Kaindy Lake

The next morning, I woke myself up with another cold shower. The morning chill definitely didn't help in giving me enough courage to go through with it but hey, I did it!

We had some breakfast before going on an off-road trip using a very familiar Russian van that we had once used in Mongolia. Our ride took us to the trailhead of Kaindy Lake. We had a choice to either ride a horse or do the trek on foot. It was a short one and I could use the exercise so why not?

Off we went, and no sooner than later when I looked back, I realized that I was already ahead of everyone by a long shot. I guess all that hiking back in Japan was showing up. The trail was a bit muddy but nothing too bad, I eventually made it to the top and was relieved that it was now time for a descent towards Kaindy Lake, the flooded forest.

The main draw here are the trees half submerged in its turquoise waters. Surrounded by the mountains, it made for a very picturesque site. I wanted to explore more and went up the observatory and down towards the lake, following it's edge until I made it to the furthest reachable point which showed me the shore on the other side as well as a new perspective of the floating tree trunks. Following the perimeter back, I saw some tiny waterfalls that were feeding the lake.

I rested a while on the bench before our guide told us it was time to head back. Now we had to do the trek again but at least this time it was going down so it wasn't that bad.

After the off-road trip back, we got on our original van and went to a nearby hostel to have lunch. This time around, the lunch was phenomenal. Some of our tour mates had complained about the food as it was not that good in the previous camp so our guide brought us here for a feast. It was a good meal.Read more