Three pieces of advice when going to the toilet

Outdoor squat toilet

A travel blog isn't complete without at least one post on toilet etiquette in your newly- travelled country. In Kyrgyzstan, nine times out of ten you will be using a squat toilet, unless you're in a restaurant catering to foreigners.

The problem with the squat toilet is that aim is soooo essential, and us chicks from the west have just never needed to acquire that skill. Never again will I judge a guy for missing his target. It ain't easy! 

The polite thing is, of course, to clean up if you miss your mark, which brings me to my next point. Never, ever, ever touch the floor or place anything on the floor of a squat toilet. In fact, I wouldn't even touch the walls. Who knows how bad some people aim?

This isn't restricted to number ones only. Some people miss with number twos as well! So when in that cubicle just keep your hands to yourself and away from the walls and floor.

Second piece of advice: that little bin next to the toilet roll (in the unlikely case there is toilet paper) is for your used toilet paper. Don't throw it down the toilet! The number of times I've gone to use the toilet only to find it blocked with toilet paper is aggravating. Putting your toilet paper in a bin is not as disgusting as I'd imagined it was going to be. Most people dispose the dirty side face down. Thank goodness!

Third piece of advice: make sure you always carry toilet paper, for three reasons. First reason: public toilets in Kyrgyzstan are  virtually nonexistent and you never know when you are going to need to ask a taxi or mashrutka driver to pull over so you can utilise the bushes. Second reason: even in restaurants or hotels, there is no guarantee the toilet will be stocked. Fifty per cent of the time there will be no toilet paper. It's like a government conspiracy. Or maybe aliens come and take it when you're not looking. I don't know,  but it's never there when you need it. And the third reason: when there is toilet paper, it's usually of the sandpaper variety.

Notice the toilet paper on the right compared to my purchased roll on the left. When you get the runs (which is frequent in Kyrgyzstan) I know which type I want to be using. It's still not great, but to get western toilet paper you have to buy eight rolls and it's expensive.

There are all types of toilet paper, but the best we've seen so far is the evil bunny roll.

I'm not sure what a rabbit or the numbers 666 have to do with toilet paper but I've stopped trying to make sense of a lot of what I see here. 

Ala-Archa Canyon

Bishkek is fortunate enough to have a world class mountaineering playground only 30kms from its city centre. Ala-Archa National Park contains more than 20 glaciers and over 50 jaggered peaks.

With the number of the correct marshrutka in mind, and our overnight packs decked out with supplies for the next few days, we swung by the Kazakhstan Embassy to collect our visas, before intending to jump on the marshrutka and head for the hills.

We had submitted our applications over two weeks ago and were told our visas would be ready the following Thursday. So it should be ready, right? 

Wrong.

It appears that while we were enjoying ourselves in Karakol, Kazakhstan's visa policy had changed and Australian passport holders no longer need a visa if their stay is less than 15 days. 

Even though we had applied for a 30 day visa, and already paid, the embassy decided to hold off on processing our visa! What the...?!?

I explained to the man behind the counter that we would be in the country for more than 15 days and so would require the 30 day visa for which we had originally applied and paid.

'Okay. It will be ready at 6pm tonight.'

What!?! We had our bags packed and were ready to hit the road for Ala-Archa. We couldn't hang around till 6pm.

I leaned over the counter towards the official and said with determination, 'We were told our visas would be ready last Thursday at 6pm. We are leaving Bishkek today. Can you process them before you close at 12pm?' 

It was 11am already, so I knew it was a big ask. The expressionless man behind the counter told us to wait one moment before going to speak to his colleague. Upon coming back he said, 'Alright, they will be ready at 12pm'. 

I smiled inside. We took our packs and waited outside. I had my doubts whether it would be ready on time and thought maybe he was just trying to placate us. At 11:45am Claire went back to the counter. 'Not ready' was the response as soon as she stepped in the door. 

At 11:55am, I sat in the foyer. I wasn't going to give them the opportunity to lock us out. Then exactly at 12pm I saw the man I spoke to exit through a back door. Noooo!  My hopes were dashed. It was supposed to be one of the easy visas and now we would have to miss out on Ala-Archa while we sat around in Bishkek another day. 

