Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Aug 9 2017

Almaty to Khujand

It is 6 days since we left our bubble life in Almaty already. By the time we have finished our ride for the day, cooled off, recovered from the exhausting heat and intense concentration due to potholes and locals’ driving style, then downloaded the photos, and spent hours to upload the selected photos to the blog, we have had no energy to write before going to bed not too late for our early morning start. It is a real pity we can’t record our thoughts as we ride as there are so many details we’d like to mention…

We have seen the most amazing scenery, often dramatically changing from one bend to another, from stark and majestic mountains, to lush green valleys and to desperately dry and hot desert where breathing seems to dry your lungs. And once again, we have met more wonderful, friendly and generous locals.

Here’s a silent picture drive from Almaty, to Bishkek, Toktogul, Osh, Konibodom, Khujand – for the last few days, riding through the fertile Fergana Valley and past numerous enclaves and exclaves, the result of the post Soviet break-up and local feuds. Luckily, the new M13 road allows drivers to skirt these safely.

The history in this part of the world is fascinating but too long to talk about here. Just very briefly though, where we are now in Khojund for example is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia. It was established by Cyrus the Great in the 7-6 centuries BC and Alexander the great built “Alexandria the Furthest” nearby in 329 BC. Located on the Silk Road it soon became a cultural hub. Khujand was later captured by Arab armies in the 8th century, fought Genghis Khan’s army then got destroyed in the 13th century. Then in the 19th century, it was occupied by the Russian Empire and became part of the Soviet Union in the 1920s. The result of various invasions is seen today in the ethnic mix of Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz people.

As depicted by the fabulous huge town monuments, the Ferghana valley saw cotton cultivation mandated by the Soviets and continues to this day. Seeing how dry this region is, except along the rivers, it seems like a tragic waste of precious water to grow cotton. We have seen people drinking from water channels in the streets. Riding through those valleys and along the treed villages always gave us a welcome respite from the oppressing heat – we love the sweet wafts of rotten fruit as we ride along the inumerable fruit sellers along the side of the road. How many water melons do people eat here?!!

Enjoy this 6 day ride!

Ever changing scenery

Too-Ashuu Pass, Kyrgyzstan – see where we came from at the bottom

Hello from Too-Ashuu Pass, Kyrgyzstan

Scenery from the other side of the Too-Ashuu tunnel

Time for lunch – more manty!

The beautiful Suusamyr Basin, Kyrgyzstan

The beautiful Suusamyr Basin, Kyrgyzstan

2000m high Suusamyr Basin, Kyrgyzstan

The beautiful Suusamyr Basin, Kyrgyzstan

Love the carefully painted and placed white pebbles

2000m high Suusamyr Basin, Kyrgyzstan

2000m high Suusamyr Basin, Kyrgyzstan

2000m high Suusamyr Basin, Kyrgyzstan

Good to know there is a clinic and ambulance around

How many greens are there?!

and honey, lots of honey

Back to fertile valleys

Heading down towards Toktogul

Kyrgyz man with traditional hat

Toktogul reservoir, Kyrgyzstan

Toktogul reservoir, Kyrgyzstan

Sunset over Toktogul reservoir, Kyrgyzstan

South of Toktogul resevoir, Kyrgyzstan

South of Toktogul resevoir, Kyrgyzstan

South of Toktogul resevoir, Kyrgyzstan

South of Toktogul resevoir, Kyrgyzstan

South of Toktogul resevoir, Kyrgyzstan

Naryn River, south of Kara-Kul, Kyrgyzstan

Naryn River, south of Kara-Kul, Kyrgyzstan

Naryn River, south of Kara-Kul, Kyrgyzstan

Coming into Uzgen – those colours made me wish I could paint

We skirted around numerous enclaves, the result of post Soviet breakup and new borders – see fences in the distance

Town or region monuments

Soviet monument outside Almaty

Jalalabad town

Entering Batken, Kyrgyzstan

Mosaics

Entering Osh – look at that mosaic!


