Red beach

At last we move a little! With my bag repaired and my shoes still in an awful condition we hitchhike a series of cars towards Khadzi-Say, a town south of Isyk-Keul lake. The south side is way wilder than the north. And very quickly, everything becomes red. Red hilles, red beaches. Our plan is to stop at Khadzhi-Say to find some internet and continue further.

Landscape near Kadzhi-Say

"Come to our place, we have cheap rooms," says a guy on his bike. He can be fifty or sixty and no thank you, we don't need a hotel right now, just wifi.
"No matter, I know that you'll end up at our place," he says and rides away.

We find one wifi signal which leads us a a home with a garden full of flowers. The same guy opens the door: "I told you you would come home"

He and his wife welcome us home and give us the wifi password. We can stay here for free. They give us a room, they don't have customers anyway so why not help.

We visit the neighbouring hills. It's beautiful but a little sad because Ilona is leaving in less than a week. We learn how to climb on the red hills made of sandy rocks. You cannot hold to them with hands, you have to slide on them with your shoes while holding your balance.

The lake is contrasting with the red rocks. Never seen anything like that. Ilona finds a human hip bone.

Ilona finds a human hip bone

We go and visit the Skazka kanyon, one of the most beautiful places in the region, says our host. And it really is beautiful. Lots of rocks to climb on, interesting shapes everywhere. It must be one of the most romantic places under the stars.

Skazka kanyon

She makes our stay as confortable as possible. We have our own room with internet in our room. We are free do do what we want, the couple gives us the greatest of privacies. Whenever we come back, we have food on the table. We try to help them a little to collect pears and apples. Not that they would ask for it, just to give a little something back.

We stay for two days including a stormy night that would not have been confortable in our tent.

We leave Khadzi-Say with a bag of cooked potatoes and and a ton of fruits for the road. Today we really want to get to Bishkek.

But we don't. We are invited to another group of people, a lot of them working in the same company for tourist guides. They guide them to the mountains, to the places we went alone. They have gathered all today and we are all celebrating with a huge dinner. I eat so much bishfarmak that it kicks my organism out of control for the next week... again.

Dinner with tourist guides

We stay there for the night. Another storm. The next day, finally, we should make it to Bishkek. Janelle should be there too and Asyl.