After two days at the Son-Kol Yurt camp we headed out driving south along the plateau for the 3600m Moldo-Ashuu pass towards our next Yurt camp at Tash Rabat near the southern border with China. The distance was not great- only about 250 km to get to our new yurt camp- but because of the bad road conditions restricting speeds to 10-15km/hour, the drive took most of the day. The long drive was OK though because most of Kyrgyzstan is mountainous and we were constantly treated to amazing, dramatic and majestic scenery making it interesting and bearable. We descended from the plateau through the 3660m Moldo-Ashuu pass via switchbacks too numerous to count. We stopped at the pass for the obligatory photos but also to take a moment to simply absorb the views.  We did not linger long as our goal was to get to Naryn, the nearest large town (about 40,000 residents) for lunch.  I was very happy to not be driving and doubly happy that we had a professional driver in Vasily, who continues to take very good care of us!

The pass down from Son-Kol. Our road down is in the background.

Along the drive Olga continued to educate us about the country and its customs.  One of the more fascinating things she told us about was the history of the “World Nomad Games”, something I had never heard of.  Apparently the government of Kyrgyzstan, in an attempt to keep aspects of the traditional nomad culture alive, instituted and hosted the first World Nomad Games six years ago.  They are held every two years and the last one had over 3000 athletes from 102 countries attend (even the U.S!). Krygystan usually wins the most medals, not unsurprisingly.  She explained in detail one game that originates in Kyrgyzstan culture called Kok-Bory.  Think of it as polo with a goat carcass (minus the head) and no sticks.  Each team is ten riders and the riders have to reach down to the ground from horseback to get the carcass, which could be quite heavy, and move it down field to chuck it into a round well-like structure. The winners get the goat carcass, which has been nicely tenderized as a result of the game, for a BBQ.  I definitely need to do some more research on the World Nomad Games!!!

Some of the great scenery we saw as we were traveling along.

After experiencing a variety of roads ranging from a smooth well-maintained highway to an undeveloped, bumpy gravel road, we finally made it to Naryn for lunch.  The guesthouse we were eating at is owned and operated by a woman named Bakhtygul.  She is a member of the Krygystan Tourist Community Collective which is a network of guesthouses and bed and breakfasts across the country organized via regional offices.  When tour groups need accommodation or meals, they contact the appropriate regional Tourist Community Collective which serves to connect the individual guesthouses and B&Bs with the tourists.  It is a clever system because to be a member of the collective it is necessary to meet certain requirements and in turn, the regional centers make sure that the tourist business is equally distributed to the members in the network.  Bakhtygul has been running a guest house for over 15 years and has slowly built up a thriving business.  She enjoys meeting people from other countries and spent some time with us during the meal to tell us a bit about her history and life.  We had a wonderful conversation with her while we were eating.

A typical meal spread no matter where we were. Lots of food!!!

I should take a moment and talk about the food.  Not only has there been plentiful and amazing food, but the presentation at each meal, even in the yurt camps, has been very elaborate.  The tables are set formally, typically with the sweets, cookies and fruits that consist of the desert course already on the table.  The meals start with salads of various kinds followed by a soup course followed by a main course.  Breakfast includes pastries, some kind of porridge and eggs.  Every meal is overwhelming with the amount of food that is presented.  Meat and potatoes are prevalent, not unsurprisingly, but complimented by a wide range of vegetables and bread (usually home baked).  The fruit is very fresh, especially the watermelon and there are usually two different kinds of home-made jam to accompany the bread or add to your tea.  I do not think I am walking enough to justify the amount of food I am eating…..

One of the interesting things we saw frequently along the way were the Muslim cemeteries.  They were very beautiful and extravagant with amazing architecture.  Olga mentioned that because the culture was nomadic, their architectural expression occurred in the cemeteries.  Some of the monuments got very elaborate.

An example of a Muslim cemetery. All villages had some form and the size of the cemetery usually reflected the size of the village.

