Today we were supposed to go to the mountains and see a beautiful gorge. However, the weather had other ideas. It was raining in the mountains, which can cause mud slides on the roads, making it impossible for the bus to pass. Also, rain tends to ruin the photos and make hiking extremely unpleasant. So, we had to skip the gorge and just go straight to lunch. Lunch was at a guest house owned by a Dutch lady. She was at home in the Netherlands because she went to the Olympics to watch her son compete with the Dutch rowing team. The property was filled with fruit trees, so we had lots of fresh fruit with lunch, including some plums that were shaped more like pears. We may have also eaten some fresh fruit directly off the trees. 

After this delightful lunch, we were off to our resort on Issyk-Kul Lake. Evidently, we should have packed our swimsuits for going to the beach or the covered swimming pool. Oops. Anyways, some brief facts about Issyk-Kul Lake. It is the 2nd largest mountain lake–after Lake Titicaca. How cool is it that I have now been to the 2 biggest Alpine Lakes in the world, neither of which are in The Alps? Anyways, Issyk-Kul means “Hot Lake.” Do not think this means that the water is hot–it is frigid. It refers to the fact that this lake doesn’t freeze over in the winter due to its size and depth. It is also Top 7 for deepest lakes. So, basically, that means that they will never film an episode of Ice Road Truckers here. It’s about 600 km to drive all the way around it. That’s enough facts–if you need more facts about the lake, Wikipedia is your friend.

We decided to walk down to the beach and have a little looky-look around. It’s a long walk from our room to the beach, and nearly the entire path is lined with rose bushes.  Roses of every color, shape, and size. And they were all in full bloom. We may have gotten a little sidetracked from our original goal by taking picture after picture of the stunning roses. I may be currently planning my future rose garden in that front flowerbed that we currently just grow weeds and irises that never bloom in. 

Remember how we got rained out of going to the gorge? Well, it wasn’t raining when we started our trek, but the lake was tumultuous. Today was also the first day of school in Kyrgyzstan, so there were no families vacationing at the beach.  We mostly had the place to ourselves. The resort has the most amazing pier with little offshoots on the side with picnic tables or lounge chairs so you can enjoy the breathtaking view of the lake and mountains in the distance. Each little extension has several ladders for getting in and out of the lake. Unfortunately, I did not know to bring my swimsuit for polar plunge opportunities, but the lake looked rather ominous anyway. And then it started to sprinkle, so we had to hurry back to our room, ruining our plan to stop and smell the roses on the other side of the street. Darn rain!

The next morning we went to the Petroglyph Museum.  This is really just a giant field of rocks with a bunch of Petroglyphs on them. Luckily, the good ones are marked with blue signs so you can see them.  Otherwise, I’d never be able to find most of them. Our guide gave us 45 minutes and said that’s enough time for most people. As you know, thetwinsontour are not most people. I was rushed! I told him that 3-4 hours would not be enough time.  He laughed! But it is very true! We barely scratched the surface of the Petroglyphs that were flagged, let alone discover any on our own.  The signs said the Petroglyphs were from the 7th to 3rd century BC. So pretty darn old.  Our guide said that he’s not sure of the accuracy of this because the museum was founded during Soviet times when scientists used science to prove what they wanted to prove and what was convenient to them. Regardless of the exact age, it is still amazing to see these rock paintings.

We also went to this weird cultural center with lots of statues and well manicured grass.  But it did have a beautiful view of the lake with the snow-covered mountains in the distance. When the skies are clear and the sun is shining, the view is breathtaking. Luckily, we had clear skies and a shining sun.  

Then it was back to the resort for the afternoon. Due to the aforementioned clear skies and shining sun, we were able to walk along the beach and dip our feet in the water. The water can best be described as frigid. The water was much calmer and bluer rather than the angry brown of the day before.  

thetwinsontour decided to treat themselves to a fancy ice cream from the stand they had seen the day before.  Alas, the ice cream stand was closed  ruining all of our plans for a refreshingly decadent ice cream concoction. Summer is officially over at the beach since all of the kids went back to school. But thetwinsontour will not be deterred! There is boring ice cream at the smoothie place! With the help of Google translate, we were able to get a scoop of banana flavored ice cream. It’s not Blue Bunny ice cream that my momma stock piles, but the flavor was unique.

