Trekking & Things to do in Kyrgyzstan (Tian Shan Mountains)
In this video I summed up the best things to do in Kyrgyzstan for you based on my 2 week lasting trip to Tian Shan mountains in the west of the country.
➸ My Kyrgyzstan Guide:
MY CAMERA EQUIPMENT
▸ Cam1: Sony RX 100 V
▸ Cam2: Sony A7 II
▸ Joby Gorillapod
▸ Audio Recorder: Zoom H2n
▸ SDHC Memory Card
▸ Waterproof Memory Card Case
▸ Backpack Osprey Farpoint 40
I spent more than 2 weeks in Kyrgyzstan working together with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the local tourism board to show you an interesting mix of the best things to do in Kyrgyzstan from outdoor adventures and cultural insights to overwhelming food experiences.
Beside checking out the local attractions I got the chance to stay like a local in a yurt camp, went hiking with locals and horse trekking like a true nomad ;)
Even though I spent quite some time in the country I could only focus on the western part and couldn’t go as deep into the mountains as I wanted to as the infrastructure isn’t as developed yet.
This trip was executed within 15 days - following I list all the places I visited & Things to do in Kyrgyzstan:
- Alamuu Yurt Camp
- Karakol
- Issyk-Kul lake
- Bokonbaevo
- Dungan family dinner
- Tian Shan mountains
- Jyrgalan / Jergalan
- Jolgolot trek
- Boz Uchuk lake & Boz Uchuk trek
- Bishkek
- local nomad camps
— About my Cooperation with UASAID & Discover Kyrgyzstan —
This trip was made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Discover Kyrgyzstan helped me plan the logistics. But overall I was free to create my very own itinerary with all the freedom needed. Nevertheless all opinions, recommendations and views are my own.
This video is part of the #DiscoverKyrgyzstan project.
—
MY TRAVEL EQUIPMENT
▸ insurance
▸ packing list
▸ Online Language Course
MY HOTEL & HOSTEL RECOMMENDATIONS
➸
DISCLAIMER: All Links provided marked with „▸“ are Affiliate Links for products, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission (but the price for you stays the same). This helps support the channel and allows me to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support!
===
Music:
- Martin Landh „Light Up“ (EpidemicSound)
Follow me:
15 Things to do in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan Travel Guide
Come join us as we visit Karakol, Kyrgyzstan in this travel guide covering all of the top things to do in Karakol City (Каракол) including attractions for both culture vultures and outdoor enthusiasts seeking adventure travel.
Karakol, located on the eastern section of Lake Issyk-Kul, is for many considered the adventure capital of Kyrgyzstan. Many adventurous travelers visit Karakol to arrange hikes, treks, horse rides and camping adventures; however, Karakol city warrants considerable exploration as its unique mosques, cathedrals, parks and other quirky attractions will capture your attention along with its food scene and cultural opportunities to learn regional cooking.
This is place the offers something for everyone as you'll see in our travel guide below.
15 Things to do in Karakol City Tour | Kyrgyzstan Travel Guide:
1) Karakol city walking tour
2) Dungan Mosque
3) Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church wooden cathedral
4) Antique Shop Aleksandr Korablev for Soviet era souvenirs
5) Karakol's History Museum
6)Victory Park and World War II Memorial
7) Fat Cat Karakol for food and drinks
8) Visiting local markets and bazaar in Karakol
9) Dungan 8 course meal eating Ashlyanfu (Ашлян-фу)
10) Uyghur Cooking Class
11) Eating Lagman (Лагман)
12) Sunset Cruise on Lake Issyk-Kul (Ысык-Көл - Иссык-Куль) Przhevalsky Bay
13) Jeti Oguz (Jeti-Ögüz) and Valley for hiking
14) Barskoon Waterfalls for adventure travel
15) Karakol day hike for scenic views, forest walk and a picnic
GEAR WE USE
Olympus OM-D E-M5 II:
Canon G7X:
Olympus 14-150mm II Lens:
Rode Video Mic GO:
Joby Gorilla Pod:
SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro:
SOCIAL MEDIA & TRAVEL BLOGS
AUDREY:
blog:
instagram:
facebook:
twitter:
SAMUEL:
blog:
facebook:
twitter:
instagram:
Our visit Karakol travel guide documentary covers some of the top attractions including a food guide, top sightseeing tourist attractions and all of the adventure travel activities you can do in Karakol including hiking, boating and visiting mountains. We also cover off-the-beaten-path outdoor activities you won't find in a typical Karakol city tourism brochure, Karakol itinerary or Karakol, Kyrgyzstan city tour.
