Life's an adventure expedition
- Thread starter ryanh1006
- Start date
cartographer
New member
Superb! I'm already waiting for the next update to your story 
ryanh1006
Kyrgyzstan Expat
Superb! I'm already waiting for the next update to your story
I'll try and get some up in the next couple of days...maybe tonight if I finish work early enough.
ryanh1006
Kyrgyzstan Expat
5.5 million people living in an area the size of South Dakota with most of them (1.25 million) living in the capital city. Turkic people (probably were ancestors to most of the turkic peoples in the world as well as turkic languages). They have a nomadic history up through the Soviet era, now a small number still live in yurts during the summers and herd sheep. Oh, and the country is 90% mountains:wings:
Well, that's the short of it. Here's a map.
https://goo.gl/maps/mAasV
Got a call yesterday, I'm taking some clients out to Issyk Kul, so no update for a couple more days.
ryanh1006
Kyrgyzstan Expat
And the stream of clients has not been stopping...not that it's a bad thing:wings:
No time for a continuation of the ongoing story, I'll circle back to it soon. We're working on a social entrepreneurship project in my business that's been hogging all my time. I'm open to new ideas and would love some feedback. The idea is to have nomadic families teach life skills to visitors. Think like a week long program that includes building a yurt, herding sheep and other animals on horseback (or at least trying to learn), food prep (including slaughtering and butchering sheep if you're interested), and animal car. We're calling the program "Nomad University" and we hope it will help move tourism here beyond observation to participation and education. We'll have other tracks including just cooking, yurt manufacture, felt goods production, and a lot of other traditional activities. We'll be doing back country training with the families as well as filming the activities (should make for some awesome back country driving to find all the yurt camps!). Does anyone have any suggestions for more programs, places to look for interested people, or more ideas for programs?
Ok, so that was one thing. Last weekend I took some clients from Bishkek to Osh. 12 hours each way in a Jeep GC WJ CRD. Got an awesome clip just after coming through Ala Bel pass where we had to drive through the remains of an avalanche. Driving back the next day by myself (really need to download podcasts next time...the music on my phone only lasts so long), I got thinking about how to survive being buried in an avalanche...depressing on a 12 hour solo drive!
Well, someday when life's a little less crazy, I'll get back to more of the life story in Kyrgyzstan.
No time for a continuation of the ongoing story, I'll circle back to it soon. We're working on a social entrepreneurship project in my business that's been hogging all my time. I'm open to new ideas and would love some feedback. The idea is to have nomadic families teach life skills to visitors. Think like a week long program that includes building a yurt, herding sheep and other animals on horseback (or at least trying to learn), food prep (including slaughtering and butchering sheep if you're interested), and animal car. We're calling the program "Nomad University" and we hope it will help move tourism here beyond observation to participation and education. We'll have other tracks including just cooking, yurt manufacture, felt goods production, and a lot of other traditional activities. We'll be doing back country training with the families as well as filming the activities (should make for some awesome back country driving to find all the yurt camps!). Does anyone have any suggestions for more programs, places to look for interested people, or more ideas for programs?
Ok, so that was one thing. Last weekend I took some clients from Bishkek to Osh. 12 hours each way in a Jeep GC WJ CRD. Got an awesome clip just after coming through Ala Bel pass where we had to drive through the remains of an avalanche. Driving back the next day by myself (really need to download podcasts next time...the music on my phone only lasts so long), I got thinking about how to survive being buried in an avalanche...depressing on a 12 hour solo drive!
Well, someday when life's a little less crazy, I'll get back to more of the life story in Kyrgyzstan.
northfacetraveller
Adventurer
What a rad trip! Looks like a blast, looking forward to the day I can do this!
ryanh1006
Kyrgyzstan Expat
So, summer season is booming for business and I can't seem to sit down long enough to really write much. We've had some great trips with some awesome trail riding. Here are some pics from a cross country trip we just recently did. My clients gave permission for their pictures to be used, so no worries there.
Somewhere in the Chong Kemin valley near the Kyrgyz/Kazakh border trying to find a back way to Issyk Kul.
More from the Chong Kemin
The road up to the Tamga Tash stones, ancient Tibetan Buddhist inscribed stones on a mountainside above the south shore of Issyk Kul.
Barskoon gorge near the waterfalls (still frozen in early May), and the Gagarin statue.
Client group picture in Jeti Oguz national park area.
Somewhere in the Chong Kemin valley near the Kyrgyz/Kazakh border trying to find a back way to Issyk Kul.
More from the Chong Kemin
The road up to the Tamga Tash stones, ancient Tibetan Buddhist inscribed stones on a mountainside above the south shore of Issyk Kul.
Barskoon gorge near the waterfalls (still frozen in early May), and the Gagarin statue.
Client group picture in Jeti Oguz national park area.
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ryanh1006
Kyrgyzstan Expat
And we just added another vehicle to the fleet. We're going to be rebuilding/restoring it and lightly upgrading it to a full expedition vehicle. 1991 Nissan Patrol 2.8TD with manual trans, rear diff lock, and 229,000 kilometers (German origin, I think
Now parked in my carport for the overhaul that starts tomorrow morning with the trans being pulled.
Now parked in my carport for the overhaul that starts tomorrow morning with the trans being pulled.
YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
Sitting in my camper tonight and just read through your thread. Very enjoyable and thanks for taking the time to post it. About (10) years ago I tried to do something similar with Tibetan friend but unfortunately he was not allowed back into the country. So obviously I think you're onto something and I for one think you should explore the idea further. Good luck.
ryanh1006
Kyrgyzstan Expat
Left hand steering Nissan - wow, exUSSR came a long way since old Japanese cars with right hand wheel were the only foreign ones.
Actually, it's only changed a little. Something like 40% of the non-Russian made cars in Kyrgyzstan are right hand steer, but all the higher end cars are left hand steer now. I think that makes right hand steer about 15-20% of the total number of cars in the country. Mainly right hand steer is a lot cheaper. For instance, a 2003 Subaru Forester is worth about 7500-8500 USD if it's left hand steer but only about 5000 USD if it's right hand steer. However, something like 40% of all accidents involve right hand steering cars; they're downright deadly for motorcyclists, I've already t-boned one that tried to make a sudden u-turn in front of me!
Not sure if all that qualifies as progress...but at least I can get a left hand steer classic Patrol!:sombrero: