Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and... Korea? [+QR Y+J, all J 319, Pegasus, Air Astana, ship]
Jan 22, 2015, 3:48 pm
#3
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 2,685
Bishkek
Accommodation details: NomaD Hostel Bishkek, 16 bed dorm (most nights 2 other beds occupied)
SPG Super Gold Platinum Amenity: Free towel
Location: Downtown Bishkek, near the intersection of Moskovskaya and Yusup Abrahadamov. Don't confuse it for Hostel Nomad Home, a cheaper but further away hostel that's mentioned in guide books.
I had just landed in Bishkek and cleared immigration and customs surprisingly easily. Withdrawing money was also easy, and I was finally able to use the toilet in the arrival's hall. I knew the marshrutka (minibus) would cost 40 som (70 som = 1 euro during my visit), so I needed some change. There was a small shop and a coffee shop in the arrivals hall, and the small shop people somehow refused to do business with me (they were closed??), so I went for a 230 som hot chocolate from the coffee shop. Kind of expensive... They had WiFi so I spent some time trying to figure out where the minibus went from, but it was easy to find in the end - just exit the terminal, and turn left. The minibus is marked 380 and should cost 40 som. They charged me 80 with some ........ about luggage, all I could do was express my disapproval and pay because I don't speak Russian.
The minibus goes to Molodaya Gardia, which is fairly central. From there it was about 4km to my hostel, I could have taken a taxi but figured "why not walk? I'll see the town". Walking was fairly straightforward - I navigated using the fact that the sun rises from the east (it was like 8am) and the fact that I knew that the main street in Bishkek is Chuy Prospekty and I could just walk down that and then turn right on a fairly major street to get to my hostel. Stupid Here Maps for not covering Kyrgyzstan. Ended up taking some photos along the way...
Eventually I got to my hostel, NomaD Hostel. It's among the more expensive hostels in Bishkek at 700 som per night (10 euros), but makes up for that with good quality facilities - one thing I really hate is cold showers and squat toilets, and NomaD Hostel had neither. There's another hostel called Nomad Home which is cheaper but also worse, so don't get confused. I got to the hostel, talked to the staff, and then passed out until 3pm. The hostel is kept quite warm, I learned later that this is because in Central Asia, houses just have central heating which is kept at a certain (very high) temperature in every apartment. They opened the windows later which made it tolerable. Overall, NomaD was a decent hostel, my only problem was with the staff who were friendly but really weren't able to give me any useful advice about anything ("can I get a marshrutka on New Year's?" "I don't know")
The hostel is located on Moskovskaya St, which is one of the main commercial streets in downtown Bishkek (tbh most of Bishkek is "downtown Bishkek", for a city of 850k it's really quite compact). From there it's an easy walk to almost anywhere, 15 minutes to Ala Too square, a bit further to the north of the city.
I spent my first day (and most of my days actually) just walking around, taking in the communist architecture and uniqueness/newness of the place. With a gdp / capita of around $1300, it's among the poorest countries in Asia. That being said, you don't have many visible signs of extreme poverty - beggars are uncommon, public transport "works", people look like they have food at least (they probably do). It's interesting to compare the economic development of Kyrgyzstan with that of Kazakhstan and Russia - at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan was about 3x richer than Kyrgyzstan and Russia about 8x. Now the ratios are about 12x for Kazakhstan and a bit more for Russia. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan also lag behind - a lot of the story is probably about natural resources, which Russia and Kazakhstan have plenty of but the other 'stans (except Turkmenistan) lack. Well, Kyrgyzstan has a lot of gold which makes up 40% of its exports, but not much else. Some of the English speaking Kyrgyz I met lamented the fact that apparently after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan "sold away" most of its assets, but to me this just seems like economic nationalism - if anything, it seems that Kyrgyzstan is missing foreign investment. That being said, there were bright signs - some new buildings and shiny shopping malls had risen up, though they weren't very "western". I guess it's nice as tourist not to have them, but the locals would probably be better off. The Kyrgyz stock exchange exists, and is a funny thing - there are about 7 listed companies, each with about 1 or 2 trades per day. Great liquidity. Makes me wonder what life as a broker here is like. Final thing about the economy - it's interesting that Kyrgyzstan has a population of about 5.6 million, the same as Finland, but there are also 1 million or so Kyrgyz working abroad and sending money back as remittances.
The second day, I walked to North Bishkek in the morning, ended up having kebabs for breakfast in the food court of a shopping mall. There were great views of the mountains around Bishkek from the north of the city. From there, I walked to the train station, up Erkindik Avenue and around town.
It was New Year's Eve. I tried to figure out what was going on using CouchSurfing and Tinder. On CouchSurfing, I had tried to find a host in Bishkek only to find out that everyone on CS in Bishkek was an expat and every expat was out of the country for New Year's. Tinder in Kyrgyzstan is interesting, because there aren't very many people on there and most of the locals actually match you. Nevertheless, I was a bit too slow and didn't find any parties. As a result, I decided to just head to Ala Too Square for Sober New Year's in Bishkek. It ended up being quite nice in the end. Locals were shooting fireworks (kids were shooting these fireworks that you shoot from a stick that you hold and I was really scared that one of the little idiots would blind someone by shooting at the face, but it didn't end up happening), lots of people were hanging around waiting for speeches, there was some non-live music playing and in general the vibe was quite good. About 15 minutes before 00:00, an MC came to the stage and tried to start a chant of "Bishkek! Kyrgyzstan!" which didn't really get that much traction. Then it was time for Akambayev to come on the big screen and give a speech which ended about 10 minutes before 00:00, after which quite an impressive fireworks show started. Since photographing fireworks is like the most difficult thing in the world, here's the best I could do..
