Visiting Karakol as day trip in Kyrgyzstan

After spending several days focused on the World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan we decided to take a day trip to Karakol (Каракол) for a change of pace. Our trip focused on visiting some museums, mosques, cathedrals, markets and having a traditional Kyrgyz lunch inside of a yurt. We had ambitious plans of hiking, visiting a waterfall and few other things but we ran out of time. If you're going to visit Karakol learn from our mistake and spend a few more days to really enjoy the outdoor adventure activities.
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Visiting Karakol as day trip in Kyrgyzstan Travel Video Transcript:
Good morning from Kyrgyzstan (Кыргызстан). It is time for a day trip because we've been spending a lot of time at the World Nomad Games and it is time to get out and get to know the country a little bit. So we're taking a day trip to Karakol (Каракол). We're going to be doing some hiking, visiting waterfalls. Yeah, it is going to be really cool. I mean we've seen quite a bit of the country but we haven't been to that area yet so we're really excited about it. Let's go.
Okay, so we have been driving for about two hours and we've almost made it to Karakol (Каракол). Right now we're in the outskirts and we're stopping at the Nikolay Mikhailovich Przhevalsky museum and basically this was a guy who wanted to be a traveler. So I can relate to him. Um, he was from Russia but at the time Russian didn't have the permission to just you know go off and wander around on their own. So this guy decided to join the military and he proposed to be the first person to explore Central Asia and reach Tibet and his proposal was approved so he was funded by Russia and today there is a museum dedicated to his work.
After a short visit to the museum, we then continued on our drive towards Karakol (Каракол), where our first stop was the Dungan Mosque.
So in order to visit the Mosque you don't just wear a scarf. You need a full cloak. This will be interesting. Alright. Let's put this on. Fancy. It is like velvet.
The mosque gets its name from the Dungan people who are Muslim, but of Chinese origin. The building is quite unique because you can see the two cultures colliding; it contains elements of a traditional mosque, but at first glance it looks more like a Buddhist temple.
So now we're visiting an Orthodox Church and that was really close to the mosque.
We then went to the Holy Trinity Cathedral, which is in the centre of Karakol (Каракол). Just remember, girls need to wear a head covering and boys must take off their hats in order to go inside.
From there we continued to the Karakol Market in search of food. If there’s one dish the town is known for it’s Ashlyan Fu, a cold noodle soup with spices and jellies. There’s a whole alley in the market that specializes in this dish; so be sure to try it.
Alright so we've had a pretty busy morning of sightseeing. Now it is time for food. Yeah, we've worked up a pretty big appetite and the coolest thing is we're going to go eat inside of yurt. A yurt.
For lunch we had Dumlyama: a dish with potatoes, cabbage, onions, peppers, and meat. We also had boorsok: which are little pieces of fried dough that go really nice with jam.
So we've stopped off at this kind of cool scenic area that is called Jeti-Ögüz and nearby there is apparently some fantastic hiking. Yeah, and the name translates to seven bulls so I don't know do you see any bulls over there? You know I see in the rock formations. I think I see more than seven things.
We had really been looking forward to hiking along here, but unfortunately, this is the part of the tour where we ran out of time. This also means we didn’t get to see the waterfalls we had heard about, so if you do decide to visit Karakol (قاراقول), don’t do it as a quick day trip like we did!
Yeah, I think it is the kind of place where you want to give it a few days so you can see the surrounding areas and also that town is really known for hiking so if you're in to outdoorsy stuff go there and explore it properly.
Yeah, maybe spend like two or three days in Karakol (Каракол) see the surroundings, hike, trek and yeah really explore it.
This is part of our Travel in Kyrgyzstan video series showcasing Kyrgyz food, Kyrgyz culture and Kyrgyz cuisine.
Music in this video courtesy of Audio Network