Hello all!
I am lucky that my Peace Corps staff encourages us to see Kyrgyzstan! One way our PC staff supports us volunteers in this pursuit is by permitting us to explore in name of the Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan Hiking Guidebook! The PCKHG (just kidding) is a compilation of explained trips in nature, made by volunteers, over the course of several years. Fellow Volunteer Maximillian Martini and I recently explored the how-to-get-there and what-to-do of Sari Chelek, the “pearl” of Kyrgyzstan. Please read our write-up for the PCKHG, below!
This was in May, but since then I have been running around Central Asia as part of a GLOW/TOBE (Gender Equality camp) in Jalalabad for a week, and was a teacher for the FLEX program pre-departure orientation in Almaty and Astana, Kazakhstan for 2 weeks. So more to come on that soon!
Happy Summer!
Larisa
SARI CHELEK
Sari Chelek is a World Biosphere Reserve (UNESCO-categorized) consisting of seven lakes in the Jalalabad Oblast. It is located at the foot of the Chatkal mountain range (altitude: 1,200–4,250m.), directly between the Toktogul Reservoir and the Uzbek border. It is named Сары Челек (“yellow bucket”) on account of the many bee boxes (“yellow buckets”) that populate the hills between the lakes. The honey is not as good as honey you get from Toktogul, however. The largest lake is officially called Toscol Ata (Тоскоол Аmа) (it is also known as Lake Sari Chelek in some online resources) (1,873m above sea level); it’s the main attraction for the many Kyrgyz locals that visit the region every summer. At the lake is a small picnic ground, including three small buildings (wherein the place’s proprietors live and work, having rented the space all summer for a large sum), six kazans, and ten tapchans (raised platforms for eating copious amounts of borsok).
Getting There
To get to Sari Chelek, you need to first get to a town called TashKomur (Таш Комур), which is on the Bishkek-Osh road south of Toktogul in Jalalabad Oblast. You can do this by the morning marshrutkas that leave south from Toktogul every day (9am) and north from Osh/Jalalabad City every day (6am). From Toktogul, the marshrutka is 195 som per person (TashKomur is a stop along the way to Jalalabad; when you board the marshrutka you should tell the driver that you are getting off at TashKomur and then pay the aforementioned appropriate price). From TashKomur, you need to get to Arkit (Аркыт) village. There is a rumored marshrutka that does the trip from Osh, but most people do it by taxi. One whole Toshkomur-Arkit taxi costs anywhere between 1000-3000 som, depending on your driver and your Kyrgyz language charm.
There
In Arkit, at the edge of the Sari Chelek region, are a million hotels. Most of them are guesthouses/homestays. The hotel right before the first gate (maybe called “Bobka,” but the sign has no name) has rates from 200-700 som per night per person. The homestays fit into that range, as well. Meals at the hotel are the typical Kyrgyz fare at 150 each; the price tends to be higher in the homestays where they give you the whole shebang. Keep in mind: the area is essentially a food desert, so any food you’re bringing for your hike, or that which you want to eat in Arkit (outside the meals you can buy from locals), should be brought in from outside.
To enter Sari Chelek, you pay at the second gate, which marks the legitimate beginning of the Biosphere Reserve. It’s 400 som for foreigners and 30 som for locals. Do not forget to bring your Peace Corps ID – it grants you access at the local rate. The hike from the first to the second gate, through a small village and series of guesthouses, takes one hour on a flat road. From the second (Entrance) gate to Toskol Ata is about five hours on a dirt road. It is a mostly up-hill, beautiful trip which offers great views and plenty of tree-cover. Thrity minutes before the big lake, you even pass one of the other seven, named Кыла. All the same, anyone in town (between the first and second gates) will be willing to drive you the whole way (and will offer) if you pay them.
There is a very difficult trail the loops the whole region, providing views of all seven lakes. They say it takes five days. At Toskol Ata, however, there are very few trails, all of which stop an hour or so from the picnic site. This is because the lake is surrounded by steep cliffs and severe mountains that prohibit the hiker, but make the lake as beautiful as it is.
At the Toskol Ata picnic site, you can camp. If you take either of the two trails to the left of the kazan-house, you will end in small enclaves suitable for camping. You are probably supposed to pay to stay, but you can argue your way out of this fee. There is a charge to use the dishes and kazans there, run by the live-in family, and hot water for chai can also be purchased (25c. a bottle; bottle-size not specified).
Leaving There
A marshrutka leaves Arkit for TashKomur at 6am (you can also ask a local for a ride, expect to pay about 150c.). From TashKomur, taxis abound. There are also marshrutkas coming through town, South from Toktogul and North from Osh/Jalalabad. They pass through TashKomur at “9am, 10am, 11am” (as our driver told us). The marshrutka from TashKomur to Toktogul was 200 som per person.
Our Itinerary – As an Example for YOU
Day 1: After following the travel directions above, we arrived in the late-afternoon to Arkit, and checked into the ‘Bobka’ guesthouse (right before the first gate). We paid 300 som and stayed in a single room by the river (no furniture, but yes tushucks, pillows, and sheets). The hotel has a two-set of rooms, a trailer, a 2-story and a single story house, and a few yurts. We paid 150 som for decent dimdama, naan, chai, and salad, which we ate at one of the several cute tapchans overlooking the river. The single room has a nice covered porch with tapchan for sitting, tea-drinking, and card-playing.
