Mar 18

“Welcome to Uzbekistan” (Destination: Fergana, Uzbekistan)

Fri, Oct 25, 2013

An early start with 7:00 breakfast and 8:00 departure since the process of getting into Uzbekistan is quite time consuming. We drove for a couple hours, stopping to get diesel since that type of gasoline is not always available in Uzbekistan. We drove through the city of Osh, the oldest city on the Silk Route.

Getting stamped out of Kyrgyzstan was relatively painless. Then we walked to the Uzbek side. It took about 3 hours to get into Uzbekistan. The original passport control and visa check took about 1/3 of this time. Here they checked the visa that cost me $160 to obtain. It was only $65 for the non-Americans on the trip. Next was filling out two identical forms for customs including the amount of each currency and value of electronics.  Apparently, they haven’t heard of carbon paper here. Then we stood in line while an official hand typed the info from the form into a computer but most of this time was him trying to pronounce my name. Next was the fun part. We were all questioned about our computers, books, phones, and cameras. There were specifically looking for two banned materials – pornography and Christian missionary materials. The guard started looking through the photos on my memory card and I warned him that there were 3,000 photos there. He looked at about 500 of them and then returned the camera since he didn’t find any banned items. He did spend more time looking at the photos on Anna’s camera phone. A day earlier, we had visited a cotton field and took some photos of workers there. In Uzbekistan, there are many items that are banned from being photo’d – this includes anything military, police, governmental structures (bridges, dams, etc.), and anything industrial or worker related. They verified that she didn’t take the photos in Uzbekistan and gave her a warning not to take pictures of any workers here. Heading to Uzbekistan? Read about Uzbekistan Travel and Visa Tips.

Uzbekistan is only one of two “double land locked” countries in the world, meaning you have to pass through at least 2 countries to get to an ocean or major sea. Can you name the other? Clue: it’s in Europe.

We set back our clocks by an hour. That means it will be get dark around 5pm each day. We picked up our local guide and went through another passport check before we were officially in Uzbekistan. We drove a little while and then stopped for lunch near a sunflower field. It’s interesting that just upon crossing the border even the crops are a bit different from Kyrgyzstan. We were in the Fergana Valley, the most fertile area of Uzbekistan.


We continued to the city of Fergana – the youngest city in Uzbekistan. Our hotel, Club 777 Hotel was quite nice. We had a large room with a balcony and plenty of hot water in the shower. Here we traded a bit of money on the black market. The bank rate is 2100 Som per dollar but on the black market, you can get about 30% more. But, there is a problem that the largest common note is only 1,000 (about 40 cents) so for my $50, I got a stack of bills that was about 2 inches thick. I’m going to need a larger wallet!

For dinner, the group was going to a restaurant with a fixed menu but I wasn’t in the mood for alot of food or doing the group thing so I headed off for a restaurant suggested by the Lonely Planet. However, that place was dead so I was looking for a place that seemed popular with the locals. I came across a lady selling some salads on the street so I bought a couple salads from here for about 75 cents. So yummy – vinegar, dill, and other spices. One of the salads was cabbage and carrot and the other was cauliflower and carrot. Also of interest in Fergana, there were a couple places in town with lighted fountain shows with music.

Steps: 13,608

Sat, Oct 26

I woke up a little early due to the time zone change so I went for an hour walk around town. The hotel breakfast was excellent – eggs, fruits, dried fruits, walnuts, several cheeses and meats. At 9:00, our taxis arrived. We had a comfortable 3 passengers per taxi that would be driving us to Tashkent today so I rode with Mindy and Sam.

Shortly after leaving Fergana city, we stopped in the town of Margilon at the famous silk factory there. The most famous silk on the silk road historically came from this city. Surprisingly, Uzbekistan is currently the 3rd largest silk producer in the world. At the factory, we saw all the steps in the process to produce silk, including extracting the threads from the cocoons, to dying, to weaving the fabrics. I was offered a ripe persimmon from the garden of the silk factory. I don’t think I’ve ever had this fruit before and it was nice. I’ll have to buy some more while they are in season here.

We continued driving to Kokand, driving thru a city called “Bagdad”. Kokand is the last city in the Fergana valley before crossing the pass to Tashkent and is home to the palace of the last Khan. In the late 1800’s, a Khan build this 100+ room palace for himself and his 40 concubines. Less than 3 years later, the Russians took over the country and the Khan was exiled. Most of the palace has been ruined by Russian control and an earthquake, but a portion of the palace remains and has been restored. We toured this part.

Our local guide took us to a restaurant for lunch but I took a short walk and stopped in a couple shops. I bought a new pair of sunglasses – my third pair of the trip. The last pair was too loose and kept on falling off my head after my mishap in Kashgar (tripping near a ferris wheel).
The drive to Tashkent was long. It was supposed to be over a beautiful pass but all we saw was fog and snow. Sam, Mindy, and I had blasting techno music for the 5 hour drive and the car seemed to have some problems. The gasoline meter had been on empty for the whole trip and at one point the car seemed to shut down. The driver had stopped at a couple gas stations that didn’t seem to have the type of gas he needed. Luckily, we found a station with gas and made it to Tashkent, the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan, by 7:00. Anna, Barb, Chris, Bruce, Judy, and I stopped at a Lavash restaurant and I had a hearty chicken stew and tea.

Steps: 15,061

Mar 18

Central Asia City Life (Destination: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)

Mon, Oct 21, 2013

Today I was back on cook group, meaning I had to get up early to help prepare breakfast. It was stressful with 3 roles to fill – making and cleaning up breakfast, taking down the tent, and having to pack all of the luggage in the truck at the same time. We had about 4 hours driving to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. We stopped along the way to take pictures of a small mosque. We had noticed that all the mosques in the small towns looked the same with a silver dome. Our guide said these have been built in the last 4 years – paid for by a Saudi prince who wanted every village in Kyrgyzstan to have its own mosque.

