All right, what did we do today? I have no idea, but I am sure it was fantastic. How could it be anything else? Unless it was amazing or perhaps super fantastic. Time to scroll through my photos and refresh my memory. Please hold.

Ok, I’m back.  It was super fantastic! We took 4x4s again up into the Atlas Mountains. (Honestly, I think the bus could have made it through 98% of the roads, but variety is good. Also our bus has very dark tinted windows which are great for blocking the sun, but not so great for enjoying the view.)  Our goal was to see the mountain oasis. What is the plural of oasis? My phone doesn’t like anything I tried. Oasises, oasi? Actually, I don’t like any of those options either. I digress.

First stop: Chebika, a charming mountain village nestled in the lush green mountain oasis. Well, the village was charming until it was destroyed by floods in 1969. Now it is abandoned, but not like a Western Ghost Town. There are too many tourists and rock sellers for that. It is just unoccupied. We had an excellent and exquisite and exhilarating little hike through the rocky mountains to get a view of the palm trees and waterfall. Now, I am not going to mention how many times I fell behind the group because I was busy taking selfies and took the completely wrong (i,e. non-existent) path and then had to double back and ask the rock sellers how do I get over there. Nope, not going to mention that at all. What I will tell you is that I kept buying rocks, a geode, some fossils. I stuck with the under 5 Dinar rocks, but my suitcase is going to be heavy with rocks and ceramics. I don’t know why they have so many heavy souvenirs in this country!

I have no words to describe the feeling of walking through a mountain pass and seeing palm trees and waterfall (it left me speechless), so I guess I should move on. Move on to the popsicles! Do you know how refreshing a lemon popsicle is after a sweaty hike through the mountains? Very!

Still three days behind on writing this, so gotta move on.

Next stop is where I was supposed to be able to see Algeria 2km in the distance. Alas, once again, I was too busy taking selfies to listen to my guide, so I didn’t realize I missed Algeria until later. I don’t even know which direction it was! Oops.  What might you ask was I enthralled with taking pictures of? A canyon! Like a mini Tunisian Grand Canyon. And, you know what? Not a guard rail to be seen! One wrong step, and you’d be a goner. So not safe! I love it! Guard rails ruin pictures of nature. We were a bit rushed here, so I didn’t get as many photos as I would have liked, but they were quality photos nevertheless. There were some palm trees nearby, so this also qualifies as a mountain oasis.

The 3rd mountain oasis was a cute little waterfall inside a wider canyon, but this one we were able to go down some stairs and walk in the bottom of the canyon. There were giant sandbags in the stream so that we could cross it without getting wet. Do you know what the biggest miracle here was? I left without buying a single rock! Did you hear that noise? That was my suitcase breathing a sigh of relief. 

All too soon it was time to go back to town for lunch and a walk around town.  This town, Tozeur, is famous for its yellow bricks. There are only three families that still make them, and everyone who lives here is required to have at least 30% of the facade of their house as yellow brick. Personally, I hate the red bricks on the front of my house. I think I would like the bricks a lot more if they were yellow bricks from Tozeur instead, especially if they were sticking out in a fancy pattern like they do over here. They aren’t in a boring brick wall pattern. I don’t know if there are different sized bricks or if they just have a special way to make them stick out to make the wall 3D instead of just flat. Also, some are horizontal, and some are vertical. It’s quite pretty. I didn’t see any brick stores, so I don’t know what the going rate for a brick is around here. Can you imagine how heavy my suitcase would be if I brought home bricks along with all of my rocks?

That just about wraps up day 6 in Tunisia. Bye for now.

Love,

thetwinsontour

PS. It’s been a few days since we reminded you to like our pages on Facebook (thetwinsontour), Instagram (the_twins_on_tour), and TikTok (thetwinsontour). I forgot to post any videos there yet, but you should be prepared for when I do! If you liked it previously, you will have to like it again. They kick you off if you don’t open TikTok for over a year, so I just got my name back.

