We ended up spending almost two months in the Stan’s. Our adventures started in Almaty, Kazakhstan, working our way through the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and ending the trip in Uzbekistan. The area is still relatively untouched by tourism, but more so than in recent years so organising visas, day trips and accommodation is…
Tag: Kyrgyzstan
The Pamir Highway | Part One, The high mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
The Pamir Highway is a highlight for anyone travelling the Stan’s. It’s the second highest international highway in the world, climbing up to a staggering 4655m! It’s got a few nicknames like the Roof Of The World, due to its height, and also the Heroine Highway as apparently most of the heroin that’s trafficked through…
A horse ride, hike and traditional yurtstay at Kul Ukok | Kyrgyzstan
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…
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…
NON STOP TRAVELLING 