In the two days that we had been in Jyrgalan, the road construction between Karakol and Jyrgalan had changed dramatically. It had taken us 2.5 hours to get to Jyrgalan from Karakol but only half that to get back. We passed more horses heading down from their summer pastures.
To make people aware of stock on the roads, cutouts of animals were erected beside the roads. They also do cutouts of school kids crossing pedestrian crossings and police cars! They're quite effective at getting the message across.
Mosques are quite low-key in this country. They tend to be small, local places and don't seem to broadcast the services to all and sundry.
From Karakol, we drove west along the southern edge of Lake Issyk-Kul, the huge lake that we've pretty much circled around on this trip. There were many lovely beaches lining the shore and some beautiful mountain views.
Also lining the shores though were hundreds of cottages and yurts. In some places they were very concentrated. Many looked like they were new but hadn't been used, strangely. Maybe they were waiting for the road to be finished?
Our next accommodation, and our last in Kyrgyzstan, would be a special one. It was a yurt with amazing views! We finally found the place (it was a bit out of the way) and the views over rugged orange hills was fabulous.
It wasn't love at first sight with the yurt though. It was pretty rough and ready. Old, worn lino and flattened cardboard boxes lined the floor but they had covered most of it with colourful carpets. They weren't traditional felt yurts. They were built from timber then rendered with mud. The mud plaster was falling off, even though the yurts were fairly new. We'd realised by now that the word 'yurt' just means any building built in a circular shape. Our yurt had large windows overlooking the view, something you can't do with a traditional yurt. Traditional ones have no windows. We also had an ensuite, another thing traditional yurts don't have!
Three single beds were inside, however they didn't have 'normal' mattresses. They just had piles of padded blankets on the bed bases. The blankets were too long for the bases, so they folded them to fit! We could both feel the bed base through them. I pinched another blanket off the spare bed which made it ok.
One of the most wonderful things about the yurt was that it had a traditional yurt opening in the ceiling. This had a canvas cover which could be opened and closed as needed. Each morning, the husband would open it and each night he would close it. The morning sun poured straight through the windows, so this was a great way to get some airflow going and control the temperature inside.
We ate breakfast and dinner in a 'real' yurt.
On each of the two full days that we were there, there were AFL finals matches on. It was amazing lying on the beds watching the games (there were no chairs or any other furniture) then looking across at the amazing view during the less exciting bits.
The views changed with the time of day.
Sunrise
Our car, a yurt and mountains.
A husband and wife team ran the yurt camp (there were only three yurts) but they spoke no English. They tried hard though. We ate dinner each night there. Miram wasn't the best cook but the food was ok. Their own house was next door and it was pretty rough. The part they lived in was simple. A new extension sat half-finished, looking a mess. Water came from a well and the washing machine was at least 50 years old. It had to be loaded by hand.
We met a lovely French father and adult son on night one. They lived on a stunning island in France. I saw pictures. I want to go there now! Night two we ate with a pair of lovely Swiss girls and we shared the table with a Hungarian couple and their two-year-old on night three. It was good to have people to talk to over dinner.
Of course, we didn't always sit around the yurt! Our first walk was just a quick explore of the area further down our road. We were hoping it would lead into the hills but instead it led through lovely farmland to a valley.
There were more cool views of the colourful sculpted hills here.
As we drove up and down the highway to various places, the amount of roadworks continued to amaze us.
A famous place nearby is Fairytale Canyon. It's very similar to the rugged hills in our view from the yurt but there were some tracks through these formations. We headed off on some side hills and had some wonderful views.
We saw a snake! It was tiny, lol.
It was busy in the main part of the canyon, but the formations and colours were lovely.
It was my birthday and we had a call with the kids. The internet wasn't great though (yes we had wifi in the yurt!) but we managed to have a chat anyway which was wonderful.
Another walk took us to a viewpoint where we could see over Lake Issyk-Kul plus the amazing rocky formations. Autumn was coming!
We had to wash the car as we would be returning it the next morning. Out time in Kyrgyzstan was almost up. It's strange how even things like car washes vary in each country. The foam here was very frothy and very pink!
We had one last quick walk into the valley in front of our yurt camp. It was so green and lovely on the valley floor. Horses and cows wandered freely.
Staying in the yurt was a great experience. I'll always have fond memories of those views and that amazing hole in the roof!
'Bye from the Grey (yurt-dwelling) Nomads :)
(Saying that reminds us of our friend Shahin's slip of the tongue when he referred to that generation as grey gonads!)
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