Safely arrived Saturday morning in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, and spent a bit of an unstructured strolling day before meeting our tour guide and group at 5:00 pm. We are 14 travellers — 3 Canadians, 4 Americans, and the others from Switzerland, India, Australia, and Germany.
Sunday started with a guided walking tour of Bishkek, a rather low-key city with a lot of blocky Soviet architecture, but also some pretty parks.
Fine example of that Soviet architecture
Park monument to Kurmanjan Datka, the first (and I think only) female ruler of Kyrgyzstan
From Bishkek we set off for our next destination, a yurt camp on Issyk-Kul Lake. En route, we visited the Burana Tower, standing alone in a desolate place. There used to be a city here until Genghis Khan’s army swept through around 1200 AD and destroyed everything except the minaret of the mosque. And this lonely column, about half the height of the original minaret, is all that’s left of that now. Nearby is a field of balbals, gravestone images of dead soldiers. These are not in their original locations, but have been brought from other sites in Kyrgyzstan.
Next stop, a felt-making demo. This traditional craft creates a material that’s important for traditional yurts, which are covered in 7 layers of thick felted wool. To create the big sheets for yurts, the community women work together, with socializing, singing, and dancing. The ladies prepared a small demo sample today, and started by vigorously threshing shorn wool to cut up the fibres. I didn’t try it but some fellow travellers did (causing some wool to fly about!) The cut wool was arranged on a reed mat, with contrasting wool laid on top to make a pattern. They soaked it by sprinkling boiling water over it, rolled and wrapped it tightly, then rolled it along the floor while pressing it with their feet. Upon unrolling, the material was fully felted, and the pattern clearly visible.
Arrived at the yurt camp late afternoon; they divided us by gender to maximize space and my roomies and I spent a comfortable night. The stove is powered by dried sheep-dung cakes, which burn surprisingly well. Luckily we did not have to load the fuel ourselves, as a kind gentleman visited us to light it just in time to stave off the evening chill… 😃
Fascinating! You are a braver soul than me. I hope you have a 5 star reward somewhere after this adventure!
Sophie, I’m going to post some pictures in the next day or two of the garden in the guest house where we slept last night, it reminded me so much of Robert’s beautiful garden, you can tell him!
You are so adventurous!!!
Is yurt sleeping your new ‘thing’ or will you be looking for a traditional room with a bed? Looks like you are learning lots. Hope your roomies didn’t snore too much.
Definitely voting for a traditional room with a bed, that yurt was OK, but getting up with a flashlight to find the bathroom yurt in the middle of the night was no joke. While trying to avoid the bunny beans on the ground, I might add. 🐇
Genghis khan tie in is fascinating
Puts a millennium spin on your journey
Awesome statues n tower
Glad you are enjoying the pics, Al, and yes, the Genghis Khan spin was interesting!
LOL on the yurt accommodation and sheep dung stove.
We certainly do not travel the same way 😉
Thanks for sharing
Amazing. My friend has a yurt in her back yard. I can’t believe on how big they are. Wood stove, kitchen, beds, crazy how cozy they can be. Enjoying your blogs ❤️
Great to hear from you, Paula. And by the way, there is a Nova Scotian travelling on the trip with us! She and I agreed yesterday that a beach stop we did was nothing compared to Martinique, lol. 🤗
Elizabeth,
If sleeping in a yurt is something that you fall in love with, I can recommend a spot in Canada to do the same. Not as authentic but they offer the same experience, yes they do! I considered it once but ended up not going unfortunately. So when you come back and if you miss your authentic yurt sleeping experience, I can connect you ;););)
How funny; I was just teaching the kids in my 2nd form history about felt-making today. Great minds think alike!