Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Typical of such markets, you'll observe
scenes at once sad and comical, with locals
improbably bundling voluptuous fat-tailed
sheep into the back seats of Lada cars. The
setting amid semi-derelict flour mills might
seem unprepossessing, but on clear days
the backdrop of white-topped mountains
is more striking from here than from the
town centre. Marshrutka 102 drops you
amid a melee of vehicles and hay-trucks on
Udilova. A series of earthen unloading plat-
forms lead north. Jostle through the chaos
to reach a bigger main compound one block
north, where you'll find horse sales and ven-
dors of beautiful embossed leather saddlery.
On foot the bazaar is about 25 minutes'
walk from Makish Bazaar. Head straight
down bumpy Lenina (the clearly signed
Bereke Mill is about half way) then cut di-
agonally across some scrubby wasteland
approximately opposite Lenina 279. Alterna-
tively walk up Kydyr Ake, take the second
left (beside a cement dealers' store) and fol-
low the traffic.
Holy¨Trinity¨Cathedral¨
CHURCH
(gagarin;
h
8am-1pm & 2-5pm)
Set peacefully
amid trees, this hefty wooden structure
is topped with green-roofed towers and
almost-golden onion domes. The 1872 stone
original was destroyed by an 1890 earth-
quake. Built on the same foundations a
new wooden version, finished in 1895, was
turned into a club by the Bolsheviks, who
removed its five onion-domes in the 1930s.
Serious reconstruction began in 1961, but
church services only recommenced after
1991. Photos of its various incarnations are
displayed in the entry hall. Women need to
wear a headscarf to enter.
Colonial¨Buildings¨
NOTABLE BUILDINgS
The older part of town sprawls southwest
from the cathedral with numerous sim-
ple but archetypal 'gingerbread' timber
houses. A few are comparatively grand
former homes of Russian merchants and
industrialists, including what's now the
Pedagogical College on Gagarin (opposite
the cathedral), the
radio¨and¨TV¨office
on Gebze (Kalinina) and another old
mer-
chant's¨home
at the corner of Koenközova
and Lenina.
Regional¨Museum¨
MUSEUM
(
%
218 68; Jamansariev 164; foreigner/local
70/30som, camera 10som;
h
9am-5pm)
Occu-
pying an archetypal 1887 Russian house,
this museum has a few Scythian bronze
artefacts, local tools and musical instruments,
and the recreated interior of a century-old
home. Taxidermists' victims share a room
with exhibits celebrating the Kumtor Gold
Mine (p270). Little is in English except for
the section on remarkable Swiss explorer Ella
Maillart, who came this way in 1932.
Karakol¨Zoo¨
ZOO
(N Aytmatova; adult/child 50/30som;
h
9am-6pm)
The small local zoo is a shady spot whose
inmates range from farmyard animals to
llamas, with a fair selection of locally endan-
gered fauna, including bears, wolves, bob-
cats and most notably, Przewalski horses.
1
Pristan
Karakol's port and beach is around 12km
north at Pristan, a sad if vaguely curious
area of
datchas
(weekend cottages) above
which rise a couple of Soviet-era cranes.
Prezhevalski¨Garden¨
MUSEUM, MONUMENT
(http:kyrgyzstan.orexca.com/rus/museum_pre
jevalsky.shtml; Pristan; local/foreigner 70/30som,
guided tour 30som;
h
9am-5pm)
To overlook
the Pristan area (though not the beach) it
is worth stopping around 1km before the
port and observing the scene from the
shrine-like Prezhevalski memorial garden.
Other than the minor curiosity of the
view
,
the main attraction here is a small, well-
presented
museum
dedicated to Nikolai
Przewalski, the Russian explorer who died
here in 1888 and for whom Karakol was
once named. Entered through a neo-Greek
portal, there's a giant map of his travels
behind a big globe. Note the imaginative
rendering of Senegal. Many photos, maps
and mementos have English captions but
there's no over-arching explanation of his
life. The best features are arguably the ban-
knote-style wall murals designed to alter
perspective as you walk by. Amid the taxi-
dermy is a stuffed white Przewalski horse,
the breed for whose 'discovery' the explorer
is best known in the west.
2
¨Activities
Karakol's travel and tour agencies (p263)
organise a wide range of outdoor activities
including trekking, horse riding, skiing,
mountaineering and mountain biking.
4
¨Sleeping
Between them CBT (p263) and TIC
(p263) can suggest around 50 homestays,
