Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan | 17 August, 2006 | $7.63
I arrived by bus in this town on the edge of Lake Issyk-Kul and wasn’t sure where to go. Although the town was full of tourists almost all of them were Russian and there was little catering to the English-speaking tourist. I ended up following a sign to a home stay and managed to pantomime out the terms of my one-night stay with the owner. She looked more like a Russian Babushka than a Kyrygz and it was clear that this wasn’t a typical Kyrgyz town. A little blonde boy also lived in the house and would pop his head in my door and stare at me while I unpacked and follow me around the yard.
My room was inside the house but most of the other tenants stayed in a row of cement bungalows surrounding the driveway. They sat around cooking and drinking while I went to the beach. At the back of the property was a beautiful fruit orchard where the owners were drying apples which you can see in the photos below.