We also entered Kazakhstan for about 30 seconds – there is a river that makes the border between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and the main highway from Lake Issyk Kul to Bishkek had 2 bridges over this river. Between the 2 bridges was a big fence of barbed wire on both sides of the road. This is the closest I’ll get to visiting Kazakhstan on this trip. We were originally supposed to spend 4 days there but an earlier trip had some problems getting Kazakh visas so we will be taking a different route (and saving about $100 in visa costs).

We arrived at the great Asia Mountain Hotel in Bishkek – we had a suite – a sitting room with flat screen TV, sofa, desk, and fridge. A large bathroom, and a bedroom. In the afternoon, Chris, Barb, Anna, and I set out to get our laundry done. The Russian lady didn’t want to take it because they were very busy, but we paid a 50% “express” fee. We continued to Tsum, the huge state department store that is much unlike other department stores. Rather than one big store, it was a collection of dozens of individual stores that sold everything from shoes, perfumes, cell phone covers, and ovens. Much of the top floor was souvenirs – it was overwhelming how much stuff was there.

For dinner, most of the group went to Steinbrau brewhaus – a German restaurant and bar. I was hoping for an Oktoberfest like atmosphere but it was pretty dead on a Monday night. It wasn’t a very good value – about $10 for some so-so sausage and sauerkraut and a beer with alot of foam in the glass.  Then the bill came and somehow the amount we calculated vs their number meant we were $30 short – ridiculous.

Steps: 17,097

Tues, Oct 22

Breakfast was included with at the hotel and it was by far the best breakfast of the trip – lots of different finger foods, yogurt, fruit, juice, etc. Most of the group needed to go to the Uzbek embassy to get their visas today, but 4 of us already had gotten them in our own countries so we had a full day free in the city. Barb and I set off walking towards the Osh bazaar – the largest market in town. Along the way, we stopped at several shops and took pictures of the government buildings.

The market was huge but we stuck to the northern part that included souvenirs and local dress. The prices here were better than all the other souvenirs we’d seen so far, but there was a smaller selection. I bought a couple gifts. After the bazaar, we headed back to the center of town, stopping at a couple bakeries for treats and stopping at several parks and governmental buildings. We stopped at Tsum again to buy the things we hadn’t bought yesterday or at the Osh Bazaar. Then we went to Victory Park where several weddings were going on – complete with stretch limos, accordions, champagne, videographers, and even a man with 3 white doves in a cage. We ended the long day of walking by picking up our laundry. It’s amazing the small pleasures of traveling – like fresh, dry, machine washed clothes. With bush camping, one night stays, and some hotels that don’t offer laundry services, this was the first time I hadn’t had to wear dirty or hand washed clothes in nearly a month! We hung out in our suite and had show and tell with all the things we bought today. Rich, Barb, Anna, and I had some salads at a Turkish restaurant for dinner.

Steps: 25,998

Mar 18

Incredible views (Destination: Western Kyrgyzstan)

Wed, Oct 23, 2013

Another nice breakfast and 8:00 departure from Bishkek. It was a LONG day of driving and I think the extremely long walking in flip flops on cement yesterday meant I felt very achy all day. The views were good but it was cloudy most of the day. The most interesting things that happened all day is that we stopped at a gas station where we prepared and made our lunch while a few locals watched.

We passed thru a 2 Km long one-way tunnel. This tunnel is famous due to an accident that happened a few years ago. A car crashed in the tunnel and blocked traffic. The truck drivers kept their trucks idling and several people died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
In the afternoon, we stopped for a toilet break (in the bushes) and 3 generations of Kyrgyz men came by (Grandpa, 2 sons, and a grandson). They saw us searching for campfire wood and joined it. We took pictures of the family and especially grandpa who was wearing one of the traditional hats.

We got into a so-so campsite just before dark. It was next to a river but it was very used and very littered. It was very windy and just slightly sprinkling. I was still on cook group so we made a spicy chicken curry and rice. As we prepared the dinner, there was a wild jackal hanging around the campsite and I wanted a photo but I didn’t see him again after he was shoed away from the camp. After dinner, there were lots of leftovers – like I’ve hypothesized, we are getting more and more food the longer the trip goes on. In the early days, there was barely enough for seconds and now everyone has seconds plus there’s loads of leftovers. Since it was too windy to have a campfire so some of us sat in the truck to stay warm before bed.

Steps: 5,908 (the least of the trip – result of riding in the truck and cook group which keeps me too busy.)

Thurs, Oct 24

It was surprisingly warm (48 degrees) and not windy at all this morning – great camping/sleeping weather. I slept close to 10 hours last night! I wasn’t particularly looking forward to today after yesterday’s long drive but today ended up being one of the best days of the trip so far.
The morning drive was spectacular. We were driving along the Naryn river – the longest river in Kyrgyzstan. This particular river was dammed and the bright greenish blue water filled a canyon as the walls of the canyon reflected in the beautifully clean water. I couldn’t stop taking pictures from the truck as we drove along.

We stopped at the dam to take pictures and buy treats. A picture of the dam appears on the 100 som currency note here.

We needed bread for our lunch so we stopped in a town near the Uzbek border in the western part of the country. We only spent about 20 minutes here but people were so friendly here – encouraging that we take their picture and buy their goodies and we did – we tried the local ice cream, sour cheese balls, fried bread filled with onions or potatoes, etc.