15 Things to do in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan Travel Guide video transcript:
Hey guys this week we are in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan. Yeah, so Karakol (Каракол) is a place that we've actually visited last year but we were only here on a day trip so we didn't get to see a whole lot. Right and this is basically the adventure capital of Kyrgyzstan. There is a lot of good hiking, you can take boat trips. So we're just going to show you like what you can do in and around this area. Let's
Our first stop was the Dungan Mosque. This mosque is unique because architecturally it looks a lot like a Buddhist temple; this is because it was built by the Dungan community, an ethnically Chinese people group who follow Islam.
Another iconic place of worship in Karakol (Каракол) is the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church. This is a traditional Russian wooden cathedral complete with onion domes.
We also squeezed in a quick visit to Karakol’s History Museum, which has a rather fascinating taxidermy collection.
Okay so it is dinner time here in Karakol (قاراقول) and the sun has gone down and today we are going to be doing a traditional meal with a family.
So we're going to be preparing Ashlyanfu (Ашлян-фу) which is a cold noodle starch soup and then we're going to go into their home and have a nice family dinner together.
And because we love our food, we also took a cooking class where we learned to make a traditional Uyghur dish: laghman (Лагман).
As far as day trips go, one nearby attraction from Karakol (Каракол) is Jeti Oguz known for its red hills. It’s about a 30 minute drive and you can easily hire a driver to take you out there.
Last but not least, one of the most popular things to do in Karakol (Каракол) is hiking. This is considered the adventure capital of Kyrgyzstan (Киргизия) with many hikes and horse treks starting right in town.
And that’s a little taste of what Karakol and the surrounding area has to offer visitors. We hope you enjoyed this travel guide and that it gave you a few ideas of things to do in Karakol (Каракол).
This is part of our Travel in Kyrgyzstan video series showcasing Kyrgyz food, Kyrgyz culture and Kyrgyz cuisine.
Music by Joakim Karud:
Best Things To Do in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan
Karakol Travel Guide. MUST WATCH. Top 10 things you have to do in Karakol. We have sorted Tourist Attractions in Karakol for You. Discover Karakol as per the Traveler Resources given by our Travel Specialists. You will not miss any fun thing to do in Karakol.
This Video has covered top 10 Best Things to do in Karakol.
Don't forget to Subscribe our channel to view more travel videos. Click on Bell ICON to get the notification of updates Immediately.
List of Best Things to do in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan
Altyn Arashan
Issyk-Kul Lake
Ala Kul Lake
Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathederal
Nikolai Przhevalsky Museum
Monument N.M. Przhevalsky
Dungan Mosque
Karakol Ski Base
Karakol Gorge
Jyrgalan Valley Trekking/Freeride Skiing
Kyrgyzstan Tourist Attractions: 15 Top Places to Visit
Planning to visit Kyrgyzstan? Check out our Kyrgyzstan Travel Guide video and see top most Tourist Attractions in Kyrgyzstan.
Top Places to visit in Kyrgyzstan:
Issyk Kul Lake, Song Kol Lake, Burana Tower, Osh Bazaar, Ala Archa National Park, Sulayman Mountain, Jeti Oguz Canyon, Tash Rabat, Kyrgyz Ala-Too Range, Altyn Arashan, Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Monument N.M. Przhevalsky, Karakol Ski Base, Bishkek Park, State History Museum,
Visit our Website:
Visiting Karakol as day trip in Kyrgyzstan
After spending several days focused on the World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan we decided to take a day trip to Karakol (Каракол) for a change of pace. Our trip focused on visiting some museums, mosques, cathedrals, markets and having a traditional Kyrgyz lunch inside of a yurt. We had ambitious plans of hiking, visiting a waterfall and few other things but we ran out of time. If you're going to visit Karakol learn from our mistake and spend a few more days to really enjoy the outdoor adventure activities.
GEAR WE USE
Olympus OM-D E-M5 II:
Canon G7X:
Olympus 14-150mm II Lens:
Rode Video Mic GO:
Joby Gorilla Pod:
SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro:
SOCIAL MEDIA & TRAVEL BLOGS
AUDREY:
blog:
instagram:
facebook:
twitter:
SAMUEL:
blog:
facebook:
twitter:
instragram:
Visiting Karakol as day trip in Kyrgyzstan Travel Video Transcript:
Good morning from Kyrgyzstan (Кыргызстан). It is time for a day trip because we've been spending a lot of time at the World Nomad Games and it is time to get out and get to know the country a little bit. So we're taking a day trip to Karakol (Каракол). We're going to be doing some hiking, visiting waterfalls. Yeah, it is going to be really cool. I mean we've seen quite a bit of the country but we haven't been to that area yet so we're really excited about it. Let's go.
