One of the biggest pieces of advice I’ve been given as a Peace Corps Volunteer is to accept the invitation.  My colleague Colleen wrote a really good post about this, so when two of my site-mates and I got the invite last Friday to go to Arslanbob for the weekend with a local friend of ours and stay with his aunt, we didn’t hesitate to say yes.  Less than 12 hours later, we were on a marshrutka out of Osh and on our way.

Arslanbob (Written and pronounced in Kyrgyz as “Arstanbap”) is one of the most famous places in Kyrgyzstan.  It’s a big Uzbek village nestled right at the base of some of the most spectacular mountains, and it’s also the lush green location of the world’s largest walnut forest.  This scenery combined with some of the best tourism guides and guesthouses in Kyrgyzstan make it one of the places not to miss on any visit.  Somehow, in a year of living in Osh, I hadn’t been yet.

So,  we piled into a marshrutka and took off.  Then got in another one.  Then got in a taxi.  Then had our minds blown with the beauty.

My friend’s aunt and her husband and three children live in Arslanbob, in a small but beautiful house nestled away in the hills to the southern side of the village.  The village is quite spread out, so we didn’t head to their house right away.  Instead, my friend’s uncle dusted off his Lada Niva compact 4×4 and we all climbed in.

In addition to being beautiful, Arslanbob also surprised me with its vehicles.  The combination of rain, dirt roads, and boulders, means that most of the roads after the town centre are less identifiable as roads and more as steep piles of boulders with tracks in them.  I would have never dreamed of taking a motorized vehicle on them, but locals rely on these roads to get around.  Thus, Arslanbob probably has the highest number of Lada Nivas and Soviet Army Surplus jeeps anywhere in the world.

The Niva pioneered off-road vehicle suspension and design, and like its sedan cousin, is an affordable, durable, and easily repairable vehicle, a big plus in the few-and-far-between towns of Siberia and Central Asia.  In fact, at one point we pulled over, popped the hood, and my friend’s uncle unscrewed a hose, and then pumped a Fanta bottle full of gas right out of the fuel line right in front of us.  He’d clearly done it before.  And this illustrates just how simple and fixable these cars are.  In fact, it was such a successful and capable design that it was adapted by Chevrolet into the Chevy Niva.

Anyway, back to the adventure, we chugged in the Little Lada That Could to the top of the village, an area called Turbaza, where we encountered a beautiful park with some cafes, gift stands, and bizarrely, a yurt-shaped outdoor enclosure blasting Kyrgyz, Kazakh, and Russian pop music labeled “Discoteka.”  All the youths of Arslanbob were raging at 2 in the afternoon for the reasonable price of just 30 som.

But we went there to hike, so we climbed back into the Lada, and began to climb again.  Now if I had thought the roads in town were bad, the road to the trailhead was so bad that I wouldn’t have even considered hiking on it.  A few times, when we skidded sideways, I literally thought we were about to roll over and down the hill.  It was really exciting, but worthwhile based on what was to come.

After crossing this amazingly sketchy bridge:

…we began to hike up, up, up and up.  It was grueling, and we gained altitude at an insanely fast rate, having to stop frequently to catch our breaths and push the rain out of our eyes.

But then this view happened:

And then this view:

But behind us was the real wonder to behold: an enormous waterfall.

After a series of photoshoots, because, I mean, look at that waterfall, we climbed our way back down to the foot of the mountain, and the giant group of us piled back into the cars to head back down the hill.  Eventually, we wound up at my friend’s aunt and uncle’s beautiful house up in the hills.

Once we got there, we had to get the dinner on the fire, or rather, a few of the boys did.  We were cooking a familiar favorite: Dimdama.  While a few people cooked, the rest of us chilled out and rested, until my fellow volunteers cracked open a deck of Uno, and ignoring our dinner break, we played Uno from about 7pm until 1am.  This was a COMPETITIVE group – people were throwing down every +4 and +2 card they could, and skipping each other.  A few alliances were formed, and some serious rivalries came up, and every time a wild card was played, people harshly would choose colors that would require the next person to draw up to 10 cards. In fact, so many cards had to be drawn that eventually everyone had massive hands of single colors, and all the remaining cards to be drawn were just +2, +4, Skip, and Reverse.  But things stayed competitive and I managed to win three of our eight or nine rounds.  Not too shabby!  Oh – and all this was while practicing my Uzbek.  I was really proud of my progress.

