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