4/8/19 Sun: We had to leave at 8am for the start of our trip beyond Bishkek with CBT driver Sergey, so we packed up and had pretty much the same potatoes, rice and some fruits and vegetables at the buffet breakfast. *We were reminded by Kurmanjan to charge our phones and cameras at hotels and homestays as there aren't charging ports in yurts.*
Sergey tried his best as a guide to talk to us, but as he spoke very limited English, and so it was hard communicating with him throughout, but I could still somewhat rely on the translation app I downloaded to translate texts from English to Russian (he speaks Russian mostly, not much Kyrgyz) wherever there is internet connection, and he seemed to understand much of it through that. The 38-year-old married man with one 15-years-old daughter and one 5-years-old son had been a guide for 20+ years, but only just joined CBT for a while.
Anyway, the cars on the road and the city totally reminds me of America that I've seen in the movies in the 70s and 80s! We were driving southwards towards Suusamyr valley (2200-2600m ASL), and looking at our itinerary, the amount of driving Sergey has to do was insane imo, and so he had the energy drink above and mostly "smoke-stops" (otherwise, "pee pee-stops" for us) along the way for quick puffs to boost himself up.
As we moved away from the city towards the highlands, mountains began to appear... and they come in all shapes, colours and sizes throughout our trip in Kyrgyzstan.
Sergey let us down at one point for photos and in case we needed the toilet, but gosh the stench from that small make-shift toilet there could be smell from where I stood to take the photo! Upwards we went on the four and a half hours' drive towards Kyzyl-Oi Village (1800m ASL) where our homestay was located at. I thought the sky, the clouds, the mountains, the roads and the greens looked incredible from time to time. Just before we crossed Too-Ashuu Pass (3018m ASL), Sergey dropped us at one photo point and man it was chilly! The wind was so strong that we couldn't talk much.
Next, we drove into the Too-Ashuu pass, a 2.7km long tunnel that is in the Kyrgyz Ala-Too Range of the Tien Shan mountains, and it was dark at some point and cramped too, as each side of the path could only accommodate one tanker's width at most.
We took a few more photos at another random photo point, and my nose just couldn't help it... 鼻水直流. Still, I'm in awe whenever I saw the endless snow-capped Tien Shan ranges from afar~ We stopped at another point where there was a monument in remembrance of the 1992 Suusamyr earthquake if I'm not wrong.
It drizzled along the way. As we replenished ourselves with the mineral water on the way, we soon reached CBT Karakol's office. *飞快上那里的厕所~ 因为我们都憋尿憋很久了啦！* Our homestay was only about 5 minutes' away from their office.
Ms Nasgoot, who teaches Russian and has two sons aged 18 and 8 years old, was our host. We moved into one of the rooms at her place, and there was another Belgium couple in another room. They had two big dogs as well, and other animals like cow, goats, chickens, horses etc roaming the area. *还真是有山水作依靠的住宅呢哈哈！*
The moment we stepped in, there was the toilet and wash-up area, and then we made a left turn in the living room and our room was situated on the left. Kyrgyz people seemed to have lots of carpets in their homes, making it cosy and dust-attracting at the same time. The yurt you see here was where we had our meals during our stay, and the kitchen is the building on the left. *The design of the top of the yurt is also the symbol on Kyrgyzstan's national flag.*
We had lunch first after putting our things down. A typical Kyrgyz dining table would look like that below... with lots of sweets, breads, biscuits and jams displayed... reminds me of Danish sweets somewhat haha. While we spoke to the Belgium couple and their guide who could speak decent English, he mentioned that Kyrgyz people drank hot tea all day, be it green tea or black tea. The beef and carrot soup was nice, and while we were served rice (not often on our trip) with veggies, the latter was too salty for me.
There was no internet connection in the village, and so our only point of entertainment was at the icy cold stream behind our homestay. Sergey brought us over there, and even though fishing was available on our itinerary, we did not do it.
The scenery was beautiful. It was quiet and peaceful. The afternoon sun there was not as hot either. But as we are kids from the city, it did not take long for us to get bored either haha. Though I have always loved the idea of "cutting myself off from the world, especially the online world", I do know it's not easy to pass time just by staring and doing nothing either. *I really should have brought along the Escape Room card games rawrrrr~* I began to throw stones into the stream, and then stack my own stones by the river to see how good I am with balancing them lol. Sergey was happily entertaining himself while finding stones with unique grains too. *rRandom tThought: I want to learn meditation and do it out in the wild one day!*
Near evening time, we visited a small mama shop just 100 metres away from our homestay. To our surprise, they sold many Vodkas there! *Someone told me it only costs 600 som for 1 litre of Vodka~ that's about S$12!*
YJ napped for a while in the afternoon, while Jess and I were chatting random stuff like Astrology in our room. *Funny how YJ slipped in and out of sleep, and she could hear parts of our conversation haha~*
We took a stroll in the evening, and the view was slightly different than in the afternoon as the setting sun shines brightly on the mountains... still pretty. Had cucumber and carrot salads, as well as beef and potatoes for dinner.
Stars could be seen in the sky at night, so we decided to take some photos after our showers. It was completely dark in the surrounding areas so we could not go far but stayed close to a car parked near the yurt. *It's a wonder how the elder son could still run back home from outside then... I don't even dare to walk out despite having the torch on our phones!* YJ and Jess had better cameras, and while my iPhone was pretty much useless at night lol, I managed to capture a few decent shots using Jess's Huawei phone.
We decided to turn in at 10+pm. Rather sleepless night for me as I was slightly worried about the trip ahead, especially altitude sickness as I'd never been to nor stayed long periods of time on highlands above 2800m ASL before Kyrgyzstan. *I'd been taking红景天pills one or two weeks prior to the trip, and also twice daily on the trip as it's said to help lessen the probability of altitude sickness.*
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