salamat s welcome to Kyan It's a Wonderful mountainous country with breathtaking Landscapes and friendly people it has a huge untapped tourism potential so let's explore this country together let's do [Music] it where is kyrgistan located it's a small landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the north usbekistan to the West Tajikistan to the South and China to the East and Southeast the history of the kgus people goes back more than 3,000 years they were nomadic farmers at the crossroads of several great civilizations as part of the Silk Road they were first established as the NSA kgus kaganate from the 6th till the 13th centuries later surviving a few invasions from different Empires like the Mongols and the juner Hun and others eventually they became part of the Russian Empire in the 19th century and later the Soviet Union until finally kyrgystan got its independence in 1991 after the breakup of the USSR so this is how we're going to do it we'll start from the capital city of Bishkek we'll drive around the largest lake isul and then we'll drive all the way to the South to the second largest city of Ash of course we'll talk to locals we'll ride horses and we'll try a lot of delicious food along the way there's going to be lots of food let's begin on this trip I will have a super assistant and that is aill yes welcome to Kyan let's begin Bishkek is the capital of kirgistan today it's a modern Metropolis with a population of 1,1 145,000 people I arrived by plane and the city is served by Manas International Airport streets follow a great pattern with most flanked on both sides by narrow irrigation channels which provide water to the trees during the hot summers while the majority of the residents still live in Soviet era Apartments Howen and Bishkek has undergone extensive changes and you'll find modern apartments some reaching the prices of $2,000 per square meter let's take a look at some interesting places alator square is the main Square in the City built in 1984 back then it had a massive statue of Lenin that now has been replaced with a statue of Manas at 10th century legendary national hero who was able to unite 40 kyus tribes against the enemies and if you look at the flag of kyrgistan you'll see it features 40 raay of sun representing the original 40 tribes on alator Square you can also watch the ceremony of changing of the guards Victory square is another popular place in the city it's surrounded by shopping malls apartment blocks and a circus building that's going through some sort of renovation appar one of the most recent additions to the city is the Bish Central mosque which is a gift from Turkey it's one of the largest mosques in Central Asia ready to accommodate 9,000 people 90% of the country's population is Muslim with the majority of them being Sunni Muslims the city is really green and you can feel it by taking a stroll through one of its Parks like this Oak Park Bish K has a lot of cool Soviet architecture like the city hall philarmonic Hall State History Museum National Museum of Fine Arts the drama theater and numerous Ling statues which the nation never bothered to take down and we'll talk about why at the end of the video if you look at the skyline of the city you'll see that it has no skyscrapers and that's because Bishkek as well as many other cities in Kyan are located in an earthquake zone now let's try some local food and I have something in mind supara restaurant that offers not only delicious food but also a complete immersion into local history and culture this is our traditional cter restaurant so we are uh today uh eat amazing dishes K Cuisine is very much meat based look at that dried Yak meat horse meat Yak meat all kinds of [Music] meats [Music] what is this this is the stomach of a lamb wow does it taste good it's very unusual I'm not very familiar with this kind of food so I'll say it's good but it takes some time to get used to of course in any Central Asian City you got to visit the local market it's a o Bazar it's a very nice place do you find it everything for dry fruit and local bread local meat everything this are fresh for these places let's go Kur it's a dehydrated cotage cheese this this is Smokey cheese uh the red color it's spicy cheese it's good stuff I tried it before and I like it if you guys shopping for Yap meat it's 500 SS per kilogram if you want some horse meat it's also 500 SS per kilogram now if you want some beef high quality beef it's 550 but now traditional bazaars have to compete with modern shopping malls salaries in the city are not very high officially the average salary in the country is $375 a month and $500 a month in Bish but in reality they're even lower a friend of mine who is a paramedic said that she only makes $150 a month wow just outside the city you can visit borana Tower this Tower is what remained of the ancient city of balasagun which was established by the dynasty of karahan at the end of the 9th century but the most exciting thing to do in and around Bishop is to visit the AL archa National Park and Al ARA actually means colorful F trees plenty of trees they're all colorful so that makes sense these are the animals you can expect to find in this National Park including some exotic animals like snow [Music] lepro this amazing natural getaway is just 40 minut away from the city now let's talk to some people e we're now pretty much done with the city of Bishkek wonderful City but we have to see more of the country let's do it yes now at the end of the video we'll get to see the city of OSH the second largest city so make sure you watch it till the end but for now we're heading into the largest lake in the country and that is Lake isaku first let's stop to get some gas how much this much actually gas prices are almost twice higher than in neighboring Kazakhstan that's why