The next morning, I headed to the bus station to go to Karakol, without being guaranteed of the availability of transport, and having paid for an additional night at my hostel (which I had originally booked so I guess it's fair enough that they demanded that)... Took a few pictures of Bishkek on the walk to the bus station. I ended up walking in the wrong direction because the bus station was not pictured on the map in the old lonely planet so I took a wrong turn, but then looked at my new lonely planet (electronic version) after walking about 30 minutes in the wrong direction and turned around. Once you walk out of central Bishkek, there are a lot more stray dogs (barely any in the center) and the houses are low rise, but otherwise it's not that different.
I got to the bus station which was a cool Soviet building but the main building is useless except for taking official buses, which basically only go at night and are much slower than marshrutkas and shared taxis. Marshrutkas and shared taxis go from all around the bus station, they are impossible to miss because people are running around shouting the destinations ("Alma - ata! Alma - ata! Karakol! Karakol! Cholpon Ata!"). Ended up taking a marshrutkas which cost 350 som (with luggage).
Welcome to Kyrgyzstan
Ala Too Square at night
Some fun things I saw while walking to my hostel for the first time:
Some sort of culture/arts museum (this is really great travel advice from me to you guys, enjoy it!)
No comment...
The president's home/office, which is nicer than the parliament building
Ala Too Square looking quite depressing
To my hostel
I decided to use my SPG Superplatinum points to upgrade to the presidential suite
Cinema
And the same at night
Kyrgyz Telecom office, useful navigation landmark (it's where I turn towards my hostel when walking down Chuy) and another example of the weird Santa Clauses (they call them Father Frost, or Father Winter thanks to Communism, though some countries like Ukraine are going back to calling them Santa. Meanwhile in Muslim Central Asia, mostly Tajikistan, they're looking to cut back on the very "Christian" style New Years / Orthodox Xmas Celebrations)
Bishkek Soviet style housing, though these are among the nicer buildings in town
Lots of exchange shops, it was an interesting time as Russia had had their currency crisis just a month prior and when Russia coughs, Central Asia, which is super dependent on remittances and being able to send labor to Russia, catches a cold. There's a good Economist article about it: The Economist: As Rouble Plunges, Central Asia Feels Pain through Contagion
Celebrations a day or two before New Year
More Kyrgyz housing plus big advertisement
Bishkek train station - not very busy, only serves a few trains to Moscow via Kazakhstan and a couple of local trains that run to Balykchy
Kyrgyz parliament
Lenin Statue that used to be the main statue on Ala Too Square, now moved behind the Kyrgyz National/State Museum
(Click twice to enlarge, you can see the prices in the full size version)
70 som = 1 Euro. This means there are 2€ bottles of vodka for sale :O
Some singing and dancing and lots of santas on Ala Too Sq
Military Academy (I think)
New Year's Eve
Cool Soviet style bus station, though the building itself is completely useless - it only serves the long haul buses. The marshrutkas and others can be caught from just outside the bus station. Catching one is much easier than I expected, they shout out the destinations, you just climb into one, and they don't try to rip you off (though my hostel in Karakol reported that drivers on real buses had ripped off travelers who hadnt bought tickets from the Kassa, so be careful)
Exports of Kyrgyzstan. They also rely heavily on remittances from workers in Russia.
Accommodation details: NomaD Hostel Bishkek, 16 bed dorm (most nights 2 other beds occupied)
SPG Super Gold Platinum Amenity: Free towel
Location: Downtown Bishkek, near the intersection of Moskovskaya and Yusup Abrahadamov. Don't confuse it for Hostel Nomad Home, a cheaper but further away hostel that's mentioned in guide books.
I had just landed in Bishkek and cleared immigration and customs surprisingly easily. Withdrawing money was also easy, and I was finally able to use the toilet in the arrival's hall. I knew the marshrutka (minibus) would cost 40 som (70 som = 1 euro during my visit), so I needed some change. There was a small shop and a coffee shop in the arrivals hall, and the small shop people somehow refused to do business with me (they were closed??), so I went for a 230 som hot chocolate from the coffee shop. Kind of expensive... They had WiFi so I spent some time trying to figure out where the minibus went from, but it was easy to find in the end - just exit the terminal, and turn left. The minibus is marked 380 and should cost 40 som. They charged me 80 with some ........ about luggage, all I could do was express my disapproval and pay because I don't speak Russian.
The minibus goes to Molodaya Gardia, which is fairly central. From there it was about 4km to my hostel, I could have taken a taxi but figured "why not walk? I'll see the town". Walking was fairly straightforward - I navigated using the fact that the sun rises from the east (it was like 8am) and the fact that I knew that the main street in Bishkek is Chuy Prospekty and I could just walk down that and then turn right on a fairly major street to get to my hostel. Stupid Here Maps for not covering Kyrgyzstan. Ended up taking some photos along the way...