Fabulous Soviet monument, Isfara

Konibodom

Welcome mosaic – Khujand, Tajikistam

Safe travels mosaic – Khujand, Tajikistam

Ismoil Somoni monument – Tajikistan currency is named after him

Part of Ismoil Somoni monument, acknowledging his ancestors’ Zoroastrianism

Driving style

Typical driving – expect to move over

Move over for the Merc in a hurry

Typical driving

Typical driving

Typical driving

Osh

They love stretched limos in this part of the world

That’s a metallic car!!

Beautiful and delicious local bread, Osh market

Kids cannot resist playing with water, Osh park

A Yak 40 plane in the Osh park!

Anthony finally tried some local cheese in Osh – he did not finish it…

Lively local park, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

Museum Sulaiman Too, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain – Unesco listed – and Museum, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

People and what travelling is all about

Random kindness – they got us a bottle of cold water as we were leaving this restaurant

We get so many waves and beaming smiles as we ride by


Buying some dates in Osh market, Kyrgyzstan

Met Laura and Toby on the road, looking for a restaurant – funnily they were going to the same hotel as us in Osh

A common occurence whenever we stop


A special time after stopping here:

I turned back to photograph this stunning mosaic…

and got invited into Nenuphar’s garden

Nenuphar picked 2kgs of nectarines for us which we could not refuse as we did the cheese

Little Aziza enjoying her new pencils

Next stop, Dushanbe – see you on the other side!! By the way, we are going with Plan B as we did not get our Turkmen visa so cannot return to Iran this time.

– Anne

Aug 4 2014

Through the mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Aug 7th, 2014 – Now with photos and video!!

Two days on the road, on the way to Uzbekistan and what wonderful scenery and people have filled our days. Leaving Bishkek was a good feeling, with both the Iran and Uzbek visas safely in our passports. We are off to Uzbekistan with a chance to ride some of the mountain passes that seem to dot the Kyrgyzstan map. We head west, which will be our general direction for the next three weeks, back along the route we entered the country from. We need to keep our eyes open, because here, unlike Russia and Kazakhstan, route directions are almost non existent. We find it and are now heading towards the snow capped peaks that have beckoned us since we arrived. Higher and higher we ride, hairpin bends, cooler air and breathtaking views towards the top of the Tuz-Ashu pass at over 3,500m.

Photo stop looking back at our road up the mountain towards Tuz-Achu pass

Photo stop looking back at our road up the mountain towards Tuz-Achu pass

A photo stop sees us meet a couple from Moscow, a local guy who now lives in Putney in London, and Patrick a swiss guy here for a few weeks who seems to have ridden just about everywhere.
Patrick from Switzerland

Patrick from Switzerland

J from Putney with his soon-to-be bride

J from Putney with his soon-to-be bride

The bikes seem to have to work harder as we climb up to 3,150 meters, as more throttle is required: our first thoughts had been dirty fuel, but no altitude was the culprit. How do the cyclists we see from time to time manage?

Near the top of the Tuz-Ashu pass is a tunnel of some 4km, not the nice well lit tunnels we are used to, but a Soviet era model, poor lights, rough walls and floors. Single tunnel for both directions that requires whatever illumination you bring, and in some cases for the locals, not much. The scenery on the other side of the tunnel is so different: a vast green valley stretching some 30km+ to the next mountain range in the south. The Suusamyr valley is home to thousands of horses that are kept for the mare’s milk, natural and fermented and the cheese that locals produce. The roadside as we descend is dotted with yurts selling all three products.

