Barskoon Valley, Fairy Tale Canyon, and Independence Day

After visiting the north and east of Issyk-Kol lake, we ventured down to the south side of the lake. Here, we found the beautiful Barskoon Valley. This valley gained international fame when Yuri Gagarin made it his first place to visit after successfully becoming the first man in space. This was his choice of where he wanted to recover and decompress from his mission and stated it was the most beautiful place on the planet. We needed to take a marshrutka to reach Barskoon, but unfortunately, our timing at the taxi stand was not great as we must have just missed one. This is never a desirable situation to find yourself in as this often leads to a significant wait, sometimes lasting hours before the next marshrutka fills up and departs, which was our fate on this day.

Finally, we were on our way to Barskoon along the bumpy south road around the giant lake. Evidently this road has been “under construction” for the past 17 years, which I believe means they ran out of funding and the road project will seemingly never be finished. We reached our guesthouse in the quiet town of Barskoon and quickly arranged a shared taxi with our friend Simeon from Germany who we met in the yurt camp two days earlier. Together we all went to Skazka (Fairy Tale) Canyon. Unfortunately, just as we arrived at the most picturesque canyon, the rain from the past few days caught up with us once again. We had terrible luck with the rain this week.

The good news was the canyon was just as beautiful as we heard it would be. In every direction, you could so many different shades of red and browns all marbled into the canyon. In a positive twist, the cold rain seemed to bring out even more of the red in the landscape. Interestingly, there were no clear rules or designated paths, which allowed us to walk anywhere we would like and we found our way through many little paths up, over, and through the slides and valleys in the steep slopes.

There were so many unique rock formations with little natural windows throughout the rock walls.  The canyon in the distance resembled a dragon’s back. Soon we found ourselves soaking wet and cold, so we decided to turn back for the car and driver who was waiting for us. The hike back was quickly becoming more difficult as the dirt had turned into a really sticky mud substance that stuck to our shoes and caused us to slide everywhere. It was a cold, wet ride back to our homestay in Barskoon. 

The following day we set out to explore the famous Barskoon Valley and waterfalls that Yuri Gagarin had enjoyed upon returning from space some 60 years earlier. Our new friend Simeon once again organized the same shared taxi and driver from his guesthouse, but this morning he brought along an American traveller named Andrew who was also staying at his guesthouse.  Andrew studied post-Soviet countries and their histories, and now taught the topic at a University in Amsterdam, so he was full of great insight into the geopolitics of this region and all the unique interrelationships with Russia

The valley was indeed very beautiful, however, Yuri’s claim of the most beautiful in the world is hard to say. Upon arriving at the waterfalls we somehow lost the main path at first, which meant that we did some early rock climbing up a steep slope. Subsequently, we missed our first view of the falls and it felt as if we were just climbing with no waterfalls in sight. The hill going up to the third falls became increasingly vertical and was not for beginners or those who were scared of heights. It was straight up a dried-up creaked with no switchbacks, and really quite scary at times. We all found ourselves breathing quite hard due to the altitude, and our legs hadn’t quite recovered from our big trek just two days earlier. 

The hike up took us around two hours to reach the top where we were greeted with the upper waterfall view. Even more spectacular though was the view out into the valley, and of Issyk-Kul Lake in the distance beyond. We stopped, had some snacks, and chatted for awhile before beginning our descent down.

We had to be very careful on the way down not to fall on some of the slick surfaces, but we went slow and made it down the steepest section without any issues. From there we were in the forest and finally found the real path that we had somehow lost on our way up earlier in the day. On this path, we were able to see all three falls up the valley, and it was a truly lovely view.

After arriving back at our homestay in Barskoon, we packed up quickly because we needed to arrive back in the capital city of Bishkek that evening. We had to walk one kilometer down to the main road, and from there try to hitchhike or flag down a marshrutka going toward the city.  On our walk, we were joined by many of the neighborhood kids. Two of the girls were the most outgoing and quite funny.  They impressively spoke decent English and saw us as a terrific opportunity to practice, which we kindly obliged. They brought all their brothers to meet us as well, including one little one in a stroller. It has been wonderful to see in Kyrgyzstan that kids playing outside seem quite safe. Children run around at all hours of the day without parent supervision and this seems to work and is normal. 

Once we reached the side of the main road, we got to work on attempting to hail down a shared car or marshrutka. This proved to be difficult as we didn’t have much luck finding a marshrutka to Bishkek.  After several hours we came to the conclusion that none of the cars passing by were going that far, so we hopped on a short-haul marshrutka going to the neighboring town of Bokonbayevo.  From here, we were told we could catch a marshrutka all the way to Bishkek. This new plan worked, however, due to the very poor dirt road and the many stops, we arrived very late in Bishkek. 

