When we last wrote we were in Urumqi, Western China trying to find our way through the notoriously complicated maze of Central Asian visa bureaucracy... while figuring it all out we still had two weeks left in China and decided to head north to the meeting point of Russia, China and Kazakhstan.
We took a long bus trip up to Buerjin – once again marveling at the thousands of wind turbines in the Xinjiang desert. In Buerjin we ran into the the rare but annoying non-foreigner-hotel problem: in a handful of Chinese cities an old, out-of-date law is enforced which allows only registered "foreigner hotels" to accept foreign tourists. This means that you have to traipse around the city knocking on hotel doors until you find either an affordable, foreigner-registered hotel or a non-registered hotel which turns a blind eye to this silly regulation.
The next day we were on another bus up to the wooden, mountain village of Hemu set amidst bright green mountains overlooked by snow-capped peaks. After relaxing for a few days, we hiked for 9 hours up a steep mountain where the scenery is so ridiculously beautiful it looks like a cheesy landscape painting: hillsides completely covered in a myriad of colourful flowers reaching up towards the snowline and bubbling brooks winding their way between verdant green meadows. We camped in a Kazakh, nomad's yurt overlooking He Hu (“black lake”) with ice melting all around us. After a chilly night we hiked down the other side of the mountain to Kanas - a large, turquoise lake high in the mountains. This area is populated by a mix of Kazakh and Tuvan (Mongolian) people. We spent a couple of days walking in the area and admiring the beautiful but mosquito-infested lake that supposedly has its own Lochness-style monster (apparently the monsters are in fact giant fish claimed to be 10m long).
Hemu
Hiking up to He Hu
Our nomad camp with He Hu (lake) in the background
Kanas lake
We returned to Buerjin and then Urumqi to begin the next, new leg of our journey: enigmatic Central Asia.
As bad luck would have it – we were the first travelers to discover that the Kyrgyzstan consulate in Urumqi no longer issues visas (even though the sign on the door says it still does) and so we were unable to continue our journey by land. Bizarrely, by flying into Kyrgyzstan South Africans are issued with a visa-on-arrival so we were left with no option other than to buy a flight to Bishkek, the capital. We were excited to begin the journey that would bring colour to the blurry expanse that Central Asia was in our minds - due to our (almost complete) ignorance of the region.
Before we describe our Central Asian travels we think we should give a little historical background as most people (like us just a few weeks ago) have heard little or nothing of the countries that make up Central Asia and are unaware of its enthralling history. This is the briefest summary:
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The history of Central Asia is defined by three unique geographic challenges:
- It is the furthest region from the ocean and its moderating impact on temperatures. As a result this region has some of the world's most inhospitable temperatures: well above 40 degrees in summer and below -30 degrees in winter.
- The region is criss-crossed by a large number of monstrous mountain ranges which are almost impossible to cross (the legendary mountain passes of Irkeshtam, Torugart, Karakoram are all in the region). The mountains are so high that people in neighbouring valleys often speak mutually incomprehensible languages.
- Those parts of the region that are not gigantic mountains are mostly desert plains or infertile steppe.
Most probably as a result of the above geography, Central Asia has never been permanently incorporated into the major civilisations that surround it – instead it has always been an inhospitable frontier which would be temporarily incorporated into the dominant civilisation of the day before being conquered by another and another for thousands of years. This region has been conquered and settled by, amongst others (and not in this order): the Persians, the Turks, the Chinese, the Greeks, the Romans, the Afghans, and the Russians. But perhaps the most famous conquerors were Ghengis Khan’s Mongolian hordes who rode the region’s famous horses and conquered most of the known world in the 13th and 14th centuries. The impact of all these diverse conquerors is that Central Asia is one of the most ethnically mixed areas on earth. This region was also the most treacherous part of the Silk Road both because of its daunting mountains and capricious weather, and also due to raiding by hostile soldiers and bandits belonging to the various tribes along the way.