Scnenery on the other side of the tunnel at Tuz-Achu Pass, Kyrgyzstan

Scnenery on the other side of the tunnel at Tuz-Achu Pass, Kyrgyzstan

Yurts with mare's cheese and milk products for sale, Kyrgyzstan

Yurts with mare’s cheese and milk products for sale, Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz herder

Kyrgyz herder

Kyrgyz herder

Kyrgyz herder

Yurts and herds, Kyrgyzstan

Yurts and herds, Kyrgyzstan


We descended to the valley floor and turned west again following the river that bisects the valley. If you are a horse lover or rider, this 150km by 24km long green flat Suusamyr valley surrounded by high mountains with a fast flowing river bisecting it has to be a must visit place if you have not done so. Watching the horse herds grazing and being herded as they must have done for centuries leads you to imagine a simpler way of life from our complex world.
Storm brewing along the Suusamyr valley

Storm brewing along the Suusamyr valley

Another photo of Kyrgyz locals who each had to take a photo of us

Another photo of Kyrgyz locals who each had to take a photo of us


Suusamyr Valley, Kyrgyzstan

Suusamyr Valley, Kyrgyzstan

We had decided we wanted to camp, not stay in a yurt, which a number of the camps close to the road were offering. While a great experience for many, not for us this time. As we climbed up to the Ala-Bel Pass the temperature dropped down to 11 degrees celsius at 3,184 meters. Wish the ventilation zips were easier to close while riding.

A winding decent brought the temperature up and yet a third change of scenery as we descended towards Toktogul.

Still looking for a spot for the night and the sun is starting to set, down from Ala-Bel Pass, Kyrgyzstan

Still looking for a spot for the night and the sun is starting to set, down from Ala-Bel Pass, Kyrgyzstan

The scenery keeps changing on our way down from Ala-Bel Pass, Kyrgyzstan

The scenery keeps changing on our way down from Ala-Bel Pass, Kyrgyzstan

At the side of the road we observed buckets filled with red fruit for sale. A quick stop revealed buckets of raspberries, Anne’s favorite fruit, but where do you put a bucket of raspberries on a motorcycle, so sadly no purchase possible (our top box was full of vital drinking water).

The mountain passes take their toll on the trucks – often we see trucks at the side the road undergoing repairs. It is not unusual to see other trucks stopped to help and the repairs are quite major judging from the parts being removed. No recovery service here. Occasionally a truck will be parked where it broke down, marked by a couple of warning rocks with a rear axle at 90 degrees to normal. It had taken us a little while to realise that European companies are not transporting goods in Kyrgyzstan, but that second hand trucks from Europe are not repainted.

Finally, at 8pm, we chose a campsite, next to the road, with a great view across our valley to the Toktogul reservoir. Once the sun goes down the traffic will stop and we could sleep. Wrong! Second hand cars break down more in the heat of the day going up the passes, so they travel at night. Only a couple of hours sleep for us, then our morning truck horn wake up at 7am.

Our camping spot for the night outside Toktogul, Kyrgyzstan

Our camping spot for the night outside Toktogul, Kyrgyzstan

The largest wasp we've ever seen, 3cm long : it dug this hole in no time when we couldn't even get our tent pegs into the ground

The largest wasp we’ve ever seen, 3cm long : it dug this hole in no time when we couldn’t even get our tent pegs into the ground

Our wonderful home, outside Toktogul, Kyrgyzstan

Our wonderful home, outside Toktogul, Kyrgyzstan


We both agreed as we travelled along the south side of the Toktogul reservoir, that we would do this road again, the variety of views, scenery, mountain passes, lakes and the condition of the road make this a great route to travel. We will come back to this region one day to ride again to explore all we have not seen.
Along the Toktogul reservoir, Kyrgyzstan

Along the Toktogul reservoir, Kyrgyzstan


We meet a young french couple from Bordeaux, who have spent 400 Euros in Bishkek on a 1979 Ural motorcycle with sidecar. The only problem is that it breaks down daily and they are spending more time sleeping at garages than hotels. Today’s problem is an oil leak from the rear wheel drive assembly. Luckily our BMW toolkit has an adjustable spanner than fixes, for now, the problem. I am glad it was not the broken piston suffered a couple of days ago. What a great way to travel and a different set of fantastic experiences. Each to their own, but not for us (although Anne has said that traveling with a single bike and side car could be a fun way to travel one day, but on a more reliable model than this French couple’s). Good luck to them as they set off up the mountain pass.
Couple from Bordeaux needed some of our tools to fix yet another problem with their 1979 Ural