Okay, so we have been driving for about two hours and we've almost made it to Karakol (Каракол). Right now we're in the outskirts and we're stopping at the Nikolay Mikhailovich Przhevalsky museum and basically this was a guy who wanted to be a traveler. So I can relate to him. Um, he was from Russia but at the time Russian didn't have the permission to just you know go off and wander around on their own. So this guy decided to join the military and he proposed to be the first person to explore Central Asia and reach Tibet and his proposal was approved so he was funded by Russia and today there is a museum dedicated to his work.
After a short visit to the museum, we then continued on our drive towards Karakol (Каракол), where our first stop was the Dungan Mosque.
So in order to visit the Mosque you don't just wear a scarf. You need a full cloak. This will be interesting. Alright. Let's put this on. Fancy. It is like velvet.
The mosque gets its name from the Dungan people who are Muslim, but of Chinese origin. The building is quite unique because you can see the two cultures colliding; it contains elements of a traditional mosque, but at first glance it looks more like a Buddhist temple.
So now we're visiting an Orthodox Church and that was really close to the mosque.
We then went to the Holy Trinity Cathedral, which is in the centre of Karakol (Каракол). Just remember, girls need to wear a head covering and boys must take off their hats in order to go inside.
From there we continued to the Karakol Market in search of food. If there’s one dish the town is known for it’s Ashlyan Fu, a cold noodle soup with spices and jellies. There’s a whole alley in the market that specializes in this dish; so be sure to try it.
Alright so we've had a pretty busy morning of sightseeing. Now it is time for food. Yeah, we've worked up a pretty big appetite and the coolest thing is we're going to go eat inside of yurt. A yurt.
For lunch we had Dumlyama: a dish with potatoes, cabbage, onions, peppers, and meat. We also had boorsok: which are little pieces of fried dough that go really nice with jam.
So we've stopped off at this kind of cool scenic area that is called Jeti-Ögüz and nearby there is apparently some fantastic hiking. Yeah, and the name translates to seven bulls so I don't know do you see any bulls over there? You know I see in the rock formations. I think I see more than seven things.
We had really been looking forward to hiking along here, but unfortunately, this is the part of the tour where we ran out of time. This also means we didn’t get to see the waterfalls we had heard about, so if you do decide to visit Karakol (قاراقول), don’t do it as a quick day trip like we did!
Yeah, I think it is the kind of place where you want to give it a few days so you can see the surrounding areas and also that town is really known for hiking so if you're in to outdoorsy stuff go there and explore it properly.
Yeah, maybe spend like two or three days in Karakol (Каракол) see the surroundings, hike, trek and yeah really explore it.
This is part of our Travel in Kyrgyzstan video series showcasing Kyrgyz food, Kyrgyz culture and Kyrgyz cuisine.
Music in this video courtesy of Audio Network
KYRGYZSTAN Top 43 Tourist Places | Kyrgyzstan Tourism
Kyrgyzstan (Things to do - Places to Visit) - KYRGYZSTAN Top Tourist Places
A Country in Central Asia
Kyrgyzstan is a rugged Central Asian country along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route between China and the Mediterranean.
The Tian Shan mountains, which surround the old caravan route and dominate the country, are home to snow leopards, lynx, and sheep. In the south, the millennia-old city of Osh has a huge, busy bazaar that was once a stop on the Silk Road.
KYRGYZSTAN Top 43 Tourist Places | Kyrgyzstan Tourism
Things to do in KYRGYZSTAN - Places to Visit in Kyrgyzstan
Follow us on Twitter
For Top Tourist Places, Videos Subscribe us on Youtube
Follow us on Facebook
KYRGYZSTAN Top 43 Tourist Places - Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia
Visit Kyrgyzstan - Issyk-Kul Lake Travel Guide (south shore)
Join us as we visit Kyrgyzstan exploring Issyk-Kul Lake in this travel guide to the south shore focusing on adventure attractions such as hiking, horse-trekking and staying overnight in a yurt camp. The following is a list of all of the different things you can do while traveling in and around Bokonbayevo area of Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan:
Intro - 00:00
1) Horse-Trekking - 00:20
2) Skazka / Fairy Tale Canyon - 02:21
3) Manjaly-Ata / Valley of Sacred Springs - 03:00
4) Yurt Building Workshop - 03:47
5) Eagle Hunting Demonstration and Kyrgyz Archery - 04:56
6) Kyrgyzstan Yurt Stay in a Camp - 05:41
Outro (swimming in Issyk-kul lake ) - 06:06
GEAR WE USE
Olympus OM-D E-M5 II:
Canon G7X:
Olympus 14-150mm II Lens:
Rode Video Mic GO:
Joby Gorilla Pod:
SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro:
SOCIAL MEDIA & TRAVEL BLOGS
AUDREY:
blog:
instagram:
facebook:
twitter:
SAMUEL:
blog:
facebook:
twitter:
instagram:
Visit Kyrgyzstan - Issyk-Kul Lake Travel Guide (south shore) video transcript:
For the next leg of our travels in Kyrgyzstan (
Кыргызстан), we made our way to the Bel Tam Yurt Camp on the south shores of Issyk Kul Lake (Ысык-Көл). We used this as our base for 3 days and from there, we took a few different side trips to some of the most popular sights and attractions in the area. Here’s a taste of what we got up to:
For this half-day trek, we drove from Bokonbayevo (Бөкөнбаев) to the Boz Salkyn Jailoo. Once we arrived at the yurt camp, we met our horses and set off on an incredibly scenic ride.
