Lake Issyk, Almaty Province, Kazakhstan
Continuing this afternoons drive first we stopped at a small village church from 1896. This is off the tourist trail and nobody would know about this except that Andrey's grand father had lived here.
This local knowledge proved invaluable and again it had very impressive art in its interior.
Nearby was another timber church but we weren't able to locate it. Andrey said he hadnt visited for a couple of years and locals said it had been knocked down.
We then drove to the park. Entrance was 900T ($3). Once in we unloaded the bikes. Today Andrey had arranged two bikes so we were both going to be able to bike together.
We had to bike up a long winding incline for several kms. Even though the road was paved unlike the gravel yesterday it was still quite tough.
Due to the high altitude and challenge my heart kept beating really fast so I had to take breaks so as not to exert myself in the heat and steep challenge.
There was an old bus station as a rest stop which I suggested maybe for less experienced bikers might be a better starting point. Another km or so was the new car park which I suggested as a starting point for novice bikers.
Arrival at the lake had quite stunning views of the pairs of mountains disappearing into the distance and their reflection on the water.
Some locals asked to borrow our bikes. Yesterday too we had been attracting attention where we had come from with the bikes and a couple of people had posed with our bikes as though they had been biking.
We were going to bike around the perimeter of the lake in the gravel, which is the type of off road biking I am familiar with on more level terrain.
There were swarms of small flies which were hard to photograph and it was cooler in the shade. We wondered away from the lake and sort of lost our orientation so turned around.
The sun was now hiding behind the mountain so the temperature was starting to drop.
Going back to the car was much easier along the road way as it was declining so we had to watch our speeds as we whizzed around corners and other cars were leaving the park.
To kill some more time before waiting at the airport for my 4am flight I asked if we could go to a nice restaurant and have some lagman (lamb noodles) rather than getting samsa from the roadside.
The restaurant we went to did not have lagman so Andrey ordered lamb with rice, vegetables, fries for me. The adjacent room sounded like a wedding with lots of singing and clapping but Andrey told me it was a school teachers dinner. Dinner cost 2550T ($8) probably my most expensive meal and draining the rest of my cash.
Andrey can be booked for trips thru https://indy-guide.com/
2025-05-22