Jane’s travelogue

The hills above Naryn

The Kyrgyz city of Naryn is located in a valley, and is surrounded by easily accessible hills, foothills and mountains - an excellent place for either a liesurely stroll or a strenuous hike.

Ala Archa National Park

Ala Archa is a large national park in Kyrgyzstan, located in the mountains and valleys surrounding the Ala Archa river, roughly 30km south of Bishkek.

Sawtooth Wilderness

The Sawtooth Wilderness located in central Idaho is a breath-taking 217,000 protected acres of jagged mountain peaks and high alpine lakes. The nearest town is Stanley, Idaho.

Sweet Sixties

Cafe Sweet Sixties is a wonderful little cafe in central Bishkek, located at the corner of Molodaya Gvardia and Kievskaya. They serve tasty Mexican, American and Italian food, have a full bar, and offer live music seven nights a week.

Lake Issyk Kul

If you look at a map of Kyrgyzstan, you cannot miss Lake Issyk Kul, the largest lake in the country, located in its northeastern quadrant. The lake is roughly 182km long by 61km wide, and at its deepest, it reaches a depth of 702 meters.

Karakoo

Karakoo (pronounced kara-koh) is a small village of a few thousand, located a few miles from the southern shore of Kyrgyzstan’s Lake Issyk Kul. This rural community survives mainly off of farming and herding.

Countryside near Kara-Talaa

Kyrgyzstan isn’t exactly a great place for finding convenient public toilets. As we drove from Balykchy towards our destination of Karakoo, we found ourselves desperately in need of a pit-stop.

The Sacred Spring

Atop a mountain pass in Kyrgyzstan, between the village of Chong Kemin and the town of Balykchy, lies a sacred spring. The spring flows year-round from the mountain, and nearly all passersby stop to wash in and drink from its waters.

Burana Tower

Burana Tower, located about an hour east of Bishkek near the city of Tokmok, is all that remains of the ancient city of Balasagyn, once the thriving capital of the Karakhanid Empire. Apparently, at its height, the city manufactured exquisite glass and ceramics, had an elaborate city-wide irrigation/plumbing/sewer system built with fired-clay pipes, was home to scholars, poets and numerous religions (although in its later years it became a Muslim city), it was home to fierce warriors – male and female – and it was a major stop on one of the Silk Road routes (from the Torugart Pass out of China, past Lake Issyk-Kul through what is now Bishkek before heading further westward.

Trans-Siberian Railroad

Stretching over 9000 miles from Moscow to Vladivostok, the Trans-Siberian Railroad is an incredible Russian experience. (I've selected Moscow as its "location" simply because the website dictates that I must choose a location for it.)

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