My Quarantine Story in Kyrgyzstan

The road from Bishkek to Osh is always quite the adventure. This picture was taken before the lock-down started. We knew we would have a few surprises during our trip but we never knew how it would turn out....

Then Coronavirus came and all of our plans changed.

When the Coronavirus was starting to get more serious in Kyrgyzstan Dina and I were in the Kyrgyz Ata mountain range which is ~2 hours south of Osh city. We were living out of the camper van enjoying day hikes and spring-like weather. It was really quite a nice time I tell yea.

When we came down from the high mountains we checked Facebook and saw that the whole country of Kyrgyzstan was starting to lockdown. We were not sure what to do really because we did not know how long it would last. Dina’s grandmother Paizan lives about 2 hours south of Osh city in the small village of Sopu-Korgon. We thought it could be nice to visit grandmother and spend our quarantine in the village vs. spending it in Bishkek in our small apartment.

The village of Sopu-Korgon is on the silk road and named after a famous host “Sopu” he hosted travelers during the days of the Silk Road. The 2^nd part of the name is Korgon which means fortress, the whole village is surrounded by mountains. The village is quite nice full of rock wall fences and clay houses. In total we spent around ~40 days in the village.

Before the lockdown was really serious we had a small party called Nowruz. It’s a Persian holiday celebrated on the 21^st of May. All of Dina’s relatives came over to cook and try many different dishes. One of the many aspects of Nowruz is making Sumalak which is a paste type of drink. It’s only made once a year and for me that’s more than enough. It’s cooked for more than 20 hours nonstop over a fire and shared with everyone in the family.

Once the lockdown was quite serious and it was not possible to leave the village the pace of life slowed down. Good thing that grandmother found countless things for us to do. We spent our time cleaning the house the village way, taking the “Toshok" the Kyrgyz’ blankets to get fresh air after a long winter and beat with a stick only 1000 times. Next was to clean all the carpets in the house by hand. It’s quite a bit harder to do than you think.

Then we started our big construction project. The plan was to take down one of Grandmother’s 60-year-old clay house and get ready for the new house that will be built in the old location. Let me tell you it was quite the process and very interesting to see how the houses are built in the village. More or less everything is made from clay and straw and after 60 years everything was still in good condition.

During the construction we had many guests come over and admire the work that we did and they enjoyed having tea with grandmother and talk about the neighbors. In the picture below you can see Dina’s Ant. She could talk for hours and hours about the neighbors and drink endless cups of tea I tell yea.

Once the house was taken down and all the wood and bricks were stacked we started to clean up the mess that was made from the old house.

Make sure to put on your mask and pore tea well. It was quite fun to visit with the older women of the village and to hear all the stories from the Soviet Union.

We were able to "escape" the village for a few days to enjoy a day hike from the doors of our camper van. We received a pass from the village mayor that allowed us to travel outside of the village a few kilometers. We lived out of the camper van and visited many great places for the first time.

This was one of the most beautiful places I have visited in Kyrgyzstan. We spent most of our time trekking and living out of the camper van. It was such a great playground!

Once we made it back to the village to stock up on food and to clean up after a few days of van life. Then the Kyrgyz Government changed the rules and said that the quarantine would last longer. This was hard to take for many reasons but we had good company and we found a way to enjoy another 10 days in the village.

Then we were allowed to travel to Bishkek. First, we had to receive a pass from the village mayor, visit the village doctor to make sure we did not show any cases of the Coronavirus which we had no cases of. Then we enjoyed the drive to Bishkek. We took all the back roads and the slowest way possible to enjoy a few more days in the camper. It was quite easy to arrive in Bishkek and in the end Dina and I were quite happy to spend our Quarantine in Sopu-Korgon, Chong Alay, Kyrgyzstan. We hope you enjoyed our pictures and story from our quarantine in Kyrgyzstan.

The Story continued....

I did the trek to Ala Kol Lake without any other travelers around.....

END OF STORY

YOUR HOST

Alex

Kyrgyzstan

Spring is always a great time to get out of the office and travel in our camper van to visit a few great places before the tour season starts. My fiancé Dina and I were planning a big central Asian Trip from Bishkek to Osh and then to spend Nowruz in Samarkand, Uzbekistan and then to visit the less known places in Uzbekistan for example, Termez which is a historic silk road town. After this we wanted to cross into Tajikistan to do the Pamir Highway in early spring and enjoy the rough roads of Central Asia.

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