After that we had an evening cruise on Lake Issyk-Kul with more of the same view we have been enjoying all day. It was exactly 1 hour, and sadly we were back on the bus before sunset. The cruise would have been spectacular at sunset.

Perhaps the most pressing emergency faced by thetwinsontour during these two laid back days is toilet paper, or as they call it across the pond, loo rolls (sorry, just watched a British movie). You see, there was no extra roll in the bathroom, just the one on the holder. While it rivals Charmin in quality, it was not a mega roll. Luckily, on the first night we spied a few extra rolls in the baby bed out in the hallway. There was also a microwave in the baby bed. So I stealthily snuck out to pilfer an extra roll. Little did I know, I should have taken two rolls.  You see, housekeeping skipped our room! We just thought they came late in the day because at our hotel in Bishkek they never cleaned the rooms until after 5:30. Mind boggling, right?  After rationing our toilet paper usage all day, we found out that they weren’t late and that they had just skipped us! What trials and tribulations we face! I may have contemplated stealing a roll from the hotel restaurant bathroom, but they were the industrial size and would not have fit under my shirt. What a dilemma! We told our guide that we needed TP, so at 10pm when I had just about given up hope, we had a TP delivery! Hallelujah! We can pee without worry! Oh and they also had to unlock our safe where our passports and money were very safely esconsced.

After working so hard for our toilet paper, you better believe we took it with us to avoid a repeat situation!

That might be too much information, but the world comes to a halt without toilet paper, and thetwinsontour are no exception.

Love,

thetwinsontour

How is it September already? It’s our birthday month! So what treats are in store for thetwinsontour today? Spoiler alert, we did not see a snow leopard.

We are in Karakol, which is a very international city. People from everywhere live here.  We started the morning by visiting the Russian Orthodox Church–a beautiful wooden church with gorgeous flowers outside.  The inside is rather unremarkable, and they don’t allow photos. Women are required to cover their heads, which we have never experienced in an Orthodox Church before. Today is Sunday, so the place was swarming with people, and the service was taking place. I don’t know how old the actual building is because, of course, it was destroyed by fire a couple of times. During the Soviet Union times, it was used as a school or sports club or something.

Next up was the Dungan Mosque. The Dungans may be the most interesting group of people here.  Long ago, Arab traders in China married local Chinese women. They kept their Muslim religion, but everything else is Chinese. They speak Dungan, which is Chinese with some Arabic words. I guess it is like speaking Spanglish.

Anyways, in about the 1870s, the Dungans started fleeing China through the mountains and they ended up in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan.  So the mosque that we went to actually just looks like a Chinese temple with a curved wooden roof, bright colors, and intricately carved wooden details.  It was built in 1905. The people that built it would have never seen an actual mosque, so they just built what they knew. So there you have it, a concise and extremely accurate history of the Dungan people. 

While I am on the subject, we also ate dinner at a Dungan house.  Obviously, the food was a variation of Chinese food with steamed dumplings and hot pot. Also mushroom soup, which anyone who knows thetwinsontour, knows that we did not eat. thetwinsontour avoid eating fungus!

Next up was the Przhevalsky museum.  Apparently, lots of people know all about him. thetwinsontour can now count themselves amongst these people. Most people know him for his “discovery” of the Przhevalsky horse, a wild horse that can not be tamed. There are very few left in the wild, but Mongolia is working on releasing some into the wild.  More importantly, Przhevalsky mapped most of South Central Asia during the 1860s and 1870s. His goal was always to get to Tibet, but the Dali Lama would not give permission for a non-Buddhist to enter the holy city.  At the beginning of his 5th and final tour, he drank some mountain water and got a stomach ache. I think you can see where this is going.  He thought it was just a stomach bug, so he did not go to the doctor. He died shortly thereafter of typhoid and wanted to be buried on the shore of Issyk Kul Lake. Hence, the museum in Karakol next to his tomb on the shore of the lake. Aren’t you astounded by our newly acquired knowledge of Przhevalsky?

