Gallivanting the globe 2019 - RTW and then some

[JohnM]

That afternoon, Rooy, a couple of others of our group and I went on a 4WD excursion a little further out into the hills than our morning walk. Yee-ha! Rooy snared 1K.

 

[JohnM]

Some friendly Kygyrz eye-candy in a limo.



Rooy now in 2K.



Something a little more serene and less bumpy to finish the day in the walnut forest.



And I snared 1K on the way home.

 

[JohnM]

Hmmm, I don't know what happened to the last three pics in post #321. I think it coincided with the brief shutdown for the Xenforo update today.

Leaving Arslan Bob the next morning and heading further into the mountains.

The kids are sharply dressed for school.



Photobombed by some random tourist.

 

[JohnM]

Our digs for the night in Chychn Gorge and beers on the balcony of our room. The three epic-traveller Brits were prodigious beer drinkers – with our buddy in the pink tee-shirt usually leading the way…

The guy in the red jacket racked up 100 countries on this trip. We picked up some excellent travel tips from those peeps. As always, I came away from one of these tours with even more destinations on my travel list than I started with.

The group gathered to watch the sun go down on the mountains above the stream. Lovely spot in the middle of nowhere.



The gold nugget that I once found was thiiis big.

 

[JohnM]

Next morning a walk in Chychkn Gorge before continuing across central Kyrgyzstan.



Getting higher and colder and the first yurts. These are erected as temporary homes for the summer grazing season in the mountains.



It’s snow leopard habitat and part is a reserve.



A mutual photobombing…

Horses are an integral part of traditional life in Kyrgyzstan.

 

[JohnM]

Descending into a wide valley. Interestingly, a cereal production area. And big stocks of hay for winter.



A stop at a monument, the name and purpose of which now escapes me.



And then on along a valley to arrive at the picturesque village of Kyzul Oi and our homestay digs. Lovely place. The traffic light for such a tiny place was intriguing.

School was coming out. As always, the kids are sharply dressed. The white hat is characteristic of Kyrgyzstan.



Hay and dried dung stockpiled.



The usual suspects returning from (successfully) foraging for the staples of life in Kyrgyzstan.



Horse-drawn hay-mower.

 

[JohnM]

Next day moving onwards and further upwards into the Kyrgyzstan highlands. Destination a yurt camp at Son Kul Lake – meaning ‘last lake’. It’s at just over 3,000m.

Great drive there through the mountains.



We stopped at an agricultural town in a high valley to get provisions for a picnic lunch and to forage for liquid refreshments for the next two nights in the yurt camp.



Climbing on, we stopped for our picnic lunch at the highest point of the day - and overlooking a coal mine. Not far to go to the lake.

 

[JohnM]

Home sweet home for two nights and very cosy. One of the staff lit the stove each night and then again early in the morning, giving the yurt time to warm up before getting out of bed. Loverly…

 

[JohnM]

First morning and a light dusting of snow. It was early September; the pastures were quite grazed down and this was a hint of winter to come.

After breakfast, time for a walk to the hills and some petroglyphs.

 

[JohnM]

After lunch it was time for the horseback games put on by the local herders.



Everyone’s in on this.



Rules? What rules? Fighting over a 40 Kg goat carcass (OK – a dummy one these days), with the idea to score a goal by tossing it onto the tyre platform.

 

[JohnM]

Next game – horseback wrestling.



Next game – picking up money on the ground at full gallop.

 

[JohnM]

Then a visit to the local herder and family.

Dung cut like peat from the large accumulation at the corral near their camp.



One yurt already packed for transport back to lower parts.



Kumis – fermented mare’s milk.



And the sun went down – while a local identity models his Ak Kalpak (What is Kalpak - Blog - Kalpak Travel). Oh, wait…

 

[JohnM]

Next day, it was a long drive out of the mountains and through to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.

 

[JohnM]

We stopped at a slightly bizarre Disneyland-like place for lunch.



Then Bishkek. Nothing there of major note. Still rather Soviet-style and the gloomy day was also fittingly Soviet. The structure over the eternal flame in Victory Square, commemorates the 40th anniversary of the end of WW2, and evokes a yurt.

Lenin still prominent, but it has been moved to the back of the National Historical Museum (which has been closed ‘for renovations’ for some time).

The monument to Those Who Died in the Events of 2002 and 2010 symbolises a group of people pushing a black stone representing darkness away from the white, representing light.

 

[JohnM]

Next morning dawned bright and clear to see the mountains behind Bishkek before the drive through to the border with Kazakhstan and on across the plains to Almaty.



The Green Market offers an interesting meat area, broken into animal-specific sections, with horse being significant.



A walk through large and pleasant Panfilov Park to pretty Zenkov Cathedral, built entirely of wood (including the fastenings).



The park is named for the Panfilov Heroes, 28 soldiers of an Almaty regiment who died fighting of naz_ tanks in a village outside Moscow in 1941. The imposing WW2 War Memorial depicts soldiers from all 15 Soviet republics bursting out of a map of the USSR.



The Museum of Folk Musical Instruments as we left the park and then had a brief loop around the city, including the tall Independence Monument which is semi-encircled with bronze sculpture panels depicting a sequence of Kazakhstan’s history, before heading to our hotel for the final night of the tour.

 

[Fruitloop]

Amazing journey and phenomenal trip report. Will take me some time to get through it all!

 

[JohnM]

The TR is only just over 2/3 the way through the journey.

 

[JohnM]

Next morning it was up at sparrows for my Air Astana flight ALA-DEL and then DEL-BOM to start the next three weeks in various parts of India.

Leaving ALA, en route, dropping into DEL and arriving at BOM.



September isn’t the best time to visit Mumbai as the monsoon is still active and this year Mumbai had its wettest September for 25 years. However, I was only spending a couple of days before heading inland to Aurangabad to visit the famed cave temples at Ajanta and Ellora.

The famous train station.



The Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel (site of the infamous terrorist attack in 2008) across the way.

 

[JohnM]

This place lived up to its name on the walk back to my hotel in the heat and humidity.



Then at night.

 

[JohnM]

Wandering around the next day and back to the Taj Mahal Palace for dinner at a window seat overlooking Gateway to India. With it, an introduction to Indian wine, which was very good.