Couple from Bordeaux needed some of our tools to fix yet another problem with their 1979 Ural


The amazingly blue Naryn River, Kyrgyzstan

The amazingly blue Naryn River, Kyrgyzstan


We decide that a good night’s sleep before we cross the border is in order. With the help of some locals in Tash-Kömür we find a guest house. It seems to hold about four generations of the family and assorted other. We get a small room without the promised bathroom, which we seem to have got used to over time and especially the last month’s travel. Am I getting soft in my middle age? We had much rougher in Africa, Asia and the Americas in the past and I just accepted the conditions, now I think that if I am not camping, at the end of the day, an en-suite bathroom and good fans or air conditioning, especially in these temperatures, is very desirable. Maybe really roughing it in one star or less is going to become a thing of the past for me, time will tell.
Our Guest house at Tash-Kömür, Kyrgyzstan

Our Guest house at Tash-Kömür, Kyrgyzstan

Our guest house host at Tash-Kömür really wanted Anthony to join him for a drink

Our guest house host at Tash-Kömür really wanted Anthony to join him for a drink


– Anthony

Jul 29 2014

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Just a quick update from Bishkek – we were going to write a full update on our time in Kyrgyzstan today so far but we were otherwise busy, taking turns in the toilet – ‘nough said…

We spent days in Bishkek to lodge and collect our Iranian visa, then on Friday, we had to make an appointment for our Uzbekistan visa for today Tuesday 10am. Each visa process is different and precise and it is in your interest to do all the research and have all the right documentation, photocopies of passports and other visas in either black and white or colour as they want, the right size photos, the right number of visa applications, “letter of invitation” (which we used Stan Tours for in a couple of instances), an idea of itinerary and hotels we’ll ‘use’. It’s like each border crossing – there are so many pieces of paper to get, complete and get stamped by various people along the way, going from one little window to another and then they are all taken away and you’re waved through and welcomed to their country!! We’ve updated a couple of travel forums online with the latest border procedures. It is amazing how long each visa takes!!! I have spent 3 hours on our India visas today and the application isn’t quite finished – the joys of poor internet and crashing sites…

While here we also organised motorcycle insurance, which wasn’t easy to find out where to go. The reason is that very few people here have car insurance. What happens here when you have an accident is that you negotiate on the spot and work who is at fault and how much will be paid. It might take 1, 2 or 3 hours and once an agreement is reached, money is handed over and you continue on your merry way. I’ll spare you the details here but have updated a travel forum with detailed address and contact details.

Talking about car insurance, the driving here is the worst we’ve seen so far!!! Oh my goodness…. Basically, if they can’t see anything coming, there’s nothing and they overtake, or even double overtake and, miraculously, it works most times… And if there’s a bit of room between us and the vehicle in front, they overtake, forcing us to brake and back off some more. That’s ok most of the time, except when they then suddenly stop (yes, literally, and it’s happened many times), and when they do that on bad roads to avoid damaging their car on pot holes – it is so much easier to maneuver at a certain speed on a motorbike on bad (potholed or gravel) roads than at stop/start speed. What we had thought could did happen yesterday: they have a weird way of upgrading roads here too, with perfectly good sections suddenly stopping, either for both lanes or one way only. And on double laned sections, you suddenly share those two lanes, one for each direction. But the road signs are tiny. And yesterday, a truck obviously missed his blue arrow to return to his side and was coming straight towards us!!

Their way of dealing with traffic lights is interesting too!! The lights have the number of seconds clocking down. As soon as the red light gets to below 7, traffic starts to nudge forward, and often actually take off well before it’s turned green. The trick is not to get to the front of the line or you get hooted at for not taking off on red!!! On the other hand, as soon as the green starts to flash, you stop!!