more and more car owners are switching to gas fuel because it's 40% cheaper it's not the first time aill is doing this journey and certainly he has a list of his favorite food stops Gul Jamal or Moto Babushka is one of them she's been running this food place for 21 years and she has loyal customers from all over the world her specialty is shush kebabs those of small grilled pieces of meat on skewers [Laughter] for [Laughter] her nickname actually is Moto Babushka because a lot of motorcyclists stop here to get some fantastic shush Kebab as we travel into the lake the scener changes fast and now we're passing Corner Che Canyon made of red Sandy rocks it's a popular hiking place and finally after 2 and 1/2 hours of driving I see the water let's explore the northern shore of the lake first the first town that we drove in was biki it's a small town of 42,000 people biki means fishermen in the Kish language this is where our driver M lives he had been a truck driver for many years before and now he owns a van and an SUV and he drives tourists around the country in his free time he enjoys hunting in the mountains he was nice enough to give us a brief tour of his house he's got a beautiful garden growing anything from grapes to tomatoes a guest house a sauna and a pool table and of course being a professional driver he has an garage with lots of tools and equipment now let's look inside the [Music] house next up was a resort town of Chon ATA with a population of 14,000 people during the Soviet era it became a popular vacation spot with numerous State Health Resorts boarding houses and vacation homes like this one called Aurora named after the battleship in St Petersburg this resort was one of the best dur in the Soviet days of course these places fell in hard times after the breakup of the Soviet Union but now many of these Hotel complexes are being refurbished and simple private bed and breakfast rentals are being established for a new generation of visitors and finally we're sailing on Lake isaku the largest lake in the country wow where are we this is isaku Lake it's the largest lake in kyrgystan and actually translates as a hot Lake why is that it's because it never freezes there's 82 Mountain Rivers flowing in into it adding a lot of minerals and salt it's October so the season is coming to an end but people still come here and it's a you know it's probably number one destination in kyrgistan would you agree look at the view this is where I say uh Kung Alat it's main uh mountain behind of us Kazakhstan it's only 80 km we have idea so maybe after 5 or 10 years we make some tunnel and we open uh new road for our friends Kazakhstan and kyrgistan I think our tourism go more higher you can go on a boat ride and have a great time for $70 an [Music] hour [Music] around chelon you can visit so many amazing locations just 60 km away from the city and you are in a completely different scenery wow what a fantastic view almost fell Chon auu Gorge better known as Gregor Gorge is one of them there's a crystal clear river that runs along the bottom of the gorge called auu which means White Water you'll see plenty of unique tienan PR trees which can reach the height of 50 m many people compare these places in kyrgystan to the Swiss Alpine Meadows but it was October and so the scenery wasn't as green as it is in the spring honestly you don't need a 4x4 to see most exciting places in Kyan but then of course if you want to go somewhere remote somewhere off the beaten path you might want to hire a 4x4 this will take you to some exotic uh remote places and uh it's just a comfortable will ride [Music] overall we were lucky to see a herd of yucks those are mountain furry cows these are pretty exotic animals but they have been found in this part of the world for thousands of years and they're mostly used for the meat for their wool and also they have been famous for being great work and [Music] animals in the evening we visited hot springs and stayed at a brand new hotel olymp where the owner joined us for dinner [Music] it's a family-owned business let's hear their [Music] story now they stay busy throughout the year and even in the winter they get groups of athletes and also they're planning to add an Olympic siiz swimming pool pretty ambitious I like that now let's go to the Eastern tip of the lake and this is where you'll find Caracol it's the fourth largest city in the country with a population of 84,000 people Carol serves as a starting point for the hiking tring and skiing in the high Central tienan and has Central Asia's highest ski resort with some 20 kmers of slopes in the 1880s Caraco population surged with an influx of dongin those were Chinese Muslims fleeing Warfare in China this got me curious and we visited a dongan family restaurant to try some dongan Cuisine and talk to the host [Music] for for one meal you got to try here here is Ashlin F it's probably the most famous dongan dish in Caracol it's a spicy cold noodle soup you can go to the local market to try it it's very nice hangover so the local people say if you drink too much yesterday do you count the morning this sou it brings it back to life yeah yeah and we drank some beer last night so we're doing the right thing you can also visit caracle dongan mosque it was built without using a single nail not many people realize that it's part of the three different mosque ensemble sponsorable sponsorable as a result of the uprising in 1877 about 300,000 dongin fled from persecution in China many of them unfortunately perished in the snow froze today death and died of hunger while crossing the mountain but those who reached the city of Caracol were welcomed by the kyus people there's also an impressive wooden Orthodox Church which was used as a stable during the Soviet times you can visit the Museum of famous Russian Explorer Mel