Day 14 - Karakol

We are nearing the end of the trip and we haven't done much shopping, so today we are going to fill that void.  The sun has decided not to come out today, which is fine with us. The weather is warmer here than at Song-Kul, however it has remained cooler and only been in the 20's.  Feels more like home, which is a nice way to end the trip.

We wake up and start to gather the troops.  It turns out that Erik is really sick. We aren't sure if its something he ate or drank...but he's down for the count today and Robert is still sleeping, so Brian, Emily, Bruce, Wendy, Dave and the kids and I head into town for Breakfast.  Our guide and driver had arrived at 10am to pick us up and we had them drive us to another highly google rated breakfast spot and then gave them the rest of the day off. 

Tomorrow we would be driving all the way back to Almaty in Kazakhstan and it would be a pretty long day. It was also Emily's 30th birthday, and so we were trying to minimize our time in the car and be able to get to Almaty in enough time to begin the birthday festivities. We decided we would leave at 6:30am tomorrow and hopefully that would get us into Almaty by 3ish. We would be stopping at Cheryn Canyon along the way, which we really hoped would not be 20km off the highway on gravel.  I had been able to ascertain from our hotel that the road would be bad in Kyrgyzstan until we hit the border, but that as soon as we hit Kazakhstan, they would improve greatly.  So I gathered that the drive tomorrow morning until we hit the border might be rough.  It certainly seemed like it was going to take us a very long time for a quite short distance.

We had really nice coffees and breakfasts, and realized that they did box lunches to go. So we decided we'd come back later on and order lunches for everyone for the next day. That would eliminate us needing to find somewhere to stop tomorrow.  If my timing was accurate, we should hit Cheryn just before lunch, we could visit the canyon and eat and then be back on the road again.  Fingers crossed that all went well.

After breakfast we wondered down the main road.  It is not what you would expect from a main road of a pretty significant sized city, with broken sidewalks, rough roads, run down shops, again I'm reminded that its not a wealthy place.

We are on a mission to find the One Village One Product Issyk Kul store. It is a gift shop that sells mostly hand made and hand died felt products from the region. Their story is what is so powerful though. They are an association established by local regional producers in the surround lake region to promote community empowerment through the creation of unique products.  The women that produce the products are paid fair wages and taught safe work practices.  Supporting them while we were here was high on my list.

We found the shop tucked along the main street and it would not disappoint. The shop is bright and clean and beautifully laid out.  The felt products are stunning, and I'm not sure how we will choose what to not buy! There are slippers, hats, scarves, ornaments, purses, jewelry and more.  I'm in heaven and we do our part to support the local economy with slippers, a beautiful rug, and various other items.

We wander down from there in hopes of finding some felt sweaters, but no luck. We do find a very strange mall that sells everything from baby gear to gift cards in open stalls over multi levels.  It's interesting for sure, but no sweaters.  Our last stop is a Soviet antique shop that I had read about. It's so awesome and filled with so many cool things.  Avery gets a couple of very old stirrups and stirrup buckles, Cadence gets an old pocket watch. Fiona had gone off with grandma and grandpa for lunch, but would go back and get herself a couple of trinkets later on.  There is something for everyone, and when we fall short on enough money for Cadence's old pocketwatch, he gifts her the remainder. Everyone feels like they've found a treasure.

We wander further along to the place we went for dinner last night and grab some lunch. It is equally as good as the night before. Sort of a fusion of local cuisine and chinese food. Delicious.

We head back to the hotel to nap and relax a little. It's been raining off and on, so its becoming hard to continue walking around.  Back at the hotel I sort through our newly cleaned laundry and do some packing.  Dave isn't feeling well and so he naps and girls hang out, Fiona plays Xbox with the hotel manager which is pretty hilarious.

We head out for dinner a while later to a place suggested by the hotel. It has pretty good reviews so we give it a go.  Unfortunately they seem out of most things on the menu, and once everyone else's dinner shows up, they tell me they don't have my item. Could have honestly poked her eyes out. I share some of Fiona's food and we get by.  The boys order a large bottle of vodka, which seems to get drunk very quickly, and then its time for bed again. The days just seem to slip by. We bring Erik back a burrito, he feels finally able to eat something.

We get organized for he day ahead and head to bed. I had had to sleep with earplugs the night before as we wanted the windows open to get some of the cool air, however their appears to be a wild pack of dogs in the surrounding area that are constantly barking and scrapping with one another. I now can't find my earplugs, so tonight's sleep might suck.  Also, Dave is still not feeling well, so between his movement and the dogs, 5:45am feels very early when it arrives.