Distance / 距離： 58.63km
Time / 時間： 3h 11m
Average speed / 平均速度： 18.4km/h
Distance to date / 今日までの積算距離： 2157.9km

English Summary: Left Karakol against all logic according to how my body felt. I left late, after lunch, feeling already very tired. My ‘days off’ in Karakol and Bishkek were too busy with visas and getting to and from Bishkek. Managed to get to a beach on Lake Issy-Kul, but my body was not happy. Ate some Chinese instant noodles for tea and tried to sleep. But sleep evaded me.

今日出発するか、明日出発するか相当迷ってました。別に明日出発してもよかったのに、今日出発することにしました。それは大間違いとなりました。

もともと疲れ気味でした。カラコル町に着いてからずっと。消化不良（胸やけ）が続いていて、ゆっくりしたかった気持ちが強かった。しかし、中央アジアでの旅はあせるものです。なぜかというと、今の国のビザ期間があるし、次に行く国ビザの始まる日が迫ってくるからです。とにかく、そのビザのプレッシャーを感じて、今日カラコルを出発することにしました。まずイシクル湖の湖岸まで行って、明日ナーリン町（Narin)へ伸びる山道の途中まで行こうと思っていました。

一応イシクル湖の湖岸まで行けました。しかし何という疲れです！テントを張って、食事（中国のインスタントラーメン）を食べたあと、ちょうど寝ようとしたところ、大きな四区の車が近くまでやってきました。出てきたのはヴォドカを持つ５人の男性。こりゃやばいと思って、僕は気づいていない振りをします。こいつらはやさしいやつなのか、トラブルを起こすやつなのか、わかりません。

気づいていない振りは無理です。

「オイ！おまえ！どこから来たんかい？アメリカンか？」

「いいえ、アメリカ人じゃないです。ニュージーランドです。」

といって、向こうが大喜びしました。

「そりゃよく遠いところからおおいでになりましたな！ぜひともヴォドカいっぱい一緒に飲もう！」

いくらでも自分が非常に疲れていますと強調しても、「キルギスのヴォドカだから、飲みなさい！」と何回も言われて、結局一杯飲みました。

今日の疲れの上に、ヴォドカを注ぐのが大間違いでした。向こうがそれで満足して、僕がテントに戻ることができましたが、寝るのは不可能でした。一晩中吐き気が続いていました。何回もテントを出て、吐こうとしたが、何もでない。今はその翌朝ですが、体がだるい。今日は本当にゆっくりしよう・・・

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What can I say? Rugby played on horses where the ball is a goat carcass. The game is called ‘Buzkashi’. They are a hard bunch here in Kyrgyzstan!

The plan from here is to head towards Naryn in central Kyrgyzstan tomorrow. It is about 200km to Naryn, so hopefully I should be able to do a quick update there in about three or so days. If not, the update will be from Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city.

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Generally feeling worn out after little sleep on the bus the night before and a busy day at the Tajikistan Embassy, I spent the day here in Bishkek sleeping at the hostel.

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English Summary: A bout of diahorrea half way through the night made for a rather uncomfortable bus ride to Bishkek. However this was made up for by the fact that I managed to get my Tajikistan visa in one day (for a fee of US$100). Decided to head for the high passes in Tajikistan sooner rather than later, so will be getting my Uzbek visa in Dushanbe (Tajikistan).

夜間バス＋下痢＝不快的な移動

途中から始まりました。午前１時前でした。ちょっとおなかの調子がおかしいな・・・そして１時半ごろにバスを止めるように、運転手に頼みました。バスの横の畑で必要な行動を済ませました。バスのみなさんにご迷惑をおかけしました。

そのあとは何とか大丈夫でした。朝６：３０に無事にビシュケックについたら、一緒にバスを乗っていたイギリス人のトムさんと一緒にビシュケックの中心まで歩きました。まずその日の宿を探すのが目的でした。そしてそのあとはタジキスタン大使館。

宿泊（Sabrybek’s B&B)はすぐ見つけましたが、タジキスタン大使館はもうちょっと難しかった。まず、僕がインターネットで調べた場所が間違っていました。そしてほかの人が持っていたガイドブックに乗っていた場所も間違っていました。結局親切なお店の人が電話で調べてくれて、ロシア語で場所を書いてくれました。これをタクシーの運転手に見せたらすぐにたどり着きました。そして大使館にUS$100を払ったら同じ日にビザを発行してくれました。

