kyrgyzstan

Lenin Peak + Tulpar-Kul (2026)

After the slightly dysfunctional and threadbare Tajik border post, we drove for miles and miles through no-man's-land before finally reaching the Kyrgyz border facility. Which felt like a whole different world apart by comparison. Modern, clean, functional. Staff were very friendly and welcoming. Sneaked this snap after we'd all gotten our stamps and were waiting for our driver to come out with the car. This marked my first visit to Kyrgyzstan since 2019. The last 'new' country I visited before Covid arrived and my world fell apart. Perhaps there's something symbolic about my returning to complete the last major journey I'd wanted to complete in Asia. It's not a country I ever expected to return to tbh. But it was nice to be back and I wasn't thinking about symbolism at this point in time lol. With the border formalities finally done, we stopped for lunch at a village called Sary-Mogol. 'Lunch'. The driver took us to a restaurant where the staff were inattentive and surly, and I was told there were no vegetarian options whatsoever. We eventually managed to get a salad (tomatoes, cucumbers) and some bread. But I was honestly kinda pissed off at his knack for taking us to the worst lunch places possible. (And I'll say nothing of his awful habit of blasting crap from his phone on speaker while sat at the dining table.) The bruising lunch experience did little to endear Sary-Mogol to me, so I reciprocated by doing nothing in the way of exploring. Noted the shipping containers and ancient cars on my way out tho. From Sary-Mogol we drove for a while through a bunch of fields. There was some incredible mountains surrounding us on our journey. Finally, we made it here: Tulpar-Kul. A lake nearby Lenin Peak - a transnational peak that's the second highest mountain in both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. We were staying in a VERY basic yurt camp by the lake (visible in the pic). We decided to set out on a brief hike to get a better view of nearby Lenin Peak. It's a mountain that I was considering climbing way back in 2019 during my first visit to Kyrgyzstan. It's supposedly the easiest 7000m+ mountain there is. I decided against it at the time - and don't think I ever will now as you'll see later - but wanted to get a better view of it to see what I'd missed. The yurt camp was terrible - no amenities, no shower (awful discovery on the day before I had to take three consecutive flights back to Shanghai), no wifi - but it's location was something else. I think that's Lenin Peak in the distance there. Trying to navigate the water to get there was fun! Even without Lenin Peak, the surroundings here are majestic wherever you turn. Finally set eyes on this thing properly. And after seeing it in person, I can confirm that there's no way in hell I'd ever want to climb that thing cos it looks fucking TERRIFYING! But beautiful and awe-inspiring ofc. This was as close as I was willing to go during the hike. It was late afternoon, and I was in *desperate* need of a toilet, to the point where I wasn't moving with anywhere near as much speed as I normally do on these trails. Sat here and enjoyed the view for a good while before turning back tho. Full confession: sent this pic to AI to edit out a couple of hikers on the right hand side (this is the ONLY pic where I did this!) and it came back to me all zhuzhed up like so. Oh well! The hike back was painful. Mainly because two of the guys decided to jog back and I decided to join them only to realise that with every step on the ground I needed to get ever closer to a toilet. Had to halt my movements and then spend the rest of the time shuffling my way back to camp, all while in URGENT need... :/ You wouldn't know how badly I was suffering from this pic tho, eh! Ended up taking photos for a gazillion other tourists who were inspired by my moves here. Not sure if this helped or hindered me given the stomach situation. One last look at mighty Lenin Peak! I wish I could have enjoyed it a bit more. ???????????? Back to camp. These yurts were smaller than the one in Alichur, and less well-insulated. They lit a fire for us after dinner, but it petered out within a few hours and we spent most of the night cold af as there was nobody around to help stoke it again. Awful. Anyway, I FINALLY got to the toilet and then decided to set off again. There are multiple yurt camps around Tulpar-Kul. I think we just happened to be staying in the crappiest of them. Tbf, we were told that it was the end of the tourist season and everyone was winding things down and getting ready to pack up for winter. But like - there were still tonnes of other tourists around, so not a particularly good time to wind down imo. Walked down to the lake (Tulpar-Kul) to have a gander. It was gorgeous, but also really damn cold out here. And there were a bunch of other tourists around being loud and annoying. I was not in the mood to deal with people after discovering that there'd be no shower on this final night, so promptly turned back towards the yurt to retreat into my bubble. I'm still annoyed by the lack of shower. (Feel like, again, our driver could have picked another camp that had such facilities, but such was his way.) Knowing that you have to spend most of the next 36 hours either on the road or in the air while not being clean is a mood-killer. Also a mood-killer: mouldy fruit at dinner, stale rocks for bread... yeah, they really didn't give a fuck round here! A bit of a frustrating way to end the trip. Tbf, the trip would actually have ended in Osh the next day with the other guys were it not for my need to fly out ASAP. I guess this was one last adventure before returning to mainstream society, and I'd have been more accepting of it had I had an extra day in Osh before flying! Sadly, the trip starting two days later than scheduled really messed up my arrangements. There's horse-riding available in the vicinity, and we saw a few tourists taking advantage. These weren't tourists though, I think they were the keepers riding the horses back to camp for the evening. How cold did it get that night? Well we woke up to ground frost and that mountain over there being BLANKETED in snow, which I don't think was quite the case the day prior. It was cold af, and a miserable night's sleep. Walked down to the smaller of the two lakes in the area to wake myself up before breakfast. Here's the same lake after breakfast, with horses quenching their thirst in the background. :-) A very typically Kyrgyz/Central Asian scene here I think. One last farewell to Tulpar-Kul and the ghastly yurt camp. Now: it was on to Osh, where the Pamir Highway 'ends' (or begins, if you go from that direction!). Our driver made us stop here cos it was some sort of photo spot. Couldn't really understand why... cool mountains and winding roads, I suppose. Anyway, used the stop as an opportunity to grab one last shot of all the guys together. It was an epic journey. Many many highs and a few lows (still annoyed by the final yurt camp, and we'll say nothing of the food situation). Needed a group of people in order to make this Pamir dream happen, and I'm glad it was these folks that I got to share the whole shebang with. We made it to Osh after lunchtime. I paid to shower in the hostel that most of the guys had chosen to stay in, begged the driver to exchange his USD for my Tajik somoni that I'd been unable to get rid of anywhere up until this point, and managed to grab a decent vegetarian lunch (a veggie burger!) at a local café before heading to the airport where I'd catch the first of three consecutive flights to get back to Shanghai. A wild turnaround to end a wild ten days away.

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