The final conquerors were the Russians (who became the Soviets), and who incorporated Central Asia into the Soviet Union. The Soviet’s record was mixed: Stalin killed huge numbers of inhabitants in the Gulags (20% of all ethnic Kazakhs were killed) and he seemed to enjoy moving entire populations of people against their will thousands of kilometers around the Soviet Union. As a result, in the middle of Central Asia one can still find large populations of Koreans who were moved from near Vladivostock (which was basically a Korean area but which is now inhabited by European Russians) as well as Ukranians, East Germans, Chechens and Russians. Furthermore, many filthy industries were dumped in pristine
areas, nuclear testing was performed here with little protection of the local population leading to terrible carcinogenic health consequences and the region is littered with horrific Soviet pollution catastrophes that continue to blight daily life.The Soviets were in many ways a domineering colonial power in Central Asia but there were positive impacts: the rights of women were significantly improved, infrastructure and industries were built, religious extremism was contained and the standard of living was dramatically improved.
One of lasting implications of the Soviet era in Central Asia under Stalin was the division of the region into five ethnically distinct states – an incredibly complicated task considering the vast ethnic diversity and mixing in the area over millennia. However he managed to carve out five states which existed as part of the USSR until the Soviet Union collapsed. In 1991 these republics, with no history of being independent states or nationalities or even distinct identities, suddenly found themselves as fully fledged independent countries and emerged, stunned and reeling, forced out of the strong arms of mother Russia, with little preparation to find their feet amidst the total collapse of their Soviet-style economies.
These five new independent countries were: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
Each of these countries are today very different having taken different paths after their sudden emergence out of the USSR collapse. We will be spending about a month in each (except Turkmenistan – a hermit country that has tried its best to prevent tourism of any sort) so we’ll fill you in on each specific country’s unique characteristics and recent history as we travel through them.
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So, after tasting Urumqi’s unique Muslim Uigher flavours and markets we boarded a plane and two hours later after flying over giant mountains and glaciers we landed in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan and the world’s furthest capital city from the ocean. We were sad to say goodbye to China – but we will see her again on this trip after we leave Central Asia.
Leaving the airport it immediately became apparent that we were very much no longer in China. The people look like a mix of Turkish and Mongolian, everything is written in Cyrillic Russian (imagine your world suddenly spelled out using the keyboard of your scientific calculator!), and the infrastructure is dilapidated. After leaving China where virtually everything is shiny, new and the economy is booming – it felt like we we had arrived in a place whose best days had long past and was now struggling to keep things running. Although there is some truth to these first observations – over the past month we have also realised that in part our first impressions of Kyrgyzstan were overly influenced by us comparing it to the economic and developmental miracle that is modern China. Any developing country when compared to China seems to be under-performing. But to avoid this blog just being an endless repetition of lamentations of “in China xxxx was better” we will not mention China again – suffice to say that the days of beautiful, affordable en-suite hotel rooms, luxurious public transport and diverse, delicious food (the food, the food... *weeping* ) are over...
So we entered Bishkek after encountering some very confusing Russian (spoken at us, not with us) and travelling on the local Ford Transit minibus’s – which make South Africa’s minibus public transport look efficient and comfortable – and found our homestay/guesthouse: two beds in a bare concrete room in the backyard of someone’s house.
Once we'd reset our general outlook and expectations, we came to find Bishkek a fairly attractive city with lots of trees and parks which, despite its arid location has many water fountains and pretty features all around the city centre, fed by the melting glaciers on the massive snow-peaked mountains clearly visible to the East.
After (surprisingly) managing to secure our Tajikistan visa in one day we were lucky to connect with the owners of the definitive website on Central Asian travel: www.caravanistan.com.
Steve (Belgian) and his Kazakh wife, Saule, were on a road trip in Kyrgyzstan and were looking for travellers to share petrol costs. So we took up the invitation to join them and immediately headed off over some 4000+m passes on our way to the lake and town of Toktugol. As we entered the mountains it was immediately clear why Kyrgyzstan is considered a nation of nomads (and why every second local tourism business uses "nomad" in its name). As it is summer here now, the Kyrgyz have emerged from being covered in snow in the frozen, mostly arid lowlands and have headed up to the high mountain valleys (called "jailoos") where their livestock - horses, cattle, yaks, sheep and goats - feast on the lush grasses that emerge after the snow and ice has melted. The Kyrgyz stay up in the jailoos with their animals living in white, round tents called "yurts" or in ancient Russian train carriages that have been dragged up there.
