In late July, my host family, who is from Issyk-Kul, invited me along on their annual road trip to the massive lake at the opposite end of the country. They’re from a small village at the very far end of the lake, in a town that is just about as far away from Osh as you can get without leaving Kyrgyzstan. With a short whirlwind of planning, I got permission to join them, and we set off on August 2nd, with the stipulation that I had to be in Bishkek by the evening of August 9th.

Rather than drive directly, though, we decided to travel a more circuitous route to see more of the country. Our plan included a drive on the spectacular Osh to Bishkek highway, a detour through a remote corner of Naryn oblast up to the world-famous jailoo at Song-Kul, and finally down over the mountains to Issyk-Kul.  We started out driving most of the way to Bishkek along the main north-south road, which winds its way out of Osh, around the pinnacle of Uzbekistan in the side of Kyrgyzstan, and up over the mountains to the Toktogul reservoir, before crossing more mountains.

We took a leisurely start, and after stopping to say hello to my friend Kelly in her village, we stopped to visit the Uzgen Minaret and Mausoleum, which is one of the historical highlights of the country.

The minaret is pretty tall, and like the Burana Tower in Chui, dates back to a Silk Road-era city around the 11th century. Like Burana as well, through the doorway is a very steep spiral staircase that makes less than a full rotation while climbing up to the top of the relatively tall tower.

The complex also is home to this spectacularly preserved and decorated mausoleum (to whom, I am not sure, but they called it that). The interior is relatively sparse, with quite a bit of graffiti, but I was rather enamored with this gate:

Outside, the three doorways are decorated in slightly different styles, with some beautiful Arabic calligraphy designs in a few places, and geometric designs in others.

After exploring and taking some pictures, it was off to Jalal-Abad, where we had some of the city’s signature jumbo манты (manty), which are a kind steamed dumpling that I absolutely love. These ones were meat-filled, but I also am very fond of ones filled with a plant called “juusai” here, which Wikipedia translates as “garlic chives/Chinese Chives/oriental garlic/Chinese leek,” which brings me no closer to actually telling you what it really is.

Out of Jalal-Abad, we wound our way up through Bazaar-Korgon, on a strange border-necessitated side-trip way up a valley (to avoid a part of Uzbekistan that the straight-ahead road crosses) towards a town called Mailuu-suu (literally, buttery water, one of my favorite place names in the country). Then, it was up through Tash-Komur (literally, coal stone), past a series of tall hydroelectric dams, over another pass, and down to the Toktogul Reservoir, which powers one of the largest hydroelectric dams in the country. We stopped for a swim in the reservoir, which was considerably warmer than any other water I’ve entered in Kyrgyzstan.

After a brief “rest” at the lake, we climbed back in the car, past the musically-inclined town of Toktogul, up through a narrow canyon, and finally up and over yet another high mountain pass that marked the line between Jalal-Abad oblast and Chui oblast. After we crossed into Chui, it began to get dark, so my host decided to pull over to where a bunch of trucks were parked. We got out of the car, and saw three yurts lined up. It was a truck stop, with home made shashlik as the plat du jour. It was definitely a nice step up from the McDonalds/instant coffee combination at many rest stops in the US (that being said, the only one I’ve been to in the last few years is the super fancy one in Delaware that all the buses stop at for Auntie Anne’s and Sbarro.).

After dinner, it was down into the “valley,” which was really just a dip between passes. Just before the next pass, though, we turned right, onto a dirt road, that would lead us across one of the least-traveled roads in all of Kyrgyzstan, towards the mountains that give the country such fame.

Keep reading in Part 2: The Road to Song Kul!

Check out the full gallery of photos from my trip here!