palki who studied the Flora and Fauna of the Central Asian countries one of his most famous findings was palki horse named after him it's a small wild horse somewhat like a Mustang in America some 20 minutes away from Caracol you'll find a location that will leave you speechless it's called the seven bus rock or the Jedi yogas Rocks wow what a unique geological formation sheer Cliffs composed of tertiary red conglomerates the name derives from the resemblance to seven Bulls of course you'll be told a lot of Legends how this place got its name hikin is the main attraction in the valley short walks or multi-day trails that will take you to some gorgeous locations hidden waterfalls and much [Music] more for lunch we visited a trout farm this is yet one more example of private businesses that have successfully utilized the growth tourism potential let's talk to the owner it's not an easy business to run fish feds alone cost $2,000 a day in High season but first we got to catch some fish come on come on fish I'm hungry well guys I just caught a fish this is rainbow trout it's about 1.5 kg and I think we're going to have a very nice lunch right now wow W now let's explore the southern shore of Lake isaku I've been traveling a lot and fall fuli Edge is unique in every part of the world on the southern shore of the lake we visited scasa Canyon what a beautiful landscape this is called scasa Canyon or fairy tale Canyon this is where I met some American tourists first of all this Tom and this is Pat nice to meet you nice to meet you too so is this your first time to Kiran yes it is wonderful and what are some of the highlights that you would like to share well first I have to say the people are unbelievable friendly they go out of their way to say hello and if you need something or you have to find something they're willing to take you to it but the people are definitely number one here okay and the diversity of the land is amazing how much you get into how much you can get into one day is I can't remember what happened yesterday well that's it when you asked me I said what the hell do we do but it's it's been uh it's been an amazing 4 days already and we can't believe we still have 20 more to to go oh yesterday we did the horse we went and watched the uh the match where the horsemen take the Headless Ram wow and they run back and forth in the field yes we did that was awesome you yes we did here and we started in Bishkek which was a a very attractive City to visit um enjoyed the people there we did a cooking class what did you cook the local bread okay what is it called b b the little pieces of bread yeah yeah okay I know and uh we probably eaten 62 l pounds of it but uh yeah it's just been a great trip and like you say and Pat says and I think everybody here will agree that there's just so much to see in such a small area and it changes hour by hour it's it's just a beautiful country for the night we stayed at a Brand New York camp like I said the tourist infrastructure is getting better and better gives you plenty of inspiration with a fantastic view of the bay what kind of dinner is it going to be without National Music if it were warmer we could be sitting outside around a fire now let's enjoy some [Music] [Music] music [Music] before we left Lake isul we had one more thing to do go Eagle hunting well not literally but rather watch a show it's an ancient tradition and it's proudly preserved in kyrgistan [Music] [Music] fore for for they tried to teach me how to shoot arrows so that I could survive in the kyus wilderness but all in vain almost I was a hunter I would starve [Music] yes first remember we saw a herd of Ys well how about a caravan of camels quite a diversity if you ask me camel farman is gaining popularity again that's great because I love camel milk more and more tourists have visit in kyrgystan every year at one point the demand was so high they didn't have enough hotel rooms for the guests and I was glad to see the infrastructure slowly catching up with the demand tourism infrastructure in Kyan is developing fast and now you see a chain of these rest points all throughout Kyan well only three of them operational at this point which are also equipped with uh chargers for electric cars welcome to the rest point we can you know buy some coffee tea some snacks and there's a very nice bathroom and even a shower after going around Lake Isle we shortly went back to Bishkek and then we were on our way to OSH the highway that connects Bishkek and Ash is an entertainment by itself you'll be going through different Landscapes snowcapped mountains green mows Rocky deserts and much [Music] more we're now traveling through the mountains 300 m above sea level and this point connects the North and the South we just came from the north and we're going to be going to the South and as you can see there's lots of snowcapped mountains all around us there's a popular food stop called Paris for some reason we stopped there to get some Monte that's local steam dumplings they come in a variety of styles with different feelings both meat and vegetarian we're going to be eating Monte for lunch these are very popular local dumplings and of course we'll have some tea with that and a fresh salad yeah this area I was told is very popular with Arab tourists they come here in the summer and stay among these Green Meadows they order a lamb a day and cook delicious meals while admiring the Green Mountain of surroundings quite a contrast to the sandy desert landscape I guess kyrgistan is much luckier than its neighbors when it comes to Water Resources while Kazakhstan and usbekistan are both struggling Kyan has over 40,000 Rivers so most of its electricity is generated through hydroelectric power stations the country has 16 hydroelectric power stations and two thermal power plants one of our