Backdate: Kyrgyzstan Kyzyl-Oi Village - Jumgal Valley - Song-Kol Lake Aug 2019 Day 4

5/8/19 Mon: Soon before I know it, it was dawn and I could hear the roosters' "ruthless wake-up calls". The minute I stepped out of the house, ready to slip into my maroon sneakers to go for breakfast, horror came. My left sneaker was no where to be found! Everyone around helped searched for it, and I hopped around in hope to see it lying around nearby, but alas it was not meant to be. Oh well, I recall hearing dogs barking noisily in the middle of the night though... maybe there were fighting over my shoes? Or whoever that took my shoes? The answer can never be found though, so I threw away the other sneaker and had to rely on my watershoes for the rest of the trip. *Not sure but I think Jess left her clothes hanger there too.*
Had a quick breakfast. The Belgium couple's guide taught us to mix the jam into our black tea. I tried making "peach tea" and it's nice! We set-off to Song-Kol (3016m ASL) at 9am. It looked like a desert for a while with the red sands and barren mountains surrounding us.

Sergey stopped the car in the middle of no where for his smoke-stop so we took the chance to do jumps! And yes it is YJ's birthday today! Jess and I'd planned for a birthday surprise for her together with Kurmanjan before the trip started. We took into consideration the fact that we'd be at Song-Kol, Kurmanjan mentioned that they could bake a cake for her and I was pretty surprised! Anyway, she relayed that message to Sergey and just in case he forgets or things crop up, I "discreetly" typed a message when I received internet signal, and showed it to Sergey when we got down at the small village of Chaek to buy food for our picnic lunch.

Glad he caught that, and while he bought some tomatoes, cucumbers and breads, YJ and Jess went in search of toilet as I waited by the car. Saw cows passing by... nothing much. There are many mosques in Kyrgyzstan, though not exactly like those we see in Singapore.

Got to Jumgal Valley around noon, and Sergey began setting up the tables and chairs for our lunch. *The sun was scorching! I regret not bringing a hat or shades for the trip!* That's my first picnic experience overseas honestly... and furthermore, we were in the wild haha. We only had biscuits, cucumbers, hams and tomatoes to fill our stomach, as well as coffee and tea. 
I must say I was impressed with Sergey's watermelon slicing skill though... he looked like he'd done in a zillion times for other tourists! Served and plated with ease~ 

That was thirst-quenching. I was bored, so I began trying the "spit-the-seed-onto-your-face" game I'd seen on "Running Man"... hey Jess followed suit too lol! Oh yes we did our "business" in the wild too in case you were wondering... and gosh my handphone actually slipped out of my skinny! Luckily, I'd realised it when I walked back to the car and so I rushed back to find it again phew! *Gone were my sneakers, but pls not something as important as my phone in such an ulu area!*

Next up was a photo point! I'm sorry I don't know the name of this place, but we got there after lots of turns and winds up the mountains. I don't even know the altitude but we must have gotten quite high up. By this time, I was a little giddy, and tearing uncontrollably either due to the dryness or the UV exposure because of the sun. Nevertheless, "rolling greens" are indeed a stunning beauty when you see if with your eyes. I love how "limitless" the view in front of me seemed to go... 

It heats up even more as we go higher up the mountains, before finally seeing Song-Kol in front of my eyes. *I sat in the front passenger seat most of the time and my thighs were "burning"!* We drove from the Southern side of Song-Kol and I saw wild packs of horses roaming everywhere. Wild horses there are different from domestic horses as they do not have either their front of hind legs tied up together by owners... for fear the horses run away I reckon? 
I recall getting down at one random spot to pee, and the large rectangular "dump" was filled with both soil and faeces. We had to get in there very carefully and find a spot each omg. 
I kept thinking Sergey might be lost as he took some time to communicate over the phone, and though we passed by so many yurt camps, none was ours!? It was only at 3.30pm (6.5 hours of drive) did we finally reached CBT Kochkor's yurt came on the Northern shore of the lake.

