Issyk-Kul

       Issyk-Kul or Ysyk-Köl (Russian: Иссык-Куль, Kyrgyz: Ысык-Көл) is the world's second-largest alpine lake, and an amazingly biodiverse area. What makes it additionally special is that, despite its high altitude, it never freezes over. The past week, I was there for about a day and a half, which is all I could spare from my lessons. The drive there was an experience in itself, and the landscape all along beautiful in a variety of different ways.

A giant flag of Kyrgyzstan on the
hillside, visible from far away.
Photo credit: Bente Lea Omdal

       Kyrgyzstan looks on the map to be comprised almost entirely of mountains, but population-wise most of the country lives in the two valleys: Chuy Valley, where Bishkek is located, and Osh in the Fergana Valley. The drive from Manas Airport to Bishkek, entirely within the Chuy Valley, actually reminded me of a slightly greener Barrhead-Edmonton drive, but as soon as you enter the mountains, the scenery changes dramatically. The mountains to the east of Bishkek, in the direction of Issyk-Kyl, are mostly craggy and largely arid, but every so often, in the vicinity of a mountain stream, the mountains become lush and green. Against the backdrop of the big, snow-covered Tian-Shan mountains in the distance, it makes a spectacular sight.

       An interesting custom that has developed is to write things out on the mountain-side with big white rocks, so that the message is visible from far away, particularly the highways. A variation on that was an absolutely huge rendition of the Kyrgyz flag, so big as to be recognizable almost from the horizon. Some enterprising businessmen had elsewhere written out their website or brand name as advertisements in this way; it seemed like a bit of a shame.

Sunset over Issyk-Kul.
Photo credit: Bente Lea Omdal

Looking inland from the lake.
Photo credit: Bente Lea Omdal

       The lake itself was, as far as lakes and sunsets go, breathtaking. What appealed to me far more, for whatever reason, was the craggy, desert-like landscape between the blue of the lake and green and grey mountains further south, towards central Kyrgyzstan. I could cheerfully have spent all day out there, and in fact more or less did. I ended up getting quite a sunburn, but learned a number of new Russian words associated with sunburn and lotion and healing and pain. All in all then, quite a successful trip.

       Our sleeping quarters were sparse, in a dusty, ugly, building with crookedly-run brick walls. The rooms were sparse and each contained exactly one bed and a hatstand or coat rack. The kitchenette was crowded with a fridge, cupboards, a sink, and a table; the bathroom was maybe five feet by seven, the shower not separated from the toilet at all, so you had to be really careful not to soak anything but yourself - we felt like we were in a palace! It's incredible how adjustable concepts like comfort, luxury, and the normal are: clean and cool rooms, hot water, a thick, colourful, possibly Turkish carpet in front of the second story floor-to-ceiling windows... we were pretty excited. We spent the evening sitting on this carpet, talking and snacking; it was nice, but it must get boring to do so night after night. No wonder alcoholism is such a problem in rural areas across Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia. 

The house from a distance.
It didn't look quite this good in real life.
Photo credit: Bente Lea Omdal

       For lunch one day the cook living next door, a most likely very nice lady whom we couldn't get to know since she spoke no Russian at all (and my Kyrgyz amounted to all of counting from 1 to 10), made us an enormous pot of plov, a rice-based dish with meat, some vegetables, salt, cumin, and the requisite animal fat and olive oil. The serving bowl must have had a diameter of a foot and a half, and was almost overflowing on the sides. Between the three of us, eating this for lunch and supper, we must not have finished even half, but it was delicious, and she served it with the customary cucumber and tomato salad with vinegar dressing. Plov, by the way, is fiercely claimed by the Uzbek as their invention, while the Kyrgyz viewpoint will generally range from agreement to  "sure it's Uzbek, but theirs tastes weird" to "what Uzbek?" (the Uzbek have few friends in the region). Outside of the Central Asian countries in question, however, plov is generally considered to have Persian origins. 

      Although there wasn't much to do at Issyk-Kul yet, summer and therefore activities apparently beginning in July (although it was 42 degrees out today), we all in all had a great time just relaxing and taking in the nature. Issyk-Kul is definitely worth the visit.