stops was on the bank of torle reservoir which is a beautiful body of water and the largest power plant in the country with a capacity of 1,200 megawatt it was October but it was warm so I went swimming the water was so still it's amazing sometimes to call Kyan the Switzerland of Asia and to see why you need to visit serich Nature Reserve we arrived at a guest house late at night and woke up to this heavy rain the forecast was not very promising Heavy Rain old day however once the rain paused for a few minutes we were able to fly the Drone actually flying drones is legal here which is so nice and neighbor in usbekistan you'll get thrown in jail for that sake Nature Reserve is located in the tienan mountains we are in the national park that's called SAR CH which actually translates as the yellow Bowl why is that name well the legend goes like this there was this clan a clan of people that called themselves suu and they were were worshiping this yellow dragon and they lived long lives but then some people got jealous and they eventually killed all these people and the dragon flew away but people say that some Shepherds still see sometimes this large yellow Bowl rising from the water and then disappearing wow what a [Music] story it's October now but in the winter time time this will all be covered in snow must be pretty epic [Music] too our next location was arand Bob that's it's a small town of 16,000 people not yet spoiled by tourism it's famous for its Walnut forests this is where you can find the largest Walnut Grove on Earth 11,000 hectares or 27,000 Acres locals claim that the Walnut originated in kistan and from there it spread to the caucuses China Persia and finally to Europe the Harvest of the Walnut season starts in Autumn September through October and it's a great opportunity for everybody to make some money even for kids foreign speech speech foreign speech foreign speech fore now is the harvesting season for walnuts and a lot of people are in the woods picking up walnuts so let's see how they do it [Music] foree uhhuh [Music] was everything revolves around walnuts here we visited a walnut oil production company well it's time to taste the oil from the Walnut you can use them in salads just like olive oil or regular sunflower SE if you want to hear the local news you got to come talk to the oxaal those are the community leaders literally wide beards for foree speech fore for Fore fore speech look at this tea house or chai as they call it if I didn't know this I would easily believe that I was teleported to the 19th century so cool arsin Bob is a little known heaven for Mountain hikers there are several Lakes caves and waterfalls and of course must be cool hiking in the largest natural Walnut Forest I was surprised to meet a lot of foreign tourists from America Belgium and Canada mostly girls surprisingly hello Amber what brings you to Kyan mainly mountains I'm an outdoors Enthusiast so I've been hearing about the mountains in Kyan for a few years now I was also pulled in a bit by the history of the Silk Road but yeah mostly here for outdoor adventure okay do you feel comfortable as a Solo Traveler in Kyan yeah it definitely helps that I've done some solo travels before um generally I found the kges people to be quite welcoming very helpful sometimes concerned for my safety but that's understandable sometimes the idea of a woman traveling solo is a bit foreign to them but once I tell them about things I've done previously they're generally impressed and just congratulate me on my bravery and are always quick to offer assistance so I feel like if anything would go wrong a shepher would be happy to pull me onto his horse and offer a ride and yeah good stuff tell me some of the things you did previously I've been mostly in the east of the country so far I've recently come to the west but yeah lots of hikes um highlight was definitely a weeklong hike from jurand to jedo 7 Days walking six six nights camping on the trail um it was nice it was broken up with some visits to Hot Springs which is amazing after several days on the trail so yeah I think the hot springs and the lakes have probably been my favorite Parts here there's countless like Alpine Lakes all over the place and haven't been swimming cuz it's cold but they're nice to look at okay well good luck with your travels thanks you too thank you you know rid the horse is something I had in mind when coming over to kyrgistan it's one of those pictures you have in your head you know uh a lot of people do stuff like 5 days Trail you know somewhere up in the mountains well I didn't get a chance to do that maybe on my next trip but this time I just felt like I needed to ride a horse so here I am beautiful meow beautiful weather people are picking up walnuts but we're ride on a horse ch ch ch that's the way to say let's go CH by the way the hat that I'm wearing is an Al kpac a kgus national hat some tourists do some crazy things like I heard a story of a guy who bought a horse in one part of kyrgystan and then rode across the country and sold it speaking of which let's find out how much they charge for a horse animals without a doubt play an important part in the country's life so it's a good idea to visit an animal Market somewhere foreign that's a lot of sheep fore foreign speech for foreign speech after arand Bob we were finally on our way to the city of OSH quickly passing through the city of usan and its famous usan minet an 11th century Tower and finally we are in the city of OSH it's located in the farana valley in the southwest the climate here can be extremely hot in the summer with temperatures reaching 40 Cel or4 F in 2023 Ash had a population of 361,000 people but the metro population is half a million suan to Sacred mountain is the biggest site suan or Solomon is a prophet in the Quran and the mountain