We spent a night in a homestay in Toktugol and then rounded the beautiful blue lake and cut through the steep, bare mountains along a bright turquoise river where we found a little swimming beach with surprisingly warm glacial-melt water. After crossing through the baking hot lowlands along the border with Uzbekistan we entered the green, wooded town of Arslanbob, famous for its thousands of hectares of wild Walnut forests.
Blue river as we drive through Kyrgyzstan
Taking a dip in the river as we drive through Kyrgyzstan
There are very few hotels in Kyrgyzstan but luckily a famous Community Based Tourism (CBT) program has been established which has helped families offer accommodation to tourists within their homes. As a result, most travelling in Kyrgyzstan involves scouting out the local CBT office to find out where the nearest homestays are to be found.
In Arslanbob there are about 20 homestays and we found a very nice one with a beautiful flower garden and a raised, shaded outdoor tea-drinking area covered with decorative cushions known as a Tap Chan. We spent three chilled days here walking in the surrounding hills and trying out the local food specialities (sadly, there are not many). Happily summer time is melon season in Central Asia so we feasted on sweet yellow melons as well as water melons.
The "tapchan" (tea deck) at our homestay in Aslanbob
Waterfall above Arslanbob with Saule
View over Arslanbob
We headed on to the Silk Road town of Osh which has the biggest bazaar in Central Asia and then moved quickly on over some desolate landscapes towards the South East. We got a little lost on the way and ended up in a tiny village of Kara Maty where we were happily welcomed by a rarely visited homestay.
Homestays in Kyrgyzstan generally consist of a large room in the family home which has a pile of thin woolen mats covered in colourful cloth. These mats are rolled out and covered with a heavy blanket with typically up to ten guests sleeping together in one room. Unfortunately the nomadic culture lends itself to rather infrequent bathing - once a week perhaps - so tourists are regarded as a bit fussy and silly if they expect some sort of bath or shower. So this homestay was our first of many, many homestays not to have shower facilities of any sort (as a result we have mastered the art of washing in less than a litre of water - a facecloth is essential if you want to try this at home). We enjoyed walking around the village where we found a slightly eccentric Russian lady who was building a huge school and who kindly invited us in for tea (and to view many photos of her family - including her daughter who was killed in a hit-and-run road accident and whose body was hidden for a month to prevent prosecution of the perpetrators). Further wanderings led to countless, emphatic invitations from local Kyrgyz families to join them for "chai!" and the very dodgy 'kurt' snack.
In Kyrgystan the two most treasured national delicacies are Kumis and Kurt. The former is mare's milk which has been fermented in a goat's skin and is just simply the highest level of disgusting. Kurt are hard balls of highly salted, dried cottage cheese - and is almost as disgusting as Kumis. The Kyrgyz are very proud of these two delicacies and so one is endlessly offered generous gifts of both and expected to sample them in front of the proud giver. One of the life's great challenges is to produce a warm thankful smile while forcing down these evil brews - with eager, expectant Kyrgyz faces immediately taking this act of heroism as an invitation to double up on their generosity and to refill your bowl of Kumis or, if you're really lucky, to give you a whole 2L bottle full of the stuff. Naturally these bottles are used to irrigate/poison the parched desert as soon as one is out of view.
After admiring the lush fruit trees (many of the world's best known fruits are originally from Central Asia - including apples which come from Kazakhstan) and chatting with friendly Kyrgyz families, we continued on driving over astonishingly beautiful but hair-raising mountain passes (some alarmingly slippery with melting snow) to reach Tash Rabat, an ancient Silk Road Caravanserai high in the mountains bordering China.
We stayed again in a nomad yurt camp just a few hundred metres from the Caravanserai with stunning snow-capped peaks surrounding us. The yurts are made from wool and animal skins and are well-insulated from the freezing cold. Inside, our yurt had a steel fireplace and chimney which, when filled with cow dung and lit, warmed up the inside of the tent to a toasty temperature.
We wandered the grassy mountains slopes admiring the herds of famous Central Asian horses which, in this part of the world, are not only used for transport but also as livestock for milk and meat too. Blissful afternoons lazing on the green grass with concerned marmots anxiously watching us, confused Yaks unsure of how close they could get...and giant glaciers looming in the distance...