Eventually I got to my hostel, NomaD Hostel. It's among the more expensive hostels in Bishkek at 700 som per night (10 euros), but makes up for that with good quality facilities - one thing I really hate is cold showers and squat toilets, and NomaD Hostel had neither. There's another hostel called Nomad Home which is cheaper but also worse, so don't get confused. I got to the hostel, talked to the staff, and then passed out until 3pm. The hostel is kept quite warm, I learned later that this is because in Central Asia, houses just have central heating which is kept at a certain (very high) temperature in every apartment. They opened the windows later which made it tolerable. Overall, NomaD was a decent hostel, my only problem was with the staff who were friendly but really weren't able to give me any useful advice about anything ("can I get a marshrutka on New Year's?" "I don't know")
The hostel is located on Moskovskaya St, which is one of the main commercial streets in downtown Bishkek (tbh most of Bishkek is "downtown Bishkek", for a city of 850k it's really quite compact). From there it's an easy walk to almost anywhere, 15 minutes to Ala Too square, a bit further to the north of the city.
I spent my first day (and most of my days actually) just walking around, taking in the communist architecture and uniqueness/newness of the place. With a gdp / capita of around $1300, it's among the poorest countries in Asia. That being said, you don't have many visible signs of extreme poverty - beggars are uncommon, public transport "works", people look like they have food at least (they probably do). It's interesting to compare the economic development of Kyrgyzstan with that of Kazakhstan and Russia - at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan was about 3x richer than Kyrgyzstan and Russia about 8x. Now the ratios are about 12x for Kazakhstan and a bit more for Russia. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan also lag behind - a lot of the story is probably about natural resources, which Russia and Kazakhstan have plenty of but the other 'stans (except Turkmenistan) lack. Well, Kyrgyzstan has a lot of gold which makes up 40% of its exports, but not much else. Some of the English speaking Kyrgyz I met lamented the fact that apparently after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan "sold away" most of its assets, but to me this just seems like economic nationalism - if anything, it seems that Kyrgyzstan is missing foreign investment. That being said, there were bright signs - some new buildings and shiny shopping malls had risen up, though they weren't very "western". I guess it's nice as tourist not to have them, but the locals would probably be better off. The Kyrgyz stock exchange exists, and is a funny thing - there are about 7 listed companies, each with about 1 or 2 trades per day. Great liquidity. Makes me wonder what life as a broker here is like. Final thing about the economy - it's interesting that Kyrgyzstan has a population of about 5.6 million, the same as Finland, but there are also 1 million or so Kyrgyz working abroad and sending money back as remittances.
The second day, I walked to North Bishkek in the morning, ended up having kebabs for breakfast in the food court of a shopping mall. There were great views of the mountains around Bishkek from the north of the city. From there, I walked to the train station, up Erkindik Avenue and around town.
It was New Year's Eve. I tried to figure out what was going on using CouchSurfing and Tinder. On CouchSurfing, I had tried to find a host in Bishkek only to find out that everyone on CS in Bishkek was an expat and every expat was out of the country for New Year's. Tinder in Kyrgyzstan is interesting, because there aren't very many people on there and most of the locals actually match you. Nevertheless, I was a bit too slow and didn't find any parties. As a result, I decided to just head to Ala Too Square for Sober New Year's in Bishkek. It ended up being quite nice in the end. Locals were shooting fireworks (kids were shooting these fireworks that you shoot from a stick that you hold and I was really scared that one of the little idiots would blind someone by shooting at the face, but it didn't end up happening), lots of people were hanging around waiting for speeches, there was some non-live music playing and in general the vibe was quite good. About 15 minutes before 00:00, an MC came to the stage and tried to start a chant of "Bishkek! Kyrgyzstan!" which didn't really get that much traction. Then it was time for Akambayev to come on the big screen and give a speech which ended about 10 minutes before 00:00, after which quite an impressive fireworks show started. Since photographing fireworks is like the most difficult thing in the world, here's the best I could do..
The next morning, I headed to the bus station to go to Karakol, without being guaranteed of the availability of transport, and having paid for an additional night at my hostel (which I had originally booked so I guess it's fair enough that they demanded that)... Took a few pictures of Bishkek on the walk to the bus station. I ended up walking in the wrong direction because the bus station was not pictured on the map in the old lonely planet so I took a wrong turn, but then looked at my new lonely planet (electronic version) after walking about 30 minutes in the wrong direction and turned around. Once you walk out of central Bishkek, there are a lot more stray dogs (barely any in the center) and the houses are low rise, but otherwise it's not that different.
I got to the bus station which was a cool Soviet building but the main building is useless except for taking official buses, which basically only go at night and are much slower than marshrutkas and shared taxis. Marshrutkas and shared taxis go from all around the bus station, they are impossible to miss because people are running around shouting the destinations ("Alma - ata! Alma - ata! Karakol! Karakol! Cholpon Ata!"). Ended up taking a marshrutkas which cost 350 som (with luggage).
Welcome to Kyrgyzstan
Ala Too Square at night
Some fun things I saw while walking to my hostel for the first time:
Some sort of culture/arts museum (this is really great travel advice from me to you guys, enjoy it!)
No comment...
