I have been quite pleased with the riding conditions in Kyrgyzstan. Apart from the rude welcome with snow and cold at the border, the roads here have all been meaningfully below the snow line, and weather has ranged from 5-15 degrees generally.

Ready to set off from Cholpon-Ata

This morning was a slow start; another 9 hours of sleep! I was on the road by 11AM, and enjoying the autumn scenery by the lake. The roads were nice, traffic was light, so the day passed by quickly.

Today’s route in blue

The road followed the valley between the Kirghiz Range and another adjacent mountain range, and was mostly straight with some slow sweeping turns. Alongside the road is a railroad that is currently in construction; I suspect this will end up being the China > Kyrgyzstan > Uzbekistan railway from the Belt & Road initiative.

last few glimpses of Issiy-Kul

Lunch was a dish called Kazan, made with beef inside a fried dough exterior at a local restaurant in Kochkor.

Kazan for lunch in Kochkor

The afternoon was spent riding leisurely; there was little traffic on the road apart from the odd truck (which generally appear to me like second hand Chinese trucks, because they have Chinese numbers painted on the back, but carry an official Kyrgyz numberplate).

Classic Kyrgyz autumn scene

Cemetaries line the road (I feel like there are more tombstones than people along this route)

At Kok-Oy, the road forked, with asphalt going one direction to Kazarman (the way I had planned on avoiding), and an unsealed rocky road going towards Suusamyr. My destination for the evening was Kyzyl-Oi, about 25 km into the unsealed road.

Unsealed road into the mountains

After ~30 mins riding I arrived at the village, which was quite quaint; home to what I’d estimate to be 30-40 families. I am at a homestay tonight (called Nazgul, which was why I picked the place).

Homestay is cooking dinner. The critical question

Kyzyl-Oi scenes

I am reconsidering my route choice to Osh; it seems like the road conditions to Kazarman are good (asphalt), whereas the road to Suusamyr is unsealed + not great (but also not a dirt track).

Kyzyl Oi -> Kazarman -> Jalal-Abad -> Osh (potentially different route)

The key difference is the following stretch of road from Kazarman on to Jalal Abad, which goes by a mountain pass. This section is the offroad section which I did towards the end of Part 1 (which was okay in all honesty, but given the choice I’d probably prefer not to do it). However, there is a tunnel which is yet to be finalised which bypasses the mountain pass. The tunnel itself is complete, but is yet to be opened to the public (so maybe if I ask nicely they will let me in).

Kyzyl Oi -> Suusamyr -> Toktogul -> Jalal-Abad -> Osh (original route)

The original route I’d planned takes an extra 200KM, which translates to an extra half day of riding. Plus an extra 131KMs of this unsealed road.

I’ve yet to decide which route I’ll take…we shall see tomorrow!

Dinner was some manti, and afterwards I had a conversation with the host:

• He had lived in this town his whole life (49 years), and had two sons.
• There is a tradition (not sure if Kyrgyz, or just for his town), where the youngest son stays at the village, while the elder sons leave; so his older son (24) was already in Bishkek, while his younger (14) presumably will remain here.
• There has been a decent amount of truck traffic going by the village, quite regularly (once every 20 mins), so I was asking why. Turns out there are coal mines in Osh, and these trucks transport coal to Talas.
• For the bank / for the doctor they travel to Chayek (60km away) or Suusamir (~100km away) (and presumably also for fuel; I filled up at the last gas station at Chayek)
• He has some cows and some horses, which roam in the wild. They tell ownership of livestock (that run wild) with tags, and he’ll typically ride his horses when he goes to tend to his animals in the mountains

least greasy manti i’ve had so far

Route progress through Part 2

Some stats:

• 313KMs travelled
• 26.4L fuel added
• 30g coffee consumed
• 2 unique interactions

Route so far