Tuesday, September 22, 2015

The road goes on. Kyrgyzstan Part 1.

Well it's been a while hasn't it. Yes, yes it has. I have reached the final stage of the travel but only the beginning of the lessons and journey to pick apart the experiences. I am in Mumbai, India. Luckily I have family here and am relaxing at my sister and brother-in-law's place. Here I have the luxury of relaxing, vegging out (as some say), and eating vegetables. Something I did very little of this summer thanks to the standard central Asian diet. I also get the opportunity to hang out and play with my young niece and nephew. While exhausting and further reenforcing the probability of me never having children, I love the little hooligans. I have found that with a cook providing daily delicious meals (who wouldn't want a cheese omelet with chillies for breakfast and fresh home cooked Indian for lunch everyday!?), and the fact that it is hotter and more humid than big foot's jock strap in July here, it is hard to motivate to move. I am not made for tropical climates. While exploring the city should be happening more, I don't feel too bad about it. After moving constantly for 3 months it's nice to be stationary and the crush of 22 million people is a little overwhelming. More about that later. For now, between the board games and movies with the kids and the constant sweat, it seems like a good time to catch up on the blog, the journal, and anything else.

The kiddos


Where did I leave off?... Kazakhstan

Well the remainder of Kazakhstan was more or less a hot and uncomfortable desert. A long flat stretch of riding, punctuated by a single river, led to a large climb to the Kyrgyz border that followed the small town of Kegen.
Quite literally the only tree on the road.

While the climb was a long and steep grind, the mountains were a welcome sight. Soon we would be back in cool temperatures, green and varied landscapes, and adventures. We met a young guy from the Czech Republic in Kegen. He was an interesting guy and very excited. He had bought a bike in Bishkek, was traveling with only a backpack, and had no sleeping pad, map, or tent. He sure had big plans though. We made friends and agreed to meet up with him the next day on the road. I would never see him again. Kyle would later run into him in Bishkek after I had departed. Turns out our Czech friend had been deported, detained, entangled in a house building project with the Kazakh Mafia, and somehow made it back to Bishkek. Not the adventure he was hoping for but an adventure none the less.

Mountain salvation lies only a border crossing away.

After being awoken by the 5am call to prayer it was only a short ride to the border. Getting out of Kazakhstan proved to be much more difficult than getting into Kyrgyzstan. The Kazakh border patrol needed to see in our bags, there were lines, and the usual border hullabaloo but the Kyrgyz border patrol was great. The guy in the passport control booth was listening to house music and the guard joked around with us and offered us cigarettes. Welcome to Kyrgyzstan!!!!! Friendly people, big and beautiful scenery, and an amazing Visa policy!!!!! 60 days free with automatic reset on reentry.

We were in the Karkara valley working our way towards Karakol and lake Issyk Kul. It was a pleasant few days of riding interspersed with great views, water aplenty, and pleasant little villages. There is an abundance of fruit in Kyrgyzstan which was a welcome change, there is also lots of honey! We passed at least a dozen small apiaries and purchased 3kg of fresh honey for about $6. This was not only amazing, it made our oatmeal significantly more interesting.

Karkara valley

A local cow coming over to say "whats up?"

Local honey! The hives were just out of this photo.

Rolling beauty

Kyrgyzstan has much more Russian and Soviet history than Mongolia. The evidence of it is everywhere. It is a much more modern country in the sense it has had more time to develop. The people, for the most part, have settled or are semi-nomadic. This is the result of a force settlement effort by the Soviets. This means that outside of the extremely rural areas villages have a much homier feel to them, and the second official language is Russian. While much of Mongolian rural life still revolves around the Ger and the flock much of Kyrgyz life seems to revolve around the village and developed agriculture and farming is much more prevalent. The cities also follow this trend, outside of Ulaanbaatar and a few others there really aren't cities to speak of in Mongolia but Kyrgyz cities have a little more history and time on their side thus are more European feeling in nature while still very central Asian. Obviously this isn't hard and fast rule but seems this way based on my experience, which certainly isn't exhaustive. Back to the road here.