The president's home/office, which is nicer than the parliament building
Ala Too Square looking quite depressing
To my hostel
I decided to use my SPG Superplatinum points to upgrade to the presidential suite
Cinema
And the same at night
Kyrgyz Telecom office, useful navigation landmark (it's where I turn towards my hostel when walking down Chuy) and another example of the weird Santa Clauses (they call them Father Frost, or Father Winter thanks to Communism, though some countries like Ukraine are going back to calling them Santa. Meanwhile in Muslim Central Asia, mostly Tajikistan, they're looking to cut back on the very "Christian" style New Years / Orthodox Xmas Celebrations)
Bishkek Soviet style housing, though these are among the nicer buildings in town
Lots of exchange shops, it was an interesting time as Russia had had their currency crisis just a month prior and when Russia coughs, Central Asia, which is super dependent on remittances and being able to send labor to Russia, catches a cold. There's a good Economist article about it: The Economist: As Rouble Plunges, Central Asia Feels Pain through Contagion
Celebrations a day or two before New Year
More Kyrgyz housing plus big advertisement
Bishkek train station - not very busy, only serves a few trains to Moscow via Kazakhstan and a couple of local trains that run to Balykchy
Kyrgyz parliament
Lenin Statue that used to be the main statue on Ala Too Square, now moved behind the Kyrgyz National/State Museum
(Click twice to enlarge, you can see the prices in the full size version)
70 som = 1 Euro. This means there are 2€ bottles of vodka for sale :O
Some singing and dancing and lots of santas on Ala Too Sq
Military Academy (I think)
New Year's Eve
Cool Soviet style bus station, though the building itself is completely useless - it only serves the long haul buses. The marshrutkas and others can be caught from just outside the bus station. Catching one is much easier than I expected, they shout out the destinations, you just climb into one, and they don't try to rip you off (though my hostel in Karakol reported that drivers on real buses had ripped off travelers who hadnt bought tickets from the Kassa, so be careful)
Exports of Kyrgyzstan. They also rely heavily on remittances from workers in Russia.
Jan 22, 2015, 6:07 pm
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Los Angeles / Basel
Programs: UA 1K MM, AA EXP, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 26,923
Did you experience FRU as one of the most depressing cities you have ever visited? I did -- would not trade it for anything in the world, but just so decaying.
Jan 22, 2015, 6:17 pm
#5
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Join Date: May 2008
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Programs: GM on VX, UA, AA, HA, AS, SY; Budget Fastbreak
Posts: 27,597
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and... Korea? [+QR Y+J, all J 319, Pegasus, Air Astana, ship]
Great tr! I love the narrative with pictures at bottom. I'm impressed with your travels and look forward to the next installments :-)
Jan 23, 2015, 1:41 am
#6
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Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 2,685
Thanks! I'm aiming to add about 2 installments per day here on FT, let's see how I manage (I also have to finish off actually writing the originals for my blog so I might be slightly slower here at the start...)
Jan 23, 2015, 1:58 am
#7
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 43
Great report! Nice to read about about an airline not often covered - and not flown in a premium cabin - for a change.
One detail got me thinking... See, this is a cheap cabin on a ship
And this is a wet dream of a Flyertalker...
Borrowed from Emirates202's fine report from Etihad A380 Appartments
I know that you cannot compare a ship and a plane, the materials and details are not the same, and there is no free Champagne on the ship.
However, we would go to great length to sit in the Appartment for 10 hours, but would fly the crappiest propellerplane to avoid the ship for a night.
Sometimes we are a funny bunch...
One detail got me thinking... See, this is a cheap cabin on a ship
And this is a wet dream of a Flyertalker...
Borrowed from Emirates202's fine report from Etihad A380 Appartments
I know that you cannot compare a ship and a plane, the materials and details are not the same, and there is no free Champagne on the ship.
However, we would go to great length to sit in the Appartment for 10 hours, but would fly the crappiest propellerplane to avoid the ship for a night.
Sometimes we are a funny bunch...
Jan 23, 2015, 4:02 am
#8
Suspended
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 2,685
Thank you, flybranchen.
While there was no free champagne offered to people in the Inside 4 cabin on the ship, the 37 euro buffet does include all you can drink wine, from the tap
Karakol and Skiing
Accommodation details: Teskey Guesthouse, 3 bed dorm
Cost: 900 som
Carlson Club Amenity: A very nice hot shower after check out, no other people in my dorm
From Bishkek bus station, I got on a marshrutka to Karakol. The price was 350 som (= 5 euros) and there seemed to be plenty going, even though it was New Year's day. Finding a marshrutka was quite easy, all you need to do is listen to the people shouting out destinations. The marshrutka ride was uneventful and took about 5 hours - there was one stop for a break just before Balykchy, and the views along the road were beautiful. This marshrutka went along the northern shore of Lake Issyk Kul, and while you couldn't see much of the lake, you could see the mountains at many points. Some of the pictures below are taken from the marshrutka ride and really show just how beautiful Kyrgyzstan can be. Absolutely stunning...
There are other transport options from Bishkek to Karakol, namely shared taxi or "proper" bus. Proper buses are the cheapest but take the longest (8 hours) - they are nowhere near as frequent as marshrutkas, and as far as I know they only depart at night and in the morning (but I'm not sure and there is no real way to check). Shared taxis are slightly faster and slightly more expensive. Added bonus, they bring you wherever you want in Karakol instead of just the bus station. Of course, if you have money, you can always get a tour or rent a car (driving standards aren't too high though) - see for instance Iron Horse Nomads for help with this.
Eventually the marshrutka got to Karakol just before it got dark (around 5:30pm). There are a few apartment blocks near the bus station, but walking from there to downtown along the non-main roads is a bit of a shock. Karakol is the third or fourth biggest city in Kyrgyzstan but most roads are unpaved and very unstable, there are stray dogs and buildings are low rise cottages that look very run down.