Just as I had lost hope a man came to the counter and said 'Australia?' He had our passports with a newly inserted Kazakh visa. Hooray! We stepped outside with much glee, double checked the visa dates were correct and headed for the 265 marshrutka which stopped virtually outside the embassy.

It was now early afternoom and the temperature was soaring above thirty degrees. The marshrutka ride was hot, cramped and full of oldies who I dont think appreciated us foreigners taking up their marshrutka space. Our packs were blocking the door and one old grandma, as she disembarked, picked up my pack with superhuman strength and threw it away from the door. I would have been pissed off, but I was too impressed by her ability to lift my pack one handed. 

The 265 marshrutka only goes all the way to the park entrance on weekends,  but we managed to convince the driver to take us all the way for 150 som each. Once at the gate, we bumped into an Indian guy who was also heading to the Alplager and managed to bargain a taxi for 300 som for the three of us. It seemed too cheap to me and the taxi driver displayed his dissatisfaction by speeding around the corners at full pelt. It took me a good 15 minutes for my stomach to find itself once I got out of the car. 

The Alplager is a tiny village with a hotel that looks like it belongs in the Swiss Alps...

After admiring the surroundings, which included a few necessary tourist yurts, we pulled out our trekking poles and began our ascent. When the Lonely Planet said it was a strenuous climb it wasn't kidding. Up and up and up. Very steep. At several points the track split and momentarily Claire and I lost one another but eventually met back up. I waited on a rock in the shade to avoid the stinking heat and took photos of the view.

Finally, after three hours of excruciating pain, we made it to a forrested area which had a few flat spots to pitch a tent.

It was just below the base of the waterfall which is half way to Ak-Sai Glacier, so we decided to leave all our gear here and do a day walk to Ratsek hut the following day, hoping no one would steal our stuff.

We woke up early to start our climb in ordsr to avoid the heat. It only took two hours to get to Ratsek hut and the glacier, thanks to not having our 15kg packs. It was steeper today than yesterday, but thankfully a lot of it was in shade due to the rocky outcrops.

Finally, we reached the quaint valley in which Ratsek hut sits. There was a trickling stream with half dozen tents near by.

There were no people around as it was a perfect day for climbing and hiking and most people were off exploring the glacier and summiting Mt Korona. Above the Ratsek hut is a narrow ridge which is accessible via a scree slope. Once on top, the glacier is in full view and looks a little something like this. 

We could hear voices echoing around the rocky crags above us and soon spotted five rock climbers on a precarious-looking piece of rock up very high. We saw another couple walking down from the glacier but besides that it was pretty deserted and not nearly as busy as we were expecting. 

After chilling on the ridge for about an hour...

... we made our way back down the incredibly steep and slippery slope.

Upon our return it was nice to see nothing had been stolen from our tent. In fact, we gained an addition to our campsite.

I'm guessing he's some kind of Kyrgyzstan squirrel?? Bye bye little friend. Back to Bishkek tomorrow for us. 

Lake Song-Kol horse trek

We arrived in the town of Kochkor around lunch time on Saturday, just missing out on seeing the animal market which runs throughout the morning. However, there was still plenty of live stock around town to keep us entertained.

Our plan was to do a three day horse trek to Lake Song-Kol. We headed straight for CBT (Community Based Tourism) to get details of the tour the run and a quote. Unfortunately, they were quite expensive compared to the others. Jailoo, another tour operator, was the cheapest but they didn't speak English. We went instead with Shepherd's Life, which had good reviews and a reasonable price. Three days with a guide, breakfast, dinner and transport cost us 13,200 som - roughly $330 AUS for two people. We were looking forwarded to not having to worry about the logistics for the next few days and just enjoying the ride. Literally.

Day One - Jumgal Village to Kilemche yurt stay.

We were picked up from our home-stay, Sharem 14, where we had pitched our tents for 200 som each the previous afternoon. 

We started the horse trek from a little village called Jumgal. It was an hour drive from Kochkor and 15 minutes into the journey I was busting for the loo. Public toilets in Kyrgyzstan are few and far between, but I tried my luck, 'are we going past a toilet?' I was given a blank stare and asked, 'you need toilet?'
'Yes', I replied. 
The car instantly pulled onto the gravel and I stared out the window at a few stunted bushes. I guess this is the Kyrgyzstan equivalent of a public toilet and I wasn't fussed.

