, at 3:45 that was not an option.  I was nice and toasty under the covers, but I  put on my sneakers, hoodie, and winter coat by the light of my trusty little flashlight and headed outside to the toilet.  I was wearing my Cuddle Duds under my capri pajama pants. I was going to be fast so I didn’t see the point to putting my jeans on too. 

I stepped outside, and the sky was packed with stars. It was amazing. Once I stepped out of the bathroom, I started trying to get star pictures, but I couldn’t hold still enough no matter how long I held my breath.  Luckily, I remembered to bring my selfie stick/tripod along with me.  I went back into the yurt to get it. By then, my sister was awake, so she got up to pee/stargaze too. We had tried to stargaze before we went to bed, but it had been too cloudy to see anything then. No way were we missing out on this celestial wonder just because it was 4 am.

There was no wind, so I was quite comfortable outside in my Cuddle Dud/pajama pant combo. Long story short (or is it short story long by this point?) an hour later I had gone to the bathroom twice, taken a bunch of star pictures and was ready to go back to bed.  

It didn’t feel too terribly cold back in the yurt, but maybe that is because I had just spent an hour outside amongst the stars. I did however keep my hoodie on when I got back into bed.  By 7am when we woke up, it felt like a refrigerator inside the yurt. I think it was colder inside the yurt than outside. 

So there you have it! Our yurt adventure!

Love,

thetwinsontour

Today we went to Ala Archa National Park, which is only about an hour outside of Bishkek, so there were lots of tourists there.  It’s in the mountains, so some people were backpacking up to the glaciers, but not us.  We stuck to the very nice asphalt trail. Unfortunately, I did not spot any snow leopards. The sign with pictures of all of the different wildlife in the park included snow leopard, so I was very hopefual to spot a few despite missing that one key item necessary for snow leopards, which is snow. I’d have also been happy with a Siberian Ibex or a Himalayan Marmot or a Pika.  But nothing! Not even a Red Squirrel.  At least the mountains were beautiful and the river was noisy. Got some good photos, too. That’s the second most important part after snow leopards–photos for the Instagram. 

We spent a little less than two hours at the park because that’s all the time you need to walk on the paved trail. Then we headed back to town for lunch. Coincidentally, it was another branch of the same restaurant we ate at yesterday in the mall and also where we had the smorgasbord of dessert during our food tour. So, we ate at the same restaurant 3 days in a row. The restaurant is actually an Uzbek restaurant.

We  also walked around for a brief city tour, and we saw a couple of statues that we hadn’t seen yet, so that was exciting. Then, we wandered around the Kyrgyzstan History Museum. It’s pretty nice with all of the artifacts you would expect to see in a history museum. The thing that was the most fascinating was a wooden horse saddle from like the 8th century. That thing did not look comfortable at all.

We were just exhausted by the end of the day, and still full from lunch, so we just grabbed a tasty yogurt from the grocery store for dinner. That about sums up our day.

Love,

thetwinsontour

So, this is absolutely amazing! Day 2 of the trip and we aren’t even behind on the blog! Yet…..

Today we were left to our own devices and had no pre-made plans. Our “old people bus tour” doesn’t start until the welcome dinner at 5:30 pm. So, what to do, what to do…. Our tour guide nicely suggested on the tour board to walk to the Philharmonic building. We thought, well, why not? Just because we saw it yesterday is no reason to not go today! After carefully studying the map, we charged out of the hotel at 9:44 am. We turned to the right and started walking and walking and walking. It was supposed to be about a 10-minute walk. You all do know that I am directionally challenged, right? Well, after about 20 minutes of walking, we decided that maybe we weren’t headed in the right direction after all… So, we turned around and headed back towards the hotel (which was a great plan because I needed to use the facilities….). It sure did look like it was to the right on the Google maps. I heard Google maps does not work so great in Kyrgyzstan, so it probably was faulty Google directions.

Once we were headed in the correct direction, we made it to the Philharmonic in record time. And, you know what? It looks exactly like it did yesterday. We wandered around. Snapped some pictures. Took some selfies. Nothing too exciting. The sun was fierce today, so unfortunately, most of my selfies feature a fierce scowl as I was clenching my eyes tight to avoid getting blinded by the blazing sun.

After all this excitement, we headed for the mall. Again, nothing too exciting. But it is walking distance from the hotel and the Philharmonic. It is interesting to me the stores that are there–Levi’s, Crocs, Skechers… And a lot of cafes and places to eat. And the place was packed! On a Tuesday morning! We wandered around for a while and then realized we were starving.  We decided to eat ate at a popular local restaurant there at the mall because 1. it was another branch of the restaurant where we had our yummy smorgasbord of dessert last night and 2. they had beautiful high-backed benches with local textiles that are just begging for Instagram photos. It was great! Someone amongst us got beet salad. (That wasn’t me.) I went for Shorpo, which the menu declared to be “one of the most favorite first dishes in Central Asia!” Who am I to argue with Central Asia? It was a rich amber broth with lamb, potatoes, and carrots. (The menu description left out the Oxford comma in that description, so I have kindly added it back in for all of you grammatical purists out there!) Anyways, we can talk grammar later. Let’s talk soup! Once I fished the lamb out of the soup, cut it into bite-sized pieces, peeled the layers of fat off, and added it back to my soup, it was really quite delicious! Look at me–eating like a local! Well, kind of. I did have Coca-Cola instead of tea. But I am an avid Coca-Cola travel drinker. Interesting tidbit here, we had little glass bottles of Coke ,33 liters (yes I put a comma instead of a period because that is the way the rest of the world, including Kyrgyzstan, does it.) The little bottles were 125 som, which is about $1.47 at the current rate. Then I broke my own personal rule and ordered a second Coke. This time, he brought me a ,5 liter plastic bottle, and it was only 95 som or $1.12.   The big Coke is a lot cheaper!

