Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Lake Issyk-Köl
Kök-Bel
Pass
Ak-Suu
Pass
Bishkek
(140km)
Ananyevo
Grigorievka
Issyk-Kul
Sanatorium
Semyonovka
Korumdu
Kara-Oi
Bosteri
Ornok
Cholpon-Ata
Tamchy
Chong-
Chok Tal
Sary-Oy
Bishkek
(160km)
Toru-Aygyr
Lake Issyk-Köl
Balykchy
Ak-Ölöng
Kara-
Naryn
Talaa
Bar-Bulak
(140km)
Skazka
Bel-Tam
Tosor
Kara-Koo
Valley
Barskoön
Ton
A363
Shor-Köl
Kadji-Sai
Tamga
Ak-Sai
Bokonbayevo
Khan-Débé
Tuura-Su
Temir Kanat
8
Getting¨There¨&¨Away
The main access routes from Bishkek and Ko-
chkor are from the western corner of the lake via
the unexpectedly ugly city of Balykchy, which
has at least three central Lenins to spot. As-
phalted roads circle the lake, albeit often several
kilometres from the waterside. Bishkek-Karakol
transport might go either way around the lake,
though the north coast road is generally busier,
especially in summer.
An alternative route to Kazakhstan leads
through the Karkara Valley (summers only) for
those with their own transport. There is a rough
track that could lead more directly from Al-
maty's Bolshoe Almatinskoe Lake via the Ozerny
and Kok Ayryk Passes to Chong-Sary-Oy near
Cholpon-Ata, but there's no immigration post so
horse-trekkers or mountain-bikers would need
complex special permissions to avoid a serious
immigration problem
region (along with much of Kyrgyzstan be-
yond Bishkek) was off limits to foreigners.
Locals mention vast, officially sanctioned
plantations of opium poppies and cannabis
around the lake, though most of these had
disappeared under international pressure
by the early 1970s. More importantly, Issyk-
Köl was used by the Soviet navy to test
high-precision torpedoes, far from prying
Western eyes. An entire military-research
complex grew around Koy-Sary, on the
Mikhaylovka inlet near Karakol. After inde-
pendence in 1991, Russia's new president,
Boris Yeltsin, asked that it be continued but
Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev shut down
the whole thing. These days the most se-
cretive thing in the lake is the mysterious
jekai,
a Kyrgyz version of the Loch Ness
monster. Jokes about the 'Kyrgyz navy' re-
fer to a fleet of some 40 ageing naval cut-
ters, now mothballed at Koy-Sary (which
remains out-of-bounds to visitors) or de-
commissioned and hauling goods and tour-
ists up and down the lake. Tourism, which
initially crashed along with the Soviet Un-
ion, has revived in the last decade thanks
to an influx of moneyed Kazakh tourists
and Russian athletes, who favour the area's
mild climate and high altitude as a winter
training zone.
Northern Issyk-Köl
More than one hundred hotel complexes are
dotted along the northern coast of Issyk-Köl,
but that doesn't mean the whole area is one
long resort. Indeed, hotels are well spread
out, most are rather discrete and visitors are
often surprised by the extent to which many
of the agricultural villages in between seem
to have changed little in recent decades. So
