Osh Bazaar & into Kazakhstan

Our last activity in Kyrgyzstan was a visit to Bishkek’s Osh Bazaar – before making it back to the bus and heading for the border into Kazakhstan, with Almaty as our destination for the day.

Karakol

Back in town – after our short visit into nature – we made it for Karakol’s big sights – the Holy Trinity Cathedral and the Chinese Mosque – before – after a long day – arriving at our hotel.

to Karakol

We continued our circle around Lake Issyk-Köl this morning, now heading East towards Karakol. On the way we had several stops to take in the landscape, get some insight into Kyrgyz burial traditions and to visit the memorial of Nikolai Przewalski.

Resort Time

From Cholpon-Ata we continued to our hotel for the night. As it turned out, we were spending the night in a lake-side resort – complete with holiday homes, restaurant, bar and its own sand beach.

Burana Tower & Tokmok

We continued from Rotfront for another nearby stop at the Burana Tower. The tower is basically – beside some stone piles around – what remains of the citadel of Balasagun. The tower seems to be the stump of a minaret.

From the tower we continued to the town of Tokmok – during Soviet times a center of military production – for a hearty lunch … before continuing towards lake Issyk-Köl.

Germans in Kyrgyzstan

We left Bishkek for our way up to Lake Issyk-Köl; on the way we stopped at Rotfront, a village in the Kyrgyz countryside originally settled by Germans – of which even today a minority remains.

The pastor was welcoming us at the cemetery – with him tea, coffee and cake – plus the opportunity to get some insight into the history of the village and some background on the living conditions during Soviet times and today.

For more background, check the wikipedia page on Rotfront; for photos of gone-by life in Rotfront, check the homepage of the Dutch photographer Wim Klerkx.

Bishkek

Gallery

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We returned to Bishkek from the National Park for a city tour. At the State Historical Museum a surprise was waiting for us – we were running straight into a performance of traditional Kyrgyz music.