Adventures in Asia: Osh, Kyrgyzstan

The Pamir Highway tour is done now after arriving in Osh late yesterday afternoon. I said goodbye to Rick and Sarah at their hotel, then the driver tried to take me to a medical clinic to get another rabies shot (I am supposed to have five more!). The clinic was closed for the weekend, however, so instead I simply went to my hotel. I was a bit anxious about getting the shot, however, so I walked to another two places close to the hotel and had a bit of an adventure communicating, but ultimately determined that not many places have rabies shots. 

So, I went back to being a tourist. It was really hot Saturday afternoon, but a large park is close to my hotel and provided some shade and also let me visit the large Lenin Statue. 

Lenin stands right across from city hall.

Here is Lenin from the backside.

The park was an extremely popular place to be on this Saturday afternoon, and I enjoyed watching people relax with their families, partners, and friends. 

Eventually, from Toktogul Park I walked northwest along the Ak-Burra River. At this spot, above the small river, there was a fashion show happening!

I reached another park, where I was hoping to find an old Aeroflot airliner I saw pictures of online that had been here for years; but, apparently, the airplane has flown away (or, more likely, scrapped). So, instead, I rode the Ferris wheel I found!

I actually enjoyed riding so much I considered going around twice, but settled for one spin. I had some nice views, including of Osh's holy mountain, Sulaiman Too.

I walked back along the river again to my hotel, tuckered out from all the walking in the heat! It was interesting to think that I began my day walking in snow and now was struggling because the weather was too warm!

This morning I used my newly downloaded taxi app to ride to the Jayma Bazaar. The bazaar is over two thousand years old. Certainly the cell phone paraphernalia and (knock-off) name brands let you know you are in the 21st century, but in other ways I imagine much is the same as it has been for centuries. 

I took the opportunity to buy some new headphones, and then walked across the river to find a couple of old mosaic advertisements that intrigued me. They are both from 1980, when Moscow was hosting the Olympics. The first has the Olympic mascot . . .

. . . and the other is for Aeroflot, with the five digit phone numbers to call if you want to book a flight. 

There are other historic mosaic murals in Osh that are not advertisements, such as these two.

The mosaic murals are all pretty cool relics, and I hope they can continue to be preserved! 

I walked for a few more blocks, but it was getting hot. I knew I wanted to visit the holy mountain Sulaiman Too, but figured that would be more comfortable later in the day once it cooled down some. By the way, Sulaiman Too is a very special place to folks in Osh, and is even featured on bus stops.

As I crossed an pedestrian overpass, I could see the mountain again across the city.

I took a taxi back to my hotel for the afternoon, however, and took it easy having lunch, visiting a cafe with my book, and so on. 

Around 17:00 I caught a cab to Sulaiman Too. 

It was still very hot, but starting to cool down as I climbed the path upward.

Along the way up, I passed one of the many sacred spots--this rock, which is worn smooth from people sliding down it; apparently, a ride down the rock slide leads to increased fertility. I settled for a photo.

Of course, as you climb there are also lots of good views of Osh, including the mosque below the mountain.

Climbing Sulaiman Too was a nice way to end my visit to Osh, and really Central Asia altogether, because tomorrow I fly to Europe.

Adventures in Asia: to Osh, Kyrgyzstan

Just before noon today we left our yurt camp in the mountains and rejoined the M41 to head to Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second largest city, and the unofficial end of the Pamir Highway. Although the most well-known and "other worldly" parts of the Pamir Highway are behind us, we were still in for some beautiful and impressive scenery. For example, check out this switch-backing descent!

As I mentioned previously, with school ending for the summer on Friday, families are heading out with their flocks to spend summer on the land. Over and over again we ran into herds blocking the highway. Our driver was extremely unimpressed, but as a tourist it was quite interesting!

We also stopped intentionally sometimes, such as above this village where a photo simply cannot do the scenery justice. 

But even at our gas station stop the setting was lovely.

As we approached Osh, and entered the lush and fertile Fergana Valley there was a large Kyrgyz flag, the weather was turning hot and the traffic getting much worse. It was clear we had left the remote, cool, and sparsely populated Pamir for sure now!

Once in Osh, it was well past lunch time, so a plate of lagman noodles hit the spot!

Adventures in Asia: Lenin Peak, Kyrgyzstan

From Karakul Lake, it is a fairly short drive to the Kyrgyz border. This is the second highest border crossing in the world, at 4280 metres. 

Unfortunately, border clashes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan occurred in 2021 and 2022 and tensions remain. The border was closed for awhile and is now only open for international travelers. This meant our driver (and his car) could not cross the border. So, we navigated through Tajik border controls, had a soldier jump in with us, drove through half the no-man's land to the border itself, then waited for about 30 minutes for our new driver and car to arrive. 

Our new driver, Mohammad, drove us for several more kilometres and down several hundred metres through no-man's land to the Kyrgyz border controls. It was immediately obvious that Kyrgyzstan is a richer country than Tajikistan, because the border infrastructure, was significantly newer and more sophisticated. However, I had longer than I would have liked to observe the infrastructure, because they apparently check with "headquarters" (or something) to ensure each border crosser is on the "approved list" (or something) before letting them cross, and this takes some time. A Dutch couple with an impressive camper truck had been waiting overnight to get their embassy to get them on the list! Luckily they seemed very chill and were well equipped to wait out the bureaucracy. We, on the other hand, only had to wait less than an hour before we were able to enter Kyrgyzstan.

We descended fairly quickly once we were in Kyrgyzstan and, although there were impressive mountains around us, we began to see fields of greenery again. 

Also, in the middle of the photo below, we saw old Soviet observatory domes.

After lunch (and SIM card purchases) in the first town (Sary-Tash), we began heading west, leaving the M41 for a detour to Lenin's Peak, a 7,134 metre tall mountain on the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

At a town called Sary Mogul we turned off the highway, passed through the town . . .

. . . and along a gravel/dirt road south towards the mountains and our first glimpse of Lenin Peak--the tallest mountain I have ever seen. By the way, the mountain range is so white in the bright sun, that it is easy to think the mountains are clouds on the horizon!

We are staying at this yurt camp, at the foot of Lenin Peak and the Trans-Alay mountains 

This is the yurt I slept in, along with the driver.

I stayed in a yurt before, in Mongolia (there they call it a "ger"), but I enjoyed the experience all over again.

What I did not see in Mongolia is a yurt being pitched. School got out yesterday, so yurts are popping up all over the place as families head out onto the land with their animals or, in this case, to host tourists. This yurt was being set up when we arrived, and here it is with just the framing. 

There was a significant snowfall prior to our arrival, and while much of it did melt around the camp, further up there was still a lot of snow, and even where there wasn't it was muddy and slippery. 

There are a few good hikes up towards Lenin Peak's base camp, and some other spots, but when I explored the trails after we arrived yesterday, I decided with all the snow and mud it was not the type of trekking I was prepared to take on. Rick and Sarah certainly did not want to, either, so we decided to stick close to camp.

There is a small, gorgeous lake nearby, with a little trail around it. I ended up circumnavigating it four times between yesterday and today! 

There were a lot of marmots around the lake, and I managed to zoom in and capture one before he darted into his hole.