I hadn't booked any accommodation in Karakol, so I just decided to head towards the Turkestan Yurt Camp which had been recommended in Lonely Planet - it was about a 3km walk and luckily, roads were marked (in cyrillic only but it doesn't take many days to figure out how to guess cyrillic letters). Unfortunately, I had not read the recommendation carefully enough as it also stated that it was only open in the summer. Umm damn, next choice would be a fairly nice looking little hotel right next to it. Go inside and ask for rooms - apparently they're full, but the nice lady at the reception calls a few places for me and I end up choosing Teskey Guest House, where a dorm (3 bed) costs 900 som. This is quite a bit more than the 500 som mentioned in guidebooks, but apparently it's a winter surcharge as Kyrgyzstan apparently had to start buying electricity from Kazakhstan because the water levels at their dams became too low (or, and I judge this option less likely, it's a scam - but seems like it was the cheapest room in town anyway - guidebook prices are not definitive, and it seems like some people on TripAdvisor paid 900 as well).
I decide to start walking towards Teskey, it's only about 2/3km extra. Get to the "main street" in Karakol which is a boulevard styled street with a statue of Lenin that is surrounded by apartments (along with the ones at the bus station, they are among the only non-single family house style dwellings in Karakol) and some guy comes up to me asking whether I need help. I tell him I'm ok, just headed to Teskey, and he offers to show the way. A bit suspicious, and I don't really need help but he insists. In the end, it was no problem, he knows the guy who runs Teskey and just said hi to him. I get to Teskey which is more a homestay style guesthouse basically run by a family who lives there, see my dorm (3 beds, none taken) and talk to the owner a bit about skiing - he books a taxi for me and also told me I could catch one from downtown. I get overcharged a bit (250 som instead of 700/4 downtown - for the latest prices, there are some great TripAdvisor reviews - it should be 1400 som for a return trip in a car) but I also get them to pick me up straight from Teskey. I have dinner at Teskey, once again, it's a bit expensive but whatever, the guy is really nice and I'm losing like 1 euro here.
I go to bed quite early. The taxi taking me skiing is coming at 8:30. And I need to withdraw money and the ATM is a 15 minute walk away. Manage to wake up at about 7, take a shower and blahblah. But no one from the family is up, and I'm afraid to leave the guest house and get locked out. Eventually the non-English speaking grandmother/mother comes downstairs and makes me tea for breakfast (can't really eat food in mornings especially in a place that only has a squat toilet, like Teskey). Go withdraw money, make it on time etc etc., agree to leave my stuff at Teskey so I can come back and shower after I'm done skiing. Got into my "taxi", which was basically an Audi station wagon that went to pick up some other guys before going.
And holy .... was that annoying! First I had to wait about 15-20 minutes for the guys to come out of their apartment, and then an hour for them to find the ski shop from which they had rented their equipment (they forgot). At the last shop, I was tempted to just leave and get another taxi but thankfully it turned out to be the correct shop. Then we started driving towards the ski base, which was an uphill drive along a bad road. On the way, we saw some accidents (and had to stop for some bizarre reason...) and finally got to the ski base at 11am. Then I went for lunch at the ski cafe, which luckily had like the only non-squat toilets in Karakol.
After eating, I went to rent some equipment. Service was bad, slow and Russian/Kyrgyz only. Locals were cutting in line, and for some really weird reason the bags they had there were from Morrisons in the UK. Eventually I got my equipment (the only things they have available are skis, boots, poles and snowboards) for 1000 som (the price for the newest equipment) and my lift ticket for something close to that (no risk of being ripped off - as I said, for more accurate prices, see this TripAdvisor review (opens in a new window)). There were huge queues at the ski lifts, though some of the locals I talked to there said that this was because of the New Year holiday. By the way, meeting locals who speak English is really easy while skiing - I had the same experience in Iran, when people were surprisingly willing to open up about the problems in their country. I think Kyrgyz people have a similar mentality to Iranians, in that they're very proud about their country and culture but sad about the current state which has been marred by corruption.
Karakol Ski Base was a nice little resort. The quality of the snow was REALLY good - it was all natural, there were very few icy tracks (mostly a few transfers), the pistes were challenging enough but not too difficult. There were 3 chair lifts and a few more pistes. Some downsides though, other than the queues and service: the pistes were not marked. As a result of this, when I tried skiing from the top of the mountain, I couldn't find the piste, ended up off piste, fell over, had to slide down, and got completely wet. Now, since I hadn't been able to rent skiing clothes, I was completely soaked and decided to just get the .... out of there. Since my taxi was not due to go until 4 and it was about 3 and because it had taken 2 hours to get up the ski base, I just skied to the bottom of the mountain and found myself a random taxi. The first price quoted was 700 som for the entire taxi, which was the going rate. The taxi looked like the type of car that would crash, but it had snow chains. The driver was eager to talk to me about ice hockey but didn't speak English, so it wasn't a super great conversation. At the bottom of the mountain, he transferred me to another taxi (one without chains) that I didn't have to pay extra for and I went to Teskey, had a shower, browsed the net and then set off trying to find a place for dinner, many were closed due to the New Year Holiday.
I was basically trying to waste time at this point. I had only recently found out about the night buses from Karakol to Bishkek and decided that I would get to Almaty a bit earlier by taking a night bus and then getting a marshrutka to Almaty, hopefully after getting some coffee and browsing the net for a bit in Bishkek. This plan would require me to spend a few hours in Karakol and hopefully arrive in Bishkek as late as possible. So I went to a cafe, and had dinner.
