Kyrgyzstan has a growing Community Based Tourism Association providing the opportunity to stay with local families in their homes.
To break our journey between Toktogul Reservoir and Son Kul, we celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary in the small village of Kyzyl-Oi, staying with Tinatin Saidinova and her family. There are nine such houses in the village of 800 people, which is located at 1800m in the Suusamyr Valley.
Along with our guide and driver we shared what appeared to be a separate small area of the house with three bedrooms, a dining room, toilet and shower room.
Our room had two single beds, with one having a vacuum cleaner at its base. We had a shared bedside cabinet, a wardrobe full of clothes, a coat stand and a dresser. However, there was decent Wi-Fi.
Although we’d declined lunch on arrival, the dining room table was full of bread, martini glasses full of homemade jams and honey, nuts and dried fruits, and lots of sweets and biscuits which remained there for most of our stay. A boiler on the side provided constant hot water and we were able to make tea.
Although the weather looked a little threatening, we were told there was a small village shop a few minutes’ walk away, where we stocked up with Russian beer for dinner. On route we passed an ancient rusting beige Lada and despite the bumper being held on with duct tape, it was still obviously in use. Whilst it was a small village, there was a simple green and white mosque with two minarets. Having deposited the beers in Tinatin’s fridge, we set off in the opposite direction as the skies had brightened significantly.
We walked out of the village on the road we had entered on. Despite it being a fairly major route running north to south, the flat road was unpaved, with the fast-flowing Kokomeren River running alongside it with the occasional bridge. Tall dark green poplar trees abounded in clumps, and as Kyzyl-Oi means ‘red bowl’ we were surrounded by mountains often veiled in swift moving clouds and it was incredibly beautiful. On our return, Tinatin provided a plate of chak chak, deep-fried pieces of dough drenched in honey, to accompany our tea.
The no-choice meal at 7pm began with what was said to Ukrainian Borsch but was more like a cabbage soup with pieces of meat. This was followed by a tomato and cucumber salad with plov, or rice and lamb, for our main course. The sweets and biscuits were still on the table for dessert.
Having been woken early by cock’s crowing, we sat on a small bench at the front of the house in the sunshine, surrounded by dogs and cats watching two horses being loaded into a truck to be taken out to the summer pasture. We had ordered breakfast the previous night, and declined rice porridge but we enjoyed simple fried eggs and tasted the jams with bread from a basket wrapped in a Morrison’s plastic carrier bag.
Tinatin’s online profile told us ‘She and her family of four are typically occupied with tending to their farm, but during the summer, they take great pleasure in extending a warm welcome to tourists in their home. Tinatin’s husband and son diligently work on the farm, while she and her daughter-in-law manage housekeeping duties and care for their grandson, who attends school.’
The only time we saw Tinatin was as she constantly bustled in and out of the dining room ensuring we were well fed. We also met her husband but as neither spoke any English, we didn’t learn much about them or their way of life. It was perhaps a more unusual place to celebrate our wedding anniversary and as it’s our 10th next year, I’m hoping for somewhere a little more glamourous.