As we had a few days before our Uzbekistan visa appointment, we decided to head to Issy-Kul lake and hills the next day. We first found an old, closed Russian resort called Ulan on the edge of the lake. We were invited to leave our bikes outside, slip through the torn down fence and head for the beach. It would have been quite a lovely place in its time but it was obviously still perfect for families to enjoy today, even though all the buildings were derelict and empty and weeds everywhere there had been paths. There was nowhere suitable for us to camp and no hotel. So we carried on. So far the area didn’t appeal to us much and we were wondering where we were going to end up for the night. We eventually found a local ‘resort’ which had one room left. It was an absolute oasis, full of flowers, trees, well maintained gardens. The room rate included 3 set meals. So set that at the designated times for each meal. All the tables were laid out with the starter on the plate. It felt like a canteen but it was a good deal and the food (mostly) good.

The next day, we were going to head for the hills and camp, but we both had bad necks, I had a bad headache and we decided it wasn’t worth camping in that state if we could stay another night. We could and did!! We liked the fact that we were the only foreigners there. Unfortunately, we have found our interactions with Kyrgyz folk very limited – they are a lot more reserved, timid, scared or baffled, we’re not sure.

We set off Monday for Bishkek, via an unknown loop so that we could get more off road experience. Looking a Google earth looked a little daunting but I was up for the challenge. The scenery was stunning. But the winds!! Oh my goodness, I got blown right across the road at one point. No wonder I’m getting arm and stomach muscles!! We came across the most beautiful stream and I stopped. Big mistake. I just managed to stay up, but couldn’t take off again as taking my left foot off the ground to put the bike in gear would have had me blown over. All Anthony could do was wait patiently until I was ready to take off again. So I am afraid I have very few photographs, except when it wasn’t gusting and I could take them on the move like many I have taken so far (my years of traveling out bush in a 4 wheel drive and taking lots of photos while driving to show Anthony when I got home have come in handy on this trip!!).

The drive was stunning, through the mountains, very little traffic, few power lines. And the road? Well…..it was all tar and perfect!!! It also meant we missed the 30 kms of road works we’d had on the way over. Lucky once again. Although we didn’t get the practice we were after.

Back in Bishkek for 2 nights and a day to collect the Uzbekistan visa. That all worked perfectly. But the rest of the time was not much fun as I alluded to in the opening paragraph – must have been the minced meat we had in various forms at the resort… We’re pretty much back to normal and should be on our slow way to Tashkent tomorrow, heading south and then west, arriving there in a week or so. Can’t wait for more camping!!!!!!!

– Anne

16 year old Kyrgyz girls

16 year old Kyrgyz girls

Issyk-Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan, with the snow capped mountains in the background

Issyk-Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan, with the snow capped mountains in the background

Issyk-Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan

Issyk-Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan

Typical road side fruit stands in Kyrgyzstan

Typical road side fruit stands in Kyrgyzstan

Our home for the night on Issyk-Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan

Our home for the night on Issyk-Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan

Ocean Beach resort garden on Issyk-Kul lake

Ocean Beach resort garden on Issyk-Kul lake

On our back road loop from Balykchy, Kyrgyzstan

On our back road loop from Balykchy, Kyrgyzstan

Mountains south of Balykchy, Kyrgyzstan as we headed for our back road loop - the wind gusts there were some of the stongest we've ever experienced

Mountains south of Balykchy, Kyrgyzstan as we headed for our back road loop – the wind gusts there were some of the stongest we’ve ever experienced

We bought one of those smoked yellowfish from this road side stand as we left Issyk-Kul lake

We bought one of those smoked yellowfish from this road side stand as we left Issyk-Kul lake

Enjoying our yellow fish on our way back to Bishkek. It was so delicious - thank goodness for wet wipes to clean our hands before heading off again!

Enjoying our yellow fish on our way back to Bishkek. It was so delicious – thank goodness for wet wipes to clean our hands before heading off again!