Now, I am just sitting in the park right next to my hotel, writing out my heart for you to read. Somehow, not going anywhere or doing anything, I managed to get 16,000 steps in today! That’s more steps than I get in on a good treadmill work day! But, my butt is starting to go numb, and my legs are losing feeling. This is really not a comfortable bench. So, that is all ya’ll are getting from the depths of my soul today.

Thetwinsontour in Kyrgyzstan

Ps. Follow up to yesterday’s post, actual taxis do exist. We saw a taxi stand outside the mall and a handful on the streets. 

After over 26 hours of travel, we made it to Kyrgyzstan at about 5 am this morning. Note to self, fly Emirates whenever possible because they have the most categories of movies that I have ever seen on an airplane.  We are talking Español (España) and Español (Latinoamerica). I watched three movies in Spanish.  If that’s not enough to convince you to fly Emirates, then the Dolly Parton Playlist will surely convince you.  Also, while the airplane food tastes like airplane food, it does not taste like little cans of Vienna Sausages. 

We booked these flights by ourselves instead of through the tour company, so there was no one waiting at the airport for us which was unfortunate.  While walking around the airport looking for an ATM, we were approached by a million Taxi drivers, but everyone knows you aren’t supposed to get a taxi that way.  You are supposed to follow the clearly painted signs on the floor that say Taxi and get a respectable Taxi from the queue of Taxis outside.  Except they don’t know this in Kyrgyzstan.  You go outside and there is no queue of Taxis, just another shady Taxi driver asking if you want a taxi.  So I told him where we were going, and he said $2,000 som, which is about $25.  He takes my bag and proceeds to walk across the parking lot towards the exit of the airport parking lot, which I was not crazy about. That was when I noticed he was wearing flip flops! I remembered our tour guide in Vietnam saying that is how you know the Taxi Mafia from the respectable Taxi drivers. Flip flops was the last straw. So I ran up and told him we weren’t going with him and grabbed my bag. I don’t know if that tell really applies in Kyrgyzstan, but I wasn’t taking any chances. 

Once you exit the airport building, you have to go through security to get back inside. So I just asked the security guard there where I could find a safe Taxi.  He turns around and shouts to one of the prowling Taxi drivers to come drive us.  Of course, this guy wouldn’t go a penny under 3,000 som once he found out the fancy hotel we are staying in.  And you know what, he had no taxi sign, taxi radio, or taxi identification either. But appeantly this is the way it is done.  And the security guard found him for us. I guess just whoever has a car and some free time at 5am heads to the airport and plays taxi driver. Long story short, we survived just fine.  Interesting to note, his Nissan had power windows on the front doors and manual windows in the backseat. I think this is so that your dog can’t roll down the windows like Artichoke does if I forget to put the lock on the windows.

We ate breakfast, took showers, and then a restorative three hour nap. They say you are not supposed to take a nap when you arrive at your destination, but “they” are idiots. Anyways, we had booked a 4 hour food tour of Bishkek (accidentally for tomorrow, but they were able to squeeze us in today).  So we did a little city tour to see some of the landmarks, which we will probably see again when our main tour starts, but it’s all good.  And then we had traditional Kyrgz foods.  I ate too much!  We had some fried bread called Kattama. It’s a flat, flaky, fried bread that has onions, chives, and cheese in it. Needless to say, it’s delicious. It’s also served with a bowl of cream (sour cream) that you are supposed to dip it in. I wasn’t sure why, or if I enjoyed the cream, but I just went with it.  

We went to a very busy Kyrgz restaurant and had a meal of Guro Lagman.  It’s pretty good. It’s little pieces of beef, green peppers, and red peppers on a bed of noodles that look like spaghetti but is not spaghetti. Needless to say, this too was delicious!

Then, to top it all off, we had a huge platter of desserts! We had some baklava, something with a similar consistency to fudge, something that tastes kind of like fried wontons nachos topped with cream, walnuts, funny looking raisins, and poppy seeds. We also had an assortment of nuts, and yummy local honey that you can dip the fried wonton thingies from the bottom of the stack of stuff in.  We were not able to eat it all, but we made a valient effort! And we brought home the nuts and fudge things for a midnight snack. 

The only other thing to note here is that we drank more tea today than we have ever drunk in our entire lives. A bowl of tea with the fried bread and multiple bowls of green tea with dessert.  Green tea is almost palatable when you take a stick of rock candy and swirl it around in there like a proper Kyrgyzstan person (I really don’t know the proper word for them. Kyrgyzstani? Kyrgz?)

That’s it for now!

Love,

thetwinsontour