Staying in a yurt camp is a quintessential part of travelling in Kyrgyzstan and we had so many great experiences last time that we were excited to stay in more. This time we were in the Naryn region and we picked a lake to visit which isn’t on the tourist trail yet, it still remains a hidden gem tucked between the mountains and rolling hills.

Our super host in Naryn helped us arrange everything, she found the cheapest option for us which was transport for 4000 som return (£36) and the yurt including breakfast at 2500 som (£23) per person. To be honest the yurt was way overpriced, normally it would be between 1200-1800 som but at least the transport was a fraction of the other quotes we found which were £100! This budget option didn’t have hotel pick up and instead we had to make our way to a town 45km away. Our plan was to hitch a ride but the road was so quiet we ended up waiting about 30 minutes. The driver was an absolute lunatic. He was driving 150km and didn’t cut his speed for bends. At one point I turned to Craig and said “isn’t it crazy to think that people actually pay for those Formula 1 days and here were are, getting it for just £2 per person”.

Due to the speed we arrived just in time for our 9am pick up, sadly our yurt host didn’t have the same punctuality. We asked strangers to call him twice and were told to wait where we were and in the end we had to wait an hour and a half which put us in a bit of a bad mood. Well, technically the guy turned up after 45 minutes and using charades and a friend who spoke broken English he tried to suggest that the driver and car couldn’t reach us yet because the road was closed for Independence Day. We were getting impatient and asked if we could walk to the car, it was only a block away and eventually he put us in his car and took us to the driver who was not stuck due to a closed road, he was just doing a food shop. We were expecting a 4×4 car but it was a low riding 2×2 Mercedes. Every time we thought we were leaving he’d stop to do something else, get petrol, buy a drink, smoke cigarettes.

Finally we set off at 10:30am with the driver named Isa. We had a section of tarmac where he drove ridiculously fast and eventually we were on gravel roads, much to our surprise still driving ridiculously fast. It turns out if you drive over 100km on gravel it feels almost smooth like tarmac, that is until you meet a pot hole and don’t have time to avoid it. The drive was about two hours along these gravel roads, edging our way more into the wild landscapes of Kyrgyzstan. Isa knew a few English words and said something about a horse ride, to which we said we were fine, our plan was to hike to the lake. But then he said “hike? Not possible, 10km”. So we corrected him “no it’s 4km, maybe you mean return walk, it’s 8km return” and to our horror he said “return over 20km”. We actually thought he was joking, but it turns out his families yurt was in fact 10km from the lake and they’d lied to our host about the location. He said we’d need horses to reach the lake as the road was too rough for hus 2WD car, but we kept explaining we didn’t want to get a horse, we came to hike so he’d have to drive us to the place we were meant to go to.

After the delayed start I was starting to get a bit pissed off but we went with the flow, soon pulling up to a white yurt set on a lush green plateau with a mountain backdrop. “My family house” he said “let’s have lunch”. We were in a rush now to get to the lake so we declined lunch, we’d packed a picnic anyway but then he said “Kumis, just 5 minutes”. Kumis is fermented horse milk, I can’t stand the stuff and we tried it in Central Asia on our first trip so we politely declined and said we wanted to get to the lake as soon as possible knowing full well 5 minutes would turn into 30. Isa quickly ran inside and got a coke bottle filled with Kumis to take on the journey and eventually he put his car into reverse and we seemed to be heading for the lake. We had to drive down the plateau to a bridge across the blue river and then follow a dirt track steeply uphill to the plateau on the other side. Suddenly I noticed a noise to my side, it was the bottle of Kumis in the footwell next to me. It seemed to be leaking on the floor so I grabbed it and tried to tighten the lid but it was already tight so I held it up to Isa and said it’s leaking somehow and at that very moment we all noticed it was actually spraying out of 3 pin-sized holes on the side of the bottle so stinky kumis was filling the air now.

The road was a little sketchy at the beginning but then we were cruising along the bright green pastures and absolutely surrounded by animals. I couldn’t believe how many there were – probably thousands of free roaming horses, cows, sheep and some donkeys. We could see Isa’s family yurt across the river and then we noticed his dad had arrived in a large sprinter truck. Isa turned on his radio to talk to him as theres no phone service up here, but the radio just said “please charge battery”. So they had a conversation the old fashioned way, his dad drove across the river towards us until he was just close enough to communicate with some serious shouting. There was a river crossing which the Mercedes nailed but the next one was like a mud pit so Isa got out and ran along the plateau, following some faint marks where tyres had pressed into the grass. He managed to find a section which didn’t seem too boggy so he floored it across, hoping we wouldn’t get stuck.

It was a fun drive along this section, the mountains rose up to our side and animals dashed off the track to avoid a collision. It took almost an hour to get within 2km of the lake so who knows how long that journey would of taken by horse and how sore our butts would be. We parked up by some yurt camps (where we were supposed to be staying!) and set off on the hike but then Isa said he was coming too which surprised us. I had to write in the translator that we didn’t need a guide and were happy walking on our own as I didn’t want to get charged for a service we didn’t need. But he said he hadn’t seen the lake in 4 years so wanted to go up too, he also offered us a picnic which we declined as we had our own food.

On the way up we walked above a little pond where the water was a lovely blue colour. It only took about 30 minutes to reach the actual lake which was encircled by mountains. When the sun was out the turquoise colour of the lake really popped, it was a beautiful sight and as promised a hidden gem, we had the place all to ourselves.

We picked a nice rock to enjoy our picnic and then we decided to walk around the west side of the lake. The trail led steeply uphill which was tough but great to get a higher vantage point of the lake where the colour became even more intense. It was a shame our yurt camp wasn’t where it was supposed to be as it meant we lacked the freedom to just keep strolling without worrying what time it was. Instead we had a time restraint because our driver was waiting for us and it was an hour drive back.

After taking a few photos we felt a couple dollops of rain and within a matter of seconds it was upon us. It seemed to come out of nowhere so we put our ponchos on which flapped frantically in the wind and quickly made our way back down.

Once we arrived back at the car the sun was shining again so we just laid on the grass and soaked in the views around us. It was such a magical spot, watching cows navigate their way down the steep mountainsides so they could reach the river and have a drink and locals were riding horses and corralling the horses. There seemed to be even more animals grazing on the lush grass on the drive back, sometimes we’d need to stop and honk the horn so cows would move out the way.

Isa stopped driving at one point and offered us Kumis, he grabbed some plastic cups and poured away while I continuously said no thank you. Craig decided to take a cup though, thinking a fermented drink would be good for his dodgy belly he got in Pakistan. He actually said it wasn’t too bad so I decided to give it a try, maybe my tastebuds had matured since our last visit. The smell test was horrendous but I carefully put the cup to my lips, slowly easing the tiniest amount of liquid into my mouth and the very moment it happened I nearly threw up. It was absolutely repulsive, if anything it was worse than the first time I tried it and I was repeatedly gagging. I couldn’t get the foul taste out my mouth and began frantically searching my bag for something to eat. If you’re wondering what kumis tastes like it’s basically like gone off milk mixed with half a cup of vomit. Eventually we made it back to the yurt camp at around 5pm and it was quite an experience so I’ll share more in the next posts.