A Few Days in Tamga
Travelling without a bicycle seems like a new thing for me. Chasing a bus or any other cheap public transportation seems like another challenge to me. Planning to get to places that are difficult to reach without spending much money is hard, since I’m so used to have the freedom to reach to those places just by pushing the pedal of my bicycle. Good thing is, this time I’m travelling with a friend. Anselm, my friend from Germany who lived many years in Malaysia enjoying the heat of the tropical weather, now travelling with me for a few days. We had a plan to go south to Osh after visiting the beautiful lake of Songkul, but a plan is just a plan. We don’t really want to stick to it. We discovered that going to Osh takes 2 days from where we were and we don’t want to spend so much time inside a marshrutka or shared taxi. We want to spend more time breathing fresh air since Anselm only have a few days here. So we changed our plan to visit a small town in southern part of Issykul, Tamga which is only a few hours away.
us travellers in the beautiful Tamga
We reached Tamga with a warm welcome by a guesthouse owner, an old but still smiling Kyrgyz woman and her husband. She speaks very good English and cook very good food. Her husband, Askar doesnt speak English but he looked straight into my eyes while talking to me. Studying his face and body language, this man seems very interested to talk to me, to share many things with me but we are limited by our language barrier. He seems an interesting person and I regret that I still couldnt pick up both Russian and Kyrgyz language. While having our meal, the French solo female traveller, Amber that we met earlier in Songkul came and joined us in the guesthouse from her one day trip to southern part of the country. It was good to have another companion. We then decided to travel together for a few days.
walking around Tamga enjoying the warm sunset with Anselm and Amber
This is the second time I traveled to Issykul Lake but never been to this part of the lake. Tien Shan mountain splits into two on the eastern part of the lake… hugging the whole lake and connect again near the Chong-Kemin valley to the west. So this time, we decided to explore the beauty of the Tien Shan mountains on the southern part of Issykul lake. It was interesting, as we first went to Fairy Tale Canyon near Tosor village. Its really like in a fairy tale, where we saw some jawdropping view of landscapes made out of red clays and sandstones… except that there is no multiple rainbows since its very sunny. The shape of these stones really look like a group of animal, lizard, snake, dragon and some parts of it looks like the great wall of China! How amazing to think that these stones were carved by the natural sculptor, the blowing wind for thousands of years. The whole canyon took us about half a day to discover.
some parts of the Fairy Tale Canyon. This part of the rock (middle) looks like a mini great wall
Amber, the French traveller standing proud on top of a high rock
us exploring the surrounding canyon
After spending half a day exploring the Fairy Tale canyon, we then went back to our hostel in Tamga for a good rest. The next day we went to Barskoon waterfall, a nice small waterfall hiding quietly inside a beautiful alpine forest. The hike was easy, only took us a few minutes to get to the beautiful waterfall but there were not much water on the fall. Summer was really dry in Kyrgyzstan this year. Since I arrived Bishkek last July, it only rained twice, about half an hour each. Rest of the days were hot, dry and dusty. The sky doesn’t really cry a lot anymore in this part of the world nowadays. The locals predict one thing, they say this coming winter, it really gonna be a bad one, which means, the winter will be really cold this time. I could do nothing when I heard it, except just blinked my eyes and swallowed my own saliva. I really need to be prepared, if I really want to dwell in the high mountains this coming winter… The dark cold winter days will come here soon and nowhere I can run. The mountainpass in the southern Pamir already been covered by snow now. And thats the only road for me towards the west, towards the sunset.
on the way to the fall through the beautiful alpine forest
Diary Of A Traveller 
beautiful spot for a hike! and such varied landscape!
Menakjubkan.
Indah ciptaanNYA, alangkah bertuahnya saudara Zahariz dapat menikmati keindahan itu, dalam suasana yang amat sunyi & tenang.
Tahniah
Amazing…breathtaking…what a view…
Beautiful photos! I’ve spent a small amount of time on the south shore, but never in Barskoon even though I’ve heard about that waterfall from so many people. Perhaps I need to make that happen soon before winter sets in!
Stephen – Im going to trek there again… but will do it in deep winter! gonna be great experience to camp in the thick snow in the forest and see the waterfall freeze! :)
A photographer friend in Bishkek did that last year, and told me it was hard hiking but well worth it. If you’re interested in company when you go, let me know; as long as I’m in town I’d probably be interested in joining you.
lets keep in touch then. we should chill out… contact you soon then :)
Zahariz I missed your programme last week…the nite Mariah Carey sang in kl. will catch u online from now on. U hv created a cliff. hanger on the winter trekking plans. I don’t want to miss following u. Good luck,,
Bro kat Astro billboard Besraya highway tu you kan?
Perfect! ;)
Salam to you Zahariz.
You never fail to amaze me with all your beautiful photos and stories!
Cantik….
Semoga dirahmati,sentiasa dilindungi Allah… Tabahkan hati. InsyaAllah…. Amin.
Assalammualaikum,,
Bro zahariz..gud luck bro..safe journey.
May Allah bless,protect you.insyaAllah.
Saaudara zahariz..u adalah insan terpilih utk mwnyampaikan kpd org malaysia bahawa besarNYa ciptaan tuhan yg ada di muka bumi ni…subhanallah..
Watched your programme on TV Al-Hijrah. Amazing! When I read that all recordings were made by you – all the more amazing! May Allah protects you in your expedition. Salam.
Tahniah dengan kegigihan saudara meneroka keindahan ciptaan Allah. Semoga sentiasa dalam perlindunganNya. Syabas!
Great expedition! May Allah protect you…
Tahniah atas kejayaan merangkul anugerah Rancangan Dokumentari Terbaik ASK 2014 mlm tadi. You worth it. Semoga perjalanan saudara sentiasa dilindungi Allah SWT
tahniah en zahariz..menang ASK2014
Assalamualaikum..teringin nak tau, bagaimana saudara menunaikan solat, berwudhuk, bertayammum, jamak, dan sebagainya..solat Jumaat di sana , arah kiblat dari dalam hutan, salji, semuanya bermain di fikiran bagaimana saudara menanganinya..takjub dgn semangat kental yg saudara ada..ALLAHUAKBAR!
wsalam tuan, terima kasih! solat tetap macam biasa, cuma bila bermusafir, solat jamak mcm biasa. kalau takde air, which always happen to me, then boleh tayamum… selalunya guna debu je kecuali ada tanah/pasir yg kita confirm rasa bersih. arah kiblat boleh lihat pada matahari utk tau mana arah saudi.
These are awesome photos!!!