We visited the ancient, stone Caravanserai which, a thousand years ago, provided succour to Silk Road traders making the dangerous journey to or from China over the Torugart pass. One could just imagine the relief the traders felt when they spotted the Caravanserai and knew that, at least for now, they were safe and would spend a warm night dry and fed - and how they would have looked forward to meeting and sharing stories with other traders and travelers from all across Asia and Europe.
Horses, Tash Rabat, Kyrgyzstan
Yurt camp, Tash Rabat, Kyrgyzstan
Silk road caravanserai in Tash Rabat
Silk road caravanserai in Tash Rabat
Yak!!
From Tash Rabat we over-nighted in the small town of At-Bashy which means "Head of the Horse" and sports a massive golden horse head - just the head - kissing the ground. There was a festival celebrating the traditional felted carpet called a Shyrdak. Unfortunately (for us), the festival entailed for the most part a series of the town's most enthusiastic Karaoke singers enjoying their one (and only) moment of glory on the stage... There was however quite an impressive young dance troupe that performed the famous Kyrgyz nomad dance involving rhythmic contortion of arms and legs.
Kids performing at At-Bashy festival
Luckily, we were staying in a nice homestay that even had a shower, which was very welcome after a few crusty days in the yurt camps. When we mentioned this to people in the know, we were told this was because our host was in fact an Uzbek and Uzbeks are stereo-typically much more organised. Over the years there has been ongoing tensions between the Kyrgyz and the large minority of Uzbeks living in Kyrgyzstan. Unfortunately this has blown up into full scale violence on a number of occasions and has its origins in the age old conflict between nomads (Kyrgyz) and farmers/businessman (Uzbeks).
Of the five Central Asian republics only Kyrgyzstan can be said to be a proper democracy. That said, street protests have overthrown two democratically elected but horrendously corrupt presidents in the last decade. It's really hard to get a sense of where Kyrgyzstan is going as a country. On the one hand there has been quite good economic growth (6+% per year for more than a decade) and there is evidence of new roads and other infrastructure being built. On the other hand, when independence came in 1991 the majority of skilled workers with ties to Russia returned (even those born in Kyrgyzstan) and we get the sense that much of Kyrgyzstan still runs on old Russian/Soviet infrastructure: most of the cars are old Ladas or UAZ jeeps, the tractors and other farming equipment look like machines from the 70's and the towns are made up of slowly crumbling ex-colonial buildings long past their best. Despite decent economic growth in Kyrgyzstan, up to half of young Kyrgyz men work in Russia - in spite of the horrible racism that they are said to experience there - and then send money home. We did meet some foreigners who were in Kyrgyzstan during the mid 90's who say that things were a lot worse then - one described independence and the departing of the Russians as being like "every man in Kyrgyzstan had been kicked in the solar plexus." They also described major highways where a car would only pass every few hours - nowadays there are a lot more cars and for some reason the most common modern car seems to be the Lexus. So things are improving - one hopes it is just fast enough to keep the restless population from revolting again...
After a fast and comfortable week in Steven and Saule's (Caravanistan.com) 4x4, we decided to slow our pace somewhat and continue by public transport. We parted ways and then spent four days chilling in the small village of Eki Naryn - two days in the village homestay and the other two days in a Yurt up at the family's summer jailoo alongside a rushing glacial melt river. The family we stayed with were very friendly and despite our lack of Russian/Kyrgyz and their lack of English we enjoyed our time with them. Dave was gifted a traditional Kyrgyz hat and we reciprocated with a beaded Xhosa necklace that we'd brought from home. We feasted on homemade yoghurt, bread and jam and the heaps of individually wrapped chocolates and sweets which accompany every meal in Central Asia (EVERY meal, even breakfast). This is probably the reason why virtually every Kyrgyz adult has three or four gold teeth, sometimes it seems the full mouth has gone golden (apparently one's teeth can be a form of saving too!).
Eki-Naryn
Our homestay hosts in Eki-Naryn
Our yurt camp in Eki-Naryn
Making bread on a cow dung fire in Eki-Naryn
After a fairly tough month of travelling we were desperate for a "holiday-within-our-holiday" location and were beginning to worry that we would not be able to find a place to truly chill out for a few days... so we headed for Issyk-Kul, the giant lake in the north of the country which was the premier summer holiday location in the region during the Soviet era. After a long day on scorchingly hot minibuses, we decided to head for the less-touristy Southern side of the lake and found a beautiful, chilled-out, backpacker Yurt camp on the beach with warm, clear-blue water and 360 degree views of snow-peaked mountains... a paradise called Bel Tam.