We stopped for lunch in the fields shortly after. There was a cotton field nearby and harvest was going on. We went to have a look and the owner of the field was there and spoke English so he told us a bit about the process. He said he got about $1 for a kilogram (2.2 lbs.) of raw cotton. Ladies were picking out the seeds – such as laborious process.

We stopped for a bush camp by midafternoon. We were trying to camp as close to the Uzbek border in the city of Osh without having to stay in a hotel in Osh. We found a nice place in an open flood plain over a river. We stayed just about the flood line. Below the flood plain was some amazing, varied cracked earth.

In the far distance, I could see a lake so I decided to have a walk to see sunset at the lake. I first walked over to the river to walk along the banks. The earth was cracked all the way to the banks of the river. There were lots of birds around but they seemed to all fly away before I could get close. As I got closer to the lake, I could see the river cut across into the hill. I went over to go around the river but there was a stream going into the river. I could see the earth was cracked here but it looked a little wetter. A few steps on was a little spongy. The next two steps put me deep in the mud. I tried to get my feet out and discovered I was in quicksand! I remembered my survival skills and laid over the prior steps with my body to spread my weight.  I pulled my right foot out of the mud and tried to do the same with my left but it was stuck. I had to take my shoe off to get my foot out. I had to save the shoe because it was my only pair of closed toe shoes for hiking so I pried the shoe out. There was about 3 inches of mud on the outer sides of the shoe but none on the top. I hurried away from the spot and abandoned my effort to make it to the lake. Near the quick sand, I discovered some dead, dried shrimp. I think they were lake shrimp that got trapped in the flood. Shortly thereafter, I noticed the first of a couple dozen bubbling mud springs. I don’t think these were hot boiling mud pots. They were very picturesque and there were some strange tiny pink plants near the mud pots. I stopped by some small ponds to photograph the sunset which was nice.

We started the birthday celebration for Barb a day early. Barb is my daytime seatmate and often we do sightseeing and hiking together.  Her birthday is tomorrow. Tomorrow we’d be crossing the border and staying in a hotel – it will be a long day and difficult to celebrate a birthday. Our drivers will need to leave overnight to drive our truck to Tashkent. Apparently, there is a mountain pass in Uzbekistan that is too dangerous/heavy to take the truck with the passengers. Instead the truck will be empty and we will be in taxi cabs for that portion.

Before dinner, I made some hot apple cider for the group. I had some leftover money so I bought 2 large jars of cider in town today. Since I’m missing a whole season in the US, I’m reminiscing for things I will miss in autumn and hot apple cider is one of them. We’ve driven past several turkeys in the Kyrgyz countryside and every time I think of Thanksgiving which I’ll miss.
We had a awesome dinner of lasagna and salad. We followed this by birthday cake and a fireworks show in the desert!

Steps: 18,305

Mar 18

North of Lake (Destination: Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan)

Sat, Oct 19, 2013

Today is the official half way point of my Overland tour. It seems hard to believe the heat of Nepal was just 4.5-6 weeks ago as we are fully into autumn now. Despite the cold weather, I am thoroughly enjoying Kyrgyzstan. It was 34 degrees in the room as I woke up this morning but freezing outside. After breakfast, it took about 2 hours to come down the hill from Altyn Arashan to the Karakol town. We stopped for a short break at a bridge on the way down where I picked some ripe wild strawberries and took pictures of some delicate wildflowers.

In Karakol, we had to transfer all our stuff from the Russian monster trucks to our Overland truck. Then we had almost 2 hours free to get lunch and do some shopping in town for the next few days. I tried several of the local foods and the market/bazaar for lunch including a hot pocket filled with onions and something that I’d describe as a cold salsa soup with 2 types of noodles.

For dessert, I went to a little local bakery for a small slice of pecan pie. I feel pretty bloated from the huge meals lately but my pants are still a little looser than when I left home in September. At the supermarket, I bought a bottle of highly rated “Babushka” vodka for a little over $2. It came in a purple bottle with butterflies carved in the bottle so it must be good. I might be lugging this bottle all the way back to Seattle.

We drove for a couple hours thru some darling little towns with Russian style homes with wooden door and window frames.

The views of Lake Issyk Kul, the snowcapped mountains, and yellow and red leaves of the trees are great. We made our way to our bush camp which was in the trees and a short walk from the beach. Since there were a couple hours of daylight, I put on my shorts and flip flops and Barb and I went for a walk on the beach.

There were some nice reflecting ponds and the sunset was amazing.

As I walked back to camp, I watched the huge orange full moon rise over the mountains.

It was getting chilly now that the sun was down and returning to camp meant wading thru a couple creeks that were ankle deep. It was good to get back and put on pants and socks and sit by the fire.

Dinner was “Pasta with red sauce and veggie surprise” which someone joked the surprise is there’s no meat.

 
Steps: 16,667

Sun, Oct 20

It was shockingly cold in the morning with frost on the ground so I stayed in bed until 8:45. We had a relaxed breakfast of pancakes and stewed apples and then about an hour free to laze around the camp. Upon departure, we could walk up the road to pick up wood while the truck made its way thru some low trees. I saw and photo’d another one of the strange red squirrels with crazy ears and then Barb and I saw a man on a donkey cart. When we asked if we could take his photo, he actually hopped off the cart and let us have our photo taken – so different from Tibet/China where they would just ask for money.

We drove to Cholpon-Ata, which the lonely planet describes as the “Cancun of Central Asia” but the town was dead since their season ends in September. The beaches were empty and the roller coaster, Ferris wheel, and power boats were silent. We stopped at a local market which would normally be buzzing but there was a festival today so only a few shops were open. Some people bought some locally made liquor, honey, and smoked fish.

