5 Reasons Why Kyrgyzstan is On My 2010 Travel TO DO List

Kyrgyzstan is a country that you don’t really hear much about, and to be honest with you, before I wrote this article I couldn’t even spell the name properly.

I only knew enough about this country to get curious. What is this place? Who lives there? What is their culture like? After having read a bit about it, it has now been put on my 2010 Travel – TO DO List.

I will definitely visit this place, and here are some reasons why:

1. I would love to experience their nomadic traditions upclose, such as living with a shepherd family in a yurta. You can do this in the jailoos, the Kyrgz name for summer pastures. The Kyrgz were nomads up until 1920’s, today they’re half-nomads, meaning they usually move to summer pastures over the summer, bringing their flocks of sheep, horses and cows, living in yurtas or tents.

2. The widely varied culture, traditions and cuisine. Kyrgyzstan is a melting pot of nationalities, with Kyrgz (50% of the population), Russians (15%), Uzbek’s (15%), Germans, Tatars, Chinese, Ukraine etc. all sharing this small piece of land.
This mixture of cultures makes Kyrgyzstan a very interesting place to visit, with architecture and cuisine of all kinds. Most fun of all is always the yummy cuisine - how about fermented horse milk?

3. Horse back riding. I’m not a huge fan of horses, in fact, last time I encountered one it kicked me right in my right boob with its’ back hoof… However, the reason why this is special is that the Kyrgz have a special bond with horses and include them in pretty much every aspect of their daily lives. Here, horse riding is cherished as a national art form, and they have their own quite special horse riding sport events that I doubt you can see anywhere else – like a competition in which the winner gets a head-less goat? :p

4. Visit the Golden Spa, Altyn Arashan. It’s set in an alpine valley 3000 meters above sea level. But what seems most amazing is the climb there passing through a nature reserve.

5.Visit Lake Issyköl, the deepest and second largest alpine lake in the world. The water is incredibly blue and has curative properties.

Has anyone been there? I would love to here your personal impressions of this amazing place!