We ended up relaxing there for almost a week, meeting a steady stream of interesting local and foreign travellers, swimming in the relatively warm water, and chatting with the friendly ladies who own the camp. Bizarrely, the nearby ruined buildings had just been discovered to have been a secret, Soviet-era nuclear facility which spawned all sorts of conspiracy theories as to what it might have been used for. The owner of the camp said a scientist had run tests and explained that there was no radiation (whew!) and that the plant was used to manufacture H3O... However, as luck would have it, during our next few days of lounging around the Bel Tam camp, three different groups of travellers with nuclear knowledge popped in and out: a nuclear physicist, two chemists and a nuclear waste engineer. They explained that H3O doesn't exist and that in fact the facility probably manufactured Heavy Water (D2O) which is used in nuclear power plants. They also happily confirmed that these activities, even if they were clandestine, would not have resulted in the generation of any radiation in the area.
Bel Tam yurt camp on Issyk-Kul
Building a yurt at Bel Tam
Soviet nuclear factory reminants
The lovely ladies of Bel Tam in Issyk-Kul
One of the most notable impacts of the Soviet era on the local culture has been on the practising of Islam. It has been interesting to see the myriad ways in which the religion is interpreted in a region that considers itself almost 100% Muslim. Our month in Kyrgyzstan coincided with Ramadan and it was interesting to note that while most people consider themselves Muslim, few people fasted. Many women dress conservatively, with scarves tightly wound around their heads while they eat openly in restaurants during Ramadan - muttering "Alhamdoulilai" and wiping their faces with their hands in the typical Muslim 'giving thanks' motion. Nomads in general have always been more pragmatic when it comes to religion, possibly due to the challenges of living life on the move. The Soviets in turn banned religion and encouraged vodka... During the Soviet era, many people secretly continued to pracitise the more mystical Sufi Islam incorporating some animist traditions of shrine worship. While many Kyrgyz women wear tight scarves, others wear loose ones and still others are happy to sport little bikinis at the beach. In Arslanbob a friend was invited to join a family for lunch where the father explained that he was fasting so he would not eat but would offer and share a shot of vodka as welcome!
While in Bel Tam we were waiting for our interview date at the Uzbekistan embassy in Bishkek. Uzbekistan, despite its Soviet links to Africa's liberation movements, has a policy that Africans shouldn't even bother to apply for tourist visas...! Recently, some exasperated South Africans had gone to the embassy which, noting that they were white, changed the rule and said that while they were a still not interested in other Africans, South Africans may now apply for visas!!! Blatant racism! Anyway, we finally got our visa appointment and with much reluctance left the beautiful Bel Tam and returned to Bishkek where we got our Uzbek visa quickly though expensively ($150 each!). It was noticeable how much nicer Bishkek seemed after almost a month in rural Kyrgyzstan...
There were rumours that a horse festival was happening on the other side of the country the next day so we headed straight from the Uzbek embassy to the local bus station. In Kyrgyzstan there are no proper buses - at best you hope to find a minibus. But most of the time, for long distance travel, you get paid-for lifts with Kyrgyz people who are driving to the same place in their private cars. At the bus station there are normally a few private cars waiting for passengers and the bus station touts will quickly lead you to the next car leaving for your destination - so in our case we had a very comfortable lift in a smart sedan from one end of the country to the other. By lucky co-incidence, our driver lived right next to the mountain pass where the festival was due to be held - and due to us arriving after midnight he invited us to sleep at his house. In the morning we enjoyed a breakfast of home made offal (boiled tripe), bread, yoghurt and watermelon and admired the cute kiddies with their painted mono-brows - the traditional image of female beauty in the region.
Offal, yoghurt, water-melon and bread breakfast
We headed up to the rolling green fields at the top of the mountain pass where we met up with Slovenian friends we'd met at Bel Tam: Jure and Nusa. Along with around 40 travellers from around the world we saw demonstrations by local women on how to make the local "delicacies" of fresh bread and Plov. The latter is an oily fried rice with strips of carrot and mutton - not totally terrible, but pretty bland and exceedingly boring when you've eaten it every other day for a month... We also got to help make Kumis - the grimace drink made from fermented mare's milk... apparently good Kumis must be churned 1000 times in the old goat skin...what.e.v.e.r..it's still disgusting!