Today we headed to the wilds of the Sahara. They loaded us up into 4×4 Toyota SUVs, and off we went, caravan style, 6 little ducks in a row. The Sahara begins here in Tunisia and then spreads to Algeria and Morocco. Douz, the town we were in, is known as the Gateway to the Sahara for that reason.  Judging by the modifications to the Toyotas–interior roll bars and curtains all around–I thought we might get wild and crazy. But, nope. We didn’t even race the other cars–just drove at a nice, sedate pace to a scenic view with tiny dunes. Scenic view = lots of selfies! Also, lots of sand in my shoes from trying to climb some of the dunes.  I got more sand in my shoes than there is sand in the entire Sahara Desert.  After about 15 minutes or so, it was back to the vehicles for more sedate driving through the sand to our lunch location. Then it was back to the vehicles to take a shorter route on paved roads back to the hotel.

Actually, while at lunch, they showed us how they make bread by burying it in the ground. It’s a round bread the size of a large pizza. They have a  smoldering pile of ashes in a fire pit. After digging a little hole, they just toss that puppy directly into the ashes and cover it up.  I didn’t mention a pan or a jar or any other cooking vessel because there isn’t one. Just the bread dough and the smoldering ashes.  It takes about 20 minutes to cook.  Watching buried bread cook is a bit like watching paint dry, so they sent us in to eat lunch. Unfortunately, this means that I missed the unearthing of the bread. I don’t know if they just wipe it off with their hands, if they give it a good shake, if they have a can of air to squirt on it, if they blow on it, or if they just leave the clinging ashes to it for extra flavor. It’s a very dense bread, but soft and fresh because it’s fresh out of the ground/oven. I did notice some random grit to it, but I don’t know if that was ash on the bread, sand in the dough, or remnants of sand I got in my mouth from climbing on sand dunes and letting sand blow all over me. 

Another interesting part here is this– along the highway were sand dunes. On top of those dunes were reed fences. The dunes were all so nicely placed that they seemed man made. Guess what? They are! The Sahara is growing– at a rate of 1 km per year? Not sure about that number. But, wind blows, sand flies. Sand even makes it across the Mediterranean to cover cars in Italy. So, the dunes are meant to block the blowing sand. And the reed fences are made of palm fronds, so totally biodegradable! Not sure how much it really helps considering that the dunes themselves are made of sand that can blow…. And, the roads are covered in sand, too. But you gotta do what you gotta do to slow the desertification.

And then we were on the road again. We did drive through the salt flats that used to be an ocean. The highway crosses right through it. It’s not like the salt flats in Bolivia at all. It rained a few days earlier, so there were some wet spots where you could see the salt. However, I think without rain, it would look just like the desert.  The only difference if you are paying attention is that there is not a single plant growing there, and the rest of that area has a lot of brush growing. They do extract the salt. It is used as table salt and as road salt in Europe.

And that sums up day 5! Now we are only 3 days behind! Can we get caught up? Probably not. You know us!

Love,

thetwinsontour

Today is the day we have been waiting for for over a year! Star Wars Day! We decided to buy Star Wars shirts (a tragedy that we did not already own Star Wars shirts, but now this sad situation has been rectified forevermore) so that we could be properly attired and give the occasion the respect and consideration it deserves. If anything is meritious of a new shirt, it is definitely visiting Star Wars sights of Tunisia. This is way cooler than sitting on top of a pyramid in Guatemala that was in Star Wars for about 3 seconds while some x-wing fighters flew over the top of it.

First stop: Tataouine! They just changed the spelling to Tatooine in the movies, but it is the inspiration for the birthplace of Anakin Skywalker! Future Darth Vader!  I think the name is the only Star Wars draw because that’s all we did there–stop at the city limit sign for pictures.  The guide said that we were making a quick stop for anyone interested. I was the first one off the bus, having raced down the aisle shouting ME! He’s talking about ME! As far as road signs go, this one is pretty epic! We did go into town and walk around a bit. I bought a cute leather purse for only 35 Dinars ($11.06). I probably should have bought the made in China pencil pouch that said Tataouine, but I did not.

