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First of all my trip here is just a glimpse and a very short trip which doesn't do justice to the beauty of this country.
Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous country with 94% of it being mountains so it's a nature lover's dream, full of hiking opportunities including the opportunity to climb Lenin's peak at over 7100 meters which is a tough peak to summit apparently due to its steepness and glacier top.
The country is simply beautiful and its main attraction is nature. You can even do a hiking trip to search for snow leopards over a week.
My short evening in Bishkek, I went to the main plaza Ala Too square in which there was some concert happening. Kind of kyrgyzstani rap/hip hop.
Saw the opera theater and panfilov park, which is kind of an amusement park.
Had an amazing dinner at Frunze restaurant with a very cool outdoor seating in which they do traditional dishes in a modern way. The Horse ribs were spectacular.
Next day in the morning, on the way to the Kok Moinok canyon we stopped at Burana tower which is the most important monument in the country. In the 8 to 10th century there used to be a city here and the watchtower (which has been reconstructed) is what remains.
The interesting thing is also the cemetery there as the tombstones have the image/face of the person carved into their tombstone. Something very peculiar.
Kok Moinok canyon is a pretty cool gorge which was created by wind eroding the mountain and creating a small canyon. Really nice views from it and pretty impressive how wind and rain can create such beautiful places.
And in what is a very relaxed chill day with not much wind, when walking in the canyon, clearly it intensifies and one can feel the wind.
While on the way, my guide Beksultan was following on Instagram the horse trekking competition part of the world nomads game as one of the riders of kyrgyzstan is from his village. He told me that since he was a kid, he started training his horse.
So horseback riding is done on teams of 5 and it's a 5 day race in which each day they need to do 100kms.
For a team to win, 3 out of the 5 riders must finish.
We continued a few more hours driving to Issyk kul lake (south shore) which is the second largest mountain lake in the world after lake Titicaca. Amazing views on one side with the lake and the other with snow capped mountains.
We got to our yurt camp and then drove a few minutes to the shire to take a swim in this beautiful lake. The water was a bit chilly but very enjoyable.
Then we had a home cooked dinner from the hosts of the yurt camp.
Next day it's time for more adventure but waking up to rain outside the yurt is not the most inviting thing to venture out to and feel the damp cold morning.
But it was time to go eagle hunting.
Eagle hunting is one of the key nomad ways of living. People look for them in the mountains when they are babies in order to start training them.
Eagles grow to their full size in 6-7 months and it takes around 3 years to train them so they can start hunting. Their eyesight is so good that they can find prey up to 4 kms away when flying.
Traditionally the way they hunt with them (mostly in winter) is to go horseback riding with the eagle master taking the eagle with him and others with horses looking for prey before they release the eagle.
It's quite a spectacle to see the eagle take flight and catch a prey.
The eagle I got to know was named Sirgac (or something like that)
I also saw dog hunting with the local Eaigan dogs. Damn these dogs are fast. They can run and once they catch something they seem pretty vicious. And they look so cute when chilling.
Then it was time to try some archery. Looks so easy to just use a bow and arrow and I didn't do that bad. At least I hit the board around 40% of the time. But I will just blame it on the cold day and my fingers being numb from coldness.
Maybe my Olympic dreams never materialized but I might have a chance in two years for the world nomad games.
Now it was time to visit Aksai canyons which are simply spectacular the way they look when one climbs one of the small hills and look at the canyons. Ok one side the beautiful lake and on the other the snow capped mountains. What an amazing view and gorgeous place. It's simply hard to describe nature's beauty to make it justice.
Then we went quickly past the Chon Kemin Valley which as it says it's just a valley past the mountain range where the lake is.
And that was my quick trip in this majestic and beautiful country.
