Issyk Kul: Kyrgyzstan Day 2

Knowing most of the day would be spent headed to and from Issyk Kul, Zhanat and I woke up at 7 am as to have time to start exploring Bishkek. Shortly after waking up, we headed for the closest sight available, Ala Too Square. Here there were several monuments within a small area along with various government buildings. In the center stood statue of Manas, a national legendary hero, and behind him the national museum.

The statue of Manas with the Kyrgyz State Museum in the back

However, we went quickly through most of these monuments as to get to the World War II monument by 8pm, expecting that to be the time of the changing of the guard. Unfortunately, I was mistaken. The changing of the guard only happens every 3 hours in Bishkek, and while it begins at 8, it does so in Ala-Too Square, where we already were, not the World War II Monument.

Unfortunately, by this point we needed to head back, and at 9:30am, we rejoined with Zhanat's friends and left by car for Issyk Kul. The route to Issyk Kul was certainly interesting as, whereas Almaty has mountains to one side and near endless steppe to the other, Kyrgyzstan is almost entirely valley and thus one is virtually always surrounded by mountains. 

On the way, there were yurts everywhere, far more than I had seen in Kazakhstan, and often not to cater to tourists but simply to sell food out of.

Various merchant yurts at Issyk Kul Lake

Contrary to the grassy, rolling plains leading to mountains that we saw leaving Almaty, the road to Issyk Kul was largely arid, sharp hills. After a certain point, the only vegetation visible remained close to a single river which we drove close to for the majority of the trip.

Confirming for myself, as I was a bit nervous about returning on time to see more of Bishkek the next morning, I asked in the best Russian I could muster "В какой город мы едeм?," to which they quickly replied what I had expected, Balykchy, the closest town on Issyk Kul to Bishkek. However, as we reached Issyk Kul some hours later, I realized we were not stopping but continuing along the road.After some 40 minutes without stopping while Issyk Kul was in sight, I asked again if we were still going to that town. Instead, we were now going to Чолпон-Ата (Cholpon-Ata), on the north of the lake as opposed to the west.

I was very nervous about this, however they assured me that we would still be able to return to Bishkek in good time, and that Cholpon Ata was a far better place to see the lake than Balykchy. When we arrived, the reason why they preferred this location as opposed to the western end was obvious.

While in Balykchy, some mountains were just visible in the distance and made a lovely sight, in Cholpan-Ata, the mountains were right by us clearly in the view at all times. The view was stunning and certainly worth the additional time.

The water was absolutely freezing, so we had difficulty managing to get ourselves in. Before we really swam in the water, one of Zhanat's friends came to us with a proposition: For a price of around $8 USD, we could parasail over the lake. Neither Zhanat and I had ever parasailed before, so this was a certainly interesting proposition. We ended up taking it, and I'll let the pictures tell the rest of that story.

After parasailing, we swam some before renting out paddle boat for two for less than $1 USD. For about an hour with that, we paddled (or rather I paddled while Zhanat acted out the mast of the ship :) ) across our section of Issyk Kul multiple times. When not using the paddle boat, we walked up and down the beach area of Cholpon Ata, simply exploring and looking for interesting sights.

When we returned, Zhanat's friends admitted that they would rather stay the night. Understanding that I wanted to see Bishkek before heading back to Kazakhstan, Zhanat was kind enough to join me in returning to Bishkek by bus. After arriving, we passed by many monuments once more at night, as Bishkek proved far more alive than in the mornings.

Where the streets were empty in the morning, now festivities ran as kids shot up light up toys into the air and dozens of stands were set up offering food and games. While it would have been interesting to explore Bishkek at this time with so many people around, we focused on getting back to the hostel.

Finally, a long walk later, we arrived at the hostel and not long after passed out, understanding that we would need to wake up early again the next day as to see more of Bishkek before returning to Almaty.