We had lunch at the end of a deserted airport runway and then visited the petroglyphs outside of town. These ancient rock carvings were 1000-2500 years old. Most of them depicted animal and hunting scenes.

We drove a little bit further and found another lovely bush camp site along the northern shore of Lake Issyk Kul. After setting up, I went for a short walk and found a nice sunny spot to sit on the beach. Dinner was chicken grilled on the fire with salad, potatoes, and beets. It seems like the longer this trip goes on, the larger the meals

We had another incredible sunset and sunrise here.

Steps: 13,643

Mar 18

Hot & Cold (Destination: Karakol & Altyn Arashan)

Wed, Oct 16, 2013

We drove to the city of Karakol, arriving before lunchtime. We were staying in a really lovely B&B and somehow I lucked out and got my own room decked out in princess pink! The B&B had a huge flower garden and we seemed to be the only ones staying there since the high tourist season has ended.

I did an afternoon walking tour of the town. I first stopped at the local zoo. Although there were ugly cages between me and the animals, the animals seemed to be taken care of very well. The animals were those that are frequently seen in the area, including the Asian brown bear, wolves, lynx, golden eagles, camels, wild boars, and owls. Interestingly, the only non-native animals in the zoo were a couple monkeys and a few alpacas – not sure why they made the cut.

I then walked thru the big city park towards the town. There was a small amusement park there and like the one in Kashgar, it seemed quite run down and not used much, except the pool and ping-pong tables. While in the park, I saw the weirdest squirrel ever with big ears like a rabbit and one blind eye. It was storing large acorns for the winter – it seems that everyone in Kyrgyzstan is doing the same – preparing for winter.

Next, I continued to the cathedral – a beautiful wooden Russian orthodox church that reminded me of some I saw in Siberia last year.

I stopped in the local tourist information office and looked at the maps and the souvenirs, followed by a trip to the Chinese mosque – a mosque that looked much like the typical architecture of China.

I returned to the B&B by late afternoon and unfortunately, the internet wasn’t working on my computer even though it seemed to work for everyone else so I took a really hot shower – this may be the last shower for the next 5 days as we will be staying in a mountain hut and camping the next 4 nights.

Most of the group hung out in the B&B’s breakfast food and snacked on sweet corn nuts, peanuts, and raisins. Then eight of us walked to town had dinner at the Lonely Planet recommendation of Fakir Cafe. I had Roasted fish with vegetables and buckwheat – they like their oil, salt, and dill here.

Steps: 31,074

Thurs, Oct 17

Breakfast was at 9:00 but I was up a little early and wanted to check out the animal market. However, the gate to the B&B was locked so I went back to bed. We had a huge, strange breakfast of spaghetti with veggie sauce and an apple sponge cake.

Then the Russian monster trucks picked us up at the B&B – we loaded all our gear except for the tents and headed for the mountains southeast of Karakol. These monster trucks each have room for 14 passengers and lots of gear. They are military style trucks with 4 huge tires. On the way out of town, we stopped at the Russian Orthodox cathedral since most of the group hadn’t visited there the day before.
There were a couple of times we were scared for our lives driving up the hill – these monster trucks drove over some huge rocks.

We arrived in the small settlement of Altyn Arashan just before lunch. This is an alpine refuge with natural hot springs.

Our rooms were non-heated dormitories with loose spring beds and a thin mattress. I was glad I brought my sleeping bag and mat, as well as the fuzzy baby blanket I bought in China which is now affectionately nicknamed “wolfie”. After lunch, the cook group was about to make pumpkin soup for dinner, but I asked if I could carve a jack-o-lantern first since Halloween is just 2 weeks from today. Lincoln lent me his big knife he bought in Nepal – a “Gerkin” knife. I also scooped out the seeds and made some roasted pumpkin seeds with a little bit of oil and salt on the fire – they were a hit – all of them were eaten before dinner.

I was a bit bored by midafternoon so I headed out for a short walk in the valley. It started to rain shortly thereafter so I headed back to the alpine house and on the way I finally saw my first wildlife in Kyrgyzstan – a rabbit and later a white mink-like animal with a black tip on its tail that was so cute – it almost looked like a miniature polar bear. It had appeared to have caught a mouse and was ducking and hiding it from me.  Note: after further research we discovered this is a stoat, with its white winter coat.

I went to the hot springs after that were I joined with 9 others. I sat in the hot tub for close to 2 hours, having a beer which went straight to my head. After the tub, I dressed and went to the dining room where there was quite a little party going on – dancing by candlelight in the only warm room at the house. They had broken into the Mars Bar vodka – a concoction that was made earlier that day – melted Mars Bars, cream, and vodka. Someone had also made some hot Grulwein – the German drink with heated wine and spices. What a great drink for a cold autumn night. This was followed by good bread and pumpkin/potato soup which really warmed the tummy as it was snowing outside. We danced for a while in the dining room (warm room) and then went to bed, with about 1/2 inch of snow at bedtime.

Steps: 10,638

Fri, Oct 18

There was close to an inch of snow on the ground when we woke but in the morning sun it was melting quickly. It was so cold in the drafty outer room that Barb, Chris, and I shared but at breakfast we found out the other larger dorm rooms that shared a wall with the stove were too hot last night.

After a breakfast of French Toast (the non-Americans all call this “Eggy Bread”), about half of the group set off on a hike to what our Kyrgyz guide called “Three Lakes” that was to be about a 4 hour round trip hike. In the morning, the hike was 100% in the snow, with the snow getting deeper the higher we rose in elevation. After an hour and a half, half of the group dropped out of the hike and decided to make a snowman. The rest of us continued.

Shortly thereafter, we saw a small pond and thought that surely this must not be the lake and we saw one pond and a couple dry ones so we continued further in snow that was now about 6 inches deep. After another hour, we saw something on a ridge that looked like it could be a glacial lake. The closer and closer we got, the steeper and more difficult the hike looked. Added to this, I had just worn a single pair of socks and mesh shoes and my shoes were quite wet and cold hiking in the snow, so I turned around, planning to follow the footprints in the snow back and check out the pond area to determine if this was the 3 lakes.

It was amazing how much snow had melted between the ascent and descent of the mountain. The snow was nearly completely melted leaving a muddy, slippery track. I went to the pond and found that there were in fact 3 ponds with water in them – certainly the 3 lakes the guide had told us about. I got back to the house around 3:00 and had a quick lunch of leftover pumpkin soup from the night before. Then I headed down to the hot spring for a nice, long soak.
Before dinner, we hung out in the warm dining room by candlelight. Today was Phil’s birthday so there was a special dinner – BBQ grilled leg of lamb with gravy, roasted potatoes, buttery carrots, and fried red cabbage. We were so stuffed we saved the surprise birthday cake for the following night.

Steps: 26,153

Mar 18

The Eagle Hunter of Kyrgyzstan (Graphic Content)

Warning! This post has graphic content so stop unless you want to see the untimely death of a bunny!

You could tell the Eagle Hunter loved his eagle.
Our tour group had to provide the bunny. Here it sits not knowing what’s about to happen to it.
Meanwhile, the Eagle Hunter climbs the hill with the eagle and then releases it.
It only takes the eagle seconds to fly from the top of the hill and catch the bunny.
The talons instantly kill the bunny and the eagle digs in.
Even though the eagle wants to eat the bunny, it obeys it’s master.
The eagle still wants more rabbit.
Finally the Eagle Hunter demonstrates the skills of the eagle.

Mar 18

Cold Feet and Warm Hearts (Destination: Kochkor & Jeti Oguz, Kyrgyzstan)

Sun, Oct 13, 2013

It was 30 degrees in the yurt when we awoke. It wasn’t that cold though, since we all had a sleeping bag + two large duvet covers. We had another awesome breakfast at the Yurt camp – crumpets with strawberry and cream and a custardy egg dish. We were supposed to leave at 8:00 but the cold weather had frozen the diesel line, so a few of us decided to walk towards the main road and get picked up when the truck was functioning. We walked until about 10:00 thru the beautiful canyon before our pick-up. The first hour of roads were very good but then we had very bumpy roads for the remainder of the day. We stopped for lunch at a roadside kebab grill where we could eat the truck food (spam, cheese, veggies, and awful sweet 5-day old Chinese bread) or have some mutton skewers. I’m not a fan of mutton so I had a spam salad.


We arrived in Kochkor by mid-afternoon where we visited a women’s cooperative that makes goods made from felt. We all participated in the making of a small felt rug (about 1 foot x 1 foot). It took us about an hour to make the little rug… to think that they make whole yurts using this same process is crazy. We continued to our homestay in the town. Our group was split between 3 local houses, with the rooms all decked out in colorful felt rugs.

The tour group had arranged for local live pre-dinner music. We all joined in the largest of the 3 homestays for an hour of Kyrgyz music with 4 musicians – an older gentleman and women along with 2 teenage girls. There were group songs and solos with the girls playing the local 3 string instruments, the woman played a couple types of mouth harps, and the guy played the accordion. The guy was really cheeky and had us laughing alot.

We had a nice homemade dinner of meat in gravy, rice, barley, salad, and lentil soup followed by cookies and candies (this seems to be the common dessert here). I returned to our home for the night and had my first shower in a few days and it was semi-hot!
Steps: 13,184

Mon, Oct 14

It was nice to wake up in a nice warm bed. We had breakfast of pancakes, dried fruit, fresh fruit, jam, honey, and yogurt at our homestay. We had an hour of free time in the town of Kochkor since people needed to obtain Kyrgyz Som currency (using the ATM was easy), we needed to shop for food for the next few nights of camping, and unfortunately one of the passengers needed to visit the local clinic because he had been feeling very ill. Due to heavy coughing, they did a chest x-ray which cost him about $2.

We spent most of the day driving along the southern shore of Lake Issyk Kul, the 2nd largest alpine lake in the world after Lake Titicaca. Just before lunch, we had the opportunity to watch an eagle hunter. This is a Kyrgyz tradition. We got to meet the hunter and he explained the sport. He let us all hold the eagle after we donned a long leather glove. The golden eagle was heavy – over 12 pounds. While holding the eagle, the eagle was wearing a leather hat that covered it’s eyes to prevent too much stimulation. We had arranged to “buy” a rabbit that would be prey for the eagle. A boy let a rabbit free in a grass field and the eagle hunter climbed a nearby hill, unmasked the eagle and let her fly. The eagle soared down and caught the rabbit in the first try, and immediately started to tear it apart. After the eagle had its fill of rabbit, the eagle hunter had the eagle

To see the Graphic Story of the eagle hunter, see here.

After lunch, we had a long drive to Jeti Oguz (Djety Oguz).  We happened to cross another overland truck from the Dragoman company on the way. We stopped at the roadside and chatted and shared tips since we were going opposite directions.

Jeti Oguz is a gorge on the south end of Lake Issyk Kul. We drove by the 7 bulls rock formation on the way into the gorge, as well as crossed 4 wooden bridges that are narrow and not super strong, so the passengers all needed to walk across them to lighten the load of the truck.

