The Cube

Song Kul in late August

Song Kul is an alpine lake in Kyrgyzstan, located in the northern Naryn Province. It is the second largest lake after Issyk Kul and the largest fresh water lake. It lies at the altitude of 3016 m, about 3 hours by car from Kochkor. Given the altitude, we expected it to be cool but didn't expect the snowy mountain top especially since it was hot in Bishkek. Temperature in Bishkek at the time of our visit was close to 30°C but it was sub zero at Song Kul.

Yurt #2 - our "room" for two nights

The inside of the yurt we stayed

The source of light during daytime (aside from the door)

Given the extreme weather, it is only possible to stay in Song Kul during the summer months, probably sometime from late May/early June to early September. Our host family told us that they were packing to go back to Kochkor by 12th Sept when we were there. To make the most of it, there are varieties of option to get to Song Kul including a horse ride and if you are fit, you could trek uphill. We have seen people cycling downhill. Sis and I have no faith in our ability to trek up, cycle or ride a horse (for that far and long) which is a very fair call as our stamina level is pretty much non existence, so we organised a hired car to get there. No public transport available.

Yurt stay in Song Kul is as close to how locals would live in Song Kul as could be. The shepherds build their yurt by the lake during the summer months and their animals were left to roam about and grazed the grass.

Ok - this one doesn't graze the grass :P

We didn't know how it would be at that time and even packed along phone and camera charger (LOL!) but the only electricity available in the yurt is a small light bulb, powered by generator. Nothing else. The yurt was heated up by dried cow dung. Rest assured, there were no foul smell and you would really appreciate this cow-dung-powered-heat.

As you can see on the photo below, there is no fancy floor. The yurt is build on grass, a rug was laid on top of the grass before putting a couple of single bed size mattress and duvets/doonas (whatever term you fancy). There were 4 mattresses in our yurt. We picked the two closest to the heat source but grabbed the extra duvets to use.

The one light bulb

Cow dung in action, got to sleep before it ran out! :P

There is no running water but there is a toilet (I use the term loosely) as it is essentially a couple of plank nailed together and a hole in the middle. Though there is a door for this toilet. Sometimes there were toilet papers but other times not refilled.

There is also a "sink" with water usually earlier in the morning. The host family would fill the water in the morning (there's a lid at the top). To access the water, just push the "dial" up and the water will start flowing. In the gist, if the water in the container runs dry, no water will flow out. If you are making a list of things to bring, 3 top things to bring include hand sanitiser, wet wipes and a torch light.

It gets really dark at night, a torch light won't help much if you are walking about or even walking to the toilet. The light from the moon is quite sufficient in assisting in getting to the toilet though it was a little hard to tell what you stepped on. The torch light helps to avoid the feet stepping in the toilet hole and you probably don't want to carry your phone in case you drop it.

That blue "cottage" is a toilet...

We left our big, fat backpack at the hostel in Bishkek and brought what we thought we would need. Make sure to stock up on water and snack as there are no shops though we later found that our host family had some bottled water for sale if need be.

We also paid for meals to be provided which technically isn't really an option not to as there really isn't anywhere you could get food, unless you carry loads of dried foodstuff. The meals are simple but always accompanied with free flow of tea and bread with jam. The French couple we met must've really love the jam as we realised they polished off the jam in all the meals we had together. We have no idea what the sugar is for (possibly for tea?) but we have never used it.

Our host family don't really speak English and we can't speak Russian or Kyrgyz language to save ourselves but we could converse a little with the host mother with the help of "sign language". Also, numbers are the same all over the world so we know what time she was serving the meals. ;)

Dinner on night 1

Breakfast on day 2

Lunch on day 2

Dinner on night 2

Breakfast on day 3, just before we departed for Kochkor

Side note: My 4 year old niece taught me a song on countries in South America and so I can now memorize country names in South America! ^^

Yes - this is the photo of the blog banner

The scenery changes and the temperature dropped the further we were away from Kochkor. I might be bias here but really, this place is absolutely stunning. So I'm going to play cheat and just put up some photos for this post.














Side note: 48 sleeps to Christmas! Lol

Our destination in Kochkor

As sis managed to get in contact with a person working in CBT and get a quote of price, we decided to go with CBT Kochkor. I did not receive any response from the other company up till now.

We thought that the CBT office was going through the door on the right of the photo, but no. That was a souvenir shop selling shyrdak (felt rug). We even thought the table at the end of the shop was the said CBT "office". Lol. Anyway, after checking with the shop owner/keeper, CBT office was next door.