Next stop was some non Star Wars sights. Who cares, right? I guess I’ll tell you anyways. Chenini is an old (mostly abandoned) Berber village built into the side of a mountain. It is quite impressive and picturesque.  But enough about that.

For lunch, we went to Ksar Hedada, where scenes from Phantom Menace were filmed in 1997. It is the town of Mos Espa on the planet of Tatooine in the movie.   So that one with Anakin Skywalker as a kid and Jar Jar Binks. We ate lunch in a little restaurant, and then only had a few minutes afterward to get some pictures. They have actually converted some of the rooms to hotel rooms. Too bad we didn’t stay there! The rooms are literally just a bed. There’s a public toilet and shower for your bathroom needs. 

They do charge 2 Dinars entrance if you just want to go and walk around. Honestly, they are not living up to their full potential. They had a broken R2D2 cement statue, and my sister found 2 Darth Vader masks for us to pose with, but that’s all the Star Wars they had! No souvenirs. No cardboard cutouts of Chewbaca. No storm troopers patrolling the grounds. It was anticlimactic. That did not stop us from getting all the pictures, but it could have been so much more. Just imagine hiding from Storm Troopers while trying to get the perfect photos. That would be exhilarating. Clearly, I need to take over their marketing and entertainment. The ideas in my head are brilliant and astonishing.

The next stop was actually just a potty stop, but it  is the Holy Grail of all the Star Wars sights! No, not the Millennium Falcon–the home of Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru! Yes! That house where Luke told Uncle Owen the new R2 unit was broken and talking about Obi Wan Kenobi. AND WE WERE THERE! RIGHT IN THE COURTYARD OF UNCLE OWEN AND AUNT BERU! It is in the Tunisian village of Matmâta in a traditional adobe home that is actually a hotel. We could have slept in Luke Skywalker’s home! I think our tour company really messed up on this!

Like I said, it is a hotel. I didn’t see any rooms, but  I am sure that they are just as basic (meaning bed only) as the rooms at The Phantom Menace place. For those of you planning your epic Star Wars vacation, it is called Hotel Sidi Driss. It still has elements from the movie set, and they do play the Star Wars music as you walk into the courtyard. They also have a Storm Trooper costume laying in one of the rooms and paintings of the characters all around.  And a pet cat named Chewbaca! However, it’s now set up as a bar and the hotel restaurant.  But again, it could be so much more. I recommend that you take your own light sabers with you because the ones that they dug up for me and my sister to have an epic light saber battle with did not light up anymore.

We did find magnets outside with a picture of the courtyard for only 5 Dinars. Unfortunately, he only had 4 of them, and we did not have time for the shop owner to go rummaging through the entire store to find more.

Our last stop of the day was another non Star Wars stop. Disappointing, I know.  However, I think it would make a great movie location for a future Star Wars movie. It was a troglodyte home–really cool looking. Really, troglodyte is a cool sounding word. It is a Berber home, with multiple rooms built into soft rock and cliffs. Fascinating, really.

Well, I think I have seen too much to remember anything, so that is all. Time for a new day and a new adventure!

May The Force Be With You

or in Español, Que la fuerza te acompañe

thetwinsontour

It was a beautiful day in Tunisia today with a high around 80 degrees and the sun shining bright. Today we drove all over the island of Djerba. We didn’t leave the hotel until 9 am, so we got up early to go check out the beach. Nothing can keep thetwinsontour away from the beach. Like a moth to a flame, we are there. The sand here is a bit whiter than in Tunis, but also has lots of dried sea leaves all over the place. It’s still pretty soft and amazing to sink your feet into. 