We found a really nice grassy spot in the trees to lower the windiness at the campsite, as we knew it would be really cold overnight. There were many signs of a busy campsite in summertime (bare spots in the grass where yurts have been, fire pits, potty tents, etc.) but we are visiting at the absolute end of the season and seem to be the only people camping on this night.

The temps were actually pretty mild. We had chicken curry for dinner and I hung out until it started sprinkling and then went to bed.

Steps: 8,744

Tues, Oct 15

I was on cook group today so I needed to get up earlier than most so I could serve breakfast at 9:00. This was the first time of the trip we were bush camping at the same place for two nights in a row so this was a hot breakfast morning. We prepared toast, bacon, and fried eggs for the group.

Immediately after breakfast, Mindy, Sam, Barb, and I headed out on our day hike. We had heard disagreeing info on how close we would get to a glacier – possibly reach the glacier vs. just having a view that was 15-20 Km away from the glacier. We walked uphill thru the gorge for a couple hours before seeing the glacier. It’s amazing how green everything is here and lots of pine trees too. This is the most greenery we’ve seen since Nepal over a month ago.

We knew our time was somewhat limited due to the late start this morning but we decided to go as close to the glacier as possible by 2:30 before we’d have to turn around. We had our lunch overlooking the glacier and then we separated – Barb and Sam headed up the hill, Mindy waited at the junction of 2 rivers, and I crossed the two rivers to try to approach the glacier from the other direction. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to make it to the glacier. I’m sure it’s a one day trip if a person left earlier in the day.

I returned to the meeting spot by 2:30 but Barb and Sam weren’t there. Since I was on the opposite side of the river, Mindy agreed to wait for them and I started back to camp. After over an hour of walking, I passed by a yurt with a horse outside. This was unusual because all the other yurts had been abandoned for the winter. A young man came outside and once again, I was invited in for hot tea as a break from the hiking.   He let me dry my feet by his small horse dung stove.  He had limited English so communication was limited but I found out he had studied forestry, was 25 years old and lived there alone until November when he would move down to the city. It was a very basic tent, and he was listening to the radio while serving stale bread and had put out an apple and knife. Much more basic than the lady with an assortment of homemade jams and butter.

Eventually, we met up with Barb and Sam who had hiked high on a hill to view the glacier from above. After some very fast hiking, we arrived back at camp just before 6:00. Dinner was potatoes baked on the campfire with toppings like baked beans, cheese, and sautéed sausage and veggies. For the first time, we had a dessert of bread pudding made with raisins purchased in Kashgar.

Steps: 40,269
Wed, Oct 16

We weren’t leaving until 9:30 and I was awake a bit early so I had a 40 minute walk along the river before breakfast. After breakfast, since we were packed a bit early, we were allowed to walk a bit and get picked up by the truck on the way out of the gorge. We crossed the same 4 bridges where we had to get off the truck and walk across, having a group photo taken at the last bridge.
On the way out of the gorge, we stopped at two famous rock formations that have local legends for them. One is the “Seven Bulls” and the other was the “Broken Heart”. Both were formations of very red rocks, similar to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

Mar 18

Tash Rabat, Kyrgyzstan (Tea, a Drink with Jam and Bread)

Fri, Oct 11, 2013

Something happened yesterday that is causing problems today… at the amusement park (Ferris wheel) yesterday, in my excitement, I tripped on a pipe that contained electrical wires. In an attempt to protect my camera which was hanging around my neck, I bumped my knees, elbows, and most significantly my chin on the cement pavement. I was fortunate not to get hurt worse or break a tooth or bone. However, this morning I have a big black and purple bruise on my chin about the size of a quarter. Surprisingly, it doesn’t really hurt much but I’ll be sporting this bruise for a while.

Anyways, it is our last morning in China so I went out and got some local bread and juice for breakfast before we left at 9:30. After a nice drive, we arrived at China departure around 11:15. The officials checked us all out of China but then we had over 100 Km drive to exit China…the road got worse and worse the closer we got to Kyrgyzstan and took forever as we went thru several checkpoints. I think this will be my last trip to China – after visiting Beijing and Xian last year and Tibet and western China, I’ve seen most of the important sites and I’ve decided China is just too frustrating, regimented, expensive, and crowded for me to want to visit again. Near the border, we crossed over the infamous Tougart Pass, the most famous pass in Central Asia.

After a couple miles after the final Chinese checkpoint, we crossed thru Kyrgyzstan immigration. What a breath of fresh air. It only took them about 15 minutes to check us and the truck thru and visas for all of us were free (compare that to the 6 days of red tape + $225 visa fee to get into China). The lady at immigration looked at my picture and then looked at my bruised chin and pointed. I made a falling motion with my hand. Our Kyrgyz guide was also standing there and asked if I was drunk when I fell but I told him unfortunately I was sober.

We gained 2 hours from the time change at the border. The landscape changed almost immediately. The air cleared up – no smog and dust like in China. There was a stunning blue-green lake right over the border and we stopped for a late lunch there. Since we were at such high elevations, it was close to freezing with the wind chill at mid-day. The guide said that they had had their first snow of the winter season last night. The mountains were beautiful and there was very few homes – the homes that we did see were in sort of gypsy homes (a railway car on wheels) as these people are nomadic with their animals.

We drove for a couple hours to Tash Rabat, a small settlement of yurts near a Caravanserai (an ancient stone hotel for people and animals on the old silk road). In addition to running yurt stays and meals for tourists, these are also working nomadic farms with lots of livestock (sheep, goats, cows, yaks, and horses). We had some free time so I looked around the Caravanserai and hiked up the canyon hill to a saddle where I was hoping to see the sunset but instead there was another big hill but really great views of the surrounding mountains.