To be exact, the "next door" means this white door on the right of the photo. It was locked when we were there. We waited for a bit before a driver came by and helped us called one of the CBT staff. About half an hour or so later, we sorted out our payment and decided to have lunch before going up the mountains. We were recommended to have our lunch at a cafe named "Visit".

We set off looking for this Visit cafe and was stumped that it was not easy to find. In fact we walked passed it thinking we have yet reached. Well, the reason was actually quite obvious. We are illiterate in Cyrillic scripts. Else we would've realise that "визит" reads as "visit". Hopefully when I finish blogging these Central Asia trip, I could read Russian characters. ^^


To be honest, the food was actually pretty good. Though it would be really hard to overlook the flies that zig zag all over the place. If you have internet connection, google translate's photo facility is pretty handy to assist with some guess work.

We ordered a laghman dish and pelmeni cooked with potato, cucumber and cheese (230KGS in total)... and the best conversation we had on this trip ensued.



In the midst of eating, sis stopped eating and looked up at me.
She said, "Do you bring Imodium?"
I nodded, "Yes, why?"
"Hmm... nothing much, I saw a fly crawled out from the laghman."
"Umm... ok. I didn't tell you earlier but I saw another one on the pelmeni pot when I opened the cover. "
"Oh.."
"...so, we continue (eating)?"
"Ya..."

Happy to report that both of us did not need the Imodium. ^^


Side note: Why are hazelnuts so expensive... 

Source: Lonely Planet Central Asia

I saw this photo in Lonely Planet Central Asia and I'm sold. I didn't mind where else we go in Kyrgyzstan but I wanted to go to Song Kul. Period. Planning this outside of Kyrgyzstan was a little tricky, simply because there was a lot of waiting time. We sent off a couple of emails as there were a few email addresses around and we weren't sure which was the right one. Initially we had very prompt response then it just died off. A week before departed, we finally had some news!

Bishkek's main square, Ala-Too Square is right in the center of the city. In Kyrgyz language, it is said to mean "Snow Mountain". If you are in Bishkek, it would be hard pressed to miss this square.

Lenin monument that was moved...

Many years ago in 1984, a bronze statue of Lenin was placed on this square, in front of the Historical Museum. However in 2003, Lenin's statue was moved another square behind the Historical Museum. A freedom monument (Erkindik monument) took the place at Ala-Too Square but was only there till 2011.

Manas monument that is in Ala-Too now...

On 31st August 2011, in conjuction with Kyrgyzstan's 20th Independence Day, a monument of Manas was placed there, taking the place of Erkindik monument. Manas is the hero in the Epic of Manas. This trilogy epic is the most treasured national heritage of Kyrgyz people. This statue is meant to become a symbol that will unite the nation. (Yes - both Kyrgyzstan and Malaysia celebrate independence on 31st August, such a coincidence eh). 

Since we are talking about Lenin and Manas, the next one up would be Frunze. After all, the city was once named Frunze. Frunze has his own museum named Frunze House-Museum. The highlight was a thatched cottage inside the museum that allegedly the birthplace of Frunze. We were a little cheapskate and didn't enter the museum but simply peep through the windows as we walked past.


Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze was born in the 1885 in Bishkek.  Frunze sided Lenin over an ideological split with another main party leaders. In 1907 Frunze was arrested following the 1905 Revolution. He was sentenced to death but was reprieved and his sentence was commuted to hard labour in Siberian prisons. Frunze managed to escape and rose to military importance. He had been considered as a potential succesor to Lenin.

However Frunze was hospitalised in 1925 following a severe episode of chronic ulceration. At this time, Stalin visited him and was instrumental in influencing Frunze to undergo an operation. There were speculations in regards to Frunze's demise as he was found to have been administered a chloroform dose that many times exceeded the normal dose.

In 1926, Bishkek was renamed Frunze in his honour. It reverted to its former name in 1991.

We actually walked across Panfilov Park prior to reaching Frunze House-Museum. It seem to have some carnival going on.



We decided to finish up early that day, sis did not get any sleep for at least 24 hours and we both had walked a fair bit with our fatty backpack the morning to get to the hostel. We checked out the Ak-Emmir market, across from the hostel before dinner.



Dinner was a simple affair, we had a takeaway burger and wrap. While we tried to decipher the Cyrillic menu, a student who was working there poke his head out and spoke to us. Naturally, we tried to ask him. He gave us a blank look and said, "You can't read?" Er..hahaha.. well, if we could, we won't be stump! Well, he did help us to place our order in the end.

This place is popular though, we wanted chicken wrap but it was sold out. We went back another time and it was sold out too. Of course, we had to have a little dessert too.






Side note: Yay, it's finally public holidays in Victoria! ^^