Postcard from Bishkek

I am British, and was born and grew up in Malvern, Worcestershire.  As such I was never that far from the sea.  The nearest seaside resort is Weston Super Mare, just over 55 miles away, (that’s about 89 kilometers), and as a child I visited it several years running.

Britain is, of course an island and so you are never far from the sea.  According to the Ordinance Survey, Britain’s official government map makers, the furthest point from the sea is on Church Flatts Farm, just outside the Derbyshire  village of Cotton in the Elms – some 70 miles, (or 113 kilometers), from the edge of The Wash, south of Boston in Lincolnshire.

Nowadays I live almost 2500 miles, (or 5600 kilometers), away in Bishkek, the capital city of landlocked Kyrgyzstan, which is about 1314 kilometers (about 815 miles, that is), from the sea – at Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, financial center and main seaport.

Here, the “sea” seems to have a mystical quality for many people and I am sometimes asked if I miss it.

A friend of mine, for example, visited Britain a few years ago and one of the highlights of his visit, he told me, was a visit to Blackpool where he stood on the beech and he had himself photographed beside the Atlantic Ocean – and I didn’t the heart to tell him that it wasn’t the Ocean – just the Irish Sea.   It was an overcast day and the photos were grey and pretty dismal, but that didn’t detract in any way from his pleasure as he recounted the experience of standing on the shore and looking out at the vast expanse of water.

Knowing that he had visited Lake Issyk Kul many times … I asked him how he would compare the two … after all, “seas” are usually  large bodies of salty water – and although most of them are connected to the oceans, (such as the Red Sea, North Sea and the Irish Sea), there are also inland “seas”, that are large and salty, for example, the Dead Sea, the Aral Sea … and, of course, Lake Issyk Kul.   (Also, for the record, there are a few large fresh water lakes have been called seas, such as the Sea of Galilee.)

“You can’t!” was the reply.  ”In Blackpool there was nothing on the Horizon but in Issyk Kul you can see the mountains on the other side of the lake.”

I am not sure that this would count as a definition of the difference between the sea and a lake but I have seen an explanation which says that “the term sea means any body of water sufficiently large as to regularly require navigation by boats as opposed to traversing around by land.”  In a way, however, that is one of the charms of the Lake – it’s big enough to offer a variety of attractions yet small enough to not overwhelm the visitor with a sense of emptiness over the horizon.

 

There are many ways to enjoy the waters of Lake Issyk Kul:

As well as simple relaxing and sunbathing on the beach – or going for a swim, it is possible to arrange diving trips or take a boat trip.

In Cholpon Ata there is a Yacht Club which hires out boats. Many people, however, like to take a “Cruise” on the lake aboard one of the boats which travel between the various piers around the lake – it can be a good way to experience the calm of the waters and see the magnificent panorama of the Terskey and Kungey Ala Too mountain ranges which encircle the lake.  Alternatively, there are a number of boats which take traditional “trip around the bay” so common in many seaside towns.

 

A couple of years ago I took the kids up to Issyk Kul and we went out on one such “pleasure trip”.

From the jetty located in a small bay just outside Cholpon Ata, shaded by trees we soon found ourselves drawing away from the shore, following the shoreline for a while before heading out into the center of the lake.  After about twenty minutes the motors were turned off and we got a distinct sense of peace and quite in the stillness – with waves lapping the sides of the boat providing the only sound.

We were invited to strip off, down to swimming costumes, and to take to the waters for a swim … just in case, a rubber ring was thrown over the rail at the side of the boat for anyone who might find themselves in difficulty – no-one needed it.

Here are some photographs that we took on that occasion:

 

 

 

 

Tags: Celestial_Mountains, Expat, Kyrgyzstan, Places, Tourism