Kyrgyzstan

10 June – Kyrgyzstan – ~228 miles

A relatively long day today, getting the miles out of the way – setting up for tomorrow’s attempt at the China border. Some typically cool scenery on the way though, including skirting the south side of Issyk Kul – which seemed like a fairly large affair, but now that I look it up – not much chop. 7th deepest in the world, 10th largest by volume, and only makes 2nd largest even throwing in the “saline lake” qualifier (Although – considering the first is the Caspian Sea – I guess that’s not too bad), or the “mountain lake qualifier”.

Also the first properly cold day’s riding today… although the bike thermometer never got as low as the 4.0°C I’ve seen on several of the passes, it felt much colder than we’ve seen before. Enough for me to unpack the heated vest, charge the battery, in case tomorrow’s potentially hours’ long wait(s) at high altitude Chinese borders/checkpoints are equally cold.

03-04 June – Kyrgyzstan – ~414 miles

Kyrgyzstan has a lot to live up to after the near-constant-awesome of Tajikistan… but it’s giving that challenge “a red-hot go”.
It’s a very different landscape/scenery – but still very cool. Tajikistan – was a lot of LARGE but barren surroundings. Kyrgyzstan, so far, is much more green, and without the sheer scale – but still some cool ranges, rivers, ravines/gorges, etc.

From Osh – it was a full day riding to the middle of nowhere (a beautiful scenic nowhere) – to stay the night in Oson – not sure if that’s even a place name, or just the name of the hotel/motel. The riding was a mixed bag… initially just getting used to having actual traffic to contend with (and dodge, with any modern car being driven by a crazed lunatic – sometimes overtaking cars which themselves are overtaking… with oncoming traffic. Great fun).
Then – as we got further into “nowhere” – the traffic dwindled, and the scenery, terrain, and therefore riding – became much more enjoyable. The last couple of hours were pretty much just riding lovely twisty roads, around a lake, alongside a river, through ravines… to arrive at our accommodation on the very bank of a river. Drinks were had, celebrating the first night in some time where the altitude wasn’t too high for significant libations.

Today – riding from Oson to the capital city of Kyrgyzstan (which, as everybody knows, is Bishkek) – was another day of two halves, but much shorter.
The morning – continued in the vein of the previous afternoon – lovely twisty roads, great landscapes, through a tunnel we’d been warned was a local version of “the Tunnel of DEATH!!!” – but turned out to be “the Tunnel of Mild Discomfort”… with much better lighting than expected, over a couple of reasonably high-altitude passes, passing by lots of yurt-clusters;
before joining the main highway into the capital, which quickly became a solid stream of traffic, with occasional chances to “filter” past other vehicles.

Assorted other points:

• Today I drank some fermented horse milk offered by the service station crew (with a smirk on their face, daring the foreigners to try it). It wasn’t bad… although after the first couple of sips – I spent quite some time trying to insist that they promise me it didn’t have any whisky in it, and that there was no alcohol involved.
• Met a group of 4 kiwis riding the other way, on dirt bikes – just doing a bit of Central Asia on rentals
• It turns out that if you want to reduce speeding – a great combination is a slightly corrupt police force, and speed radars. At least 4 riders got pulled over for speeding yesterday, and paid “fines” which went straight into the officers’ pockets – no paperwork involved. Another talked his way out of it pretending not to understand anything. I got pulled over, and was super polite… shaking hands, immediately got in that I was from New Zealand – not some dirty English or American yobbo – and somehow got away with just a warning that I shouldn’t have been overtaking where I did. I rather suspect they had a photo of me speeding – but with other vehicles in the same photo, so wouldn’t be able to prove it was me if pushed.
• After a little too-boisterous play with a large German-Shepherd about a week ago – I (ie: the dog) may have hurt something in my hand. It feels fine most of the time, but after a few hours of riding-vibration, it’s feeling rather sore. I’m hoping some ice-packs in the evening, and 2 days’ rest in Almaty should see it right
• And – got given a gift by some locals… a car I was following for some time, slowed down, signalled for me to overtake – then tried to pass me a little rolled up Kyrzyg flag as we were both moving… after a couple of rather dangerous attempts at this – success.