Kyrgyzstan - Central Asia - page 265

won the 'most beautiful yurt' competition
at the 1995 'Manas 1000' festival and had its
work exhibited in Russia, the UK and US.
However, it was almost bankrupted when a
luxurious US$50,000 yurt ordered for Presi-
dent Bakiev was never paid for given the
president's sudden ousting in the 2010 revo-
lution. If you speak Russian, it's fascinating
to hear more of these stories, and see the
machines used for felt-cutting and wood-
bending, though operation depends greatly
on the state of orders. Coming from Karakol,
take the first Barskoön turn and the work-
shop (signed 'Tegirmen') is 2.9km up the
main road on the right. Contact Mekenbek
Osmonaliev.

but you'll need local help to find it. The Tam-
ga Guesthouse arranges one- to three-day
treks or horse trips up to the Tamga Gorges
or Ochincheck Lake, or a four-day trip to
Chakury Köl at a lofty 3800m.
Tamga is around 2km off the main
lakeside road using a road that's marked
by a Soviet-era plane¨on¨a¨plinth above
Km135.6/84.4. Several homestays are on
Ozyornaya, the first street to the right once
you come into the urban area. About 300m
beyond, beside a handful of shops, Issyk-
Kulskaya also leads right, forming a de-facto
main street with a vaguely Wild-West feel; it
reaches a dead end at the sanatorium com-
plex. Though today it's rather down-market,
locals are proud of the fact that the world's
first cosmonaut, Yuri¨Gagarin , once holi-
dayed here.
Run by a friendly Russian couple, popu-
lar Tamga¨Guesthouse ( % 253 33; tamga-
[e-mail]; Ozyornaya 3, Tamga; per person
incl breakfast 750som; h May-Oct) sits behind
daunting green gates hiding a lovely rear
garden. Dinner (250som) is less impressive.
Behind red gates with a green door, Flora¨
Guesthouse ( % 053-470 0179; Issykkulskaya
19; per person/full-board 250/800som) is a tra-
ditional house with an orchard garden in
which four simple new guest rooms have
been built. Unheated but open from April.
Beside the post office shack.
Kuznetsova¨Homestay ( % 253 86; Ozy-
ornaya 12; dm 550-700som, full board 1250som) ,
a relatively new family home, has heating,
showers and sit-down toilets, and is one of
the only homestays to stay open year-round,
though in winter all 12 beds may be full with
training Russian sportsmen.

BARSKOÖN VALLEY
By far the easiest way to get deep into the
appealing alpine landscapes behind south-
ern Issyk-Köl is driving up the wide, well-
maintained, unpaved truck road that leads
all the way to the controversial Kumtor
Gold Mine, turning south off the coast road
at Km140/80. If you go too far you'll need
permits and invitations, but an uncontro-
versial compromise is stopping after 21km
for the Barskoön¨Waterfalls , 2km beyond
a curious truck-on-a-plinth monument.
The smaller, more accessible waterfall is
reached within 15 minutes' walk, close to a
small bust¨of¨Yuri¨Gagarin . The upper falls
are distantly visible through the pine trees
nearby, but getting there takes a couple of
hours' scramble.
In summer, kymys is sold from yurts in
this area. A return taxi from Tamga costs
around 1000som to the waterfall area,
2500/5000som in summer/winter to the
3619m Barskoön Pass. Be aware that on
'transport days', the road becomes a convey-
er belt of trucks bringing deliveries to/from
the gold mine and the resultant dust clouds
undermine any pleasure of a visit, so check
locally before arranging a trip.

TOSOR ТОСОР
With a grid of unpaved streets leading 1km
down to a wide, slightly fly-blown beach,
Tosor (Km125 to Km127) is a relatively un-
commercial place to stay close to the water-
side. The main village shop is a tragi-comic
Soviet throwback.
Altyn¨ Kum ( % 077-271 6663; cholponor
[e-mail]; Tosor Beach; per person incl
breakfast/full board 600/1000som) is a seasonal
tourist yurt-camp at the eastern end of the
village beach.
Behind Asema Koyshebayeva's large
green-roofed new house are a new set of
guest rooms with sauna under construction.
Asema's¨Guesthouse ( % 077-762 5800; Uroz-
bakova; dm 400-500som, full board 1200som; i )
has a big sitting room, and hot showers are

TAMGA
With a scattering of Russian-style 'ginger-
bread' cottages, quiet little Tamga is a little
more attractive than most of the region's vil-
lages. On the hill at the back of town there's
a fascinating local cemetery . Yurt-shaped
grave-frames make photogenic foregrounds
for sunset views with Lake Issyk-Köl in the
middle-distance.
In the valleys behind Tamga it's possible
to trek around 6km to a Tibetan 'Om' in-
scription on a rock known as Tamga¨Tash