The following day was our errand day. Since Kyrgyzstan Independence Day was the following day, we had to get everything we needed to do in the capital done before most things closed down for the National holiday. Our main order of business was to retrieve the border permits that would allow us to travel to Kel Suu Lake along the Chinese border. We had started this process a week earlier and now needed to hopefully retrieve the completed paperwork. We went back to the office, where we found out that we still needed to go to one more government office conveniently located across town to get more stamps. Why the permits could not have been sent there for this final stamp over the week it took to complete them is still beyond me. 

So, we found a bus and went across town to the border control and immigration building. Here we talked to the guard up front and he said we would need to come back on Monday after the holiday weekend, which was not possible for our travel itinerary. We could not wait another five days for these permits after waiting a week already and returning to Bishkek for just two days with the main purpose of picking them up in the first place. So, we argued a bit and they agreed to let us come back by 5:00 pm that same day to pick up the completed paperwork. This added trip back to the border control and immigration office seemed unnecessary since we were right there and simply needed one more stamp, but we had no other choice. 

We spent the afternoon visiting the Osh Bazaar, which was the biggest bazaar I had ever seen. This made the Green Bazaar in Almaty seem like a small market. The market seems to be organized and categorized based on what they sell. We started in the shoe section where there must have been thousands of pairs of shoes for sale. It felt like fall and back-to-school time because we saw tons of kids getting shoes, clothes, and school supplies.

Next, we hit the food section where there were tables and tables of spices, nuts, dried fruits, breads, cheese, etc. What always amazes me about these markets is how each vendor makes a living when the competitor’s tables and stalls next door are exactly the same. We always seem to find a table where the merchant is friendly and nice, and we don’t feel as if they are taking advantage of us. We bought all sorts of nuts, raisins, and chocolates, which made for an amazing and inexpensive homemade trail mix.

We continued our way through many clothing shops where Nate and I both bought a tee shirt, and I bought one more pair of pants. I did not realize we would be doing this much hiking, and that early fall weather would be so cold! Interestingly, we found an entire section of the market designated for military gear and even saw active military walking through and doing some shopping. 

Past this, we arrived at a section that had some tourist shops where we bought our customary souvenir magnet for Kyrgyzstan. They had many cool items for sale, but unfortunately traveling for this long we are unable to create much room in our bags for souvenirs. We found several rows of merchants with more traditional Kyrg clothing, which I thought would be used more as costumes, but we came to learn that in the rural yurt camps, this is still the clothing that is worn.

One of my favorite parts of the Bazaar was the clothing that was being sold right outside. Certain merchants had big tables and boxes that just contained bras, underwear, and lingerie. The local women were going crazy as they rummaged through the piles and sized themselves up against the undergarments. The downside must be that they cannot try on these items before purchasing. After leaving the Bazaar, we took an extremely stuffy and crowded hot bus back to the border control office in hope that our permits were ready to go, which to our surprise they were! Success!

At this point we were in no mood for an overcrowded bus, so we decided to walk the five kilometers back to the guest house. In an effort to break up the walk, we found a German beer garden called Steinbrau along the way. When we arrived there weren’t many patrons, and we almost had the giant pub to ourselves. After a couple of pints of their homemade brews, along with a couple of plates of fries, the bar began to fill up. Unfortunately, we had already had our fill of beer, so we decided to continue our walk.

Our next stop was an Indian restaurant called The Host for dinner. We were craving something different after all of the Kyrg food we had been eating and found ourselves hankering for some good curry. The curries did not disappoint, and the naan bread was amazing! I don’t know if we were just really hungry, but this was the best meal we had in quite a while.

Our final day in Bishkek was Independence Day for the country and marked the end of Soviet rule. It is hard to fathom that this country, as well as it’s ex-Soviet neighbors is only 32 years old.  It is still very much a new country finding stability, and getting on it’s feet after many decades under Moscow’s rule. Since most things were closed for the National holiday, we used the morning to plan for our next stop and to work on the blog. In the evening, we heard there was going to be events and a concert set up in Ala-too square. We had some dinner and headed that way after dark, and I am so glad that we did. 

The scene that greeted us was filled with street vendors ranging from mini pony rides, balloon darts, light up toys flying through the sky above us, ice cream carts, and many more. It was a kids dream. There was also a stage set up for Kyrgyzstan’s best talent. Each act was introduced and came on stage to perform one or two of their most popular songs, seemingly dependent upon that artist’s popularity. It was quite evident who the favorite artists were because the audience paid close attention and sang along with the best songs. Other singers did not garner nearly as much attention and cheers from the crowd. 

Throughout the evening we heard all genres of music from old ballads, to new pop and even rap. I am pretty certain that we saw the Kyrgyzstan version of both Eminem and Adele. All of the music with either in Kyrg or Russian. We also saw a couple of dance troops perform traditional numbers, as well as hip-hop. One lasting memory of this evening is that throughout the rest of our time in Kyrgyzstan, we routinely heard a lot of these songs on the radio as we traveled the country and could kind of sing along. We were sad to say goodbye to the capital city, but eager to start our journey into southern Kyrgyzstan and put our hard-earned border permits to good use.

Next stop….Naryn, Tash Rabat, and the jaw-dropping Kel Suu Lake.