August 2nd 2022
So after about a month on trail, after getting arrested, seeing a bear, hiking crazy trails and non-existing paths I left the trail, hitchhiking south from the tiny village of Kyzil-Unkor towards the big city of Osh. Taking a break from this road I’m creating and following, preparing to end this solo part of my trip and waiting to meet my next travel partners.
I caught five or six rides in a single day, hitchhiking to get all the way to Osh before dark. The first was a young man driving from his family’s home in the village to his job in the bigger town of Bazar-Korgon.
Next I caught a short ride with another young man to get to the outskirts of town where it’s easier to hitchhike from, and there caught a much longer ride taking me all the way to Jalalabad. Jalalabad is the third largest city in the country an ancient settlement, it has been around at least since the early establishment of the silk road and is part of the very fertile Fergana Valley which runs through the Western center of Kyrgyzstan and the Eastern part of Uzbekistan, creating the largest agricultural region in Central Asia.
In Jalalabad I met by complete coincidence an old friend, Almas, whom I saw last while hitchhiking to the starting point of my hike in the Chatkal Valley and actually stayed with him and his family for a night. Somehow he spotted me on the road while driving his car and stopped to say hi. Finally I caught a ride with Hikmat who was driving all the way to Osh and amazingly spoke English. It has been very rare to find any English speakers during the last month of hiking. We spent the drive talking about Kyrgyzstan, religion, family and life.
As we got closer to Osh he asked me where I was planning on sleeping and I told him about a hostel I was thinking of staying in, and the answer I got to that was “no, no you’re going to come stay in my house”, of course I accepted and we went to the house where I met his family, his brother, his brother’s family and their mother. We had a great meal together and I got a room to sleep in. The next morning I crossed the Uzbek border in order to extend my visa in kyrgyzstan (most tourists get a two month visa on entry). I grabbed a quick meal and hopped right back to Kyrgyzstan.
Of course Hikmat insisted to drive me to the border and back, the hospitality and open heartedness in this part of the world is truly inspiring and heart filling over and over. Later I said goodbye to my new friends and, and found a hostel for the next night, where I could prepare to receive my guests.
My mom and dad flew all the way from Israel to join me in Kyrgyzstan, after weeks of debating and hesitating, they made the decision to go for it.
They flew into Bishkek and from there to Osh, took a taxi and met me at Park Hostel where I was staying.
What a wonderful meeting! Seeing anyone familiar at this point would have been amazing, being able to talk to someone who understands my language is already exciting, and having my parents show up at my hostel in the south of Kyrgyzstan of all places was unreal. After the excitement of meeting and considering the long and tiring journey they were on, they ended up catching some sleep for a couple hours empty bunk beds in the hostel, recovering from lack of sleep after the last few days in the air. I was so happy having my parents come to Kyrgyzstan. I was so excited planning the whole week deciding where we should go and what we should do,
planning how best to introduce the nature of Kyrgyzstan, experience the local culture, people and life in this wonderful county which I learned to appreciate and love, share the things I learned and the things I’m still learning. And definitely go up into the mountains and do some serious hiking.
I was thrilled to have my parents with me being able to share the journey, but also nervous. I really wanted everything to work out perfectly ,feeling the pressure to take care of everything and almost forgetting to enjoy the moment.
Luckily for me my parents did not, they came to Kyrgyzstan with an open heart and an open mind ready to absorb, experience and enjoy whatever life throws at them, which really inspired me and helped me out when things didn’t go according to plan.
So we caught a shared taxi all the way to Sary-Mogul, a village in the Batken province, located in the southwest of Kyrgyzstan close to the Pamir mountains and the Tajikistan border.
We shared the taxi with a family, a group of women and children, crammed into 2 seats in the back who headed back home to the village.
We arrived at Sary-Mogul just before dark and decided to sleep in a local guest house, where we met other tourists and were hosted wonderfully by the family who owned the place.
As the next morning came, we prepared our gear, looked at some maps and made a plan. We hired a Jeep and driver to take us towards the foothills of the mountain where we continued on foot, climbing up slowly, passing through beautiful pasterlands, full of herds and spotted by small groups of yurt camps along the way, the hike was simple and easy enough, marmots were popping from holes in the ground and great 6,000 meter mountains peaks, looming over the foothills.
I might call it easy walking , but I have to remember that I’ve been walking for a while, and for people coming over and starting their first day at 3,000 meters this is definitely a challenge, overall it was a great day of walking . The weather was wonderful and everything seemed promising.
And then…The rain started just as the sun went down and we decided to stop for the day. We pitched the tent, were able to collect enough kindling (just before they got soaked) to cook on my wood stove. We were well prepared for the cold and the tent was big enough for all of us. We were almost out of water, not being able to find a clean water source. The only water source was the big muddy river flowing nearby. A little thirsty but content, we went to sleep..
The next day I walked down to the river and found an area where the water was flowing cleaner. I filled a couple bottles and purified the water with chlorine tablets. It was a little cold but the weather wasn’t too bad. We started walking, trying to find the safest place where we could cross the river . It had rained throughout the night and the river was cold and strong.
Tip: water crossings can be really dangerous! be super careful and thoughtful when choosing to cross rivers. Never cross until you are certain and feel safe and even then you might be wrong, always be ready to turn around and find another way.