The “D” in Djerba is actually silent. I have no idea why this is.  Something about going from Arabic to French and maybe something else in between. While you are reading this, I need you to say Jerba in your head when you see Djerba.  Thank you. 

It is olive season right now, so there’s lots of people out harvesting them. In Tunisia, they do this all by hand! Can you imagine? No machines.  We stopped and “helped” a family for a while.  The first step is to put a plastic mesh tarp around the bottom of the tree. Most of harvesting is done standing on the ground, but they do have ladders for the taller trees.  Then you and your family stand around the tree and run your hands over the branches, knocking all the olives to the ground. You can also use a little plastic rake similar to one you used in the sandbox as a kid.  You just run that rake over the branches as fast as you can. All the olives fall to the ground, and I guess I don’t know what you do with all of the olives once they land on the plastic tarp. Eventually, the olives wind up as olive oil, very fine olive oil. It is such good quality that Italian companies will buy it and then mix it with Italian olive oil and claim it as their own. I guess the moral of that story is to just buy Tunisian olive oil at the grocery store because authentic Italian olive oil isn’t any good?  This area of Tunisia only grows olives for olive oil, not to eat.  The olives are much smaller than olives we eat.  Most of the harvesting is done by the family, but if they need to hire someone, the going rate is 50 Dinars per day ($16)  and 60-70 ($19-22) for an experienced, master olive picker. I am not going to make my fortune picking olives.

We also went to a pottery factory. I bought a few things, but I did not learn any new life skills while there. They did have some adorable camels there, too, which amazingly enough liked to drink water out of plastic bottles. I always thought camels didn’t need water? (Actually, they are dromendaries, and not camels.)

After that, it was the Jewish synagogue of Djerba. I don’t think I have ever been inside a synagogue before. This one was decorated with very pretty tiles on the walls. Tunisia is 98% Muslim, so it is less than 2% Jewish. Most of the Jewish population lives on Djerba, and they always have since the beginning of time.

We went to walk around the old Jewish quarter too. The main draw here is the artwork on the buildings. I am hesitant to call it grafitti because its not really. It is more like murals.  They had some artists come in about 10 years ago and paint some of the houses. Then the rest of the town got jealous, so they came back a few years later for round 2. It was quite pretty to walk around.  

And finally! We got to shop! We opted to have a quick fast food lunch.  I guess that word choice is redundant, but I don’t care. We went to this little place and pointed at a piece of bread, and then the guy just started loading stuff up on it. There was some mayo, lettuce, onions, probably chicken, and a slice of processed cheese just like Kraft singles to top it off. Then he popped it in the oven to heat it up and melt the cheese. It was quite delicious!  And economical!  Which is a good thing considering the shopping purchases I made later.  We paid less than 9 Dinar each for our sandwiches and a can of Coke.  That is $2.85.  And the sandwich was too big for me to finish!  What a deal!

Shopping is stressful in Tunisia because you have to bargain. Some of the prices are just ridiculous. Case in point–my sister picked out a magnet and asked the price. When my sister’s eyes bulged out of her head at the 25 Dinars (over $8), he immediately dropped to 10 Dinars ($3). My sister still declined and started to walk away. The man said, how much do you want to pay. Shrewd negotiator that I am, I immediately said 5 Dinars! And the man said ok. 5 Dinars was the price they were marked outside the shop…. Why on earth do I have to negotiate fixed prices to get the fixed price? Arghhhhhhh….. Anyways, we wandered around for a while and gave up on buying souvenirs, and just headed for the jewelry shop. Where we proceeded to buy silver filigree jewelry that looks an awful lot like the stuff we bought in Macedonia (due to both being part of the Turkish Ottoman empire), but we didn’t let that bother us and said here’s my credit card!

We had just enough time at the end of the day to put our flip-flops on and head to the beach again. Because really, can anyone ever really get enough beach time?

And, that’s enough for now because we are way, way, way behind.  There’s just so much to do every day that it’s impossible to find the time.  Well, maybe I would have enough time if I didn’t have an addiction to scrolling through Instagram when I should be writing.

