Okay, enough relaxing lazy times at the beach, finally it was time for us to move on and do something more adventurous again. So we took a marshrutka to the little town of Kochkor (and survived its tire blowout which in the end did not harm anyone except the frightening loud “BANG”) from where we organized a tour to Song-Kol lake. One great thing about Kyrgyzstan which is particularly popular and useful in its central region are the “Community Based Tourism” organizations. They successfully try to promote tourism in the country and at the same time to integrate and involve locals and preserve their culture and traditions. Our operator “Sheperd’s Life” also follows this aim and thanks to the very competent, friendly and English speaking office staff and guide we had a wonderful 3 days trek to one of the most beautiful lakes of the area. Together with a Belgian couple, we hiked over dry prairies and high mountains, through short hail storms, surrounded by thousands of sheep, cows and horses (the number one mean of transport), whom hundreds of nomads let graze there during the summer. Especially interesting and a nice experience to get a better understanding of their everyday life were the two yurtstays, where we spent the nights and had lunch, dinner and breakfast. Some nomad families in fact offer one of their yurts to visitors, without having them depraved to an artificial tourist attraction as most of the time they still continue to take care of their main tasks related to the cattle breeding. We realized how comfortable living in yurt can be in otherwise such harsh conditions and enjoyed sleeping under tons of blankets while outside an extremely cold wind was blowing. Even if Song-Kol is really lovely and worth a visit, in this case the way and yurtstays were the actual aim where we learned a lot about the Kyrgyz culture. Of course I could not have left the place without swimming in the lake, indeed I completely dived into it but could not swim longer than 10 seconds before going out again, since the water was freezingly cold

After that we continued our journey through Kyrgyzstan towards Uzbekistan. We spent one day in Bishkek which for a Kyrgyz city was surprisingly nice. It was the first time we saw green alleys, flower-filled parks and a few beautiful buildings, and we had the impression that all of these had been created and built at least with some planned intention. Additionally, the capital city’s atmosphere was rather vivid and agreeable, with many persons sitting outside together or playing table-tennis on public installations.

A long exhausting shared taxi ride later – via high mountain passes, impressive gorges, vast valleys, endless steppe and through countless villages – we eventually arrived to Osh, the last town we would stay at before crossing the border. Osh also was bursting of life and had the biggest and best bazaar we saw so far. You can actually find everything you need here, from household goods over clothes or shoes to any kind of food. We tasted delicious fresh fruits, went to small local cafés and restaurants who offered good traditional dishes like laghman (noodles), plov (rice), kebab or shashlik and we walked up to the Sulayman Mountain from which we had a splendid view over Osh, its park along the riverbank and its mosques. Being reconciled by the fact that the country is not only worth it for its awesome nature and landscapes and that there are not just ugly towns with crumbling buildings, we are now ready for a total contrast and looking forward to Uzbekistan.

+++ quick facts +++

• cheap accommodations in simple but normal apartments, well-located and with friendly staff: Bishkek Guest House and Osh Guest House
• average costs per person per day: 21€ additionally travelling here is easy, and such great value for so little money
• to do: definitely visit Iran one day, it is apparently super comfortable to travel through, and the deserts, mountains and cities are said to be simply amazing (as we were told by many tourists we met, whereas most of them followed the old Silk Road from Istanbul all the way until Xi’an or up to Beijing and always mentioned Iran to be THE highlight so far)