After another filling meal, we headed south out of Naryn on another China built highway towards the yurt camp.  About  20 miles north of the Krygystan/China border we turned east onto a gravel road and headed up a narrow valley gorge to camp arriving about 5pm.  The weather was beautiful and because of the shielded location of the camp, the wind was much calmer than at Son-Kol.  As dinner was not going to be until 7:30pm I decided to take advantage of the extra time and use the banya to clean up. A banya is similar to a sauna— a small room with a bench that is warm, but includes a spigot with cold and hot water.  You disrobe in an outer room, enter the banya and using the spigot adjusted to the desired temperature, fill the bucket with water.  Then using a scoop you scoop the water over your body to clean yourself.  Or to make things easier when washing your hair, simply pour the whole bucket over your head in the name of efficiency.  If you need more water, you fill up the bucket again.  When you are clean you return to the outer room to dry off and get dressed.  It was wonderful to feel clean again (and have access to hot water!).

The yurt felt very familiar as it was similar to the one at the Son-Kol yurt camp.  After dinner, when I came back to the yurt, it was evident the same approach to  overnight heating was being employed.  My yurt was very warm and I had to prop one of the doors open for a while to reach a comfortable temperature.

Tash Rabat

After breakfast we set out for Tash Rhabat, an old monastery located down the road from the yurt camp.  We had passed it on the way to the camp and Olga commented we would come back to visit first thing in the morning before any other visitors arrived.  It was an excellent plan because when we arrived at 9am, we were the first and only ones there and essentially had the whole place to ourselves.  Tash Rabat is believed to be a Nestorian monastery from the 10th century.  Most of the building is original but during the Soviet era they did reconstruct the roof to complete the structure.  The building was built into the hill and is believed to have housed between 30-50 monks.  We were able to walk through the whole inside of the structure visiting the main communal chapel, individual cells with domed ceilings and skylights, and what looked to be communal dining or sleeping places.  In a mysterious and intriguing twist, we even were shown where the occupants had a secret room with a vertical shaft leading to a tunnel that went back into the mountain.  It is not certain how far and where the tunnel eventually went because the archaeo logical work was stopped before the tunnel could be completely traced.  Olga mentioned that locals, regardless of religion, still come to the main communal chapel to meditate.

The main center of the structure problably used for worship.

Leaving Tash Rabat, just as the first of a busy day of visitors arrived, we started our hike up into the hills above the monastery; Olga wanted to show us more petroglyphs.  The hike was a bit more challenging than the walk we took at Son-Kol as the slope was steeper but when we got to the top, the views back across the plateau we had traversed to get to the camp were spectacular.  We could also see the main highway and the turn it took towards the China border not that far away.   We walked along the ridge, looking at multiple locations where petroglyphs associated with the Scythians were still visible, having survived over two millennia of weather and time.  Eventually we wandered back down to the valley floor and to the yurt camp for lunch.

One of the corridors in the building.

During lunch, the woman who ran the yurt camp, Nazira, stopped in to talk to us and we learned a bit more about her and her family.  The valley/gorge we were in, much like Son-Kol, had a handful of yurt camps and lots of livestock, although here it was mainly horses, freely roaming the hills grazing.  Her camp was one of the first ones in the area and in addition to the yurt camp, her family had a large herd of yak.  (We never saw the yak, they were deeper in the valley than we went.). Her husband managed the livestock and she managed the yurt camp. The animals stayed in the valley year round but the yurt camp was shut down during the winter and she and her family moved to their house in the near-by village. I might note that near-by is relative; it is about a 90 minute drive between her village and the yurt camp.  Her husband travels frequently to the valley during the winter to check on the animals.  They sell some yaks in the Fall to provide winter income.

I also found out that the beautiful horses that we had grazing around us also served as a source of income for meat.  It sounded like a lot of work but from listening to her and Bakhtagul it was obvious that they both enjoyed meeting people from different countries; in a society and culture where extensive travel was not likely, these women found a way to bring the world to them. As a matter of fact, while we were relaxing that afternoon, about a dozen Germans on motorcycles pulled in to the yurt camp; they were on a two week motorcycle tour of Kyrgyzstan (although with some of the road conditions we experienced I cannot believe motorcycle riding was pleasant!). Just as an aside, we also saw a few intrepid individuals traveling by bicycle, also challenging when you consider the hilly terrain.