Tuesday, May 21, 2013
After a good rain during the night, the sky remained overcast but clear for our hike into the mountains south of Karakol. Fatima Dautova, the Dungan woman at whose home we had dinner the evening before, joined us on the hike. Although she speaks very limited English, she is full of fun and enthusiasm. She is 45 and 25 years married to her childhood sweetheart, whom her parents did not approve because he is Uzbek. So they had a civil wedding and told their parents afterward. After they had their first child, the 4 parents softened and soon all was well. Now they have three children, and are still happily married. They are both unemployed teachers, who are surviving through their entrepreneurial creativity. She makes and serves Chinese dinners to locals as well as tourists in their home, while he operates a vendor shop in the local market selling women’s clothes. They have managed to remodel the family home in addition to raising their family and now they both want to travel, but don’t know how and don’t think they have the money. She has never been outside Kyrgyzstan. We enjoyed her company and invited her to join us the next day for our hike. She did not hesitate to say yes.
Next morning, in spite of a heavy overcast and cool day, we drove into the Djety Oguz (7 Bulls) Canyon, named for 7 massive, similarly sculpted, red sandstone hills snuggled side by side at the entrance to the canyon. They did not look at all like bulls to me, though they were big, imposing and photogenic. The story goes that the bad king of one tribe stole the pretty wife of the good king of another tribe. The good king asked to have his wife back or there would be a war. The bad king agreed to have a peace gathering in the canyon and give the wife back to avoid war. Seven bulls were brought to be slaughtered for the feast. When everyone gathered, the bad king killed the wife so that the good king could have only her body. The blood of the wife stained the mountains in the canyon red and the bulls were never slaughtered.
Misha drove us over the 4×4 dirt track to a pretty green meadow filled with wild flowers, a couple of families building summer yurts, and several groups of young people enjoying an outing in the canyon in spite of the cold, windy cloudy day. We started our hike at about 7100 feet and ascended the meadow into the tree line and beyond to a lovely waterfall at 8100 feet. We stopped in the high meadow just below tree line on the way back to enjoy the incredible view of snow capped peaks, conifer and birch tree forests and wide open meadows. Believe it or not we started jumping to see if we could capture each other in mid air. Hundreds of photos later we were all laughing ourselves silly and even I managed to get some “air” in a couple of images. Back down at the car, we spread out our picnic lunch on an unused table, but ate rather quickly as the weather was looking and feeling inhospitable. As we drove back down the canyon, the rain started and we were pleased about our timing. We had such a good time with Fatima that we invited her to join us for the next leg of our trip to Almaty, Kazakstan so she would not have to wait any longer to start traveling beyond Kyrgyzstan. She was thrilled at the offer and said she hoped to join us after talking with her family.
That evening we were invited to a Uigher family’s home to learn to make noodles the Kyrgyz way for the dish we have eaten several times called lagman. Fortunately the time consuming part of the task, making and resting the dough, was already done. Placed in front of us, after we washed our hands, was a plate of dough already rolled into one long half inch thick coil and oiled. The lady of the house, Gulia, sat across from us and gave us each a section of the coil. Our job was to stretch it and make it thinner so it would grow several times in length. I struggled with the coil and it kept breaking on me. Mark, as you might expect, got the hang of it quickly and finished his coil way ahead of me. The next step was to wrap the coil around our hands in big loops and bang the dough on the table to stretch it more and toughen it. No question who’s noodles looked the best. Meanwhile, the water was boiling and soon we were cooking our noodles, about 2 minutes to a handful, straining them and placing them on a platter. The tomato-beef sauce had been made earlier and was simmering on the stove. Before we knew it, the same table was set for dinner and we each had a plate of lagman in front of us along with all the usual salads, bread and deserts. Several members of her family, including her three daughters and two grandchildren, joined us at the kitchen table to chat and ask questions. The atmosphere was warm and congenial as Olga was a long time family friend. We had a long personal conversation with the English speaking middle daughter, Aziza, who is 22, has a university degree, is very pretty and still single. She says she wants to continue working and save money at home for a year, then move to Bishkek and find a good job in the travel industry, get married and have children. She is not sure in which order. In her culture she is already an old maid and should find a husband soon. We all agreed that if she got married and had children first, the other goals might never come to pass. She understands, but is still pulled by her culture. Fortunately, there is no boyfriend in the picture at the moment. We learned that she had been bride-napped when she was 17. A girl friend of hers saw it happen and told her father. Within an hour he arrived at the boy’s home, where he had taken Aziza, and demanded his daughter back, insisting that she was far too young to be getting married. She says she was very glad to see her father show up so soon.
