Kyrgyzstan
A restaurant without food and a hotel without WC
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Johan Kruseman
Updated on 19 August 2024
Updated on 19 August 2024
Down in the valley, the restaurant didn’t make much effort to earn its first Michelin star, serving only soup and tea. And the hotel next door didn’t quite live up to the Lonely Planet’s “top choice” mark either: no toilet in the hotel.
So, I left with an empty stomach but full intestines, guided by my lingering jet lag, at 5:00 am to make my way to a mountain hut on the edge of the glacier that had given me wet feet the day before. Three hours later, I surprised two Canadians by reaching the top while they were just getting out of their tent. In Bishkek, they had a hostel where a whole Dutch enclave had settled, which was a welcome change after two days of interacting only with Kyrgyz and Russians.
But before I reached the enclave, I was invited halfway up the mountain by a Bishkek family of 12 who had set up a lunch for about 20 people in the mountain meadow. Luckily, I still had a bag of Duyvis peanuts from my farewell party, and when they realized that I had brought them all the way from the Netherlands, it was empty within a minute.
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Traveled route: Bishkek, Ala Archa National Park, Kockkor, Song-Kul lake, Beltam Yurt Camp, Fairytale Canyon Skazka, Karakol, Altyn-Arashan, Cholpon-Ata, Jalal-Abad, Kazarman
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Did this story inspire you to go to Kyrgyzstan? Read more on what Kyrgyzstan has to offer, what the best months are for visiting and check the handy links for backpacking there.