The cafe was interesting (forgot the name). Basically, they had no free tables but the waiter asked a few guys who turned out to be friends of the owner whether I could sit with them and they obliged. So I sat with them and then spoke to them about all sorts of stuff. Turns out they were Muslim and not big on drinking or drugs. They were really nice and ended up paying for my dinner despite me insisting otherwise. In this cafe I was spotted by Sara and Sebastian, two dutch travelers (Sara was doing an internship in Astana and Sebastian was visiting her) whom I would end up meeting in Almaty as Sara had previously CouchSurfed with my host/meetup buddy. I didn't notice them but they noticed me as the only guy who looked non-Kyrgyz or Russian. They had got there with a private tour, so that's an option for people with money..
After that came my search for a non-squat toilet. From the cafe in the center of Karakol, I walked to about 4 other cafes in the center and 2 or 3 more on the way to the bus station, looking for a non-squat toilet. Failed. Went to the bus station, still no non-squat toilets. Eventually, I just had to give up and accept that probably the only "Western" style toilet in Karakol was in the ski base and that I had used up my last Jordanian-generic-version-of-Immodium in Cape Town for the marathon.
By the time I got to the bus station, it was 19:30. I ended up buying the bus ticket (320 som with luggage) for the next bus which was at 21:00. Got on the bus - there was assigned seating and I was seated next to a nice soldier (conscript?) in the Kyrgyz army. The bus ride took about 8 hours, it was quite difficult to sleep because of the lack of legroom and almost full bus, but I got a few hours. There were plenty of stops on the way so toileting wasn't a problem (didn't need one but incase someone is afraid of an 8 hour bus ride), the main "toilet stop" was near Balykchy, in the same place as on the way there. Ended up getting to Bishkek around 5am, so too early to go for that coffee. But marshrutkas and shared taxis to Almaty were running, so off I went...
Near Balykchy, Kyrgyzstan
My marshrutka in Karakol
Soviet style bus station in Karakol
Streets of Karakol with housing that was quite typical there - it looked "cute", definitely a change from the Soviet style housing in Bishkek
Dinner at Teskey, quite expensive but good as well
My Carlson Gold Amenity: no people sharing my dorm
Teskey Guesthouse
They had New Year/Xmas lights in Karakol as well
My ride to the ski base
Others were not as lucky as me and their ski trip ended here
These guys too, it's hard to see but there's smoke coming out of both cars
Bags imported from the UK for keeping your stuff while you went skiing
Hotel Kapriz, the main hotel at the ski base itself (could be the only one?)
Lines were a problem that day
Amazing scenery
3040 was the highest you could get with ski lifts, you can get even higher and ski on "marked" paths if you heliski which is quite popular in Kyrgyzstan, and I guess cheap compared to heliskiing in Canada or the Alps but still thousands of dollars for a week
Took this photo before I went down the wrong path. Some guys are preparing to go paragliding
Karakol houses
9pm bus back to Bishkek
While there was no free champagne offered to people in the Inside 4 cabin on the ship, the 37 euro buffet does include all you can drink wine, from the tap
Karakol and Skiing
Accommodation details: Teskey Guesthouse, 3 bed dorm
Cost: 900 som
Carlson Club Amenity: A very nice hot shower after check out, no other people in my dorm
From Bishkek bus station, I got on a marshrutka to Karakol. The price was 350 som (= 5 euros) and there seemed to be plenty going, even though it was New Year's day. Finding a marshrutka was quite easy, all you need to do is listen to the people shouting out destinations. The marshrutka ride was uneventful and took about 5 hours - there was one stop for a break just before Balykchy, and the views along the road were beautiful. This marshrutka went along the northern shore of Lake Issyk Kul, and while you couldn't see much of the lake, you could see the mountains at many points. Some of the pictures below are taken from the marshrutka ride and really show just how beautiful Kyrgyzstan can be. Absolutely stunning...
There are other transport options from Bishkek to Karakol, namely shared taxi or "proper" bus. Proper buses are the cheapest but take the longest (8 hours) - they are nowhere near as frequent as marshrutkas, and as far as I know they only depart at night and in the morning (but I'm not sure and there is no real way to check). Shared taxis are slightly faster and slightly more expensive. Added bonus, they bring you wherever you want in Karakol instead of just the bus station. Of course, if you have money, you can always get a tour or rent a car (driving standards aren't too high though) - see for instance Iron Horse Nomads for help with this.
Eventually the marshrutka got to Karakol just before it got dark (around 5:30pm). There are a few apartment blocks near the bus station, but walking from there to downtown along the non-main roads is a bit of a shock. Karakol is the third or fourth biggest city in Kyrgyzstan but most roads are unpaved and very unstable, there are stray dogs and buildings are low rise cottages that look very run down.
I hadn't booked any accommodation in Karakol, so I just decided to head towards the Turkestan Yurt Camp which had been recommended in Lonely Planet - it was about a 3km walk and luckily, roads were marked (in cyrillic only but it doesn't take many days to figure out how to guess cyrillic letters). Unfortunately, I had not read the recommendation carefully enough as it also stated that it was only open in the summer. Umm damn, next choice would be a fairly nice looking little hotel right next to it. Go inside and ask for rooms - apparently they're full, but the nice lady at the reception calls a few places for me and I end up choosing Teskey Guest House, where a dorm (3 bed) costs 900 som. This is quite a bit more than the 500 som mentioned in guidebooks, but apparently it's a winter surcharge as Kyrgyzstan apparently had to start buying electricity from Kazakhstan because the water levels at their dams became too low (or, and I judge this option less likely, it's a scam - but seems like it was the cheapest room in town anyway - guidebook prices are not definitive, and it seems like some people on TripAdvisor paid 900 as well).