Love,

thetwinsontour

We just found out at breakfast that our hotel was right on the beach.  Oops! However, in our defense, we were way too tired to do anything except nap the afternoon that we arrived and yesterday we were gone all day chasing Roman Ruins, so there was really no chance to go to the beach yet.  But we sure did rectify that situation right after breakfast. Nothing except naps and Roman Ruins can keep thetwinsontour away from the beach!

This may have been the softest sand I have ever sank my toes in. Just like velvet. It felt amazing! The water was a little chilly, yet refreshing on my feet. Of course, I only submerged my feet because it was 58 degrees outside, and my suitcase was already sent on to our next destination last night.  But what a great way to spend the morning! thetwinsontour never, ever pass up an opportunity to visit the beach. Tunisia is on the Mediterranean for those of you that haven’t Googled it yet, and you know who you are!

Next stop, Sidi Bou Said (which I probably spelled wrong, but I am currently on airplane mode), the blue city of Tunisia. It is all blue and white buildings similar to Santorini, Greece. It is really an Instagram paradise with all the blue doors and white buildings. Needless to say, we took millions of photos. At least we tried to, but there were a gazillion people in our way.  And the sun was intense! I tried to use the erase shadows function on my phone (Samsung users know what I mean), but there were so many shadows that my phone didn’t know what to do. 

Do you want to know the most tragic thing that happened to us today? We saw people walking around with giant (i.e. delicious) donuts, and we walked past the beignet shop that was frying them up fresh. I wanted one so bad, but we had just finished lunch, which included a giant serving of ice cream for dessert. I was so stuffed that there was no way I could eat a giant beignet. Amateurs, I know. I am sorry to disappoint you like that. 

We tried to do some quick shopping on the way to the bus. We had passed a place with thousands of beautiful magnets, but when he starts the price for the super fancy one at 45 Dinars (17 dollars) you know it is not going to go well at all.  We went down to smaller magnets which he agreed gave us “a very good price” of 45 Dinars for 3.  Obviously, we walked away with no magnets from that crazy man. And he did not even chase us down the sidewalk shouting lower prices like they usually do.  Luckily we found a spot with 2 Dinars, 3 Dinars, and 5 Dinars magnets, so we did not leave the blue city empty handed! There are 3.1 Dinars to the dollar. 

Next stop the airport.  Our flight was originally supposed to leave at 3pm, but it got pushed back to 6pm. Luckily we found out the day before rather than after we arrived at the airport.  This is why we had time to dip our toes in the Mediterranean this morning.  Of course, we are headed to a beach resort hotel on the Mediterranean, so we were supposed to do that this afternoon.  But it’s all good.  It’s just an hour flight on a fairly small regional airplane with 2×2 seats.  (side note, I smell cigarette smoke right now. Someone is smoking on this plane!)

The regional flights check in at a different desk in the back of the airport. Then you sit down and you wait. And you wait some more. The cigarette smoke smell oozes out of the smoking lounge so the whole waiting area smells like eau de cigarette. And it was also a million degrees.  They didn’t allow us to the gate until after 5:40 where we had to go through passport control. The good news is that they let you have water bottles! I think that is because it was a regional flight.   Then we stood around waiting some more. I kept seeing a bus drive by, but they never opened the gate. Finally they asked for rows 1-10 to come board (Row 2 baby!). We were at the back of the pack, which is actually a good thing when you are loading a bus. Last on, first off! And do you know what? The bus ride lasted less than a minute. The plane was only about 100 steps from the gate.  Yes, they totally made us get on a bus instead of walking to the plane. Our 6pm flight took off about 6:35, so we are now en route to Djerba, where our bus driver and luggage will meet us. Since it’s such a small plane, they bussed our luggage to Djerba instead of us all trying to check luggage. This was all a bit confusing at first, but then after experiencing this side of the airport, it all makes sense. 

