The UF Travel Group visited Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in April 2024. They provided Uttryck with the journal of their adventures.
AFTER A LONG DAY of travelling and a night spent on the aeroplane, we arrived in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. As many of us were tired, we decided to explore the town at our own pace. Some of us visited the Osh Bazaar, others roamed the streets and parks of the city centre. In the evening, we headed to a fancy restaurant serving traditional Kyrgyz cuisine for our welcome dinner.
The next day, we visited the Central Asian regional office of Acted, an NGO operating throughout the entire world in low- to middle-income countries. We discussed numerous regional projects of theirs, for example regarding water scarcity, women’s rights and natural disaster relief. In the afternoon we explored the south side of the city, for example the large Atatürk park.
The third day was another completely free one to keep exploring the city at one’s own pace. Some of us visited the Central Mosque, which was very beautiful and reminiscent of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. Some of us also visited the National History Museum and learned more about Kyrgyz history.
On the fourth and final day in Kyrgyzstan, it was time to leave the city and go for a hike in the mountains of Ala-Archa national park, which was incredibly beautiful. Coming back to the city in the afternoon, we had a meeting with another NGO called El-Too, working locally in rural Kyrgyzstan with sustainable development in areas such as agriculture and eco-tourism. The next day it was time to say goodbye to Bishkek and take a five-hour bus journey across the border to Kazakhstan, and its largest city as well as former capital Almaty. After arriving, we checked into our hostel and went into the city for a quick dinner, before going to bed early in preparation of the two-day adventure that was to come.
Then our guides picked us up at 6 am in a minibus that would take us 200km eastwards. Our first stop was in the middle of the highway in a “desert” filled with yellow flowers. We continued onwards towards the Charyn Canyon, a 100 km long canyon reminding some of us of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The next stop was the beautiful and mountainous area of Kolsay Lake, which was near the yurts that we were to sleep in that night. We had an evening together eating baursak and plov cooked by our hosts, and having a great time by the open fire.
The following day we were woken up by a symphony of cows, hens and cockerels and were a bit cold as our wood stove had burned out during the night. Our adventure continued as we rode in old soviet ambulances, driven like crazy on a muddy road towards our last stop where we rode horses over to Kaindy Lake, the lake with “upside-down-trees” in it. This two-day trip showed us the vast diversity of Kazakhstan’s nature.
When we arrived back in Almaty we had two days to explore the city. Many of us used the metro as transportation around town, as it was beautiful and historically interesting, having begun construction during the last years of the Soviet Union. We visited the colourful Zenkov Cathedral, completely built in wood, located in a park with monuments dedicated to World War II and the war in Afghanistan. In the afternoon, we met with the Swedish consulate, discussing the Swedish presence in Kazakhstan and the tensing relations with Russia.
The last day, we had a meeting with the independent news media Vlast, which talked to us about the difficulties with working in a non-democratic country and showed us an alternative perspective to the Kazakh-Russian relations. Some of us continued the day by visiting the large Green Bazaar, antique stores, museums and the Arasan bathhouse. We finished our journey by eating all 20 of us at a Ukrainian restaurant and visiting some bars, before flying home early the next day.
Text and pictures: UF Travel Group
