Within the confines of the ex-USSR, Kyrgyzstan (or Kyrgyzstan), small country wedged between the Kazakhstan, China, the Uzbekistan and Tajikistan is the most open countries in the region. Reason for which we meet in Bishkek - while relatively- many tourists.
Landing at Bishkek, note of at the outset the remnants of the Soviet Union : a huge room concert or opera is partly converted into auto parts store, the historical Museum, under the flag kept by two even more immobile as Buckingham guards, has not moved an inch and still is to the glory of the USSR. In front, Ala - too square mix Soviet constructivism and Muslim inspiration. The streets variously maintained (the greatest danger the night are the missing manholes, and not bad meetings as is sometimes), old trolleybuses and an army of marshroutkas (minibus) will their way through a little disciplined traffic.
But the most interesting in Kyrgyzstan, It is the nature ! So I went for three days at Song-Kul, Mountain 200 km from Bishkek Lake. Direction to the West bus station (large building at that time Soviet completely empty since the end of the, only parking is now used) to take a minibus to Kochkor, 3 h of road. On the way, the road passes through a barren, steep-sided valley, and along the only railway of the country (which goes from Bishkek to Issyk Kul Lake, and on the other side, in the Kazakhstan). We stop along the way in a small café and in the company of a young Kyrgyz, I taste the kymyz (fermented mare's milk) and cheese made from the milk, small balls very hard and acidic, but it is said, full of nutrients.
Arrived in Kochkor, I hope to find other tourists to share the price of a taxi, but I'll be the only one… For about € 35, a person agrees to take me to the Lake (another 100km half of track through Martian landscapes…).
The landscape of Song-Kul is typically a landscape of steppe : not a tree on the horizon ! Only areas of grass covered by herds, East of the mountains on the horizon. Around the Lake, There are no tourist facilities : It is necessary either to bring tent and supplies, either ask the hospitality of the families who live in yurt camp. It is this last option I have chosen, joined by a “hippie” Russian for 50 years and then the second day by two Belgian women. To the program : meals with the family and discussions in the evening sipping vodka yurt. The Kyrgyz are Muslim, but obviously not very strict !
The third day, I return to Bishkek where I can find a Switzerland and we stay there a few days before taking the plane to Osh. It will go directly to the Uzbek border.
OSH is less interesting than Bishkek. One of the only two attractions is the grand Bazaar, which part is alignment of containers came directly from China (elsewhere in the city, more and more storefronts are dubbed in Chinese), and the other part is a more local product market. Another attraction is the Suleyman mountains, that it climbed to an admission unbeatable, 5 soms (0.07€).