本当はビシュケックでウズベキスタンのビザも申請するように計画しましたが、ニュージーランド人は現地の旅行会社からの招待状が必要で、その招待状が発行されるまで時間がかかるのでウズベキスタンのビザはタジキスタンで申請することに決めました。

とりあえず今日はビシュケックに泊まって、明日かあさってにカラコルに戻るように考えています。

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Currently in the run-down city of Karakol in eastern Kyrgyzstan staying at a very nice hostel, Yak Tours Hostel. The mission for the next two weeks is to get my Tajikistan and Uzbekistan visas from Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. I ride the night bus to Bishkek tonight. My bike and most of my gear stays locked up here at the hostel until I come back. I really want to visit Song-Kol and ride across the mountains to Osh, rather than riding my bike to Bishkek. I also save about 300km riding this way too.

In Bishkek I will post my diary entries and photos from the past few days. It has been amazing, amazing scenery, and once again fantastic locals, including leaving Kazakhstan with more money that I entered the country with! Stay tuned!

Thank you all for all your questions and comments. I will answer them all once I get more time in Bishkek (two weeks waiting for visas!).

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At the beginning of today I had a few random ideas about how I was going to get to Bishkek to get my Tajikisan and Uzbekistan visas. One plan was to bike to Bishkek (the original plan), and the other was to leave the bike here in Karakol, catch a bus to Bishkek, get the visas and then return to Karakol. The reason for the two options came down to which route I wanted to take from Karakol to Osh, Osh being in the south-west ish part of Kyrgyzstan (I put that in for you, Aunty Les).

The prefered route for me was to cut diagonally across the mountains on a gravel road via towns Naryn and Kazerman. This way would not only be picturesque, but also have less traffic and would save more than 350km of biking compared to biking to Bishkek and then to Osh.

The other route went via Bishkek on paved roads, but there would be many more cars on this road, and less places to camp. I have by the way camped every night since China. It is very easy to find a spot just out of sight of the road to set up the tent for the night.

Due to my dislike of large cities, I decided in the end to take the bus to Bishkek for what I expect to be a two week stint waiting for visas. This decision was helped by Tom, a British army officer on holiday who had been mugged the previous day and needed to get to Bishkek to organise a new passport to replace the one stolen. He was going to catch the 11pm night bus to Bishkek that night (7 hour journey, providing the bus didn’t break down, which apparently they often did), so I promptly went and bought a ticket for the same bus.

So with all that sorted, I spent the rest of the day sleeping in my tent in the back yard of the Yak Tours Hostel, waiting for my clothes to dry. Lucky for me, right above my tent was a greengage tree (is that how you spell those green plum things). Every now and then I would hear one fall from the tree – my cue to rush out and consume it before any bird could get to it. Very sweet.

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Distance / 距離： 108.63km
Time / 時間： 6h 52m
Average speed / 平均速度： 15.8km/h
Distance to date / 今日までの積算距離： 2099.3km

English summary: The ‘really bad road’ that I was warned about yesterday was nothing to write home about. Plenty of potholes to dodge, but not too bad. At 3pm I hit the wall. No energy and really bad indignstion made the last 27km to Karakol a real nightmare. Yak Tours Hostel in Karakol however is a very nice place, on Gegarin Street, about 3 mins walk from the town center. Karakol is a strange place though. A real sense of poverty and masses of crows fly around in the evening giving it a medieval feel.

いや、今日はきつかった。本当にきつかったです。午後３時ごろまでは大丈夫でした。平均時速２０ｋｍで、とても調子よく走っていました。しかし、キルギスの三番目に大きいカラコル町（Karakol)までの最後の２７ｋｍは平均時速７ｋｍまで落ちて、エネルギーが完全に切れてしまいました。その上、なぜか胸やけ（消化不良？）がひどかったです。おそらく疲れがたまってしまったと思い、とにかくカラコル町までいって、快適な宿を見つけて２日間くらい休むことに決めました。

しかし３時まではよかったです。ほとんどすべて下り坂で追い風も強かった。昨日、何人かに「道路は悪いぞ～」と言われましたが、自転車にはぜんぜん問題ありませんでした。確かにサスペンションがない自転車だたらちょっときつかったかもしれませんが、僕はどうもなかったです。

