Into the Mountains – Part Four

The easiest and most time consuming activity up at the lake has to be the “who has the best kymyz” tour. It involves going from yurt to yurt talking with the proprietors and sampling one, if not two, bowls of their kymyz. Locals might tell you that this is a recipe for superhuman strength. Foreigners would probably attribute ten bowls of kymyz to a long night behind a rock. Alas, if you want to be respected in the yurt collection, there are certain sacrifices you have to make.

In fairness, you learn a lot from these little stopovers in each yurt. For example, most of the people live in Bishkek during the winter, spring, and fall months, but then come up to the lake for the summer. Others simply live in the village we started from, but then come up to the lake to let the cattle graze.

What else can you do up there? Swimming in the icy cold waters of the lake, of course. We decided that before we headed back down the mountain, we should take a dip. On our way down to the lake, we were stopped by a group of shepherds lazing about on the grass. One of them asked where we were going and, upon acknowledgement of our response, brought out a bottle of horrifically cheap Kyrgyz vodka. “100 grams of vodka and you won’t even be able to feel the cold water.” *Shudder*

You can’t help but oblige in these situations, so the glasses were fetched. Out of respect the first shot went to the oldest man in the group. Next shot went to the guests. And there wasn’t a chaser in sight. Oh the agony of the aftertaste of really bad vodka.

Eventually we made it to the lake, waded in a few steps, took the customary pictures, and then got out of there. As to the effect of the vodka, I’m not sure anything can numb your reaction to 5 degree water.