The Soviet’s LOST Paradise? 🇰🇬 S3, EP18

Tom, that's his house. Hey, Rodrigo. Photo. What's up? Bye-bye. Good morning everyone. Welcome back. We are now in Karakoram, in Kyrgyzstan. So yesterday we reached here and we stayed in this guesthouse. And they have a beautiful garden. The host told me that they grow those apple trees four years ago. And those are the winter apples, which are not ready yet. But they look great. The host said that those apples will become soft probably in middle October. And they will be very delicious. From China, there are many Kyrgyz still living in this park. Now it is easy to get to Kyrgyzstan. Before they need visa, but now they don't need visa to Kyrgyzstan. Now many people, Kyrgyz people are coming from that park. They say it is only four hours from that park to Karakol. Wow, that's fast. From their village to Karakol, it's only four hours. From the village in China to here? Yes. Wow, are there border crossing? You have to go through Kazakhstan, right? Maybe they have a special permit, like border permit. Maybe, but no need for visa. Now it's 10 a.m. in the morning. And one interesting thing is that Kyrgyzstan time is one hour later than Kazakhstan. In Kazakhstan, it's still 9 a.m. But the capital Astana is more to the east. So Astana is more to the east of Bishkek. For breakfast, we got some salami, cheese, coffee, orange, different bread, and some of those candies, chocolate candies. And they told us that we should eat this porridge together with the jam. This should be somewhere near the bazaar. There is some heavy traffic and lots of people. It's getting more and more lively. A Kyrgyz head! How lovely is that? Ah, this should be the bazaar area. Oh, look how crowded it is. We're walking through the closing section. I have the feeling that the bazaars here are primarily closing. This morning I talked with our host and she told us that the Kazakh and the Kyrgyz language are very similar. They can understand over 90%. And as to the Uyghurs and Uzbeks, they can understand about 50%. And as to the Tajiks, it's the most difficult. But most of the Kyrgyz are bilingual. They speak Kyrgyz and Russian. Oh, what is this? People are queuing. So Uzbek, Uzbek naan bread. In Xinjiang they always bake it in a naan stove. But here people use electric stove. So those are the traditional dairy products. The hardened, the dried yogurt in different sizes and different flavors. There are also lots of spices, chili pepper and dried nuts. I feel like people in Kyrgyzstan are a little bit shorter compared to people in Kazakhstan. And people in Kazakhstan are relatively smaller. Goodbye. Leaving Karakol, we drove west along the southern shore of Issyk-Kul. This area lies away from the main track of the Silk Road, though some side routes once passed nearby. The great trade routes of the Silk Road depended on fertile oasis towns and busy bazaars. While Issyk-Kul, sitting 1,600 meters above sea level, was too high and cold in winter for large settlements to survive. For centuries, these open grasslands have instead been a paradise for nomadic people. Who? Ah, yes. Tom. That's his house. Have you seen my husband? That's his house. You can send it to him. What's up? What's up? You? What's up? Send it to you. Number. What's up? Ah, OK. What's up? OK. Bye-bye. During the Soviet era, many military sanatoriums were built along the shores of Issyk-Kul. Some of them are still in operation today, like the Tamga Sanatorium. When we arrived, the summer facilities had already been closed, so we just took a walk around the place. The whole setting already felt quite Sovietic. Look at those paintings and the mosaic. It feels like back in the 1930s. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Oh, it's quite big. The facilities here are pretty worn out. Look at this. This is wooden and then painted again in black. The ground feels very broken, too. But it has everything. There is a place for boxing. There is also table tennis. We just got those racket from the reception. This is a swimming pool. Those are the typical food you can get in a cafe in Kyrgyzstan. So they call this manti, which looks like baozi to me. And this is lagman, which is a literal translation of ramen in Chinese. That's pulled noodles. And that is potato with meat, samsa. This looks like hundun. And this one is liangfen. I think that's a liangfen. So starchy noodles originated from the central part of China. This small town is called Baxu. It's on a slope. It's pretty nice with lots of small houses, with a yard, a garden. We come here for dinner. Kyrgyz. Near Uzbek. Kyrgyz. This is the ramen lagman. It looks very different from what you can get in Xinjiang. I think there is beef. There is pepper. Maybe this is huosun. The noodles here taste a little bit like the Xinjiang ramen. But it's different. And also the noodles are cooked until it's very soft. It's much softer than the ones you get in China. It's beautiful. Tasty. Very tasty. Here, hi is jahshi. Jahshi. Rahmat. Jahshi. Spasiba. It's very similar to what I learned from the Chinese Kazakhs. Once they say hello, they say jahshi. The food manti is a very interesting food that's spread along the Silk Road. It is believed that it firstly originated in China. And in China, the mantou, baizan, is actually the dumplings. Which means it's a food with a doughy skin with meat inside. And then the Mongols and Turkic people kind of brought them along the Silk Road. And in different regions along the Silk Road, today there are different variations. So the Kyrgyz manti looks like what you can see now. There are different forms. Some are more like xiaolongbao. And others more like this, like what we just had. And some others look like that. And in Turkey, eventually, the manti became much, much smaller. It's roughly this size, normally with meat inside. And you often eat it, for example, with sour cream or with the yogurt. Ever since we entered Kyrgyzstan, I feel this Sovietic vibe so strongly. The street, the statue, the buildings. At night, it's pretty chill. It's about, I think, 10 degrees. Flori is wearing cute jackets. And sunset by the lake is absolutely beautiful. Even the locals stop their car to take photos. This is where we stayed yesterday. A guest house right next to the Issyk-Kul lake. We got a small room for two with a bathroom and even a fridge. We paid, I think, 1500 per person. And it's a really nice house. They have a very spacious living room with some nice plants. And look on the top. That is a Russian-style samovar. That's a teapot, a big teapot. And what's really interesting is the door lock. It's something that I have never seen in any other country. I will show you in a minute. Look, there are 10 different buttons on it. Each with a number. And to open it, you have to press certain numbers at the same time. So you have to press it. It is open. Chloe is enjoying his swim in the Issyk-Kul lake. This area is so beautiful. It reminds me of the Mediterranean Sea in Europe. Our guest house is very close to the lake, the Issyk-Kul lake. And that narrow stripe, that's Tianshan Mountain Range. And this part is also Tianshan Mountain Range. And speaking of the ancient Silk Road, somewhere in that gorge, about 30 km away, you can find a big stone with Buddhist script carved into the rock. It means that Buddhism has spreaded along the Silk Road, at least to this part of the road. As to today, we will continue our ride towards Bishkek. It's about 300 km. And we are not sure if we can make it there. And if not, we will probably just find a small town and stay overnight in the middle. Hello! Oh, chicken! Lots of apple trees. So the road has been like this, sometimes good, sometimes bad. And we don't know where we are going to make it today. And I think we are going to end the video from here, in front of this beautiful farmland. And we hope you enjoyed watching this video. Thanks for watching. Next episode will be maybe somewhere near Bishkek. Bye-bye!