In case you do choose to cross, look for the place where the river widens, the water will spread over a larger area and should be shallower and easier to get across.
if seeing the ground underneath is difficult, look at the water on the surface, if it’s white and foaming, that means the water is messy, and dangerous, if the current is smooth that might mean the water is deep, look for where the water seems bumpy, usually that’s a sign the rocks and ground are closer to the water surface and that is your best option.
Once you decide to cross, open the straps on your backpack, (so you can take it off quickly if needed), make sure to walk diagonally upstream, that way you can hold steady against the current and not get swept.
Also always cross using your hiking poles, use them to feel the bottom of the stream and place them firmly before every step.
We reached a spot in the river where it seemed possible to get across, the river was wide. Patches of ground and rocks caused the water to split into smaller streams which made the crossing easier before coming back together downstream.
I went first, crossing the first stream and reached the first patch of land. The current wasn’t too strong and the water wasn’t too deep, probably reaching my thigh, but it was freezing and so muddy you couldn’t see the rocks underneath.
I opened my backpack looking for a piece of rope to throw back to the other side and help my mom get across . At the same time the rain started coming down strongly and the wind blew my rain pants in a split second downstream, never to be seen again 🙁 We all decided it is not a good idea to continue.. I got back across the river, and we turned to look for a different way. We started walking downstream and back towards the road we came from the day before, hoping to find a Jeep to pick us up and drive us across the river where we could continue.
With all that, as the rain was pouring down and things were getting rough, my mom started to feel weak. We weren’t sure if it’s the altitude, maybe dehydration or a bug she caught drinking the water or eating some of the food she was not used to (when she arrived back home it turned out she had Covid…).
Still, it’s not like we could stay put and be rescued, we still had to get ourselves out of the area.
And so, through the rain and wind, we walked for a few kilometers through the hills, going up and down hoping to see something over the horizon but finding only another hill and then another one…
Hours have passed and finally, climbing another hill, I spotted the wide valley, a dirt road, and a lonely yurt. We headed towards the yurt, going down hill. The clouds scattered and the beautiful sun came out to warm us. We reached the yurt and were invited in for some tea which quickly turned into a full meal. Coming from the harsh conditions of the Kyrgyz mountains and finding ourselves in the generous hospitality of the people of these mountains was such a sharp turn of events. Meeting this wonderful family who I had to argue with just so I can give them a little money to say thanks, was heart, soul and body warming.
We said goodbye and headed back down the road, getting close to the river. I climbed up a hill and reached a spot where there was cellphone reception and arranged for a Jeep to come and take us up the mountain to Tulpar Kul( lake) Yurt camp at 3,500 meters. We stayed overnight in the Yurt camp and met some other hikers that were planning to go to a nearby festival the next day. The rain kept coming down, but the yurt was nice and warm, heated by an oven fed with cow dung. The next morning my mom was feeling really bad, the weather didn’t get much better and we gave up on hiking to the festival. We instead took a Jeep all the way back to Sary Mogul. From there another Jeep up a long and rough road to the festival near Lenin Peak. Driving the muddy dirt roads alongside hundreds of cars coming from all over the country to the festival.
We spent a couple of hours there, looking at the nomadic games and eating local food, enjoying the opportunity to be where we were and experience this very different style of life and celebration. Then back by Jeep to Sary-Mogul.
When we arrived, I checked the weather forecast and realized that the weather, which looked really good a few days earlier, suddenly seemed terrible. It was raining everywhere! The forecast for the entire region was heavy non-stop rain for a number of days. and not just in the immediate area. The entire country was in a downpour, roads being flooded, and not a dry spot to be found.
To be honest I was really bummed, I hoped to give my parents a beautiful experience of all the good that Kyrgyzstan has to offer and instead we got the worst weather I’ve seen in kyrgyzstan since I got to the country. In addition my mom was sick. I was really disappointed with the situation.
On the other hand, I have to salute my parents. They were amazing! They took everything that happened with a smile and a sense of adventure.
I couldn’t have asked for better travel partners, and they definitely helped me get my spirits up.
We decided to go back to Osh where conditions were a little warmer and more comfortable to spent the last few days together in the city. While my mom got some rest, my dad and I hitchhiked up to the nearest pass and walked in the beautiful mountains through the rain and lightning ⚡ In the evening my mom and I walked around the city park, and the next day we all climbed up Suleyman Too, the mountain/museum/archeological site in the middle of Osh City.
we ate some good food, walked around the market, and even had a chance to celebrate my dad’s birthday with 🎂🎉
All in all we hiked a little bit in the mountains, ate well, enjoyed the city and enjoyed being together. We experienced the generosity and hospitality of local herders living in their yurts and people in the village and the city. We enjoyed the beauty of the mountains, but also experienced the danger, power and energy they possess, which reminds us to always be humble and thankful. I was very lucky to have my parents join me on this road.
I’m grateful to them for their sense of adventure, their positive attitude, willingness and passion they brought with them to this incredible country. Only about 5 days together, days so full of life and experience. They got on a plane from Osh back to Bishkek and from there back to Israel. I headed back to Kyzil-Unkor to continue my journey from there, walking across Kyrgyzstan from west to east.
