Ala Archa National Park

I woke up to another morning in Bishkek, having ample time to sleep this time around since our hike was starting later in the afternoon. After I freshened up, I went out with Sharon to get some breakfast. We ended up in a fancy place with great food, I ordered some avocado toast and a tuna pasta to help kick start things since I knew I wasn't going to get good food at the hike today.

Sharon and I talked about life and finding love while traveling which gave me a lot of insights. I walked her over to her bus and said good bye while I went back to Cozy Hostel to prepare for Ala Archa. I walked to the same meeting place as before and found familiar faces including Ayan, Max, and Pasha.

The rest of the people were strangers but it was just going to be a short half-day trip anyways. We stopped by the supermarket where I grabbed some snacks for the road including some chips and wasabi nuts. During the ride, we played some icebreaker games.

The weather was foggy and cloudy but at least it wasn't raining. Our group formed a tiny circle while our tour guide led us through some warm-up exercises. As usual, the hike picked up pretty quickly, the slopes weren't bad at all and I found myself easily overtaking everyone. It was a short one, since we weren't doing the whole trek. Only up to the one of the landmarks known as the Broken Heart, a different one from the one over at Jeti Oguz.

I found myself sitting on top of the Broken Heart before the rest of the gang managed to catch up. The views were nothing short of well...nothing as everything was covered by the clouds. Still, it was fun talking to friends from the previous group. Actually, it was only here that I was able to learn the names of Max and Pasha since we never actually spoke the previous trip. I didn't even know that they could speak English.

Mid-conversation, the clouds started to partway to reveal exactly what was hidden from us all along. One of the most magnificent mountain ranges I have ever seen so far in my life. The river cutting through the middle and all around us were snow-capped mountains. I shouted to Ayan who was still in mid-conversation to look behind him. Oh, the face he made was hilarious. Now everyone was even in a much giddier mood. It was time to take pictures. And plenty of pictures were taken indeed.

Pasha's camera somehow ended up falling down the mountain which was such a bummer. Max was also helping him find it and I felt pretty bad for them so miss out on this view so I also went down to try and help. Luckily, they found it was stuck in some brush. I took a long time to introspect and appreciate the profound beauty of nature here.

As the clouds started to come back, our guide signaled for us to start our descent. We went down towards the river where I was able to refill my bottle with fresh mountain water. The taste was sublime. It had also started to rain pretty hard, luckily I had an umbrella with me. We even saw a Himalayan squirrel on the way which was so adorable.

Soon enough, I found myself back in Bishkek with plans to meet the rest of the group later that night at a bar near my place so wasn't that bad. I spent some time to rest at the hostel before going out to eat dinner at another fancy restaurant, yet the price was so manageable.

I met up with the group and got some citrus tea since I wasn't drinking alcohol. It was a fun night but eventually everyone just started to speak in Russian and I found myself the odd one out. It was also getting a bit late so I excused myself and took a group photo so I could send it to everyone else.

It was crazy to think but my Kyrgyzstan adventure was only halfway done at this point and the best was yet to come.Read more