Before long we were saddling up for our journey at Shepherd's Life.

Our guide, Jomart spoke good English and was only 17 years old. He told us he had started riding when he was four. Pretty common for the Kyrgyzs. 

We trekked through some beautiful countryside, had a lunch break and practiced our cantering before reaching our first yurt stay at Kilemche.

Running free!

View of the valley below from Kilemche yurt stay. 

Claire and Jomart enjoying a tea break in the yurt with home made bread dipped into various types of jam and butter.

We had a little nap in our new home and when we woke up many other tourists had arrived. A couple from France, a couple from Belgium and a group of three friends from Austria. Most travellers so far have been from Europe. We stayed in the same yurt as the French couple and our guide Jomart who slept-talked so loudly he woke us up both nights. Classic.

Day Two - Kilemche yurt stay to Batai-Aral yurt village.

Our bums and thighs were a little tender from the previous day, but we were excited to get back on our horses despite this. We headed up over the pass and the view from the top was amazing. It was a beautiful clear day giving us fine views of Lake Song-Kol.

Claire and Jomart heading up to the pass.

View of Lake Song-Kol from the top of the pass.

After a long tea break in a yurt closer to the lake we rode with lake views for two hours before coming to Batai-Aral a yurt camp.

Sunset over the yurt camp.

Day Three - Batai-Aral yurt village to Kochkor

Jomart took the horses back to Jumgal this morning while I napped in the yurt and Claire played with a local dog. After sleeping in the tent for two weeks the beds felt so soft! I took advantage of thid and slept a lot of the morning while waiting for our transport to arrive.

The drive back to Kochkor was steep, rocky and windy, to which this picture will attest. It was a nice car, but unfortunately had no air con, and the driver had a CD of patriotic-sounding songs in Kyrgyz on repeat for the whole trip. The CD kept skipping every time we went over a bump, and one of the songs got stuck in Claire's head, so she kept serenading my with it all afternoon. Thanks, driver!

Lake Issyk-Kol and Skazka Canyon

After taking a day to recuperate from our epic hike, it wasn't long before we got back on the horse. Literally. After doing some reading on Trip Advisor we came across a horse trekking company called Bulak Say. We decided on the 'Panoramic day trip' starting at 9am and finishing at 3pm. Although it wasn't the cheapest in Karakol, paying around $80 AUS for the two of us, it was well worth it. The valley was beautiful with snow capped peaks, hundreds of brightly coloured wild flowers and no other tourists.

The next day we had sore bums and were thankful for an easy day on a marshurtka getting to the village of Tosor.

Tosor is a small settlement, relatively untouched by tourists, situated on the southern side of Lake Issyk-Kol. 

After scoping out the lake front, we found a place in amongst some shrubbery to pitch our tents for the night.

At sunset we headed down to the lake front and bumped into two Polish girls who had been on the same marshrutka as us from Karakol. They had a purchased a whole watermelon at the local store (they don't sell them in halves or quarters) and needed a knife to cut it and assistance in eating it. Fortuitously, we had just such a knife, so we passed the evening stuffing our faces with watermelon and sharing travel stories.

Five kms down the road from our camp site was the picturesque Skazka (also know as Fairy Tale Canyon).

We thought it would be simple enough to get a marshrutka, but had been warned that transport on the south side is a lot harder than the north. We waited on the roadside for 45 minutes before deciding to walk. After 10 minutes of walking, we saw a marshrutka heading down the road towards us and hailed it down. When we climbed aboard, we found the two Polish girls crammed in the front with their packs, also heading to Skazka. This was very handy because they spoke some Russian and made sure we were dropped off at the right place. 

We were soon at out stop and were met by this stunning view.

The two Polish girls headed to the beach to set up their camp for the night, while we headed on up to the canyon. It was such an amazing contrast to what we had seen in Kyrgyzstan so far. The red gorges can be likened to Utah with the contrasting colours of Lake Issyk-Kol in the background. It was beautiful and definitely worth the 50 som entry fee.

We spent several hours wandering around the canyon and climbing the beautiful red hills. Everywhere we looked was stunning, and we got a bit excessive with our photographing.

