Roland's Travelog: More from Song-Kul

I already wrote briefly about Song-Kul in the previous post, but it deserves some more attention..

I made arrangements in Kochkor, an average sized town with little to offer except for a beautiful setting in the foot of the mountains and the ability to arrange trips to the surrounding mountains and lakes. Wandering the streets, school kids got excited at the sight of me and shouted 'hello' and 'my name is ......' and some - as in Khiva - asked for photographs, which made them even more excitable. I remember as a child always being told not to talk to strangers, it is so good that children in Central Asia don't have this restriction or any inhibition to do so, they are usually delighted and excited to speak to foreigners - strangers - and for me it has so far provided so many memorable photos and moments. I stayed at a homestay run bu Kuka and on arrival she was just starting lunch with some family, which I was invited to join. Some tasty pasta and vegetables dish, bread and few vodka toasts with Kuka's sister who was constantly astounded that I was from somewhere so far away from Kyrgyzstan. A friendly and enjoyable homestay with the usual way too much food which makes me wonder if all Central Asians really believe all foreigners eat twice as much as they generally would for a meal.

So, Song-Kul. After the pictueresque and often interrupted journey in my taxi as mentioned earlier we climbed over a snowy mountain top and down towards the lake with beautiful mountains sitting behind, it's a memorable first sight. At the yurt that would be my home for the next two days, I was greeted by a number of shepherds, 3 dogs, and a couple of horses. I had no idea who was living in that spot, until later when I returned in the evening and deduced who was still there. Rosa was the "lady of the yurt" and her husband was one of the men I had seen earlier, but he never told me his name ! I arrived around lunchtime, so after a quick snack of salad, bread and mutton, washed down with Kymys (fermented horse's milk) and as much tea as you can drink, I went for a long wander along the lake into the distance, just gazing at the views around. It was certainly cooler her than Kochkor, probably a drop of around 20 degrees in temperature to a climate everyone warned was cold and very changable.

Left: Lake Song-Kul at night.
Right: Taking some cattle home beside Song-Kul.

I was a little surprised the next morning, when I woke to find snow on the ground, I had heard rain on the yurt roof early morning and it was cold, but didn't really think it would snow, but snow it did and despite the that everyone else kept complaining about, I thought it was really nice, if unexpected. Another walk in the other direction that morning to discover what was over there, back for lunch, Plov (fatty Mutton, rise and pumpkin; the national dish of Uzbekistan) as ever washed down with Kumys and endless tea. The afternoon I tried the third and final direction away from home, which was back the way we had driven in, but after an hour or two, diverted to try and avoid some very black clouds which truend out to be a very heavy and painful hailstorm to shelter back in the yurt.

Top: Yurts on my first evening (left). Same photo the next morning (right).
Bottom: Family transport and pet (left). Another photo of my home (right).

As I had arrived back early, an early tea was provided, tomatoes, bread, fatty meat, kymys and tea. Not so long later dinner arrived, pasta with mutton, and friend potatoes/vegetables which was very nice, although as usual the mutton had little meat on the fat. Throughout communication was a little restricted, all conversations were in Kyrgyz which I obviously don't know, expect for the occassional order from the taxi driver (he stayed there too) who continued to speak (though seldom) to me in Russian, "sit down" when I preferred to stand, "here, eat" when i was trying to be polite and wait for everyone to be at the table, "sleep" when the beds were put out, but i didn't want to sleep yet. But the point of all this is that it would have been reasonable if someone had told me that that evening we had been invited to a 'Kyrgyz feast' at another yurt. I had already had 2 meals and I noticed a lack of eating amongst everyone else, but only when we finished and my driver said to me "po-idyom" (We're going). "Gde?" (where?), I asked, "gostii" (visiting) he replied.. Oh ok, so a visit, that's OK I thought, but i didn't realise it was a visit to a speacial feast. A third dinnner.

At first we sat and had Kymys, but then the table was taken away, a cloth put on the floor in the middle of everyone and food delivered, it was grandly unveiled and turned out to be a very dodgy looking pile of meaty stuff in different forms. It is known in Kyrgyz as "five fingers" as it is traditionally eaten with the fingers from a shared bowl. Now anyone with any germ phobias should stop reading. The meat was handed out to 3 or 4 key male members of the party who cut it all up and threw it back into a bowl, or simply put it on your plate. After various pieces had been eaten, the final dish was a mixture of all and some new bits all thrown back into the central bowl, had noodles added to it and was then mixed up by hand again before being handed out. I don't know exactly all the contents but I have to say I didn't enjoy it, it was horse meat, though some bits were undeterminable, like a sausage shaped piece of hard rubber with some fatty lining inside and then.... well i won't say anymore as it gets even worse, but I know it contained some parts of an animal I wouldn't normally choose to eat. With it was a greasy, oily bowl of stock, which although pretty awful was quite pleasant in washing down the bits of whatever it was.! Thankfully I wasn't forced into eating very much and my plate was taken away by one of the ladies who shared out all the leftovers between themselves. Finally some more kymys, (no tea this time which I would have loved) and we left, stopping off at another yurt for tea and biscuits on the way home. A traditional final Kyrgyz evening at lake Song-Kul if nothing else.