We have been busy traveling over the past few weekends. We have had some Monday holidays, so the perfect 3 day opportunities to get out of town. Not a lot to say, other than the photos will tell the story and man-oh-man this is a beautiful country. and we have only scratched the surface.
First trip was to the ski 'resort' of Orlovka. it is about 1.5 hours E from Bishkek. we decided to go for the weekend even though it is close. it was a nice ski area (relative speaking) with 2 chairs and lots of area and some potential for back country. the unfortunate thing is that it was super foggy - to the point where you could hardly see 10ft in front of you. but we had a blast. started drinking Vodka early since we all decided to call it for the day. An interesting thing about Vodka here...the national drink. it is so cheap. a bottle (liter or so) costs about 3 dollars. my vodka days are over - there is a reason i stick to beer.
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| The main chair lift at the base |
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| nice/fun ski hill...you just can't see it... |
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| The rooms we stayed in. pretty basic, but they had heated floors (very common here) and a bathroom. |
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| Otto and Jackson napping since we couldn't snowboard in the afternoon. The beds were comfortable which is always a bonus. |
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This weekend we went to the Ashu Guesthouse - it is in a very small village in the Chong-Kemin Valley. it is surrounded by 2 mountain ranges. one of the ranges is the border with Kazakhstan. the other range is the N part of Issy-Kul lake. it was spectacular. of course the photos cannot even come close to the beauty, but i tried. we went with some friends who have a son Maximus who is just a little younger than Otto, but they both play the same video games, so they are very happy to hang out together. we did a little hike/walk the first day there and then the second day the boys when horse back riding. super reasonably priced. the rooms were so nice, rustic, the food all home cooked and fresh. we all can't wait to go back again. it is about 2 hours from Bishkek, so a great overnight retreat.
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| Typical house in the village. It is a poor farming community, so even cooler that this one family has made such a nice retreat for people to come to. |
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| View of the village from a nearby hill. |
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| A very small section of the mountain range to the North. The ranges on both sides of this valley each stretch nearly 180 degrees. wish there was some way i could photograph that. to the South the fore mountains are huge, but rolling, and peaking out just behind them are jagged, glaciated peaks. |
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| Jackson and I went on a hike Sunday morning because there were not enough horses for me to do the ride. He LOVES the snow and was just racing around all over the place. he is such a great hiking dog. He was growling at a horse that was wandering on our path, so must not have come across many in his time in Africa. |
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| Otto on his horse. he had a blast and got to ride 'fast'. Tons of beautiful horses in this country. The guest house offers day rides for $15/horse (for the full day) plus $25 for a guide (for the full day...not by the hour!!) |
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| The porch on the upper level of the main building. in the basement there is a conference room and up top (inside to the Left) is the restaurant. it was lovely. |
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| Our room for the night. quite cozy. the place cost $62/night which included our 3 meals a day. a steal! The south house where we stayed had 5 similar rooms, a common area and a kitchen we could use. |