We stopped for lunch in the shade of a rock and slowly made our way back to the entrance. The sky started to turn grey and stormy as we walked, so we picked up the pace and high-tailed on outta there, but not before Claire took this beautiful photo.

Next stop, Kochkor, for some horse trekking around Lake Song Kol.

Lake Ala-Kol

First off, I should confess that the title of the post is incorrect. 'Kol' is actually the Kyrgyz word for 'lake'. So the title reads 'Lake Ala-Lake'. You get the gist...

We arrived in Karakol on a beautiful sunny day, so the surrounding snow-capped mountains were clearly visible. It's a real hiking town, with many foreign backpackers congregating at Karakol Coffee (the excellent local coffee shop) looking like they've been in the wilderness for years.

We pitched our tents for $3 AUS a night at Yak Hostel in a beautiful garden filled with green space and colourful roses. Shame about the unreliable hot water system and the one bathroom for the entire hostel (I'm sensing a theme) but besides that it was lovely and a great place to meet travellers.

Yak Hostel in Karakol

After reading some trail descriptions from Lonely Planet, we had our hearts set on the six day walk from Jeti-Oghuz to Aksu village via Lake Ala-Kol. It's rated as quite tough, so we were contemplating getting a guide and were discussing it at the Tourist Information Centre when we bumped into two French chaps who had just finished doing that exact walk. Their shoes were falling apart and they smelt pretty fragrant, which suggested they had been in the wilderness for some time. Sure enough, we learned they had hitch-hiked all the way from Paris and spent the last 30 days walking through Kyrgyzstan. They convinced us we didn't need a guide, gave us some tips and we were on our way!

Day One - Valley of Flowers

Trying to find a marshrutka to take us to Jeti-Oghuz the next day proved impossible. We walked up and down the Karakol Bazaar with our packs heavily laden with gear for a six-day hike, following bad directions from well-meaning locals in the boiling hot sun for at least an hour. Taxi drivers kept telling us 'no marshrutka to Jeti-Oghuz' but other locals and travellers told us there was one. After accidentally slapping a man in the face while gesticulating wildly and knocking a girl with my pack when about to get on a marshrutka, we gave up and took a shared taxi. We felt defeated, but it turns out it was a win because there are actually two Jeti-Oghuzes. Refer to map below.

When we asked for a marshrutka to Jeti-Oghuz they had assumed we meant the southern one. I didn't realise our taxi driver was taking us all the way to the trail head and before we knew it we were at the Seven Bulls for 1600 som cheaper than CBT had quoted us.

So now we were ready to walk, but the hardest part of any hike is finding the trail head. After wandering into the extensive gardens of a sanatorium and meandering around for 30 minutes, we thought we had better consult our map.  But before that we managed to stumble upon a bunch of Kyrgyz tourists who wanted a photo with us. Once again we were quite the novelty.

After speaking in some broken English with the ladies for a time we decided we better get moving if we wanted to start this walk sometime today, and it was already noon. We retraced our steps to where the taxi had dropped us off and there it was! The track was on the LEFT HAND side of the river. Whoops! 

After a long walk through Kok-Jaiyk (The Valley of Flowers) and past some yurts, yurts and more yurts, we decided to pitch our tents near the confluence of the river we had been following throughout the day and the river we would be following tomorrow. 

Unfortunately it came with some curious neighbours.

Thankfully our tent wasn't trampled in the night and we awoke still alive and kicking.

Day Two - Teleti Pass

So, we may have underestimated the intensity of today's walk. It all started off well, walking through beautiful valleys such as this one:

Unfortunately, shortly after this photo was taken we lost the track and became dependant upon our expert navigational skills. A serious concern. Following the instructions of our map and our compass, we headed up this...

And over this...

It was not for the faint-hearted. And it's even more concerning when there was no track to follow and you're just kinda winging it. But soon enough, after many false alarms, we saw the pass!

Yes, it is as high as it looks - 3,800m!

And then is started snowing.

And then Claire got stuck in snow.

And I laughed and took photos.

We were so wrecked that as soon as we lost a bit of altitude we promptly pitched our tents well before our desired end point for the day. But we didn't care. We were cold and buggered and just wanted to be inside our warm sleeping bags and pass out.