This is a really busy day because we also went to a farm for lunch. Need to keep this brief, so I will just say that we saw some giant sheep with big, floppy tumor looking things growing out their rumps that I don’t remember the name of. They are raised for meat, so bigger is better. The most expensive of these sheep sold for $200,000 USD. That’s an expensive sheep! The regular ones can sell for $30k USD. Since they are so valuable as breeding sheep, I’m not sure which ones they eat.  Luckily, we did not have any mutton for lunch.

Also, while we were there, we watched the farm staff play some traditional Kyrgz horse games. Basically, it was polo, but with a “sheep carcass” that they tried to keep away from each other and drop it in a goal. It was pretty fun to watch, but there was so much dust flying around that at times it was hard to see anything.

I think that pretty much sums up the day.

Love,

thetwinsontour

Today is Kyrgyzstan’s Independence Day. They got their Independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Independence Day does not seem to be a big deal, though. According to our guide, older people in Kyrgyzstan were not happy with the split from the USSR. Under the USSR, they had jobs, incomes, a pension. (They still get a pension, but it is a pittance–about $40 a month.) Once the USSR collapsed, they suddenly had to find ways to make money or starve. Our guide said his parents sold their flat for $600, moved to the capital, and then spent their remaining $500 to go over to China and bring back goods to sale. Times were rough for sure. So, anyways, seems like the elders are harkening for the good old communist days. The younger generation is not. Interestingly enough, our guide studied as a pediatrician but never finished his residency. He makes more moolah as a tour guide than he would as a doctor. Don’t worry–he has 5 kids, so he can still use those doctor skills.

Traditionally, the Kyrgz people are nomads. They live in yurts and move up and down the mountains with the weather. They don’t have any ancient buildings or mosques in Kyrgyzstan. Just yurts.  They are still finding their own architectural identity, but the yurt is the center of it all.  The Kyrgyzstan flag even features a tündük, which is the top circle part of the yurt. Obviously, yurts are very important.  We’ve slept in yurts, eaten in yurts, and today we learned how to make yurts. 

All the yurts in Kyrgyzstan are made in one village called  Kyzyl Tuu. I could order a mid-sized one for about $2,500 or a large one for $3,500, but it would probably cost that much or more to ship it to the United States. I think it would still be a great investment because I could set it up in the backyard and rent it out as an Air B&B.  It would pay for itself in no time! It’s brilliant, really! Who wouldn’t want to sleep in a yurt in my backyard?!?

There are about 450 families making yurts in this village.  It takes 4 people a month to create the framework for it.  I don’t know how long it takes to create the felt walls for it.  

The wood comes from the willow tree because it is fast growing, flexible, and straight. The branches have to grow for three years before they are the right size to harvest. The big yurts are about 6 meters, and require 85 sticks to make the top part.  They steam heat the wood for about 20 minutes, and then bend it all manually using a giant vise. 

All of the pieces are held together with leather nails.  Yes, leather. Leather will last up to 100 years, but actual nails will rust out in a couple of years.  The center Tündük is made with two pieces of wood, and it takes 4 people to bend it around the metal circle mold, so that needs real nails to keep it together. However, as soon as the wood is dry and the shape is set, they replace the metal nails with leather nails. 

The bottom half of the yurt walls is like a giant piece of lattice. Guess what? That lattice is made with leather nails too! The lattice stretches out, but is easy to fold up–like those coffee mug holders–the ones that you can stretch out and then fold back together like an accordion. This flexibility is important for the nomadic life. You have to be able to move the yurt around easily–they don’t have wide load semis to do it for them. Just yaks. Plus, in times of war, you can tear apart the yurt walls, fold them up, and use them as a shield to protect you from arrows. Or, you can lay it over your baby to protect them. It is curved in the middle since the wood was bent. Even if a grown man steps on it, it won’t break. Those leather nails are tougher than nails! It’s great to have a multifunctional house!

I had hoped that this demonstration would help me prepare for the zombie apocalypse. What I have learned is that I need to plant a grove of willow trees. Without trees, we will not survive the zombies. I should probably start raising cattle for the leather, too. I wonder if we could use yak leather? I’m also going to need a lot of sheep so I can make the felt like we learned a couple of days ago. However, I think I’ll shake things up and try to make the felt with alpaca wool instead of sheep. It will be softer, and one of a kind. And then my Air B&B will have the added draw of Alpaca farm. This plan is just getting better and better! Everyone loves a good alpaca farm.  Adventure you say, I’ll alpaca my bags! Everyone loves a good alpaca pun too!

