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After spending the night at Lake Issyk-Kul, we traveled to Karakol, a city on the far east side of the lake. There is a school of music in Karakol, and although they emphasize the study of regional instruments like the comuz and kyyak over the violin and cello, they still had a good knowledge of the classical repertoire and asked specifically for us to play Beethoven. They also asked for cello strings. Strings were probably in short supply there. As usual, they enjoyed the selection of American tunes like "Orange Blossom Special" and "Chicago." Afterwards we went to a Dungan home for lunch. The Dungans are an ethnic minority group originally from China. The woman who ran the Dungan restaurant, Zamira, received a grant from a Swiss organization to run her business from her house and to help with her efforts to educate people about the Dungans. We enjoyed a Dungan feast there and listened to a short talk by Zamira about the history and culture of the Dungans. Also, we saw and even tried on some of their ethnic dress.
(Our host, Zamira cooking Dungan bread in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan)
On the way home, we took a small detour to a spot in the Kyrgyz mountains called Seven Bulls. This jagged edge of mountain has seven peaks of vivid red stone. The legend is that these peaks were originally seven bulls sacrificed by a clan leader in honor of his wife, who had died tragically. The seven bulls were then magically transformed into this mountain peak. It was here where we saw our first real Kyrgyz yurt. At this yurt we took pictures of a really cute Kyrgyz baby, and Kamila bought fresh honey. At dusk we made our way back to the resort at Lake Issyk-Kul, trying to avoid the sometimes crazy drivers, and had a short and chilly swim in the lake before retiring.
- Joe
(A mother with her baby beside their yurt outside of Seven Bulls, Kyrgyzstan)
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