面白いことに、キルギスはこんなにカザフスタンに近いのに、地形と気候がびっくりするほど違います。土地が乾いているのではなくて、湿っていて農作物が豊富なところです。

人もぜんぜん違います。カザフスタンだったら、人が（お金を含めて）なんでも僕にあげようとしていたので、キルギスの人はどれだけ設けるかしか考えていないようです。たとえばカラコルに着いたら、事前に聞いてた宿の場所を現地の人に聞こうとしたら、「お金くれたら教えてやるよ」といわれました。本当にありえない。そしてものを買うときにキルギスでは外国人値段と現地値段があるようです。でもま、それは都会だけですね。田舎の人たちはそうでもない。

結局、宿泊はカラコルの「Yak Tours Hostel」にしました。とてもフレンドリーな人たちで、町の中心から歩いて３分ほどのところにあります。Gegarin Street（ゲガーリン）にあります。

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Distance / 距離： 95.39km
Time / 時間： 7h 38m
Average speed / 平均速度： 12.5km/h
Distance to date / 今日までの積算距離： 1990.7km

I sit in my tent here about 1km from the Kyrgyzstan border after just crossing over only a hour ago. Compared to the China to Kazakhstan border, this was a piece of cake. Only 10 minutes and I was through. The Kyrgyzstan border guard asked if I had any documentation for my bike, I said of course not, and that was the end of the matter.

The day began with more of the sandy road from Sharin Canyon to the main road. This morning I was in more of an accepting mood, so I did not complain about the regular patches where I had to push the bike through the sand against the head wind that still existed.

The main road however was a different story. Cycling in a different direction meant that I had a tailwind up the small pass across the hills to the plain on the other side. Unfortunately my camera batteries were dead, so I had no opportunity to take pictures of the amazing scenery on the other side of the Sharin Canyon mountain range. The canyon continued on this side of the mountains also, and the road I was on went straight down into it. Imagine a massive plain heading downhill towards a massive cayon in the center of the plain. The canyon and plain are so expansive that you need to turn your head 180 degrees to take it all in.

The mission for today was orginally to get to Kegen, the last substantial town before the border in eastern Kazakhstan. I arrived at a small town on the way at about 11am and asked how many kms till Kegen. The guy I asked held up five fingers and said something in Russian followed by ‘kilometer’. Great, I thought. Only 5km till Kegen where I can get some lunch. 10km later, still no Kegen. I continued up the hefty pass. By 20km I was sure that the helpful guy had either messed his calculations up, or was just trying to be nice to the poor cyclist by making him feel good about being close to his destination.

It was about now when I received another 1000 (money) from a passing car, along with a 750ml bottle of fermented horse’s milk. These Kazakhstanis are a generous bunch, I tell you (the milk I threw away after getting a few kms away). These fellas held up two fingers when I asked about how far away Kegen was. Sweet, only 2kms!

20kms later at 3pm I roll into Kegen. I had finally worked it out. If Kazakhstan people want to say 50km, they will hold up 5 fingers. I really should have got them to write it down.

The road to Kegen was in very good condition and ran through massive wide steppe with locals collecting hay for the winter. Kegen itself presented itself to me on that particular day as a desolate has-been town. Many of the shops were closed, and a cold, dark wind blew through the streets. Locals were out and about wrapped up in warm coats.

My very late lunch was again yummy dumplings in soup, a dish called Permenyi. I had indigestion most of the day, and this seemed to calm it down. After buying some food for the road (two loaves of bread, cheese, sour cream, crab sticks, soup sachets, snickers bars, water), I headed out again towards the border, intent on getting just as close to the border as I could before nightfall. As I left, some local taxi drivers made indications that I should be prepared for some very cold weather and bad road conditions up in the mountains.

The road after Kegen did indeed deteriorate after passing through another very small lonely settlement that had adolescents asking me for cigarettes. The road wasn’t overly bad however, and it was possible to dodge most of the bad potholes with ease. This was helped again by a hefty tailwind.

At 6pm I was just about to set up my tent when I saw in the distance a gate-like structure over the road. According to how far I had come since Kegen, and how far the border was from Kegen according to the map, the border should have been about 15km away. I decided to go and invesigate ayway, and in the end found that it was indeed the border. The border guards also told me “This is a very bad road, you should go over the other border to the west. You will be cold and there is nowhere to stay here.”

I assured them that I had at least two days food and plenty of water, and I was on my way into Kyrgyzstan.

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