After this super informative lesson in yurt making, we were off to lunch–in, guess what? A yurt! The focal point of this trip seems to be the yurt. Obviously, thetwinsontour love yurts, so this is okay with us.

Next up–scenic viewpoints! I do love me some good nature! Thank goodness  because yurt building is fascinating, but not a great selfie activity. We stopped first at The Broken Heart–a geological formation that looks like a broken heart split in 2. Then across the street is the viewpoint for the Seven Bulls rock formation, a row of seven hills that someone decided looked like seven bulls, and then that’s the name forever. It’s hard to capture the beauty in words, so I guess you will just have to come to Kyrgyzstan and see it for yourself.

And that’s the highlights of Day 6.

Love,

thetwinsontour

We started our morning at the yurt camp by going for a short hike up a giant mountain surrounded by lots of horses and even more horse poop.  The giant mountain didn’t look like much of a mountain at all.  It looked more like an easy hill, but at nearly 10,000 feet above sea level, it takes a bit more time. The lack of oxygen does slow things down a bit, but the horse pictures probably slow things down even more.  I am not sure about other people, but that’s how it is for thetwinsontour at least.  We started out in multiple layers with our coats, hoodies, long-sleeved shirts, and t-shirts. We also took our raincoats to use as a wind breaker in case the wind picked up since it had been super windy and freezing the day before.  I guess it’s better to be over prepared than under prepared.  By the time I made it to the top of the giant mountain, gasping for breath, I had three coats in my backpack and was considering stripping down to just my t-shirt. Sure glad I opted to take off my Cuddle Duds before leaving the yurt.  

What’s at the top of Mt Kilimanjaro of Kyrgyzstan? Well, there’s a really beautiful view of Son Kul Lake. All the horses ran away when we got too close, so there were no epic equine photos like I had anticipated. But there were a couple of 2,000 year old petroglyphs! That’s cool.  I saw them on three different rocks, but there may have been more. They were all drawings of Ibex, which is probably the only Ibex we will see on this trip.  My ultimate goal for this trip is to see a snow leopard hunting an Ibex.  Wouldn’t that be neat? I think I might have a better shot at winning the mega millions jackpot, but a girl needs to have dreams.

The colors of the lake, the mountains, and the clouds in the cerulean sky were just breathtaking and not due to the altitude. It was really a selfie-palooza, an Instagram Paradise. All too soon, our guide shouted at us that it was time to go. (He seems to do that a lot, actually– even if we aren’t late!) But, you know what? We had to walk down a steep hill! At least I wasn’t gasping for breath as I descended the mountain. And I got to take more selfies! Yeah!

Next up was lunch in the yurt. I have eaten a lot of meals since then (because I am behind as usual), and I don’t remember what it was exactly that I ate. I could go back to my camera roll, but nahhh. Now that I think about it, I think it was a chicken stuffed yellow pepper. And that it was quite tasty. We usually have beef with vegetables, so that was great for variety.

Then it was back to the vans for the 3 hour torture fest down the mountain. This time thetwinsontour took Dramamine and survived the trek without feeling like they were going to die. Oh, and we stopped at the yak stop again. This time there were no yaks in sight. But the outhouse with the squatty potty was there, so I decided to try it out. Guess what? I lived. Even if it was odorifous. And then, when I absqatulated (not sure I spelled that correctly, but there is no squiggly line…) from the outhouse, I looked up the hill, and oh what a sight to see! Yaks!! Yakkity Yak, don’t talk back! There was a whole herd of yaks being shepherded down the mountain by a man on horseback. There were also 3 dogs, but they were lagging behind and doing nothing to keep the yaks in line. I think they were tired. It was a sight to behold–even our guide was taking video! We all watched the yaks until they disappeared down the mountain.

Now, I am going to pontificate a moment. (Where are all these big words coming from today?!) Anyways, I am quite distraught that the collective noun for yaks is just a boring old herd. I mean, you get a flamboyance of flamingos or a dazzle of zebras. But yaks are just a herd? Quite frankly, I am deeply disappointed in the English language. But, on a different yak note, apparently they have the best meat–way better than black Angus beef or Waygu beef. The reason for this is that they live in the mountains and eat nothing but organic food. Plus, they aren’t forced to stand locked in place for 3 months to fatten up on grain and barley to get marbled meat we so enjoy. However, I just have to trust that this Intel is correct because yak is not on the menu. I would like to think that I would sample yak if given the opportunity.

