Kochkor

We've been engaged in a sort of battle of wills with Kyrgyzstan since we arrived, in which we have been trying as hard as possible to not fall into a pattern of intense travel that exhausts us while also finding that the way to see a mountainous and wild country which most people do through multi-day treks by foot or on a horse. We went to Kochkor in the hope that this was a place where we could get into the mountains without having to walk for days.

We were half right. It's not impossible, and Elli did spend a very memorable if absolutely exhausting day with 9 hours on horseback up to Kol Ukok, a lake at 3,300m. Some incredibly spectacular views, plov and chai at the yurt camps, and some extreme knee pain. Seems like Kyrgyz horses like snow but don't like snowball fights.

Other than that we had a ridiculous day in which we tried to walk north into the mountains on the other side of the valley and walked into a rubbish dump and a load of abandoned farm buildings before giving up and going home, and another day in which it rained and then we got caught in a huge windy dust storm. Not the most charming place we've ever been but you can't roll high every time and we still had a big plate of vegetarian plov so you can't say fairer than that.Read more