Since Tash Rabat is at 3,600 meters it gets quite cold at night so I headed to the dinner tent to warm up before dinner. What an amazing dinner spread we had – several types of bread, a cucumber and tomato salad, meat and noodle soup, potato/cabbage/meat stew, a type of tomato/garlic salsa, strawberry jam, honey covered bread pieces, and lots of fresh tea. After dinner, we joined the other half of our group and had a meeting to learn about the itinerary for the next 2 weeks in Kyrgyzstan.

We returned to our yurt with our charcoal and yak dung fireplace and it was roasting – it had to be about 100 degrees inside – and earlier in the day we were worried about how cold we’d be on this “camping” night in the mountains. It’s amazing how warm it is with just a single stove and the heavy felt interior to hold in the heat. It was so hot, we opened the felt door half way to get a better sleeping temperature.

Steps: 12,566

Sat, Oct 12

We were told that the temperature was as low as 9 degrees F overnight and there was not new animal dung added to our stove after night began so it was really cold in the tent that morning. Today was a free day in Tash Rabat. Most people were planning on horse-riding today, but since I’m allergic to horses, I planned on heading out on a hike. Breakfast at 8:00 was a few pancakes, bread, and homemade jams. By 9:30, I headed out with Bruce and Judy for a hike up the canyon from Tash Rabat. They were planning on returning to the yurt camp for lunch but I had a huge breakfast and an apple along for my lunch so I was planning on hiking most of the day.
The stream in the canyon was partially frozen – some amazing ice formations along the way. After a couple hours, I separated from the others and moved on to see how far I could get, following the stream.

At one point, the stream broke into a Y-shape and I chose the left side as the trail looked a little more well-worn. After some more hiking, I could see a mountain pass ahead so I decided to climb up to the pass to see what I could see. The climb was a bit challenging, hiking though a couple hundred yaks in some thick grass so I walked up the rocky dry creek bed.

There was a great view from the top. I took my time descending the hill and when I got to the Y in the creek, the lady that lived in the house there invited me in for tea. She also served me fresh bread with 3 types of homemade jams and home churned butter. With her limited English, I found out she was 29 (she looked older). Her darling daughter and son were 5 and 3 years old. If I understood her correctly, she said that her family had 300 yaks – that’s an absolute fortune worth of yaks. After 4 bowls of tea (she convinced me to have the 4th cup since I had been walking all day), I let her know that it was getting late and I needed to get back to camp so I thanked her for the tea and bread.

It took about 2 hours to walk back to the yurt camp and I went for another visit to the Caravanserai and then headed to find the warmest room at the camp to warm up after my hike. We hung out in the room until it was time for dinner.

Steps: 32,924

Look at all the other great stuff I did in Kyrgyzstan.

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Tash Rabat Kyrgyzstan

Mar 18

A wolf and sheep in sweet clothing (Destination: Kashgar, China)

Tues, Oct 8, 2013

We have a very early leaving time of 7:30 because we have 700 Kms to cover today – the most miles of the trip. I skipped the breakfast of the hotel that involved ordering and paying the night before and instead bought some Muslim bread at the local market yesterday. It was sort of like a giant bagel without a hole – very crusty and very good. I also picked up a couple weird fruits at the supermarket yesterday but they were weird and not very tasty.

The drive today was LONG and the scenery wasn’t very interesting. We have left the Gobi Desert and entered another desert in western China. By afternoon, some people started to play drinking games but they weren’t doing a very good job keeping score so I offered to help.

We arrived into Kuche city (also called Kuqa) after 6:30. We tried to use the swimming pool, but it was cold and we were forced to buy a swimming cap if we wanted to use the pool so I skipped it.

For dinner, most of the group ate at the hotel restaurant but Mindy, Sam, and I headed out to the local night market and tried some of the food there. I had a lamb meat pie, warm soft bread filled with glass noodles and pickled vegetables, a lamb skewer, and cold spicy hand carved rice noodles. Very filling and about $2.

Steps: 9,731

Wed, Oct 9

An even earlier start of 7am for the remainder of the long drive to Kashgar. This is supposed to be one of our longest drives of the trip. In the morning, we could see a large, snowcapped mountain range called Halke Shan. We spent the rest of the day crossing the Taklamakan Desert. Our biggest excitement of the day was stopping at a local market to buy local bagels and watermelon for lunch. The scenery in the afternoon was great. Although we were driving on flat lands, there was some interesting mountains with all sorts of mineral colors near the road so it stayed interesting.

We arrived at the hotel in Kashgar after 7pm. The hotel was really nice – a former Russian Consulate with extremely ornate decor in the hallways and rooms – think cement figures painted in gaudy colors and with glitter!

We had a meeting at 8:00 but it was to just get our tour T-shirts. A few of us went out to find a night market for dinner but we weren’t successful to find much so we stopped at a couple little restaurants outside the hotel. I had a chicken leg (I think it was chicken but some people thought it might be another bird – apparently pigeon meat is common here).

First prize to anyone who can identify this meat

Then we stopped to have a couple mutton steamed dumplings. I’m not too fond of the mutton meat – hopefully there will be more choice for central Asian meats.

Steps: 9,004

Thurs, Oct 10

Had my longest sleep-in of the trip by sleeping until 9:00. For breakfast, I went out on the street and got a local bagel – looks and tastes like a bagel but no hole in the middle – very good and cheap at 17 cents apiece. Barb, Anna, Chris, and I headed out on a walking trip to the local mosque. We stopped to see some camels kept in the city – since the local animal market is only on Sunday, this would be our chance to see the two humped camels today.

