Summer is officially here; it hit 30 degrees Celsius in Osh on Sunday, which was also International Workers Day (Debout, les damnés de la terre…). What better day, then, to take a mini-vacation day trip for some much-needed relaxation on the beach at a nearby dacha?
In Russian, dacha refers to a type of seasonal house located outside of a city for rest and relaxation, and it also refers to a sort of associated lifestyle, and in Kyrgyzstan, I think it’s safe to say the term is more about the ideals of relaxing and enjoying nature in a similar to the way we use the term jailoo, which means “pastures.”
Saturday afternoon, a local friend who lives in a nearby village called me up and invited me out to a nearby lake to swim and relax and to experience the dacha. I had no work because of the holiday, and it was forecast to be the first scorcher of the year, so I was very much looking forward to to just hanging out with the guys for an afternoon.
Getting to the lake – actually the Andijon Reservoir, which is an artificial lake that spans the border into Uzbekistan – was pretty simple, with a marshrutka ride to his village, then a ride in his friend’s car. First the road was paved, then it turned to dirt, and then the last three quarters were basically a dirt track over high rolling hills, up and down until we pulled into a small makeshift lot by a trailer with a few topchans nearby and one of the most stunning vistas I’ve seen yet in Kyrgyzstan.
Dacha life is all about relaxing and having a good time, and my friends were already set to do just that. When we arrived, a bunch were already there, eating, smoking, and drinking (I don’t smoke and I don’t like straight vodka, so I wasn’t partaking, mom). We were fully withdrawn from the city, and fully immersed in nature.
With mountains on the distant horizon, and the lake in the foreground, we were completely set on swimming too. The water level in the reservoir is very low right now, so getting to shore involved some interesting scrambles down some rocky slopes. When I took a moment to look at the rocks, I noticed that a measurable percentage were actually fossils of clams of some kind, which is pretty amazing considering the fact that Kyrgyzstan is actually the farthest country from actual live shellfish.
Down by the water, the low water level had created something else exciting: cliffs beside deep water. This was a point of excitement for many of these young men, who gleefully kept leaping from what must have been 10 to 20 meters above the water. I myself kept it to just 3 meters, but that water was so refreshing given how hot it was. Central Asia is not a region with a particular focus on swimming apparel, so underwear is the norm for guys when they hop in the river, lake or swimming pool. This, when combined with cliff jumping, led to a few humorous wardrobe malfunctions.
Meanwhile back at the top of the hill at our topchan, as the sun lowered to create a world the color of an Instagram filter, a few of our group returned from the trailer with three massive plates of traditional plov, which as I’ve mentioned is one of my favorite Central Asian dishes (and you can learn to make it with my mom’s recipe here!).
Rather considerately, they brought me a spoon to eat with, while the rest of them ate in the traditional style with their hands. It was a perfect way to end such a relaxing day. But it wasn’t quite over yet! I had one last bit of adventure before I made it home.
See, on most summer weekends in Kurshab, all the boys of the village it seems like make their way out to the lake to hang out in their underwear and jump in the lake repeatedly. I mean, I would do that too if I lived closer! But, as cars go back to town one by one, a surplus of people remains by the lake.
To solve this problem, someone always comes with a large cattle transporting truck. All the youth climb into the back (I was offered the cab out of respect, and I accepted because I’m pretty sure there’s a Peace Corps policy somewhere against riding in the backs of trucks). After about a minute, they all got back out in order to let the truck make it to the top of a long hill without overheating. Then, everyone hopped back in and we bounced our way back over the rolling dirt track into town.
I definitely will be heading back out there again soon!