Kristin: All right, guys.
Good morning from Kyrgyzstan.
I'm in a place called Karakol, which is at the base of a really awesome trek I'm gonna
do.
So, right now, just putting my stuff together.
It's just gonna be me, a guide, and a porter.
Let's hit the road.
All right, time to get ready to go.
Man: We start from Karakol, go by car to the [inaudible 00:00:55] village.
[inaudible 00:00:57], sorry.
Bordered across few passes [inaudible 00:01:00].
We sleep around here or maybe go up [inaudible 00:01:03].
Here you can see all this view.
Kristin: Awesome.
Man: It's a nice place, yeah.
Kristin: All right, so we have just arrived at the start of the trek and there is a tiny,
minor insignificant little problem, and that is that...this bridge behind me has been completely
washed out by the river here, which is pretty strong right now.
So we're gonna see if we can get across some other way.
All right, guys, this is Bahram.
Bahram: Hello.
Kristin: And Roma.
Bahram: Roma.
Kristin: He's the strong silent type.
Bahram: And now we have small problem.
You can see the water moves the bridge.
Kristin: Okay, so now we're piling stuff onto the horse, as you can see, and this local
kid is helping us out.
It's really nice of him.
So we're gonna try to cross now.
Okay, now it's my turn to go across with the horse.
Did I ever mention that...
Bahram: Good experience.
Kristin: I don't really like riding horses.
Bahram: She won't swim, this horse because the water is very warm.
Kristin: The water is warm, great.
We made it.
That's awesome.
We paid him in candy.
And now we're gonna have a little picnic and then start the hike.
Okay, so we started our trek in the...
Bahram: From Turgen Valley.
Kristin: From the Turgen Valley, and this is...
Bahram: Bozuchuk.
Kristin: Bozuchuk.
I'll probably never get these names quite right.
It's a good thing you're here.
It's a really beautiful trek though, and already day one, it's just this amazing mountain views
and people coming by on horses.
It's just really picturesque.
So, it's a good start.
So that was our...that was our first day on this trek and I'm really impressed and I can't
think of worse places to sleep tonight.
Morning, so...
Bahram: Hello.
Kristin: Good morning.
So it was...what I am talking about...day two of our trek.
Where are we going today?
Bahram: Today, we go this way, straight up in the valley...
Kristin: [inaudible 00:03:30].
Bahram: Cross [inaudible 00:03:30].
The altitude is 2,600.
Kristin: [inaudible 00:03:34]?
Bahram: Yeah.
Kristin: [inaudible 00:03:36].
And we have a nice breakfast going.
Wow, we are not going to starve.
Good morning.
Roma: Good morning.
Kristin: We had several passes to summit during this trek.
This is our second one out of like, I don't know, five, six or seven.
And it's not the easiest thing to do when you're at 4,000 meters in altitude, and I
have my sunglasses on right now because I didn't really sleep last night.
The stars were so amazing, I just had to stay photographing them.
And you never know when you're gonna get another chance like that.
So, pretty tired, but we must go.
The show must go on.
Hiking at this altitude is intense.
It's a really, really beautiful hike, but nothing can prepare you for hiking in altitude
except for hiking in altitude.
The summit at the second pass, it was a climb of about 1,300 meters, which if you're not
in the know, that's a lot.
And the really unfortunate thing is, we cannot see anything.
It would be...I mean, normally, it's kind of like, "Oh, we're doing it," and, "It's
worth it because of this amazing view," but not this time, which is kind of the silent
agreement you make with Mother Nature if you're gonna go trekking.
But fingers crossed for some clearer weather as we proceed.
All right, this is the view on the other side.
We can see a little bit more over here, but still, it's cloudy.
Go away.
Bahram: Try again.
Kristin: Maybe if we all do it.
Bahram: Okay, let's go.
One, two, three.
Oh, much better.
Kristin: Yeah.
It totally works.
Just a quick pit stop on the way down.
This is steep.
This is really slippery, but it's also clearing up a little bit and it looks...I mean, it
looks incredibly beautiful and this is why people hike, because you can't possibly drive
here and it's stunning.
And now we need to cross this raging river, and then get up to the second pass and then
go back down.
That was cold.
Oh, man, I do not even mind anymore that we couldn't see anything before, because this
lake is incredible.
So we are just packing up, getting ready to leave the Almalu Valley.
And, you know you love this nerdy thing I got going on with my hat.
Anyways, we got snow last night, dusting those peaks over there.
It's June 29th, by the way.
But that makes everything prettier.
So, apart from frozen wet feet, we are good.
And today we're heading to a hot spring, so that's very exciting.
Excited about the hot spring?
Bahram: Of course.
Kristin: Man, this descent is not easy.
It is straight up.
I mean straight up.
My feet are at an angle.
You could see how tall that mountain is and how much of an incline it is from the valley,
and that's exactly what we're doing on this side.
That was steep, but I'm really actually kind of scared for what the downhill's gonna be
like.
We made it.
Bahram: [inaudible 00:07:24].
Kristin: Woo hoo!
So that was 1,000...
Bahram: One thousand...
[inaudible 00:07:33], 1,600, yeah.
Kristin: Man, so we just...
Bahram: No, not to here.
Observe, this is the pass.
Kristin: Are you [inaudible 00:07:39] serious?
Bahram: Yeah, it is the pass.
Kristin: All right, so we finished our trek for today.
We had a pretty gnarly ascent and then a beautiful view on the way down.
And now we are at a place where there are some hot springs.
Good morning from Altyn Arashan.
So we had snow last night, and then today, it is like summer and beautiful and totally
clear.
One out of one donkeys agree.
It is a gorgeous day.
We got some company on the trail.
I think I'll have to wait my turn.
Guys, that's a wrap on day four, and it was a pretty easy day today actually.
We only trekked for about four hours, which is kind of a welcome respite throughout the
base of one of the most famous things in the region.
It's a lake up there called Ala-Kul.
I cannot wait to see this lake tomorrow.
It's supposed to be amazing.