I decide to start walking towards Teskey, it's only about 2/3km extra. Get to the "main street" in Karakol which is a boulevard styled street with a statue of Lenin that is surrounded by apartments (along with the ones at the bus station, they are among the only non-single family house style dwellings in Karakol) and some guy comes up to me asking whether I need help. I tell him I'm ok, just headed to Teskey, and he offers to show the way. A bit suspicious, and I don't really need help but he insists. In the end, it was no problem, he knows the guy who runs Teskey and just said hi to him. I get to Teskey which is more a homestay style guesthouse basically run by a family who lives there, see my dorm (3 beds, none taken) and talk to the owner a bit about skiing - he books a taxi for me and also told me I could catch one from downtown. I get overcharged a bit (250 som instead of 700/4 downtown - for the latest prices, there are some great TripAdvisor reviews - it should be 1400 som for a return trip in a car) but I also get them to pick me up straight from Teskey. I have dinner at Teskey, once again, it's a bit expensive but whatever, the guy is really nice and I'm losing like 1 euro here.
I go to bed quite early. The taxi taking me skiing is coming at 8:30. And I need to withdraw money and the ATM is a 15 minute walk away. Manage to wake up at about 7, take a shower and blahblah. But no one from the family is up, and I'm afraid to leave the guest house and get locked out. Eventually the non-English speaking grandmother/mother comes downstairs and makes me tea for breakfast (can't really eat food in mornings especially in a place that only has a squat toilet, like Teskey). Go withdraw money, make it on time etc etc., agree to leave my stuff at Teskey so I can come back and shower after I'm done skiing. Got into my "taxi", which was basically an Audi station wagon that went to pick up some other guys before going.
And holy .... was that annoying! First I had to wait about 15-20 minutes for the guys to come out of their apartment, and then an hour for them to find the ski shop from which they had rented their equipment (they forgot). At the last shop, I was tempted to just leave and get another taxi but thankfully it turned out to be the correct shop. Then we started driving towards the ski base, which was an uphill drive along a bad road. On the way, we saw some accidents (and had to stop for some bizarre reason...) and finally got to the ski base at 11am. Then I went for lunch at the ski cafe, which luckily had like the only non-squat toilets in Karakol.
After eating, I went to rent some equipment. Service was bad, slow and Russian/Kyrgyz only. Locals were cutting in line, and for some really weird reason the bags they had there were from Morrisons in the UK. Eventually I got my equipment (the only things they have available are skis, boots, poles and snowboards) for 1000 som (the price for the newest equipment) and my lift ticket for something close to that (no risk of being ripped off - as I said, for more accurate prices, see this TripAdvisor review (opens in a new window)). There were huge queues at the ski lifts, though some of the locals I talked to there said that this was because of the New Year holiday. By the way, meeting locals who speak English is really easy while skiing - I had the same experience in Iran, when people were surprisingly willing to open up about the problems in their country. I think Kyrgyz people have a similar mentality to Iranians, in that they're very proud about their country and culture but sad about the current state which has been marred by corruption.
Karakol Ski Base was a nice little resort. The quality of the snow was REALLY good - it was all natural, there were very few icy tracks (mostly a few transfers), the pistes were challenging enough but not too difficult. There were 3 chair lifts and a few more pistes. Some downsides though, other than the queues and service: the pistes were not marked. As a result of this, when I tried skiing from the top of the mountain, I couldn't find the piste, ended up off piste, fell over, had to slide down, and got completely wet. Now, since I hadn't been able to rent skiing clothes, I was completely soaked and decided to just get the .... out of there. Since my taxi was not due to go until 4 and it was about 3 and because it had taken 2 hours to get up the ski base, I just skied to the bottom of the mountain and found myself a random taxi. The first price quoted was 700 som for the entire taxi, which was the going rate. The taxi looked like the type of car that would crash, but it had snow chains. The driver was eager to talk to me about ice hockey but didn't speak English, so it wasn't a super great conversation. At the bottom of the mountain, he transferred me to another taxi (one without chains) that I didn't have to pay extra for and I went to Teskey, had a shower, browsed the net and then set off trying to find a place for dinner, many were closed due to the New Year Holiday.
I was basically trying to waste time at this point. I had only recently found out about the night buses from Karakol to Bishkek and decided that I would get to Almaty a bit earlier by taking a night bus and then getting a marshrutka to Almaty, hopefully after getting some coffee and browsing the net for a bit in Bishkek. This plan would require me to spend a few hours in Karakol and hopefully arrive in Bishkek as late as possible. So I went to a cafe, and had dinner.
The cafe was interesting (forgot the name). Basically, they had no free tables but the waiter asked a few guys who turned out to be friends of the owner whether I could sit with them and they obliged. So I sat with them and then spoke to them about all sorts of stuff. Turns out they were Muslim and not big on drinking or drugs. They were really nice and ended up paying for my dinner despite me insisting otherwise. In this cafe I was spotted by Sara and Sebastian, two dutch travelers (Sara was doing an internship in Astana and Sebastian was visiting her) whom I would end up meeting in Almaty as Sara had previously CouchSurfed with my host/meetup buddy. I didn't notice them but they noticed me as the only guy who looked non-Kyrgyz or Russian. They had got there with a private tour, so that's an option for people with money..
