For almost 35 years of my existence, I've learned to appreciate life doing mostly the things I like and being mostly at the places I wanted to be. The more I work, the more I try to please myself. Accomplishing this ideas have been one of my greatest life achievements so far.
This is exactly how I found myself in Kyrgyzstan, with no planning in advance and no overthinking. Some people do not even know if this is a real country. I've never heard of a single person visiting this country either. USSR had fallen apart leaving us in a trouble of memorizing all the countries which names are ending with -STAN.
Here I am, trying to make it more popular than any other "stan-ending-country".
I found out a lot about Kyrgyzstan, believe it or not, from Asman, a taxi driver. On the way from the airport to the hotel, in a forty minute drive, he told me everything that I should know about his motherland. Like all other Kyrgyz, his eyes are horizontal, an Asian type, but he speaks Russian and that was a kind of confusing to me. He told me Kyrgyzstan is more Russian and European oriented. "Kazakstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan are not good", he said... It may be the reason all the mountains stand in between of these countries, to protect them from each other. National sport is boxing, so I wouldn't recommend messing with anybody from Kyrgyzstan. He also told me, the best fresh water in the world is coming from the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. I've never met anybody such a home proud. It seemed that he knew everything but the address of the hotel where he was supposed to droop me off. Without an obvious sign and the name on it, Asman told me that the hotel I had booked is a love nest for people who don't want to appear together in public. Anyway, I had a pleasant stay.
Regardless monotonous architecture of socialism in Bishkek city, nature is the only ace in the hands of Kyrgystan. Summer and winter are present at the same time but not at the same place. While winter is keeping a distance in the mountains at this period of year, summer is coming close to people, putting smiles on their faces. Usually, I need to walk few days until I see the scenery, but in Bishkek I just needed to look through the window.
On the way to the National Park Ala Archa in Tian Shan mountains, which is close to Bishkek, I saw horses, cows and sheep running around freely. If this is the sight of the capital city, what's the national park looks like? The route to the park starts about ten kilometers far and, when I realized there was no point of walking, I started hitchhiking. I got some practice of hitchhiking back at the time of high school and that is, actually, the only really helpful knowledge from school that I can use today. Of course, I'm always cautious when I'm hitchhiking.
After few minutes, I was in the car with two local girls and two local guys heading to park. Like everybody else from the city, they came here to throw a barbecue party. They spoke Russian language and I couldn't help asking them why they didn't speak their language. They answered that only old people from some far villages speak Kyrgyz language. This means that Kyrgyz language is about to dissapeard soon and this is the consequence of globalization that I really don't like it. This is happening to all the languages, changing and dying, not only to Kyrgyz.
I got the water on my mouth from looking at their barbecue accessories but I wasn't invited at the party. They seemed a little bit confused because my reason for visiting this country was simply a pleasure and they asked if the country I came from has such a beautiful nature.
After hitchhiking, it was a time for some hiking through the park. I was invited for another party, the one with the nature, enjoying only the sounds of birds, mountain river and the wind. While I was hiking toward the waterfall high in the mountain, I met one more hitchhiker Milos from Poland. He's hitchhiking on some serious basis, from Kazakstan, passing Kyrgystan on the way to Nepal and China. We both got lost on the way to waterfall but Milos was not in a hurry. He had planned to spend the night in the Park and he found a good spot for his tent the half way to the waterfall. I got to the waterfall after two hours walking, little bit disappointed because it was not approachable and I could see it only from the distance but satisfied to be accompanied by birds and marmots. This is definitely the best company at the party. One small mountain marmot treated me with a song before he vanished into one of his holes. On the way down, the path was very steep and I needed my hands as well.
Back to to the city, three local guys gave me a lift, asking me if Bishkek looks more like a village than the city and I said that is exactly why I like Kyrgystan. When I asked them what period of year they would recommend for visiting this country, they said that skiing or snowboarding during the winter can be as charming as riding a bicycle in the summer. I do believe them. I was interested in Kyrgys traditional food but they recommended me only two disheses because lately pizza and hamburgers are becoming the most popular food in Kyrgyzstan.
Following the water from Tian Shan Mountains I got to the Cholpon Alta city, on the Issyk-Kul Lake. Just putting my feet in the lake upon my arrival, I convinced myself that the swimming season hadn't started yet. Even the name of the lake means "hot" in the Kyrgyz language but the water in this period froze all my blood in the veins. Swimming season starts in July when the temperature gets closer to 40 degrees C and then I wouldn't mind for some freezing water. Still, it didn't stop Kyrgyz kids to jump in. They invited me in the water and laughed when I said it was too cold. I just stayed enjoying my view as if I was frozen for two days.
Mountains, rivers, lakes, clouds... Can I ask for more? I don't think so. Kyrgyzstan is a small country but with so much to offer. It does sound like some world's blind spot and that's the reason I choose it instead of some more popular destination. And I don't regret it. It is my spontaneous transfer from Azia to Europe and I still can't decide if it's more Azian or Europian country. But ther's that universal beauty which doesn't care for any ethnic identity, called nature. I don't think that this country is on anybody's wish list but I hope it will be in the future. I was very happy waking up every morning in Kyrgystan and I hope you will be too, if you come to visit!!!
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