places lake issyk-kul

Kyrgyzstan’s Lake Issyk-Kul Words | Caroline E d e n is flanked by two mountain ranges – the Kungey (‘Sunny’) Ala-Too to the north and the Terksey (‘Shady’) Ala-Too to the south Sun, sand & shashlik In land-locked kyrgyzstan, a trip to the beach involves a drive up into the mountains – where instead of consuming ice lollies and fizzy drinks, BATHErs tuck into kebabs and down vodka shots Photography: Rianovosti Photography:

46 Voyager Voyager 47 places lake issyk-kul

men file into convenience stores to down quick nips of vodka, topping up their alcohol levels as you would a phone card Photography: Patstock Photography:

Irena Ivanov, a well-to-do economist from there are hardly any aksakals (revered white-bearded siberia lifts her six-year-old son onto a bobbing elders), soaring eagles, or jailoos (summer pastures). plastic pedalo. With his feet dangling in the blue Instead, the town offers visitors nightclubs and water and his thin arms enveloped safely in blow-up sanatoria. On the main strip, a 10-minute walk armbands, she tells him to grip the pedal boat’s sides. from the beach, loud Russian pop music pumps out ‘Viktor always used to get sick,’ Irena says, while of packed cafés and bars. Catering to groups of ruffling the boy’s hair. ‘Now, every year we come to boisterous families, these places serve manly portions Issyk-Kul Lake to visit the sanatorium and to swim. The of sizzling shashlik, plov (rice with carrots and meat, warm climate, fresh fruit and clean air have stopped cooked in oil), borscht and bottles of Baltika lager. him getting weak in the winter. He’s much stronger Between the strip and beach, men file into now.’ She says this jokingly, but with conviction. convenience stores to down quick nips of vodka, The waves of Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul (literally ‘warm topping up their alcohol levels as you would a lake’ in Kyrgyz) lap against her pale swim-suited phone card. Above the town, against a backdrop body. With her sickly son out of range she lights a of mountain ridges, boob-tubed women appear on cigarette. Her husband, she tells me, has a stressful enormous plastic posters that advertise nightclubs job as the director of a factory in their home town of with names like Nirvana and Opus. Krasnoyarsk. She points him out: he is sitting under Historically, Issyk-Kul was a place to sojourn for a Sprite-branded parasol, sucking on sour cherries. merchants and traders traversing the long Silk Road All around us, solemn Russian, Kyrgyz and Kazakh between China and Europe. Much later, during Soviet faces are softened by the sun and the tepid water of times (1919-1991), the picturesque setting of the the world’s second-largest saline lake – which never lake and its curative properties (it was once believed freezes, despite its altitude of 5,000ft (1,524m), and that merely bathing in it would cure tuberculosis) is kept warm by volcanic activity beneath the surface. attracted tourists and party cadres from near and Irena tells me that she comes here every year, far, who would arrive, putyovka (voucher) in hand, convinced it helps the family to better manage the for a few nights at a sanatorium. The Kyrgyz government bitter Siberian winter. ‘My aunt lives here, so we stay Soviet athletes would settle along the shores in is planning to build a paved bike route with her for three weeks. My husband goes fishing to the summer to train at altitude and cosmonauts around the lake to be forget about work, and I sunbathe.’ would arrive to convalesce after they came back called Bai Issyk-Kul, Cholpon Ata, the beach-like resort on Issyk-Kul’s to earth: Yuri Gagarin reportedly stayed at the which translates as ‘rich Issyk-Kul’ in Kyrgyz but northern shore, is not the Kyrgyzstan of Western Tamga Sanatorium on the south shore after his sounds like ‘bicycle’ imagination. This is no yurted village on the steppe; momentous space flight. Boris Yeltsin was also a to English speakers