We managed to fit the nine boys into the guesting room on tyshyks, and we all passed out until the morning, when we were again greeted with a spectacular view:

After eating some fruits and vegetables for breakfast, it was off to another hike to the other main waterfall of Arslanbob, and this one too did not disappoint.

From the centre of town, we hiked up and up again, then followed the sign to round a corner to the spectacular sight of this smaller but wider waterfall whose base can be easily visited.

Naturally, we hiked down and had another photoshoot and got completely soaked.

After a second long day of hiking, we had bought ingredients to prepare traditional Uzbek-style plov at one of the local chaikhanas, so we hiked back down and were met immediately with massive plates filled with steaming hot plov fresh from the kazan.

After lunch, there was only a little bit of time before our marshrutka back to Osh would leave, so we had to gather together and say goodbye to a bunch of new friends.  This was one of the most spontaneous weekends I’ve ever done, but it was also so wonderful to get the truly local experience with our friend and be a guest with his family there instead of being in a guesthouse.  These are the kinds of experiences that make all the hard days here worthwhile.

Getting There
Arslanbob is not too difficult to get to.  Coming from Osh, a direct marshrutka to Arslanbob leaves the new bus station at 7am and arrives there just before noon (200 som).  Alternatively, take a marshrutka to Jalal-Abad (120 som), change to a marshrutka to Bazaar-Korgon (30 som), then change to a marshrutka to Arslanbob (60ish som).  It takes only a little bit longer but costs about the same and builds in some stretch breaks and full schedule flexibility.  You can also hire taxis from Osh (super expensive, like 2500 som expensive for the car I heard), Jalal-Abad (slightly less expensive), or Bazaar-Korgon (100 som per seat).

Traveling overland from Bishkek, get off your marshrutka/taxi at the bus station in Bazaar-Korgon or Jalal-Abad and follow the directions above.

Returning to Osh, there are direct marshrutkas at 7 or 8am and 2pm (but confirm this with CBT as the afternoon one is not well-known).  If you miss one of these, there are plenty of marshrutkas to Bazaar-Korgon that you can take instead, so don’t fret.

Where To Stay
Arslanbob has the best CBT in Kyrgyzstan, and they have a nice large selection of local homestays and guesthouses for around 500 som per night per person, not including meals (about 250-300 som per meal usually).  Check out their website here.  They can also assist with taxis and transfers, and advise you on what you might want to see and do in Arslanbob.

What To Eat
Arslanbob homestays will prepare meals for you if you ask and for a fee, and there are also a few traditional cafes and chaikhanas in the centre near the bazaar.  It’s very pleasant to sit and eat shashlyk, plov, or lagman on the topchans there.  There are a few small grocery stores where you can buy snacks, and in the bazaar (it’s small), many ejes will be happy to sell you candy, kurut (salted yogurt balls), and homemade fruit leather.  Many people in the village don’t drink, so out of respect it’s probably a good idea to not bring alcohol to homestays/guesthouses or to the cafes (many forbid it, in fact).

Where To Hike
Arslanbob has three major hike destinations that I know of: the big waterfall, the small waterfall, and the walnut forest, and a map is available at CBT.  Luckily, there are some pretty great signs for most of the hikes, and most locals know where you need to go.  From the centre, follow signs to Turbaza and “Chong Vodapat” to get to the big waterfall.  For the small waterfall and the forest, from the centre, go towards the bazaar and turn left and follow the road uphill until the sign that says “Small waterfall.”  At the waterfall, you can walk down to the base of the waterfall and up the other side, or stay to the left on the hillside to continue into the forest.  Note that both waterfalls have an entry fee of 10 som.

Got any tips from your own trip to Arslanbob or questions?  Let me know in the comments!

This blog is part of the BloggingAbroad.org blog challenge, responding to the prompt “On The Road”  Learn more at BloggingAbroad.org.