Kyrgyzstan is THE place to go horse riding in Central Asia, so as a belated birthday treat we went on a one day horse ride to Kul Ukok near Kochker. We were driven to the horsemans house where we found out he didn’t speak any English except for the word “problem?”. I was quickly given…
Author: laurenwinslowllewellyn
Hiking to Song-Kol and staying in yurts along the way | Kyrgyzstan
Most people hire horses for a three day trip to Song Kol lake but we didn’t really want to go through the pain of sitting on a horse for that long, nor did we want to spend that much money. So instead we opted to hike for three days and stay in yurts along the…
Exploring the badlands of Kyrgyzstan
One thing we hadn’t expected to see in Central Asia was red rock deserts but we were treated to a beautiful display along the southern shores of Issyk Kul Lake. We’d seen the desert as we drove to the ethnic festival and decided we had to come back and explore more of the area so…
Dead goat polo & an eagle attacking a child |Nomad Festival, Kyrgyzstan
We knew we’d miss the world famous Nomad Festival in Kyrgyzstan this year but as luck would have it, a smaller ethnic festival was taking place so we jumped at the opportunity. It was set along the shores of Issyk Kul lake which is the 2nd largest alpine lake in the world and a sight…
Hiking to Ala Kol and Altyn Arashan in two days | Kyrgyzstan
A single photo of this milky blue, glacial fed lake surrounded by snowy peaks was enough to entice us to visit Central Asia. So when we reached the town of Karakol in Kyrgyzstan we had to figure out how to get to this jaw dropping lake named Ala Kol. Most people do a three day…
Crossing the remote Karkara Border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
The Karkara border is a rather remote place to cross from Kazakhstan into Kyrgyzstan but we really wanted to do it to save lots of backtracking. We read blogs online and researched as much as possible but it all came down to luck on the day. So here’s how it went down: 8am, 11th July…
Exploring Kaindy and Kolsai Lakes | Kazakhstan
It was time for us to leave Almaty and head to the village of Saty in the foothills of the Tian Shan Mountains. Within an hour of setting off however, our shared taxi had a blowout and we needed to wait in the scorching sun for the driver to replace it with a completely bald…
Lost in the Mountains of Kazakhstan
“Are we technically lost if we can see our final destination, but can’t find a route to it?” We couldn’t of picked better weather for our hike to the Four Peaks up in Kazakhstans Tian Shan Mountains. The plan was to catch a bus to Medeo, then a shuttle bus up to the ski village…
Flying to Kazakhstan and exploring butterfly filled meadows
We had a very long sleepless night travelling from London to Almaty, Kazakhstan, for the start of our Central Asian adventures. Craig seemed to start the trip in a particularly clumsy manner though. The first incident was when we were queuing up along the aisle of the plane, waiting for everyone to put their bags…
Scuba diving in the Arctic and an amusing hitchhiking trip
We never thought about scuba diving in the arctic sea, but an opportunity came up in our final week which we couldn’t turn down. We were heading out with the lovely team from Lofoten Diving who are based in the fishing village of Ballstad, not far from Leknes. We managed to get a ride with…
NON STOP TRAVELLING 