The second stretch of the trek involved riding uphill through the forest, but once we broke through the tree line, we were treated to amazing views of the surrounding area. The horses got a little break to munch on wildflowers, and we sat down to enjoy a picnic.
We had been hearing a lot about Skazka from fellow travellers staying at our yurt camp, so we were really looking forward to visiting.
The canyon’s name is very fitting as the landscapes really do look straight out of a fairy tale. There are parts where the hills look like they’ve been painted in shades of terracotta, rust, and ochre, and then you also have natural rock formations that rise from the ground. It’s a really nice place for a light hike and a bit of photo taking.
While the water of the sacred springs may be the main draw for pilgrims, for us, this attraction was more about the scenery. Narrow trails wind up, down, and around the hills and it makes for a fun hike through some pretty surreal landscapes. Just don’t forget to bring some water, because the sun can be really strong.
The yurt-building workshop was located in Kyzyl-Tuu Village.
Here we met Tolosun and his family, who all work together to bring the yurts to life. Everything you need for the yurts, from the wooden poles that make up the ceiling to the felt that provides insulation, is made here by different members of his family.
We also learned that this family holds the record for fastest yurt-building time clocking in under 10 minutes. They did it a bit slower for us so that we could understand and help out with the process, but needless to say, they’re pros at this.
Back in town, we made our way to Federation Salburuun, which is a group focused on keeping alive the tradition of eagle hunting that’s been passed down to nomads for centuries.
Eagle hunting happens during the winter months, but during the summer months you can attend demonstrations to learn about this tradition and watch eagles training with furs and hides.
Aside from eagle hunting, the group also practices archery and horseback archery.
We can’t talk about our visit to Issyk Kul’s (Иссык-Куль) South Shore without also mentioning the Bel Tam Yurt Camp.
Not only was staying in a yurt pretty cool, but we loved the friendly staff and the camaraderie amongst travellers at the camp. They had a massive dining tent where everyone gathered for communal dinners.
The highlight was getting to know other travellers and swapping tips and stories about Kyrgyzstan.
This is part of our Travel in Kyrgyzstan video series showcasing Kyrgyz food, Kyrgyz culture and Kyrgyz cuisine.
MUSIC: “Funny Song” by Bensound |
Beautiful Kyrgizstan: trekking, nature, people
Caucasus and Central Asia travel -
ISSYK KUL LAKE | KYRGYZSTAN THINGS TO DO | The Tao of David
Kyrgyzstan is a gorgeous country. Especially when the world's second highest lake, Lake Issyk Kul is located to the north of the country.
In this video, First World Traveller has a beach holiday in Bosteri, on the north shore of Lake Issyk Kul, east of Cholpon-Ata, about 6 hours drive from Bishkek on a Marshrutka. Check out my Airbnb nightmare from hell!
Bosteri is very much a tourist area, primarily frequented by Russian tourists. You can swim in the lake! Although it can be cold even in Summer! A great thing about this area is that you have Lake Issyk Kul on one side and the mountains on the other! Fantastic!
Thanks for Watching!
ALA ARCHA NATIONAL PARK | KYRGYZSTAN THINGS TO DO | The Tao of David
Are you planning a trip to Kyrgyzstan in 2017? Looking for Things to Do in Kyrgyzstan in and around the Bishkek area? In this video First World Traveller briefly checks out Ala Archa National Park, a large 200 sq km park roughly 50 minutes south of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
Ala Archa National Park was established in 1976 and offers numerous activities from hiking and mountain climbing around the various hills, mountains, glaciers and rivers. I went in Summer therefore the views are probably more spectacular in Winter!
The Archa (where the park gets it's name) is a Juniper tree common to the area and Kyrgyzstan's altitude. It was once believed that these trees chase off evil spirits, however if they were planted too close to a house they would suck the energy from those living inside!
Check out more from Kyrgyzstan from Osh Bazaar, Kochkor, Lake Issyk Kul and a Guide to Getting Around Kyrgyzstan!
Thanks for Watching!