contains a shrine that supposedly marks his grave the view from the top is fantastic on the mountain you can also visit National Historical and archaeological Museum complex Ash is famous for its bizaar which has been sitting here on the same spot since the Silk Road times let's take a quick tour so ma mon you can only find in the city of as I'm going to try it now [Music] mostly lamb small shush kebabs the dark one is the local rice it's called usen rice and we actually saw rice Patties on on the way here so the other guy was like can you f my buddy sleeping at work it said yes yes we [Music] [Music] can first flush flush the glass this is one of the few remaining Soviet Style original um lemonade machine so he's got a met lemonade these were very popular during the Soviet days but in Russia you don't really find them anymore but here in the city of as we found one nice soda so my first impression of Ash is that it's a very busy City so many people on the street so many cars lots of food narrow streets yeah it's just a lot busier than than Bish true true for in OSH USB people make up a substantial 38% of the City's population but actually this number used to be higher almost 50% unfortunately Ash witnessed bloody ethnic clashes between kgus and USCS in the 1990s and then again in 2010 mostly over the division of land resources in and around the city this forced a lot of USCS to flee into the neighboring regions of usbekistan Ash has an international airport with daily flights to Bishkek and Russia Saudi Arabia UAE and other destinations Su man TOA mosque was built in 2012 and it's one of the newest and most notable mosqu around the city is home to Ash State University one of the largest universities in kyrgystan with over 33,000 students let's talk to some of [Music] them the city's growing fast some 20 years ago there were no high rises but look at it now I wouldn't be surprised to see the population hit a 1 million Mark within the next 20 years when it comes to food and Ash you got to try the big samsa it's [Music] [Music] delicious mhm fore mhm pushes in southern Kyan you can get super delicious food for cheap just stop at any chai or tea house along the road and get some samsa or shish kebab wow we another now let's talk about economy if you look at the economy of kyrgystan you'll see that it's dependent on Agricultural and Mining sectors cotton tobacco wool meat coal mining and gold kyrgystan has plenty of gold the country's GDP is $ 12.6 billion and I was surprised to learn that 20% of that is gold experts still Kyan remains a poor country JDP per capita is just $1,800 a year let's compare that to the neighboring countries yeah kyrgystan has some catching up to do certain towns still haven't recovered since the break up of the Soviet Union for example baliki where Miel lives was a major industrial center during the Soviet era and jobs were plenty but not anymore no wonder many people still feel nostalgic about the USSR times let's ask me mhm kyan's economic performance has been hindered by widespread corruption General original instability and as the result low foreign investment that's why some 750,000 residents of kyrgystan have to work abroad and send money home when it comes to politics it's pretty much the only democracy in Central Asia having had three Revolutions in eight different Presidents since 1991 the current president is Mr japar he's pretty popular one time we were driving outside of Bishkek and we were overtaken by possibly the presidential morade and people said that the current president wants to be closer to people so he did not block whole sections of the road like the previous guys did in foreign politics kyrgistan remains very pro-russian and that's because it's very dependent on Russia Russia is the main tradein partner and you'll see Russian gas station chains but China is playing more and more important role we ran into a Chinese delegation when we were visiting the Baran Tower it had something to do with the Silk Road Project the Kus side created them with a great performance let's [Music] watch [Applause] [Music] kyrgystan has a very liberal Visa policy and many countries can get a 30 or 60-day VISA upon arrival now before we end this video let's talk about Traditions if you visit someone you cannot leave the house without eating something sometimes you'll be given a huge Meal which you never plann but you can't say no because you'll offend The Host for some traditions might shock you like bri kidnapping the music that you hear throughout the video is from this group their family music musicians that performed for us at the yart camp and this is how their family got started luckily it's a dying tradition but it can still be found in Central Asia and the Caucasus region oxac calls or literally men with white beards play an important role in the society in one Village an oxol told me that it's safe to walk at night if somebody acts up then oxol can get together and come to the guy's house and talk to their parents about the right manners and everybody shows great respect to the elderly which is wonderful all right thanks for watching this video guys if you want to arrange a similar trip in kyrgystan make sure you contact akill and he'll hook you up this is his Instagram account and next time if you want to visit please uh send me a message I also speak English but my English is not perfect but it's enough for working so thank you see you let him know you from cool vision and he'll give you the best deal I was visiting in October and it's a little too late for certain places like high altitude Lakes most of them were covered in snow already all right thanks for watching guys leave a comment and I'll see you in my next video foreign [Music] foreign fore [Music] [Music] [Music] foree [Music] for spee fore [Music] speech CH [Music] just
