Archive: July 19th, 2010
Cholpon Ata is the largest town (village) on the Northern shore of the lake, about half way along, some 250 kilometres from Bishkek. Summer always saw large numbers of tourists descend with their vouchers for a stay in one of the nearby sanatoria or tour resorts (Cholpon Ata boasts one of the two Presidential residences [...]
Lake Issyk Kul lies at the bottom of a drainage hollow, or depression and has no outflow. Mountains ring the lake and there are several valleys worth visiting, Gregorievka and Simeonevka on the North, Barskoon on the South and numerous others around Karakol. To the North are the Kungei (“Sunny”) Ala-Too mountains and are criss-crossed [...]
Everyone kept telling me to “Come on in, the water is lovely and warm!” I wasn’t convinced, especially after I had walked over to the water’s edge and dipped my toes into the lapping waves … The name of the lake, Issyk Kul, might mean Warm Lake in Kyrgyz, but that doesn’t really relate to [...]