Enough of this yak tangent. I got a bit distracted. As a reward for surviving the perilous journey, we got to meet with an eagle hunter! We drove to an empty field behind a gas station, following this old, multicolored sedan. Can you guess what was in the trunk? A freaking golden eagle! Like, who keeps an eagle in their trunk? Can’t you just seat belt it into the back seat? There are so many logistics of golden eagle travel that I have just never contemplated before. I mean, Artichoke would never countenance being shoved into the trunk. She much prefers to stand on the center console and lick my ear. I guess, though, that if an eagle tried to flap its wings in the back seat that it could knock you out. Or blind you. Hmm, I need to think on this some more.

Ok, so here are some eagle hunter facts:

-There are only about 50 eagle hunters left in Kyrgyzstan. It is a dying skill, but important to keep alive for the tradition of the nomadic people of Kyrgyzstan.

-They take baby eagles from the nest at 2 months of age. They only take females because they are larger.

-At 3 months, they begin to train the eagle how to hunt. While trying to be both mother and father to the golden eagle. (Our eagle hunter kept kissing his eagle during the demonstration.)

-The eagle eats every 3 days. They will only hunt if they are hungry. Evidently, at about age 20 (eagles live a long time, up to 60 years), they fatten them up and release them back into the wild. The eagles never try to come back to their eagle hunter. They just fly like an eagle and live wild and free.

-The eagle we saw was 6 years old and weighed like 4 and a half kilos– and she wasn’t even fully grown!

-I did ask, and, no, the golden eagle does not have free range of the house. Nor does she sit on the eagle hunter’s shoulder when he is lounging on the couch watching TV. Evidently, she is kept in a cage.

-This eagle was chirping the whole time we were there. I have never heard an eagle chirp before. Maybe this is why she doesn’t get to sit on the couch and watch TV. How would you ever hear anything without turning the volume up louder than my mother’s television? You would have to use the closed captioning. But then you would not be able to play on your phone and read the TV at the same time.

-The eagle wears a little tiny mask so that it can “rest.” An eagle can see up to 5km away, so it is always searching for prey if it’s eyes are open. Personally, I think it’s so the eagle doesn’t try to eat the tourists. 

-The eagle hunter and the eagle mostly hunt jackals in the mountains. He skins the jackal and let’s the eagle eat the carcass. The government pays $3,000 som per jackal pelt. Apparently, the jackal is an overpopulated/invasive/destructive/undesirable or something species.  That is a lot of work for a $35 bounty. Go up to the mountains, track a jackal, let the eagle catch the jackal, etc. Once the eagle eats that first jackal, it’s not going to be hungry enough to eat for a few days. I don’t know if they head back home after that, or if they stay up there reading Harry Potter and playing solitaire until the eagle is hungry again. 

-You train the golden eagle by running with a jackal pelt tied to a rope. The eagle will spy the pelt and pounce on it.  Then you have to reward the eagle for “capturing” the jackal by giving it a pigeon wing (served with feathers, not Buffalo sauce). Seems simple enough, right?

-All of the animal kingdom is scared of the golden eagle.  Even the mighty snow leopard will take cover if a golden eagle flies overhead. Golden eagles are huge and can take down very large prey. thetwinsontour are lucky to be alive.

I think that about covers it. I’m ready to become a real live eagle hunter any time now.  I just need to start lifting weights to get in shape for carrying my eagle around. She gets pretty heavy when you hold your arm out. How do I know this? Because I HELD AN EAGLE ON MY ARM! I just didn’t think about her razor-sharp beak, her massive talons, and her giant flapping wings and held that eagle on my arm.  How could you pass up an opportunity like that? But this does not mean that thetwinsontour will ever, ever, ever willingly step inside the aviary at the zoo.  Nope. Not doing it. 

Love,

thetwinsontour

ps I have been remiss in reminding you to follow thetwinsontour on Facebook and the_twins_on_tour on Instagram. So go do that!