(25.6.2012) Finally, we arrived in Kyrgyzstan. The mountains lie right in front of us and we are ready to dive into them. We leave the prairie behind and enter the kingdom of the wolf.
Since the last blogpost (23.6.0212) a few things happened that showed me the answer on the why-question.
We found a place to sleep in a shallow riverbed at the foot of a mountain. The landscape reminded me a little of the alps, but the camels, the yellow and dry grass and the wide prairie in our back showed me clearly where we are really.
It was a perfect camping place. A plain little island, overgrown with soft grass, the river with clear and ice cold water from the snowy mountains, and the best of all, no Mosquitos. It was simply to cold ( and maybe to high, 1000m) for them, what added to our comfort. We could sleep without tent and had a wonderful refreshing cold night.
We woke up by the noise of a horse. On its back was a big little boy that screamed at us: at kuda, ad kuda jetje( from where, to where) This boy didn’t have any respect for sleeping strangers and left only when we had gotten his questions answered. I hate this kind of awaking but on the other hand had a lot of respect for this little guy sitting on a huge horse and guiding hundreds of sheep into the mountains to their food at 6:00 in the morning. He was no older than 9 years and in charge of his families wealth.
We stood up, had another dive in the river and lots of motivation for the day cycling through mountains. We arrived in Taras at about 15:00 and thus had our daily kilometers done, even more. What we had worked the previous day in hight meters we had as downhill pleasure on this day. Hurricane tailwinds made cycling even more fun.
Just as Paul said that an invitation for dinner would be perfect now, a BMW 5 with aluminum rims stopped next to us. The darkened window slid down and a ad kuda came out of the dark inner. Taras was supposed to be gangster city 2 in Kazachstan so we answered friendly and a little nervous.
Satisfied with the answers we gave, the BMW took of just to stop again about 500 meters further. This time he asked if he can invite us for dinner, sleeping at his place and drinking beer. Paul’s dreams had come true immediately. He showed us the way to his home by driving in front of us. It was a flat in a suburb area. We put our bikes in the cellar, took our passports and some money with us and he locked the cellar. They were definitely save.
In all the houses we were until now we had to take our shoes off. This is actually a nice gesture for you feel much more home then. The only problem is that most of the time our feet stank so badly that we were kind of embarrassed to do so. Paul gave them a sign by pointing at the shoes and closing his nose with two fingers. They immediately understood (maybe the smell had reached their noses already). They showed us the shower, and while we washed, the living room table changed into a culinary paradise. Sweets, cookies, bread, tea, sausages, salads and everything we could want. We talked about many things. Nurik, the son of the family which had invited us, proudly showed us his wedding fotos. He was two years younger than we are and had already married. His wife, Maral, and he were a really lovely couple and though they had the traditional husband-wife-roles, seemed to bee so happy together. She did the laundry for us while he went to get beer. He went to work and she cooked dinner. It was so nice to see how everyone of them had their special tasks and both were completely happy with it. Nurik had the idea to start a car export from Germany to Kazachstan we even got as far as to calculate what we would earn.
Needless to say, we ate as much as we could but still were fed further by Nurik’s mother. She was a true original, so caring, warm hearted and funny in a way that reminded me of my grandmother.
Shortly before exploding we were allowed to use their computer to check mails and skype home.
When finished and our stomaches had just digested the avalanche
the next meal had already covered the table. A five liter beer can was brought in from the cooling and the odor of cooked beef filled the flat. We sat there until 3:00 in the mornings, played guitar and banjo and toasted on our new friendship.
It was a fantastic evening. The whole family, everyone of them was unbelievae friendly, charming and funny. I have to say большое спасибо to them all.
We stood up with a heavy hangover and again, breakfast was ready. After we packed our stuff the neighbors wife came along with two really cute little girls, also twins. We took a picture together, hugged goodby and left, sad that we didn’t have more time with Nurik’s family and happy to finally get to Kyrgyzstan, to the snowy mountains and wild nature. Nurik and his wife proudly guided us to the border in the BMW about 20km. Then we said goodby one last time. It’s the choice of the traveler to leave things behind that he would not have discovers without leaving things behind.
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