Walnut hunting in Arslanbob

This is an under-ripe walnut. The Arslanbob locals make jam out of the juvenile pod before the harvest season in September. But I'm getting ahead of myself....

After two overpriced taxi rides culminating in a ten hour journey from Bishkek, we finally made it to Arslanbob. The road was pretty sketchy, but the views were amazing. Especially alongside the river that runs into the Toktogul Reservoir. It's a beautiful turquoise colour with jaggered mountains popping out of the wide river.

Arslanbob is close to the Uzbek border and the majority of the town residents are Uzbek, and more conservative than the rest of Kyrgyzstan. Many of the men wear a skull cap made from felt, and the women wear headscarfs and long pants and a loose dress. I arrived in town wearing shorts, which caused some stares and yelling from slow moving vehicles such as 'Hello, where you from?' 

There are many homestays in Arslanbob and many with beautiful gardens.

And great food.

The only down side is getting woken up at 4am each morning by the azan, the call to prayer. Having it boom through our tent several times a day gets old pretty quick.

We were keen to organise a hike in the area and at first were looking at heading to the four Kol Mazar or 'holy' mountain lakes. After reading some blogs and talking to some tourists (who were hard to find, due to there being no hostel or central tourist hang-out in town) we realised a guide was a necessity, as the track was not well-travelled or marked.

The holy lakes were an intense four-day walk and a guide cost $40 AUS a day. We looked for other tourists who wanted to do the same walk to cut down on costs, but had no luck in finding potential hiking buddies.

While we were hanging our in the CBT office, in walked an Israeli couple we had previously met on the mashrutka from Kochkor to Bishkek. They were keen to do a three day walk through the walnut forest. 

Arslanbob is home to the largest walnut forest in the world. Walnut forests also have the bonus of being significantly flatter than hikes to certain holy lakes, which require the summiting of mountain passes, so we decided to go with the forest option and explore it with the Israelis. 

Unfortunately, disaster struck that evening when we received a call from CBT at our homestay, advising us that the Israelis were sick (they suspected it was the soft serve ice cream in town - stay away, people!)

The food sickness culprit!

Claire and I were left on our own. We decided to do the walk anyway but cut it down to two days instead of three to reduce costs.

Day One

We met out guide at 9am at CBT and took off on our adventure. As we meandered through town we bumped into the locals.

And headed up until we had a panoramic view of Arslanbob. 

Walnut trees are not the only thing that grow extensively in Arslanbob, but also apples, berries, pistachios and cherry plums. And they are different breeds to what we get in Australia. For example, this tinybapple had large, bright red pips, not the typical small, dark brown ours have.

After walking for two or three hours we stopped for lunch at a beautiful shaded spot with running water and a little shack.

I was expecting the forest to be set into neat rows like our orchards, but it's just like any other forest. Large beautiful trees all over the place in no particular order, all of different shapes and sizes. The roads wind and curve around different sections of land owned by different families.

We weaved our way around the trees before coming to rest for the night by a stream and a flat piece of land. Our guide grew up in Arslanbob and was very knowledgable about all the different fruits and trees. He also kept feeding us food from his picnic blanket, to which we didn't object.

Our guide showing us a juvenile walnut he picked from a tree and cracked open. 

Day Two

Disaster struck again, but this time on home soil. Claire woke up feeling unwell and began vomiting. She assured us that she felt better after packing the tent and so we went on our way. She is a tough cookie, but after about 45 minutes of trekking, her dinner once again made a reappearance. She had broken out in a fever and, despite the heat of the day, rugged herself up in her sleeping bag and passed out by the side of the road, rousing herself occasionally to empty the contents of her stomach.

After two hours, I figured she probably wasn't going to bounce back any time soon, so we organised a car to come and save us. Thank goodness we had a guide and phone reception. Unfortunately, Claire's colour had changed from white to green and so it was straight to bed once we got home. More vomiting and diarrhoea ensued. The next day was much of the same. I took the opportunity to check out the bazaar.

Arslanbob is known for its yoghurt balls and dried fruit leather.

The yoghurt balls were incredibly sour and reminded me of Warhead lollies we ate when we were kids. The fruit leather is like a Uncle Toby's Roll Ups, without all the added sugar.

They also sold the infamous kymys.

It's the white stuff in the coke bottles and is fermented mare's (or cow, or goat) milk. They sell it EVERYWHERE, most commonly in used soft drink bottles. It's on every mashrutka ride in various forms and Claire was unfortunate enough to have a 50 litre jerry can of it explode on her on the ride from Kochkor to Bishkek. The smell was not good! Unfortunately, it instigated a vomiting session from a little girl. Not the best mashrutka ride we've ever been on, but probably the most eventful thus far.

After a stroll through the outdoor market, it was time to visit a chaikhana. Arslanbob doesn't have restaurants as such, just these tea houses dotted around town that sell shazliks, samosas, manty (dumplings) and tea.

On my return to our home stay, Claire was still in a bad way. Our plan was to leave for Osh the following day, but that clearly wasn't going to happen. I'll keep you posted.