Karakol - September 12, 2007

September 12, 2007

We headed to Karakol, on the eastern side of Lake Issyk Kul for a day of sightseeing. Along the, we saw another of the ubiquitous Muslim cemeteries, where usually one person is buried in a decorated tomb. When more individuals pass on in a family then a mausoleum is built to bury everyone together. Surrounding each cemetery stands a stone wall or fence; however, the mullah (religious leader) insists on a gate to allow the spirits of the dead to leave..

Further down the road, our guide Ulan again mentioned that Lake Issyk Kul was once used to test prototypes of torpedoes for the Russian Navy. At 695 meters in depth, it served as an excellent testing ground, and if the testing was successful, Moscow got the green light to continue. At the eastern end of the lake still stands Pristan Prahevalsk, the old top-secret Soviet torpedo research center with its cranes still in place.

Before reaching Karakol, we turned onto a side road to visit the Przewalski Memorial. Our local guide at the memorial, a slight, white haired elderly woman dressed in a blazer and shirt, shared her enthusiasm about Nicholas Przewalski, the famous Russian explorer of Asia and Central Asia. During the period of 1870 through 1885, Przewalski led five expeditions through Mongolia, China, Tibet and other areas. By the time the guide finished explaining all of them, Garry whispered, “it took nearly as long as the expeditions themselves.” Finally, the curiosity got the best of me, so I asked the woman, how old she was. Her answer was 83. She had been a tour guide at this memorial for the past 21 years and a teacher of Russian literature for the previous 40 years. You go girl!!!

Moving through the museum, we viewed Przewalski’s expedition memorabilia and a small horse named after him. Outside and down a long path through trees and gardens we came to a large memorial topped by an eagle marking his grave. From the adjacent overlook, we could see clear evidence in the rock of Lake Issyk Kul’s original level, which was about 100 feet higher than the present level.

Ramadan starts tomorrow and a visit to a Chinese Pagoda-style mosque seemed appropriate, although we were not allowed to enter. The mosque, designed by a Chinese architect and built by 20 Chinese laborers around 1903, was built without any nails. As at all mosques, there were five clocks outside on the wall near the entrance showing the times during the day for their “call to prayer”;5:45am; 1:30pm; 5:20pm; 7:20pm and 8:45pm. Our guide related a story of how a recent group of Kyrgyz pilgrims went to Mecca for their Hadj, which is required for all Moslems who are able at least once in their lifetime. On the return, the Turkmenistan government refused to allow them passage through their country, so they were held up in Iran for over a month before they were allowed to continue home. Since that time, the Kyrgyzstan government will only allow their citizens to fly to Mecca.

Our lunch stop in Karakol included a chef’s salad (their version), ravioli soup, beef, fries and the ever-present bread which nourished us for the next round of sightseeing. After lunch a few of us, headed to a local general store to see what they had to sell, and found a bottle of wine called “Tamara”! Naturally, Tamara had to purchase it. We checked out another nearby store and bought more to share with the group at a cocktail party that we planned for the late afternoon.

Back in the bus, we went to visit Holy Trinity Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox Church built in 1895. It is a beautifully ornate wooden structure with five gold onion-domes, nestled perfectly in a stand of poplar trees. The poplar trees were starting to turn a wonderful shade of orange-yellow and the leaves glistened in the sunshine with the breezes. The Bolsheviks had destroyed the domes and turned the place into a club during the 1930’s, but it was reconstructed beginning in the 1960’s.

We then walked through the town of Karakol, skirting the little bazaar as we walked to another local grocery store. The small store was really packed with a myriad of products, and it also included a bakery and a section with wine and spirits. Our guide had the clerk show us two particular bottles of a clear spirit that each had a small branch inside with a snake coiled around it. There were no buyers in our group.

On the return trip, a couple of us wanted to get some more exercise, so Claudio got off with us to hike back to the Aurora Hotel. A short distance before arriving at the Aurora, we approached the new Karven Resort, also along the coast of Issyk Kul. Claudio had noticed this property under construction while with a tour group last May. Now that it was open, he wanted to check it out for possible use by next year’s tour groups, so we walked down the long driveway and entered the reception building. We chatted with the manager for a bit then took a tour of the four-story hotel, looking at several modern, comfortable rooms with great views. We also walked to the restaurant building to check the menu and decided to stay for awhile and enjoy a beer on the terrace. Our view from there included a number of expensive looking cottages, sporting green tile roofs and modern exteriors, on the grounds between the dining room and the Lake. When we asked the manager who purchased these cottages, he replied “Russians, Kazakhs, and one person from the Netherlands.” Our national guide Ulan told us later that this hotel was financed by the Russian Mafia and the former Kyrgyzstan Minister of Finance, who fled the country a number of years ago. Although this is a new hotel, they still miss many aspects of serving the customer the most blatant of which is not installing an elevator. This problem seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Lake Issyk Kul is expected to become the next resort mecca. It may take years.

We had dinner tonight at the Aurora Hotel restaurant again and the Russian food and service was as bad as or worse than last night.

Good bye and good night,

Tamara, Rich and Garry

Captions: 1) Obsolete Russian torpedo factory 2) Przewalski Memorial 3) Guide at the Przewalski Memorial 4) Chinese pagoda mosque 5) Holy Trinity Orthodox Church