We should be landing in about 20 minutes, so that’s all I’ve got for today.

Love,

thetwinsontour

What a busy day we had! We are in country number 79 for those of you keeping track. Tunisia! Interestingly, the capital is Tunis, and in Arabic they call both the capital and the country by the same name of Tunis. I don’t know why we shake things up in English. 

First stop–The Bardo Museum, which is actually pretty fantastic.  We were rushed! The museum is housed in an old palace, so some rooms rival the star attraction. Anyways, it is a museum of ancient Roman mosaics from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Just breathtaking! And they are 2,000 years old! We just don’t make stuff that lasts that long anymore, except plastic water bottles. I am sure our guide told us some very important stuff about the mosaics, but I was too busy taking pictures to pay attention.  But you probably knew that already.  

We arrived yesterday at about 2pm.  We didn’t get any money out of the ATM. Then, we decided to take a nap instead of walking to the mall behind the hotel to go to the ATM.  So what this means is that we had NO local currency for our morning activities. None! This is important because our next stop was the medina of Tunis. Of course, we were speed walking through the souk, so even if I had money to shop, we would not have had time to stop. There was barely time to snap a few photos. Most distressing! On all counts!

Don’t worry! We got some Dinars finally! There was an ATM right by the restaurant we ate lunch at. We opted for spaghetti. Last week I saw a video on Instagram that Tunisians are second only to Italians for the most plates of pasta consumed annually. So, that means spaghetti is practically Tunisian food! At least this stuff was– it had a bit of kick to it! It tasted nothing like Ragu out of a jar. It was definitely spiced up with some red pepper, not so spicy that it made your eyes water, so low on the spice scale, but definitely not plain tomato.

After lunch we went to Carthage.  The real Carthage, not the one in Missouri.  Did you know Carthage is in Tunisia? Hannibal (the General, not the town in Missouri) and his elephants were from Carthage!  Carthage was originally built by the Phoenicians a long, long time ago. Then the Romans came along and destroyed it in 146 BC. The only Phoenician structures to survive the Romans were underground– tombs and things. The Romans were here for a few hundred years. I think they were overthrown by the Vandals? Or I may have made that up. But, Islam did not take over the country until the year 698, so that might be right. I should really pay more attention to our tour guide instead of taking selfies. Who am I trying to kid? We all know that ain’t happening!

After that, it was time for more  Roman Ruins! Specifcally, Roman baths!  Les Thermes D’Antonin (that sounds so much more exotic than the Antonin Baths) were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Sight in 1979.  They were started in the second century AD under the emperor Hadrian (of Hadrian’s Wall fame)  and completed under the emperor Antoninus Pius. I don’t remember learning anything about that guy in school, so these baths may be the only thing he did. Only the lower level still exists, so you will have to take my word for it that they are baths.  Do you want to know a secret? Ok, it is not a secret at all to our faithful followers, but THETWINSONTOUR LOVE ROMAN RUINS! They are just so Roman! We love Roman Ruins almost as much as PBJ! Well, maybe not that much.  We love Roman Ruins almost as much as we love Black Friday shopping at Kohl’s. Well, maybe not that much.  Roman Ruins are definitely in our top 10 loves for sure, though.  

Do you know what the Romans used to feed the water to the baths? If you guessed aqueducts, give yourself a special treat, like an ice cream cone, for being so clever.  If you didn’t guess aqueducts, get yourself a book about the Romans and study up.  There will be a quiz later.  The aqueducts were our last stop of the day. Aqueducts are probably our favorite genre of Roman Ruins.  Who doesn’t love a good aqueduct? The section that we saw was at the very end, so they were quite short. They end at a bunch of reservoirs which are not nearly as photogenic.

And that pretty much sums up day 1 in Tunisia.

Love,

thetwinsontour

PS don’t forget to follow the_twins_on_tour for some really SWEET bonus content.

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!