Finally, after a very pleasant day, we went back to our hotel. We learned that Fatima would be joining us for our trip back to Bishkek and on to Almaty and turned in knowing we had an early start and a long drive ahead.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
After two days of cold, rainy overcast weather, we woke to a gloriously clear, sunshiny day and were able to see the freshly snow coated mountains as we drove out of Karakol and turned west toward Bishkek on the south side of the lake. As we passed through small villages we saw many children in their uniforms headed for school. During the Soviet era, all children in the federation wore the same uniform; for girls, black dress with a white apron and big white bows in their hair and for boys a black suit with a white shirt and red tie, if they were a pioneer. Today many children still wear that uniform but each country has its own rules. Here they need only wear dark pants and a white shirt. The dress, suit, apron and tie are optional in public schools. Everyone goes to school for 11 years. After that university is optional. School starts on September 1 and ends on May 25 every year in all schools. Summer is about to begin in Kyrgyzstan.
Fatima told us that there were not many Russians in Karakol anymore and the town was now about 1/3rd each–Dungan, Uigher and Russian. Olga explained that Putin wanted to repopulate rural Russia, so he made an offer to all Russians living in post-Soviet countries. He agreed to give each family 250,000 rubles towards the building of a home if they moved to non-urban parts of Russia. Apparently many people took him up on his offer and he followed through with the money. According to Fatima, most Russian families in Karakol left. Kyrgyzstan had been 40% Russian before the offer and now the Russian population is only 20% according to Olga. Her family is in the 20% that chose to remain.
About 2 hours into our 11 hour drive to Bishkek, we arrived at our first planned stop, Fairy Tail Canyon. Stacey, our GeoEx planner, told Olga this was her favorite part of our whole trip and we soon understood why. The deep, multi colored sandstone hills are sculpted into wonderfully imaginative shapes. Trails through the canyon allowed us each to get lost in the folds and figures and reconnect at the top of knobs and spires only to descend again into another cleft and reappear hundreds of feet away from the others. It was hard to say what it reminded us of most–the Chinese wall in Montana, Pinnacles National Monument in California, Bryce Canyon in Utah or only itself with no comparison. I found myself collecting stones along my path and ended with a pile I washed and sorted through to settle on a few to remind me of the place. Mark thinks I am nuts to carry home rocks, but the truth is I manage to bring home a few from each trip. If only I could remember which came from where. I will happily show you my collection if you are interested.
This south side highway is not as smooth as the north side and there are many more villages through which Misha had to slow down. For the first half of the day, however, the road follows the lake closely and we were constantly in eyesight of snow-capped peaks as well as the water. It was a feast for the eyes. Our second scheduled stop was an hour further west at a village called Bokombaevo where Olga had arranged a meeting with a golden eagle hunter. We followed him a few miles along a dirt road up into the hills behind the village. Once away from all population, buildings and vegitation, he stopped and introduced himself as Talgar. He had on a special outfit he wears for golden eagle events including a huge gold belt buckle with two eagles on it. According to Olga he has won the national championship in eagle hunting for the last couple of years, from a field of 50 hunters in the country. Shortly, he opened the hatchback of his car and lifted out his bird, a large female named Tumar. She was hooded and seemed relaxed and passive. Talgar put on a large, heavy leather glove and held her for us to see. Then we took turns holding the 13 pound bird and petting her feathers. We all enjoyed the experience, including Fatima.