After Karkara we headed towards Issyk Kul via the town of Karakol. Karakol is a rad little city that has a very alps-esque feel to it. It was once a popular vacation spot for the Soviet Union and has now become a hub for international and domestic travelers. It is located at the base of some spectacular mountains, home to a ski resort, and the launching spot for many treks and tours. It also offers amazing high mountain access and easy access to the lake. We were in between storms so we holed up there for a few days in one of the best hostels I have ever encountered. Hostel Nice. It was full of great people and was extremely comfortable. At a price of 150sum a night (about $2.50) for a tent spot it was just what we needed. Not to mention the owner and his son spoke perfect english and were great and interesting people.

Hostel Nice. A great little spot run by an english speaking
father and son team. It had everything, hot showers, fast internet,
a full kitchen, a stocked fridge, a great atmosphere, and tent space! 
As an added bonus there were fruit trees everywhere. All the apples,
plums, cherries, and various berries you wanted! Doubles as a ski rental
place in the winter too.

I hope to make it back to Kyrgyzstan someday to ski, do some mountaineering and climbing! We met a few peace corps volunteers in Karakol and it seems like it would be a pretty cool place to spend some significant time. You can't complain about the view, and there is an ex-pat oriented coffee shop to boot. But for us a few days would have to suffice. We loaded up on food, drank our fill of real coffee, waited out some weather, and looked to start pedaling. In process we worked hard to get some definitive road and weather beta. The route we had initial looked at was going to be impossible for both geographic and bureaucratic reasons. A "border zone" permit would be required (too close to China) and we needed either serious cash, or about a month, to get one. We had neither. There were also several extremely large rivers that would require crossing and multiple 3-4,000m passes to navigate. I'll save that one for next time. We opted for a less extreme but still very challenging route over Tosor Pass. We had a two day weather window to do it too.

We rode the south shore of the lake doing about 110k in the afternoon. It was an easy and scenic ride. Paved with moderate traffic. We even met a few other cycle tourist along the way and got an invite to visit New Zealand from two of them. Views of the lake were stunning, then the big mountains came into view. We would be crossing those the next day!

The lake and a monument to a 17th century tribal leader.

The mountains from the lake shore.

Tosor pass would prove to be a serious challenge. The pass itself is about 3,900 meters, or approximately 12,800 feet. Getting there from the lake is roughly a 7,500 foot climb over 32 k. That's a big day. Most people take a few days to do this, we decided to do it in a day to take advantage of our short weather window. It was a hell of a day. I had yet to have any leg cramps on this trip but tell you what I had them that day! This made it a long ride, push, ride, push, ride again, push again effort. Add in the elevation and the poor condition of the road and there was a lot of work involved! Much of the time, near the top of the pass especially, pushing consisted of picking up the bike to negotiate rocks, holes, and washouts. Given that my bike was fully loaded and probably weighed 80lbs at least I was basically push/carrying half my body weight up a steep hill for 8 hours. A backpack would have made things easier, those don't roll back down hill. Luckily the scenery was amazing, the weather was cool and cooperative, and a group of Dutch trekkers fed us plenty of cheese for lunch. A good, but extremely challenging day.

View from camp before climbing the pass.

That small speck in the middle of the photo is Kyle.
That shows the scale of this place.

A little donkey with a mohawk.

Up and up we go! What a place to live for the summer!

Glaciers! You can't tell but the pass is up and to the left
of the moraine in the middle of this photo, the road switch
backs up that.

The pass itself. We got here at about 6:30pm and were racing
the dark and the cold to find a camp spot soon after.

Once on top it was time for some sausage, cheese, and a snickers bar. The last rays of sun warmed us as we sat at almost 13,000 feet and congratulated ourselves on a job well done. Then it got cold. Time to get a few thousand down and set up camp. It was a good ride down to camp at about 11,500ft. 

Kyle heading down.

The view.

Gorgeous but is there a storm coming?

We set up, made some pasta and passed out. It was a surprisingly warm night with moderate cloud cover. I had settled in for what I hoped would be a refreshing and deep nights sleep. Unfortunately there were a few others on the road that night who had other ideas.

To be continued........