Almost everywhere we go, we’re beside soaring mountains and rushing alpine streams. The scenery is breathtaking. Unfortunately, this doesn’t show up in photos, but all this magnificence is stored in the old silicon chip <taps skull>.
On the outskirts of the village of Kojomkul, we see a strange temple-like object. It’s a memorial to a legendary strongman, born in the nearby village of Suusamyr.
So we have dozens of mountain photos. We’ll just select a few.
We mentioned before that Kyrgyzstan is ‘all about the mountains’. It’s also all about felt. (As in, the material made from wool.) So many things here are manufactured using felt; carpets, clothing, footwear, yurt material, headgear, bags and other containers, blankets, and more.
(We remember there was a German artist, Joseph Beuys, who made a career largely out of his felt creations.)
We go through one pass which is completely covered in a blanket of show (except for the road). It’s like driving a highway at the top of the Himalayas.
We spend a few days in the snicker-inducing town of Arslanbob, popular with hikers. Many of the buildings in town look like mangers from the middle ages.
The road winds along the Naryn River, a bright teal colour in this section. (yes, the same river we saw in Naryn town in previous entries.)
At one point, we pass through a series of four tunnels. These are kind of scary – the lighting is bad, and for a few brief seconds, we can’t see anything in the dark.
Apparently, in Tajikistan there’s a tunnel known as the ‘Tunnel of Death‘. You can be assured we aren’t going anywhere near that one.
Most of the places we have been staying at include breakfast. Usually with an assortment of chocolate bars and other sweet things. Like this surprisingly familiar item, a KatKit bar.
Our last stop before returning to Bishkek is the Belek Dream Hotel, one of the nicest places we’ve stayed so far. Gourmet food, lovely location on a mountain stream.
We go for a hike in search of petroglyphs. The groundskeeper has three dogs. They probably don’t get that much human attention, this being Kyrgyzstan, so when we shower them with kind words and a vigorous patting , they follow us for the duration of our hike with, well, dog-like devotion.
A couple of things we can mention about Kyrgyzstan: a lot of the men sport distinctive bell-like headgear, the Ak-kalpak.
Also, they like horses. They like to eat them, too.
Sight or Insight of the Day
We are back in Bishkek after our 16-day road trip, soon to depart for Tajikistan. We’re supposed to bring the vehicle back clean – Maria dragoons a young man at a self-serve carwash to do our car inside and out. (‘We can’t read the instructions’ we plead.)
It’s a treat getting back to our familiar neighbourhood. When traveling, it always nice returning to a place you’ve been before – like getting home.
