Dispatches from Kyrgyzstan

08.11.2018

For this instalment of our relatively regular ‘Dispatches’ feature, friend-of-the-shop and All Night Flight record hunter Tom Houghton tells us about a bold and magnanimous voyage to somewhere called Kyrgyzstan. Definitely not your normal holiday this one...

Fuelled by a love of obscure long distance rail travel and the desire to avoid an impending 30th birthday by fleeing to a remote country most people have never heard of, a plan was made to take the train through the former Soviet Union to Kyrgyzstan.

View along a curving green passenger train crossing flat golden grassland, with fence posts and telegraph poles in low sun

Uniformed official in a peaked cap and pale blue shirt walking along a platform beside a green passenger carriage

Extortion and corruption is the backbone of the train, with very few passengers purchasing tickets and instead bribing the carriage attendant for their place. Decreasing cost in air travel continues to affect rail passengers and the border guards increasingly rely on bribes to supplement their small income.

The whole thing plays out like a game of cat and mouse with Kazakh and Tajik traders regularly having to grease the palms of the customs officials for goods smuggled across the border.

Someone lying face down on a bunk with floral bedding in a dim sleeper carriage, cloths tied across the sunlit window

Bishkek, the nation's capital city, contains some interesting architectural artifacts from the Soviet Union, like this Banya (Russian Sauna) that looks like a nuclear bunker. The city also hosts a Sunday flea market on the outskirts of the city where old USSR curios can be found at low prices.

Pale stone-tiled domes of the Soviet-era Banya, a Russian sauna in Bishkek, with red roses in the paved courtyard

Sellers at a Sunday flea market in Bishkek with crystal glasses, china figurines and a framed portrait laid out on red cloths

Bronze statue of a robed figure holding a sword overhead before a tall white column topped by a hammer and sickle star

Tall block of flats with a huge mosaic mural of robed figures and red, white and blue swirls covering its end wall

Leaving the comforts of the city behind and heading towards the Tian-Shan mountain range that provides a natural land border with the far-western edge of China.

The trekking opportunities in Kyrgyzstan are world-class and still relatively untapped, although they are becoming more popular. Despite having zero amenities such as running water, phone signal or flushing toilets, it more than compensates with outstanding natural beauty and solitude – which is why you’d come, right?

Lorry stacked high with hay bales at the roadside, with dry grassland and snow-capped mountains beyond

Horses crossing a rocky mountain stream beneath scree slopes and a jagged peak

Accommodation options are a toss-up between pitching your own tent, or hiking to the next yurt and hand-gesturing your wish to spend the night inside (along with a few Kyrgyz Soms for their trouble).

White yurt with red patterned trim on snowy ground, with jagged snow-capped mountains behind

Three people walking away down a dusty village road towards an arched sign and hills, one in a bright red skirt

Someone in a white headscarf, teal velvet waistcoat and green floral dress holding a pink handbag at the roadside

Snow-covered mountains and glaciers above a turquoise lake, seen from a high ridge

Two riders on horseback in a dusty field during a game of Buzkashi, one leaning low out of the saddle

Buzkashi – the national sport of Central Asia where men on horse back wrestle over the corpse of a headless goat.

Roadside bus shelter covered in a mosaic of white tiles, red mountains and blue waves, below scrubby hills

Tamga Sanatorium – famous for being the place where Yuri Gagarin (the first man in space) was sent for some state-sponsored R&R once returning to earth. Much of the sanatorium remains unchanged since the collapse of the Soviet Union and you’re free to explore at will.

Entrance arch of Tamga Sanatorium, lettered in Cyrillic under a red banner, with green gates and a white saluting statue

Someone in a flat cap and blue and black track jacket standing before a white building with a pale blue door

Lone red and white petrol pump on a dusty forecourt, with a long range of snow-capped mountains behind

Heading further south, it gets seriously remote, but there’s one last stop – the ancient Silk Road caravanserai of Tash Rabat.

A key stop on the ancient silk route that linked trade between east and west, cloaked in mystery, Tash Rabat is also rumored to be an Nestorian temple dating back as early as the 10th century.

The stone caravanserai of Tash Rabat, with its low dome and walls, in a wide dry valley below bare brown mountains

One week before the final yurt packs down for the winter (despite already reaching -10 at night), I’m the last tourist in town.

Days are spent hiking the surrounding area or making a dent in a 12-month reading backlog. The days are warm and the nights are cold, I dread the meat-heavy food but relish the isolation.

Someone in a patterned headscarf and burgundy knitted waistcoat looking at a trailer painted with a bird of prey, by a yurt

Jagged rock crag streaked with orange lichen against a pale blue sky, with small patches of snow

So that’s about it from the wonderful land of Kyrgyzstan, plan your trip there soon to avoid the inevitable tourism boom.

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