Karakol

After sufficient time chilling in Bishkek I headed to Karakol in the east for some trekking in the famously beautiful Kyrgyzstan mountains. First I enjoyed spending time in Karakol itself, previously a small Russian outpost that has become the fourth biggest city in Kyrgyzstan, that being said the population is still less than 100,000 so it feels like a small town. It's also the main jumping off point for trekking which means that a lot of travellers congregate here making it another nice place to hang out. Some of the sites include the Russian Orthodox Cathedral made out of wood, the Dugan mosque for the Chinese Muslims that looks more like a Chinese temple, and the colourful Russian houses.

Further afield there were some nice day hikes, and a trip to Jeti Oguz, a soviet sanatorium. Stalin enshrined the right to rest in the 1936 constitution - labourers needed a two week rest in one of the many sanatoriums throughout the Soviet Union. This is one of the few that still survives and is still in use, although it was looking a little past it's prime. Supposedly the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin stayed here to recuperate after returning from space. If you fancy it you can still get treatments here including radon baths and electrocution treatments. Needless to say I gave this a pass, but I did drink from the health giving spring which has a long list of minerals in it, including radon. The sign says that you shouldn't drink from it without guidance from your doctor, but our taxi driver insisted that everyone drinks from it and indeed there were people there filling up large vessels with the water to take home. It tasted like sucking on copper pennies and surprisingly I didn't get sick!

It was getting a bit late in the season to do the high hikes because of snow, thankfully as altitude does not like me! So I set off with some hikers from the hostel to Altyn Arashan, a valley 3000 meters above sea level and home to several hot springs. We did this hike over two days, hiking up to the valley and spending the night in a guest house heated by spring water. After the long hike we soaked in the springs to ease our muscles. Some of the springs were excruciatingly hot! Luckily there were some slightly cooler ones that were a bit more relaxing. Then there was a good communal dinner and lots of tea. The following morning we visited an outdoor spring before heading back down the mountain. The scenery on this hike was stunning, very alpine with snowy peaks, crystal clear rivers and horses roaming around.

I loved Karakol and was intending to stay a bit longer to see more of the sights and do more hikes, but then I got word of other travellers wanting to go on the pamir highway in Tajikistan so I had to head off to meet them!Read more