yurts.kg
Over the years, I have met a number of businessmen who have expressed an interest in investing in Kyrgyzstan, especially in projects in tourism.
Most of the ideas that they have been considering have been interesting and many have been innovative, ranging:
- from air taxis to running a network of tourist buses;
- from running luxury tours to “gap year” programmes;
- from establishing ski bases to from building luxury resorts akin to theme parks;
- from the equivalent of motorway service stations with cafes and motels, to camp sites;
- from establishing a sports training centre to hostels for backpackers around the country;
Two of the most interesting involved establishing yurt camps. Now there are already yurt camps in Kyrgyzstan, but in both of these cases there were additional elements which would have singled these particular projects out as special … for reasons of confidentiality I can’t go into detail here. These particular projects haven’t been implemented … yet … but, who knows?, someday, someone might take the proposals down off the bookshelf, dust them off and decide to give them a go. If they do, I wish them luck. As I said, they were interesting and innovative.
So, what is a yurt?
Well, that’s a good question, and to be honest, I had no idea before I came here.
It’s also the question that we had in mind to answer when we planned the latest of our websites, www.yurts.kg.
It’s one of a series of websites about the traditional nomadic culture of the Kyrgyz. Others in the series include www.horses.kg; www.tastes.kg and www.sounds.kg. We are currently busy working on the next one in the series about crafts.
They are not meant to be exhaustive encyclopedic sites, just aimed to give brief introduction to certain aspects of Kyrgyz culture. Even so, I am pleased to say that they series has proved to be quite popular. At the moment they seem to be attracting quite a lot of interest, from all around the world.
Each of the sites is in three languages: English, Russian and French.
Yurts.kg has five sections:
- The yurt in the life of the Kyrgyz;
- Construction and erection of a yurt;
- The traditional decoration and ornamentation of a Kyrgyz yurt;
- The use of yurts at festivals and traditional celebrations, and
- The use of yurts in tourism.
Why not pay a visit: www.yurts.kg – and let us know what you think.
Bishkek