48 Voyager places lake issyk-kul

frequent visitor and had a local 11,480ft (3,500m) peak, close to the lake, named after him in 2002. There have been dips in tourist numbers over the Despite winter temperatures that years. The most recent was as a result of ethnic riots dip to -25˚C, the in 2010, which caused a sizeable 40 to 60 per cent unique microclimate slump. Before that, in the late 90s, a truck destined that surrounds the lake ensures it never freezes for a nearby goldmine crashed and dumped almost two tons of cyanide into a river that flows into the lake, which triggered panic and caused tourists to stay away. Yet Issyk-Kul remains Kyrgyzstan’s most popular tourist attraction, the mere mention of it rendering locals misty-eyed and garrulous with pride. In the summer months marshrutka (shared minibuses) deposit local families on the shores, while rich urbanites from Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, bounce through the Boom Gorge to reach the lake in half a day. Kazakhs – who make up 70 per cent of visitors – can travel here in just under five hours from Kazakhstan’s second city, Almaty. Tinged pink under the glaring sun, Nurlan Kalmakanov, 24, from Shymkent, has driven here, he tells me, in his new white Toyota Camry 35 – a car many aspire to own in his native Kazakhstan. After reciting the car’s number plate, he adds confidently, ‘Every year I drive 600 kilometres Issyk-kul is kyrgyzstan’s most popular tourist to get here, smooth and easy, no problems.’ I ask him if he’s ever run into trouble on the long, remote drive. He laughs and begins to tell me attraction, the mere mention of it rendering of the potential pitfalls for the unsuspecting traveller. ‘Organised gangs sometimes rob Kazakh tourists on locals misty-eyed and garrulous with pride the roads connecting Kazakhstan and Issyk-Kul, and Kyrgyz policemen often try to give us Kazakh drivers higher fines. It’s quite common – but it’s never happened to us.’ With this, he high-fives Talgat, one of his travel buddies, who is sat in the sand, audibly supping a super-strength Baltika 9 lager, while simultaneously smoking a cigar and drying out wet Kyrgyz bank notes on his thighs. They have come here for a week, and have been holidaying in Issyk-Kul since 2006. Back home they are young entrepreneurs, businessmen riding the wave of Kazakhstan’s wealth, which primarily comes from major oil discoveries. His wife, in a green and white printed mini bikini, chips in: ‘We’ve heard that Russian casinos will open here soon. I think it will change the scene. We might stop coming if it gets too rowdy. We like it as it is.’ With that she returns to touching up her make-up under the dual protection of a sun visor and parasol. She is perhaps right to be concerned. In 2009, thousands of casinos and betting halls across Russia shut down to comply with new restrictions that required all gambling businesses to relocate to four remote regions of the country: the exclave of Kaliningrad, southern Siberia’s Altai territory, Primorye in Russia’s far east and southern Russia. Analysts were

Photography: Lonely Planet Lonely Photography: quick to assert that the government’s decision was a

50 Voyager Voyager 51 places lake issyk-kul

move to weed out money laundering and the criminal backed by orchard gardens. Local entrepreneurs have The ‘Kazakh beach set’ element involved in the casino business. grown to depend on this large floating population make up 70 percent of the tourists who come Russian and Kazakh investment in Issyk-Kul is being which, like migrating birds, descends in the summer. to Kyrgyzstan: some met with some resentment in Kyrgyzstan, which They’ll spend most of the year preparing for the tourist 1.4 million Kazakhs remains considerably poorer than its northern season, which lasts only for a few months, aware that visited in 2009 neighbours. At least four prestigious resorts on they must live on the proceeds until next season. Issyk-Kul Lake are Kazakh-owned, and Kazakhstan’s Reliable families like the Omoshevas from Omsk, in likely investment in the hydropower sector has been Siberia, arrive almost on the same date every summer met with a smattering of anti-Kazakh slogans. The to spend their Russian roubles. Nazar Omosheva, the other development that could bring major change 40-year-old father of the family, leans on a ramshackle is the construction of Issyk-Kul International Airport, wooden table that has been wedged into the sand. the total cost of which is reported to be $80 million. He has a small shot glass of vodka in one hand, a For now, though, it’s hard to imagine Issyk-Kul cigarette in the other, and is flanked by two beautiful changing that much. An air of eternal afternoon Cleopatra-esque women, one his wife, the other his hangs over the lake and its surrounds, and beyond daughter. All three wear large Chanel sunglasses. the surface trappings of fast cars, nightclubs and the ‘I have a business in Bishkek and a holiday home occasional strutting playboy there remains a sense of here. We’ve been coming for years. Once we tried simple pleasures. Kyrgyz women in floppy sun hats vacationing at another lake, at Sochi in Russia, but sell silvery dried fish that dangle from long wooden we didn’t like it.’ His wife chimes in: ‘We feel good sticks slung over their shoulders, while headscarved coming here, the views of nature, the warm water…’ babushkas proffer freshly picked strawberries and ripe She trails off in thought and pushes her sunglasses peaches. Blow-up balls bounce on the sand, children down her sculpted nose to better scan the bmi flies fromLondon Heathrow build sandcastles and play with buckets and spades, surrounding mountains. ‘My mother used to tell to Bishkek three times a week, and and the odd jet ski skims the waves. us everything can be cured by salt water,’ she from London Heathrow to Almaty three times a week. For more Many visitors reject the all-encompassing resorts continues, wistfully. ‘Whether it’s sweat, tears information and to book flights, and instead opt to stay in rustic Kyrgyz guest houses, or the sea – it’s for you to decide.’ visit flybmi.com Photography: Lonely Planet Lonely Photography:

52 Voyager