We stopped on the most interesting street where locals were baking, grilling, and selling all kinds of food items. We each bought a few items and shared with the group. This included:
* large baked bread shaped like a pizza crust that had a slight onion taste
* bread filled with spinach
* meat pies filled with mutton
* locally churned ice cream
* a pancake with sugar on the outside that was rolled up mutton meat
* locally grown green grapes
* a fancy coiled dessert that tasted a bit like pretzel
* a bar that was a mix of peanuts, honey, and raisins

We got to the famous yellow mosque but decided not to go inside.

We continued walking through the fascinating old part of town looking at the locals’ market which included lots of fruits, whole hanging lamb carcasses, and a whole street of hat salesmen. A long walk took us to the famous Kashgar “Sunday Market”. Although the market is largest on Sunday, it operates 7 days a week and was still very large on a Thursday afternoon. Barb and I walked aisles and aisles looking at all the dried foods, fabrics, furs, musical instruments, head scarves, shoes, etc. You can buy nearly everything here. I bought a couple gifts, a baby blanket to keep warmer when camping, and a fur neck scarf. The baby blankets were all made using remnant pieces of fleece fabric, so most of the blankets were a picture of the back end of a tiger or giraffe or a part of a big rose. I found one blanket with a whole wolf’s face so I bought it for a few dollars.

Barb and I continued to the large park in the center of the city. There was a small amusement park and we rode the Ferris wheel for some nice views of the old city and park. We bought some icy Pepsis and sat in the park for a while and then walked back towards the hotel via the large Mao statue. I stopped at the supermarket to spend my last few yuan’s and then back to the hotel to relax after a full day of walking.

I really liked Kashgar. It was an interesting city and for once, I didn’t feel like the locals were trying to overcharge us for everything. We had asked a price for a hat in another city and they quoted 450 yuan (about $75). Here, they were asking 100 yuan for the same hat. The snacks we ate all day were very cheap. The weather couldn’t have been nicer. It’s hard to believe that the hotel is in the process of closing for the winter – it was sunny and probably close to 80 degrees today.

We should be leaving China tomorrow morning and heading into Kyrgyzstan, assuming we don’t have any trouble at the border. I won’t be able to update the blog as frequently for the rest of the trip because we will be camping more with less internet access.

Steps: 30,889

Mar 18

Third Lowest Spot on Earth (Destination: Turpan, China)

Sun, Oct 6, 2013

We had an early departure at 7:30 because we have many Kms through the Gobi Desert to the next city of Turpan which will take 1.5 days of driving. Leaving Dunhuang, we saw many fields in the oasis of Dunhuang, specifically melon and cotton fields. We drove by about 20 Kms of windmills – I’ve seen alot in CA and MN and central WA but never this many in one spot. There wasn’t alot of scenery today – just dryness and an occasional mountain range. It was a day of eating junk food and sleeping on the truck.

We found a fantastic place for bush camping that night. There was an opening in the fence along the toll highway and we drove off to see what we could find. What we found was a spot surrounded by rocky mountains in a dry creek bed. Some of us climbed the surrounding hills. I took some great photos of desert wildflowers, miniature trees, and another amazing sunset.


We built a nice campfire with some dry twigs we found in the desert. Dinner was mashed combo of potatoes and sweet potatoes with chicken gumbo. The bush camp dinners have all been tasty and abundant.

Steps: 7,183

Mon, Oct 7

Had a nice sleep last night. Although it was 45 degrees, it was not windy and not wet so a far cry from the 39 degrees or less that we had in the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau. So this is what they mean by “Happy Camper”.  There was a nice sunrise and nice scenery of mountains. We passed a number of oases in the desert and lots of brick buildings with ventilation for drying raisins.

Before arriving in Turpan city, we hit the lowest point of our trip – about 40 meters BELOW sea level. There is a dried-up lake in the area that is 154 meters below sea level and the 3rd lowest spot on earth. It’s hard to believe we were over 5200 meters only a week ago – I’ve gone from my personal highest to nearly the lowest spot I’ve been. Luckily, none of us is suffering from altitude sickness nor the Bends!

We had lunch at the John’s cafe at our hotel in Turpan – a huge complex in the middle of town and the cafe roof was covered by grape vines and hanging fruits.

Barb, Anna, and I headed to the Karez center which was a museum dedicated to the working of the Karezes – irrigation systems built underground to bring up underground water that originates in the snows in the mountains to the surface of the Gobi desert. These water systems have been used for thousands of years in this area. The museum also showed us a little about local life and the grape drying process which was something we all had been curious about.

In the gift shops, I bought a pair of camel hair socks to keep me warm in the upcoming bush camps this fall. The taxi ride to the Karez was pretty short and I had remembered the way back to our hotel, so we decided to walk back.  It was a very balmy but comfortable 86 degrees.  Walking in these cities has been one of the best ways to see the local life. We went to the locals market and looked at several shops – especially those that sold fabrics and homemade goods. The Uiyger people are much different than what we think as typical Chinese – even their language is different and uses an Arabic script in writing, as they are Muslim.

Later I went for a walk to the supermarket to buy some Coke Zeros and check out the night market which was supposed to begin at 8:00. I went back to the hotel but those headed to the night market had already left. At the night market, I couldn’t find any of the group but I ran into our Chinese guide, “Rambo”. He wasn’t in the mood for street food so we went to a small local restaurant nearby. For about $3 I had a big plate of homemade noodles with beef, onions, ginger and lots of red peppers and a large beer that I shared with Rambo.

After dinner, we met up with some others near the hotel who were watching some local folks putting on a show – singers and dancers but the highlight was a little boy who was doing a Michael Jackson imitation to “Beat It”. The crotch grabs were the funniest! Tanya and I had our photo taken with the little MJ.

Steps: 21,720