Day Three - Karakol Valley National Park

After examining our map the night before, we were relieved and a little excited, as today's walk appeared to be relatively short and mostly downhill. Remember what I said earlier about our navigational skills? It's possible our map reading skills suffer from the same affliction.

The descent from the pass was quite steep and slippery and we didn't move as fast as we had anticipated. We eventually made it into Karakol Valley National Park (no park entry fee like we were told) and were hoping to find a yurt to sell us some bread. No such luck! We had been told by the French chaps that we would be able to buy bread from yurts along the way. Thus far, nada. 

After feasting on some dry biscuits with cheese from our packs, we pressed on and came face to face with the first hikers we had seen on this trek. 'Where are you guys heading?' we asked. 'Altyn-Arashan' the French couple replied. Huh? We are heading to Altyn-Arashan, and were walking in the opposite direction. After some conferring and map checking it appeared we had missed our turn off. Thankfully we only had to double back five minutes. Talk about a God-send! I would have been very disappointed if we ended up in Karakol three days early.

We backtracked, and were now heading straight up a very steep valley. According to the map, a river runs down this valley (called Kurgak-Tyor Gorge) so we weren't carrying much water. Then we realised the river was underground! Thanks a lot, stupid map. Fortunately we bumped into a young couple on their way down who said they had made the same mistake. They also had plenty of water they offered us. Thanks young couple! They said it was at least an hour to the water source :( 

We struggled on up the hill, taking frequent stops to return our palpitating hearts to non-medivac levels admire the view, and finally crested the top and had a bit of exhausted fun clamouring over large boulders before reaching the flat.

We found running water shortly thereafter, and gratefully pitched our tent next to a mini lake in the river. It was just gorgeous. By far my favourite campsite for the whole week.

Day Four - A short day

We were still recovering from doing the Teleti Pass, believe it or not, and even though we were close enough to do the Ala-Kol pass today, we decided to have a bit of a rest day by our awesome campsite. 
It was a stinking hot day, so we spent most of it in the shade by the river and I was thankful we didn't have to walk through the heat. 

By 4pm, we were ready to move a bit further up river to make tomorrow's day a bit easier. The plan was to walk for one hour. We walked for two and came upon this incredible, partially-frozen waterfall, so decided to pitch here.

And our view was pretty sweet too...

Mental note. Sleeping next to a waterfall is loud. Thank goodness for ear plugs.

Day Five - Lake Ala-Kol and Ala-Kol Pass

Today was going to be our hardest and highest day, with the pass sitting at 3860m. We reached Lake Ala-Kol relatively early in the day, and were very excited to see it had just recently thawed. In Karakol three days ago we were told it was frozen, so that goes to show how hot the last few days have been.

The weather was fine to begin with, but as soon as we begun to ascend above the lake it started to get cold. Real cold.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the pass because the clouds came in and we couldn't see anything. And then it started to snow. A lot. 

At first it was melting as it hit the ground but then it started to stick. By the time we reached the pass the wind was blowing a gale, my legs were numb and I couldn't feel my hands. Claire was equally as uncomfortable and all I could think of was 'let's get off this pass, asap!' 

Unfortunately, the visibility was so bad we couldn't see where to descend on the other side. We scouted around and stuck our heads over the ledge of the pass for a while before finally seeing some footprints in the snow. 'We have to go down that?!' It was so steep it was virtually impossible to walk down so we sat on our butts and slid. Not the safest course of action, due to rocks and avalanche, but definitely the fastest and funnest.

After getting back to our feet and commenting on how we could no longer feel our butts, we scurried down that mountain as fast as we could. I was getting worried about developing hypothermia or my body going into shock. Thankfully, after an hour or so we were in a green valley with the sun shining down on us. We decided to stop as soon as we found some flat space so we could pitch and get into our sleeping bags. 

Day Six - Altyn-Arashan

This morning I slept in till 10am! We slowly packed up the tent, excited in the knowledge that we would be having a real dinner in Karakol that evening. But first we had to walk the 16km outta there. It rained on and off, but the track was easy downhill and following a 4wd road the whole way.

We finally walked through the little mountain village of Altyn-Arashan where most people stop to enjoy the hot springs, but we were keen to get to Karakol so gave it a miss. After walking for what felt like forever we finally hit paved road and straight away were asked by a man on the road 'Taksee?'

'Yes please!'