After answering lots of questions while we took many photos, Talgar left Tumar standing on the ground and retrieved a soft, cuddly rabbit from the back seat of his car. He held the rabbit lovingly for awhile and then put it down in the middle of an open area. We were all surprised that the rabbit did not move. He told us it is because it has no fear and no familiar place to go. Then he picked up Tumar and marched up a hill a couple hundred yards away. We retreated to the top of a small hill nearby. On a call to be ready, he unhooded Tumar, who looked around, saw the rabbit twitch its ears, and then flew immediately to it. The struggle was over in a few seconds. It was with mixed feelings that I continued to take photos as the bird devoured the rabbit. Olga and Fatima and Misha wanted no part of it. Talgar came down and assisted Tumar in the eating. Talgar told us he took Tumar from her nest at the age of about 6 weeks and trained her. She is now 10 years old. He will keep her another 10 years and then return her to the wild, so she can enjoy a normal life span of 50 years. She is a champion because she has successfully killed a large fox two years in a row, something most trained eagles don’t do. This was a first for us. We had hoped to see an Eagle Hunter in Mongolia, but failed.
Back in the village, we visited a felt making factory and saw the whole process from dirty wool to completed felt rugs. About 30 people work in this labor intensive business using antiquated tools and machines, but the product is colorful and popular and shipped far and wide. We had already made a decision to order a carpet, so we spent a good bit of time selecting the colors and designs for it. It should be shipped to us in a couple of months. At this point we think it will go on a floor at the ranch.
We made one last planned stop at the top 2109 meter Keoken Pass to have a picnic lunch. It was so windy that we ate in the car, but had a good time doing it anyway. From there we drove directly to Bishkek, with only bathroom breaks and one last look at Issyk-Kol Lake. It was 6:15 when we reach the Hyatt Regency. Even though it had been a long day, it had been full of interesting events and we were not as tired as I thought we would be. Misha, however, must have been really tired and certainly deserved a day off. We ate in the hotel and relaxed in our room for the evening.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Our last day at rest. We went for a walk through the gardens near the hotel and encountered an agriculture fair in progress. We got free passes to get in so we wandered around the big combines and tractors and wondered who could pay to own these tools or even have large enough properties to warrant using them. At the back of the fair was a large John Deere. Mark headed directly for it and saw that it had been made in manufactured in Germany although the company is located in Moline, Illinois, his home town. The lady rep spoke a bit of English and explained that people in Kyrgyzstan do not buy the equipment. Instead the company provides service to them on a contract basis. She told us the largest land owner in Kyrgyzstan has 2000 hectares. They do much more business in Kazakstan, where people can afford to buy the equipment. The largest landowner there has 100,000 hectares. In addition to all the farm equipment there were several yurts set up as vendor booths and, although we found a few things that interested us, we did not buy anything as we had a date back at the hotel with Olga.
She had arranged a trio to play folk music especially for us in the lounge on the 6th floor and we did not want to be late. The group was dressed in colorful Kyrgyz costumes and played several instruments including: a Komuz–3-string long necked instrument, a sybyzgy–flute, a chopochoor–ceramic whistle or flute and a temir komuz–iron jews harp for the mouth. They also sang. We were treated to lovely music from this small group and appreciated the effort Olga put into providing it for us. At our invitation she brought her mother, one sister and Fatima, so we made a decent audience.
It was over too soon and everyone went their separate ways. We headed for the nearby crafts center called Tzum to see if we could find gifts for people. Mark scored a couple of items and we bought a Kyrgyz flag for our collection, but I found nothing that appealed. Too bad, but done. We headed for the pool for the rest of the day. Later we walked a couple of blocks to and through Victory Square to a Lebanese Restaurant called L’Azzarro, that was recommended to us by a bunch of National Guard men from Mississippi, who have been here a month training the Kyrgyz military in earthquake preparedness. They were at L’Azzarro’s ahead of us, for one last meal. We have chatted with them several time in the hotel and gradually learned a few things about their mission and the US presence here. The US base really is a transit station and, because the Kyrgyz government keeps increasing the rent each year–it was a few million a year, then 20 million and now they are asking 60 million–the guys believe the US is looking to move somewhere else. Apparently Putin is putting extra pressure on the Kyrgyz to get rid of the US transit station. It was a good referral. The whole menu was in American English and we knew what we were getting before it arrived. It was a good meal. At midnight the Mississippi men fly home. Tomorrow early, we drive to Kazakstan, as Olga wants us to get across the border before the traffic builds up.
Here is another language lesson Olga taught us. Say “yellowbluebus” quickly and you have said “I love you” in Russian. Never mind how the words look in in that language.
Have a nice day and yellowbluebus,
Julia
Adventures with Julia 