Backdate: Kyrgyzstan Song-Kol Lake - Tash-Rabat Aug 2019 Day 5

6/8/19 Tues: Had Kyrgyz "congee" before we departed at 9am. It's much like your cereal, but bland. Began our trip southwards towards Tash-Rabat (3200m ASL), and we took photos at the Moldo-Bel pass (3400m ASL). *Love the second photo below... the clouds made it look like a painting no?*

Jess was unwell at this point, I think she only came down for a short while and went back to the car soon. We then drove towards a small town somewhere for lunch at one of the local's home and we saw pine trees (?)~ It gave off this "Europe" feel imo haha.

Then, the landscape changed and YJ said these pale mountains reminded her of what she saw in青海.

Sergey took some time to find his way to the lady's place, after getting directions from some other locals by the roadside. The seat cushions in her living room are all hand-made by her. We watched a video on Tash-Rabat Caravanserai as we ate potatoes and beef (again yes~). There were also milk and soft drinks for us too. Sergey paid over 1000 soms for the lunch for all four of us (per pax about S$6 or $7) as it was included in our package.

As we were enroute to Mels Pass (3450m ASL), Tien Shan could be seen along the way and I can't help but be intrigued every time I caught a glimpse of the snow-capped top...

Spotted wild camels too. 

It took us 7 hours to reach Tash Rabat Caravanserai at about 4pm. Sergey parked the car outside the historical landsite and three of us entered this well-preserved 15th century stone caravanserai in At Bashy district, Naryn Province. *There's a entrance fee but I can' recall how much it was.* Historian and politician Muhammad Haidar considered it to have originated in the years 1408 to 1416. According to Wikipedia, Tash Rabat was originally built as a Nestorian monastery in the 10th century, although no Christians artifacts were found during excavations.The building is 20m high and dome-shaped.

The structure consists of 31 rooms, including chambers in the central hall. The length of the main hall is 9.32m, width at 8.35m, and the diameter of the hall's dome is 9.3m. The rooms are dome-shaped; transition from a quadrangular frame to a dome is done using a squinch. Tash Rabat is completely made of crushed stone on clay mortar with gypsum mortar sealing joints.
Throughout our visit, there was no guide nor any other information available except for one near the entrance. The entrances towards the rooms are really short though there was a mix of both spacious and small rooms.
We stayed at Sabyrbek's yurt camp run by a local family. The lady owner has a cute toddler son. We chose to sleep in their guestrooms instead of the yurts, and it was fine without fan nor air-conditioning as it gets pretty cold at this altitude, especially at night.
The scenery is simply stunning. And the view outside our bedroom window? It's straight out of a painting! The toilets cubicles were located outside a hut some distance away, and while walking there, you would pass by meandering streams.

After we put our things down, we had a quick chat with this Dutch couple who happened to be staying in their yurts. The 58-years-old man invited us to take a look at their yurt as we were curious how different it compared to the ones at Song-Kol. Well, it looked cleaner and more spacious imo. *He is very humourous, and the 60-years-old wife was nice too. Loving couple!*

As we talked, the landlord lady joined in and she shared about the retirement age and wages of people living in Tash-Rabat. She mentioned that due to the high altitude (therefore they tire and age more easily perhaps?), women retire at 47, and men at 55, while in Bishkek it was 55 and 60 for women and men respectively. We also met two other Singaporean guys Joel and Kenneth whom happened to stay just right opposite our rooms! *Even if it's peak travel season then, still what are the chances of meeting fellow Singaporeans in Tash-Rabat at Kyrgyzstan at the same yurt camp!?* 
Anyway, the female owner asked if we wanted "hot sauna" for a shower in the afternoon. We haven't showered for a day so we readily agreed and proceeded to this container where there was a small sauna room inside with a temperature of about 50 to 60 degrees Celcius. YJ was brave enough to step into the sauna first and yes according to her, it was HOT! As we only had a short time to shower, three of us decided to "throw away all awkwardness" LOL and "plucked up courage" to go into the sauna-bath almost altogether. There wasn't a lot of space inside the sauna but yet filled with steam all around... I was practically kneeling down most of the time as it was too hot to stand up! YJ and Jess helped to get the hot and cold water from the different taps to fill our basins as we showered. *There was a crack somehow in the big bottle of bodywash I brought to Kyrgyzstan and hence the soap leaked. I had to throw it away after this use.* 

It was a one-of-a-kind experience la. Soon, we heard knocks on the door outside the container and there was another angmoh lady whom was waiting to shower after us. However, it was only at night when the lady owner told us we had to pay a total of 750 som for the shower. We were slightly taken aback of course. *It wasn't expensive, but she should have told us beforehand if it costed money.*

Now I'm a little confused as to whether we had all the above dishes (cucumber and tomato salad, potato and beef soup, macaroni with beef and porridge) for dinner or late lunch AND dinner? Macaroni was something different for a change phew. 
The dining area looked like it was filled with tourists all over the world, and three of us continued to chat with the Dutch couple about travel, Singapore and Brexit issues. As we returned to our rooms, we saw Kenneth and Joel's door ajar, and as I was curious, we spoke, only to know that we were actually flew on the same flights to Kyrgyzstan, and we will take the same flight back to Almaty too. Joel works in the finance sector and he learnt to speak some Russian, while Kenneth is married and a hobbyist photographer.
Then, we all went out to take photos of the stars at night. It was cloudy at one point, but the sky did cleared up slowly into the night. YJ and Kenneth were actively discussing and experimenting with the shots in the dark (yes it was very dark outside, and we needed the handphone torch when we walked to the toilet), while Kenneth, Jess and I were more "chilled"... just watching the two, discussing our plans and admiring the quiet night scenery (okie maybe not so quiet as we were a bit noisy lol~).

Oh right, here are some Russian phrases I used to speak to Sergey (my own way of noting down the pronounciation... might not be right haha):
Thank you - Spa si bor
Hello - Pri viet
Good Morning - do bre uul throhhh
Goodbye - baka baka
Delicious - kuu shet
I'm Sorry - is vinigii
cold - ho lo not
hot - jarl ral ka
good - karashol
beautiful - krasiva
hot water - keep pia tok