After that came my search for a non-squat toilet. From the cafe in the center of Karakol, I walked to about 4 other cafes in the center and 2 or 3 more on the way to the bus station, looking for a non-squat toilet. Failed. Went to the bus station, still no non-squat toilets. Eventually, I just had to give up and accept that probably the only "Western" style toilet in Karakol was in the ski base and that I had used up my last Jordanian-generic-version-of-Immodium in Cape Town for the marathon.
By the time I got to the bus station, it was 19:30. I ended up buying the bus ticket (320 som with luggage) for the next bus which was at 21:00. Got on the bus - there was assigned seating and I was seated next to a nice soldier (conscript?) in the Kyrgyz army. The bus ride took about 8 hours, it was quite difficult to sleep because of the lack of legroom and almost full bus, but I got a few hours. There were plenty of stops on the way so toileting wasn't a problem (didn't need one but incase someone is afraid of an 8 hour bus ride), the main "toilet stop" was near Balykchy, in the same place as on the way there. Ended up getting to Bishkek around 5am, so too early to go for that coffee. But marshrutkas and shared taxis to Almaty were running, so off I went...
Near Balykchy, Kyrgyzstan
My marshrutka in Karakol
Soviet style bus station in Karakol
Streets of Karakol with housing that was quite typical there - it looked "cute", definitely a change from the Soviet style housing in Bishkek
Dinner at Teskey, quite expensive but good as well
My Carlson Gold Amenity: no people sharing my dorm
Teskey Guesthouse
They had New Year/Xmas lights in Karakol as well
My ride to the ski base
Others were not as lucky as me and their ski trip ended here
These guys too, it's hard to see but there's smoke coming out of both cars
Bags imported from the UK for keeping your stuff while you went skiing
Hotel Kapriz, the main hotel at the ski base itself (could be the only one?)
Lines were a problem that day
Amazing scenery
3040 was the highest you could get with ski lifts, you can get even higher and ski on "marked" paths if you heliski which is quite popular in Kyrgyzstan, and I guess cheap compared to heliskiing in Canada or the Alps but still thousands of dollars for a week
Took this photo before I went down the wrong path. Some guys are preparing to go paragliding
Karakol houses
9pm bus back to Bishkek
Jan 23, 2015, 6:30 am
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2008
Programs: AA EXP/LTP, BA GGL/CCR/GfL, HH D/LTD, SPG/MR Plat/LTP
Posts: 10,076
A great TR so far, looking forward to your next post.
Especially I enjoyed the ambition to add different ways of transport, Even including walking between different transports, with close-ups on sights along the walk is not in the ordinary TR. The routing is a bit away from the beaten path, or maybe more correctly, IS a beaten path, although many of us take a more comfortable way. Your subtle humour made me giggle. "Crustaceans" found elswhere than on the Viking buffet?
The Presidential Suite in Bishkek looked very spacy, and for only 12€
. The white double cupboard in the centre of room must have been a large minibar, comprising the sortiment found a couple of pics later, I presume.
More of this, please
Especially I enjoyed the ambition to add different ways of transport, Even including walking between different transports, with close-ups on sights along the walk is not in the ordinary TR. The routing is a bit away from the beaten path, or maybe more correctly, IS a beaten path, although many of us take a more comfortable way. Your subtle humour made me giggle. "Crustaceans" found elswhere than on the Viking buffet?
The Presidential Suite in Bishkek looked very spacy, and for only 12€
. The white double cupboard in the centre of room must have been a large minibar, comprising the sortiment found a couple of pics later, I presume.More of this, please
Jan 23, 2015, 8:04 am
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2008
Location: San Francisco
Programs: GM on VX, UA, AA, HA, AS, SY; Budget Fastbreak
Posts: 27,597
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and... Korea? [+QR Y+J, all J 319, Pegasus, Air Astana, ship]
I want to also add my admiration for all of your walking. Walking 3 km to a guest house which is closed in Winter, and then calmly walking an additional 2/3km to another one... I'm sure you don't have too much heavy luggage and maybe it's not too cold for you, but the walking is impressive. I'm enjoying this TR and what seems like an inexpensive place, esp compared to when you go to Korea and return home to Suomi.
Jan 23, 2015, 8:51 am
#11
was thetravelingRedhead
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Western Michigan
Programs: Delta Silver Medallion, United Silver Premier
Posts: 642
wow i love TRs like this!
kinda my travel philosophy too :P
This won't really be a conventional trip report on the destination side as I loathe staying in large hotels and instead prefer the social elements of hostels and CouchSurfing. On this trip I never paid more than €12 per night for a bed. When it comes to flying however, this trip is quite conventional, a mix of Y and J and a mix of airlines.
Jan 23, 2015, 11:16 am
#14
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: anywhere and everywhere
Programs: UA GS, AS MVP 100K, DL Diamond, Marriot Lifetime Titanium, AmEx Centurion
Posts: 5,525
, the title of which I've basically plagiarized from ironmanjt on these forums - I also make a note below as to what I want to do when I travel - while I am on quite good pace when it comes to visiting every country (70+ at 25), I prefer to take things a bit slower and revisit places over and over again instead of being focused on visiting every country and then coming back to places I like.
Glad you got to experience this trip in the winter. All my trips have been in spring/fall to central asia and I imagine it feels more like "home" in the winter. Coming from Minnesota (which is basically Little Finland) I found your perspective on Central Asia in winter really interesting. Thanks for taking the time to write this up!
