Lake Issik-Kul

Hoping the weather would get better I decided to head towards Issik Kul instead of hanging around longer in Bishkek, it didn't. I arrived Monday evening and it was still raining. Tuesday was no better, so wasted most of the day uploading photos (will be on here soon I promise, but computers here are crap), eating a delicious 'гуляшь' (goulash) and bumping into the 2 French guys who had also gone to the closed Uzbek/Kyrgyz border last week, I explained to them how I had spent my day on a tour of the Fergana valley Uzbek/Kyrgyz border regions !

In the morning I popped into the local bazaar and picked up some local honey 'tasty, from the mountains' the lady told me, which was packaged in an old coca-cola bottle!, some bananas (which are expensive in central Asia) and some lakrioshka, local bread. For the next couple of mornings and lunchtimes, I feasted on delicious fresh bread with honey and/or bananas, one of my favourites as a kid too. This is just to let my Mum know - if she is reading - that you can get decent food here too!!

The next day was better and after arguing with some thieves, errr I mean taxi drivers (they are al thieves) over the price of a car, I went to 'Chong Kul' lake in the Ak Suu valley, an alpine lake high in the mountains north of Issik Kul, some 23km along a rough track, the journey although bouncy was full of great views of surrounding pine forests, mountains, rivers and the valley through which the track passes.



Left: Lake 'Chong Kul' along the Ak Suu canyon.
Right: Views along the way.

Back in Cholpon-Ata, the sun was shining and I headed towards the beach. It's an amazing sight, the crystal clear lake Issik Kul ('warm lake'), with soft warm sand at its shores, lies surrounded by cloud covered mountain peaks in all directions, but with a circle of clear blue skies above. To the North are snow covered peaks behind which lie Kazakhstan, to the South, the Terskey Alatau arm of the Tien Shan, peaking through the clouds in the distance.




Left: Lake Issik Kul
Right: Terskey Alatau mountains in the distance, South of Issik Kul.

How the lake can be entirely circled by distant clouds yet above the lake it is nothing but blue, is some piece of meteorological magic. Issik Kul gets its name 'warm lake' because it never freezes over, this is due to a combination of its depth, thermal activity and mild salinity.

Next day I returned to the same bar as the previous evening, because it was so good before and here below is a picture of the best shashlik I have had on my travels. Surpassed only by one in Azerbaijan some years ago.




Left: Best shashlik on this journey so far.
Right: Someone I met on the way to the beach.