Day 2: The 6 hour walk (one hour until the official entrance gate, then 5 hours up) to Toskal-Ata was walked. Very pretty. Arriving there we were promptly invited to chai-eech with locals, everyone was very friendly. We set up our tent by the tapchans and sustained a rainy night.
Day 3: Hiked around and discovered the lacks of possibility of a full-circle trail, but several nice, short ones were enjoyed. There is a boat dock a little ways to the left of the main tapchan area. You can pay the single motor-boat driver 200/400 som for the half/whole lake (time length: unclear). At the main site there are two trails that go off to the right, one behind the kazans that goes along the lake-line, and another which starts up and over on the right, past the outhouses and a space-style weather meter. Definitely enough to explore and admire: worth spending an entire day here. We set-up camp (tent, fire!) in a cave which is about 25 minutes down the upper trail. We heard another camp of people at the lower trail, but did not see their campsite.
Day 4: Walk down to the bottom. Because of rain, we hitched a ride towards the end with one of the many cars making their descent from Toskal-Ata. We paid 200c. for the last 1-2 hours of what would have been walking-time. We checked back into ‘Bobka’ guest-property, into the same 300c. room.
Day 5: Ordered breakfast (eggs, naan, chai) from the ‘Bobka’ family (70c. per person). Later walked down the road (away from the Sari Chelek gates) to find some lunch food, and ended up eating at the second house (slightly-raised) on the left. The family was very nice and the food was good and plentiful. We had plov and salad and chai and jams and naan. The Eje asked for 700c. at the end, and we gave her 500c. She seemed satisfied – suggesting maybe a bargaining would have been appropriate. All the food at the guesthouses on this road is Made to Order, and supplies are not unlimited. The other meal-options we asked about included plov, kurdak, and eggs or eggs or kilbasa. We signed her sparse guestbook, which she was very proud of. Look for our entry (Max and Larisa)! Water for washing and drinking was taken from the river. Stayed a second night at ‘Bobka.’
Day 6: Though we requested from our ‘Bobka’ proprieters to catch the marshrutka at 6AM, we were driven by the Chong Ata to central Arkit (a 150c. ride), where we found out we had missed the marshrutka. We joined a couple of Ejes in a taxi from there to TashKomur for 200c each. From TashKomur we waited in one of the several chai-eech stands for the marshrutka, which came around 9:30. There are many taxis here too, though, and many drivers willing to drive us. The marshrutka back was 200c.
Trip Notes:
• “Can I take my photo with you?” – We saw no other foreign tourists our entire time in Sari Chelek or along the way. This made our presence as foreigners with giant backpacks even more out-of-the-ordinary than we already appear to be. Everyone was extremely proud of the beauty that is Sari Chelek, however, and seemed happy we were there. Expect many picture-requests and tapchan-guesting invites.
• Food: besides the 4 meals purchased at the guesthouses and some food we ate during our minor tapchan guesting at Toskol Ata, we subsisted on the following (and this appeared, at the end, to be enough for 2 people for 6 days): one jar peanut butter, one jar jelly, 4 cans tuna, 8 round naan, 2 small cans corn, 1 small jar hot sauce, 1 container of olives, big Tupperware of home-made trailmix (M&M’s, cashews, raisins, dates), one bad of sesame-coated peanuts, two oranges, several Snickers, and two rounds of those easy-open Laughing-Cow-(*type) cheeses. Most supplies were purchased at Beta Stores, but all nuts/dried fruit can be found at the bazaar, and canned food and naan can be bought at any magazine. We refilled our water bottles throughout this trip in the river or lake. We did not filter our water or use any other sterilizing agent, but did feel a little sick… So maybe we recommend you doing that if you are concerned.
• Safety: We felt perfectly safe the entire time on this trip. While hiking around during the day at Toskol Ata we left our bags inside the kazan house with the caretaker Eje. She recommended we leave them there with her, so we did. While at the ‘Bobka’ guest house during the day we left our room unlocked (there were literally no other guests, though, and we saw few other locals as well).
o A Note of Language: We found that most locals around Arkit and Sari Chelek spoke Kyrgyz exclusively (no or little-to-no Russian). This is something to seriously consider if going as a set of Russian-learning PCVS. Also though, other people we encountered seemed very proud that they knew Russian, if they knew Russian, and basically refused to speak in Kyrgyz. Keep this in mind and (why not?) pack your Kyrgyz/Russian phrase books.
• Weather: The recommended season for this area is June – September. We were warned that our dates, the last week of May, would be cold – but it was not. What was cold was the rain, which was nearly non-stop. The water was too cold for swimming though.
o Recommendation: plan to spend at least one night at the top, if you can, to increase your chance of seeing the lake in its sunny glory (we arrived in rainstorm and could barely appreciate the pretty turquoise-ness of Toskol Ata). It’s worth it! Also, maybe, go a bit later in summer.
• Conclusion: Go here! Follow our itinerary or explore other paths, there are several ways to explore the entirety of Sari Chelek, like seeing the other lakes or staying in further towns. Local travel companies like TUK (Trekking Union Kyrgyzstan) do an all-inclusive trip for about the same price (there was a 5-day TUK trip that went from Bishkek at the same time as we went for a 2600c. price for members, not including food and some other accommodation details). It is really a beautiful not-to-miss sight though, however you get there. Enjoy!
Larisa in Kyrgyzstan 
That looks like an awesome place to hike, thank for writing this up! If you have more photos I’d like to see them some time.
Reblogged this on Bulkington's Progress and commented:
I did this with her. She’s better at blogging than I am.