It was literally the kind of vastness and "tribal feel" I'd pictured before arriving at the alpine lake. Song-Kol has an area of about 270 square kilometres and volume of 2.64 cubic kilometres. The lake's maximum length is 29 km, breadth about 18 km, and the deepest point is 13.2 m. It is also the second largest lake in Kyrgyzstan. *It felt "endless" already while driving around it. You can't even see what's on the Southern side from the Northern side!* 
There were 7 beds in our yurt, but luckily we did not have to share with any other tourists at night. However, the beds were small and not really comfortable, and with the high altitude and a bloated stomach, I tossed and turned around at night, struggling to fall asleep. *I could literally hear my heart beat super fast throughout.*

Looked somewhat remote right? There were a few other yurts beside us, and other tourists as well, but the place is still way too big for all of us. Horse riding was available, and Kurmanjan did mentioned that it would cost us 200-300 som per person to rent a horse to ride for an hour. 
I guess the body was still adjusting to the high altitude, and hence we did not feel like riding a horse, so we walked from our yurts to the lake shore which took 15 to 20minutes. Saw some people and even horses going for a dip in the waters but it was very cold! I felt it when I put my feet inside with the watershoes on! 

As we strolled around endlessly, we bumped into a group of Korean tourists. They were all acupressure enthusiasts who seemed to be in their 40s and 50s already. I am interested in acupressure massages myself and so I tried my best to use a mix of broken Korean and English to talk to them, and they were rather passionate in sharing. A few of them pointed out to us some of the acupressure points to work on for different issues. The man was hitting hard on YJ's legs and telling us those were points that would help relieve small intestine and heart issues. Of course, Jess and I got our share of massages from them too haha!

Here comes my first experience of "pooping in a make-shift toilet" in Kyrgyzstan! These are common in the mountainous areas I think. There were no permanent shelters at Song-Kol (all yurts) as the accessibility period is mostly only from June to September, so it made sense that toilets were done up simply by dugging deep into the land some distance away from the yurts. One of the two here has a "seat-down" toilet bowl surprisingly (probably for those who cannot squat), while the other can only be done with Asian squat. While queuing for the toilet, we chatted with two Chinese tourists. The 57-year-old lady in a mask was a retired forex trader (she retired at 41) and another young optician guy who travelled solo. 

Scenery looks calm and peaceful below eh? Well, it can mean boredom at times haha. I mean there's only so much we can talk about, so I'm glad we get to interact with other guests around too.

We rested for a while in our yurt as we waited for dinner. The floor looked to be covered fully by carpets, but actually there were still grass revealed at some parts, so one can't help but to wonder if there would be little insects creeping in and out somehow? 

We had some dough in soup, and beef and potato for dinner, together with many other tourists on a large rectangular table. *One local guide talked to us rather enthusiastically, but I thought he seemed to enjoy talking to Jess the most keke!* We talked as we ate, and then Sergey signalled me that he'd go into the kitchen to get the cake out. There were so many people around, so I wondered how it would be done... then Sergey called out to me, and so I had to pretend like I wanted to ask for something and went into the kitchen with him.

Turned out the lady had already cut the cake lol! Maybe they don't have the tradition of singing a birthday song, and so she was ready to give the slices out~ Well we have to sing YJ a birthday song no matter what! Everyone around joined in haha~ It certainly looked like the surprise was a success hehe! 

The cake was very sweet imo, but I am still thankful, despite the language barrier, they took the effort to make the cake for her. In return, I think we gave them a bottle of kaya and my handwritten "thank you" card in Kyrgyz! *I had help from Kurmanjan and spent 15 minutes writing the Cyrillic alphabets. My neatest handwriting thus far I reckon haha!* It wasn't anything special, but I hope YJ at least had a memorable 32nd birthday at Song-Kol in Kyrgyzstan.

The sun only sets at about 8.30pm there, and hence we had plenty of time out in the evening.

It definitely got cold and chilly as night approached. A man came in to replenish the charcoal but it got burnt out by the middle of the night. 

While we could not shower, it was still a challenge washing our faces out in the open-air sink with cold water at night! I bet the temperature was less than 10 degrees Celcius! There were some angmohs singing and drinking by the fire outside too... quite a noisy bunch though.

We took out the cameras to try to capture the stars in the sky as it was very dark at Song-Kol, and yes we could see a whole stretch of the Milky Way right before our eyes! Jess was already feeling unwell as she was down with cough and cold, so she "surrendered" soon, leaving YJ and I to deal with the tripods and cameras. Two of us stood beside Sergey's car, which was parked right next to our yurt, and tried to capture the beauty in the sky. *It was very cold, but that definitely reminded me of the days we both were in the Safari in Tanzania and we tried to take photos with Alex and Jenny to much laughter!* Here's one shot from Jess's Huawei phone to remember our stay at Song-Kol before it's lights' out for the two ladies at 10+pm! *Sergey slept in our tent too.*