Kyrgyz elders, Chyrchik, Kyrgyzstan
Making kumis in Chyrchik, Kyrgyzstan
The highlight and focus of the day were the horse games. The Kyrgyz are rightly proud of their prowess on horseback that, during the era of Genghis Khan's hordes, struck terror in the hearts of the whole of Asia and much of Europe. Kids from as young as four years are expert, fearless riders - galloping across the plains and willfully charging into other horses.
The main game played is Dead Goat Polo (or "Kok Boru" in Kyrgyz). This involves a large (50kg) headless, dead goat which riders have to grab away from each other and ultimately deposit in a designated hole to win the game. In effect, the game becomes a giant melee of some one hundred guys on horseback fearlessly charging into each other at full speed in a desperate attempt to get their hands on the goat and then, while holding on as tightly as possible, whipping their horse to charge away in the hope that the combined strength of the horse and rider will rip the goat loose. If successful the rider, at full gallop, will try to sit on top of the goat while hurtling down the mountain towards the hole with the other riders charging after him at a crazy speed over uneven ground. Absolutely brutal - have a look at the video below. Watching the game is quite hazardous as even though the (mostly Kyrgyz) crowd stands a safe distance away, the crazed melee of riders are only thinking about the goat so they lose track of where they are and a few times we were almost over-run by the galloping horses.
Dead goat polo, Chyrchik, Kyrgyzstan
Wipe out!
I got the goat!!
Dead goat polo, Chyrchik, Kyrgyzstan
After the Dead Goat Polo ended, there were some more sedate games. One involved a young girl in a flowing yellow dress on horseback being chased by an amorous suitor who had to try and kiss her before she reached the finish line. She was a great rider and the guy failed which meant that the second part of the game could begin which involved her chasing him on horseback with a horse-whip which if she could catch him she could whip him... she caught him and he was thoroughly lashed!
Other games involved a competition where riders had to gallop one by one and then hang off the side of their horse at full speed and reach down and pick up a coin wrapped in a handkerchief off the grass. The last game involved two riders on horseback trying to wrestle each other off their respective horses. A crazy day! (Have a look at the videos in the gallery.)
Horse-wrestling, Chyrchik, Kyrgyzstan
Whip that boy! Romance Kyrgyz-style
Horse-wrestling, Chyrchik, Kyrgyzstan
After the horse games we headed back to Osh city where we had a swim in the public swimming pool and enjoyed Shaslik (kebabs) with a South African who we had heard about and finally met. Generally in Central Asia when we say we are South African, people look confused and then say "do you mean Yugoslavian?" (Yugoslavia means "Southern Slav" in Russian - so people figure that we've just mispronounced the second part of our country's name.) When we re-iterate that we are South African then we are met with total confusion or outright challenges as to why we are not black... a little bit tedious after a while especially because we can't speak Russian and thus give a more informative explanation. So when we had heard someone say "oh I met a South African last week" we were a bit dumb-founded and were happy to find her and share travel stories.
From Osh we headed towards the border of Tajikistan and China through parts of the magnificent Irkeshtam pass which winds through a narrow valley with steep cliff-like mountains on either side. We arrived at the village of Sary Mogul and stayed in a homestay there and the following day we met up again with our Slovenian friends. Together we headed towards the mighty Peak Lenin (7134m) and camped at its base in a lovely yurt camp surrounded by dozens of clear lakes with the giant glaciers of Peak Lenin towering behind us. We spent three days walking in the surrounding mountains inhabited with nervous marmots, swimming in the lake filled with tiny shrimps which swarmed all over us and horse-riding across the plains to another glacier valley while our guide rode an indignant yak that huffed and puffed.
flowers, Lake Tolpur, Kyrgyzstan
7km high Peak Lenin looming over Lake Tolpur, Kyrgyzstan (our homestay yurts in the distance)
Ride that yak!! Lake Tolpur, Kyrgyzstan,
And then, after a month of fun and games in beautiful Kyrgyzstan it was time to cross another epic mountain pass and enter our next Central Asian country: Tajikistan. Our adventures there will be told in our next blog in the next month or so...
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