Larry Memmott's Blog

This is the classic day trip from Bishkek. If you haven’t been, why not?

Anyway, I give you a little twist here, we can make the Burana Tower trip into a very nice loop, with hiking and picnic opportunities along the way, or a yummy trout lunch.

The Burana Tower is about all that’s left of the ancient Silk Road City of Balasagun. Balasagun was the capital city of the region when Genghis Khan showed up in the 13th Century. He didn’t destroy the city (which was apparently quite out of character for him), but just renamed it. There’s not too much left now, except the tower, but they have collected some old tombstones and put together a small museum. The highlight, though, is the climb up the high, circular staircase, in the dark, to the top of the tower.

You can find some legends about the Burana Tower on line.  Apparently, the most widely known has the tower hosting a princess in order to keep her from harm.  Unfortunately, though, she ends up dying anyway, from spider bite.  You might want to forget that last part before you venture into the dark, tight, steep staircase leading to the top of the tower.  You also might want to bring along a flashlight.

You can find more photos of the Burana Tower from one of our trips there (in winter) at Climbing The Thousand Year Old Burana Tower.

Getting There

So, here’s the map of the whole route:

The map starts and ends at the Vefa Center on Gorkova. As you can see, there is a lower route (purple) and an upper route (blue). The lower route takes the highway out toward Issyk Kul (in fact, the Burana Tower can be a stop on the way to the lake). If you are not in a hurry, and don’t mind the traffic, you could, instead, follow the road (yellow on the map) through all the small towns between Bishkek and Tokmok. Anyway, there are not many sights to see along this road, but a few of the turns can be tricky, so I’ll describe them.

First, coming off of the highway. You are barreling along down the Issyk Kul highway (A365 for the curious, though I don’t remember ever seeing a sign). When you’ve been on the highway (from the turn onto the highway) for 34 miles, it makes a pretty sharp turn to the left, and you, instead, take the off ramp to the right. You’ll know you made the turn at the right spot if, just one half mile further, you come to a circle, which circles an old soviet jet fighter mounted on a pedestal. You make a hard left through the circle (more of an oval, really) and then proceed another 3.3 miles to the center of Tokmok, where you turn right.

You drive up to the end of town (3.7 mi.) and turn right again. Here, keep to the main road and it will curve towards the south and run you up through another small village, or two. You come to another hard right turn at 2.8 miles (counting from the end of Tokmok noted above). You are now on the home stretch, and arrive at the tower in another mile. In total, from the Vefa Center, the trip is some 53 miles, and might take you up to two hours.

The Road Back

The upper road is more interesting. You continue along the same road you came in on, skirting the tower property on the north, and then snaking through the small town of Don-Aryk. The road from here on out should be easy to follow, since generally you just keep to the big road, heading toward Issyk Ata. And, if you do have any trouble, just ask which way to Issyk Ata. It’s the landmark in these parts so you should be able to get directions.

At 20 miles from Burana Tower, on the left side of the road, is a fish farm (no guarantees in winter). They are raising trout here and you can catch your own (if you want) and then have it prepared for you to eat right there. You can also take it home to fry up yourself, if you like. They also have a yurt and Kumis for sale, in season, if you have a yearning.

Less than a half mile up the road is the turnoff for Bishkek. As you can see on the map, it is an almost total about-face, and up the side of the canyon. That first stretch, up the side of the canyon, is probably the worst of the road, so if it looks doable, you can probably make the whole drive.

By the way, continuing on up the road from the turnoff just another three miles will get you to Issyk Ata, which I’ll cover in another post. Just for good measure, I included the Issyk Ata trip and the hike in the gps file for Burana Tower.

The rest of the trip is pretty self-explanatory. You drive along the foothills of the Ala Too, past several attempts at ski resorts. In the springtime, the fields are filled with poppies. Any time of year, a clear day up here is gorgeous. Keep your eyes peeled and don’t miss one of my favorite sights in Kyrgyzstan, the three towers at Toguz-Bulak Cemetery. 

You come out on the Alamedin Canyon road, and you can hardly miss the turnoff to the right to come back down into the city.

One last point, though: for those rebellious souls who can’t abide following directions and just have to do the trip backwards, the turnoff towards Issyk Ata is easier to miss coming from town. Maybe it would help to know that the turnoff to the left is just over 10 miles from the intersection of Gorky and Alamedin, coming up from the city.  Watch for signs advertising ski resorts which will point you in the right way.  Here’s the .gdb file.

Ata Beit is the memorial and collective grave of victims of Stalin’s repression in the 1930s. More recently, it has also become the burying place of those who died in the April, 2010 revolution. It’s an impressive memorial, if not very well maintained, and a quick and easy half-day trip from Bishkek. It can also be visited as a side trip off of a drive up Ala Archa Canyon, up Alamedin Canyon, or as a leg of the loop route between those two canyons.

The simplest way to get from Bishkek to Ata Beit is up the road to Ala Archa. Counting from the corner of Masalieva Absamata Prospect and Prospect Mira (the corner on which the U.S. Embassy sits), at 5.5 miles you reach a major intersection, with an arch over the road to Ala Archa. Rather than continuing on up the road, turn left. You will pass by Chon Tash on the outskirts of the village, and then turn right at 7.5 miles to head up towards the mountains. A mile or so up this road, you make a sharp left before entering the village of Tash-Dobo. About a half-mile up this road you will see the Ata Beit sign and turn right up the hill to the monument. Attached is a .gdb file you can you can use in your GPS or with Google Earth to orient yourself.

And, by the way, when the poppies are in bloom the area around the memorial is a good place to see them.

Ala Archa is the first out-of-Bishkek experience for most Expats in Kyrgyzstan.  And it should be.  Ala Archa is incredible, and it has something for practically anyone.  The hiking ranges from a paved (but closed to vehicles) walkway up the canyon (close to a mile) to technical climbing of the high peaks.  The latter is beyond my abilities or interests, but I can recommend a few good hikes and one nice loop drive.

To Ala Archa

This is almost too easy to bother with, but if you just got to Bishkek, maybe you do need directions.  It’s easy.  Straight out Prospect Mira (past the U.S. Embassy) to the last traffic light (just a block before the street ends at the Ala Archa Presidential Residence).  Turn right.  Continue to the first traffic light, and turn left, and up you go, straight up to the end of the road.

You will have to stop at a gate on the way and pay an admission fee for the park.

I’m attaching a .gdb file you can use with your GPS or Google Earth to orient yourself.

At the end of the road is a small hotel and a couple of small café’s.  There are also restrooms there and for the first mile up the canyon.

Here are some of the hiking alternatives:

Straight Up The Canyon

The first mile is an easy saunter up the paved (but closed to traffic) road.  There are benches and picnic tables scattered along, so it’s a nice place for a family outing.  There are even pit toilets!

Beyond the first mile, the trail fords a small stream and you begin to climb the valley a bit more seriously.  Still, this is a relatively easy train and one that anyone who is reasonably fit will enjoy.  As you are mostly climbing the valley floor, it is a good, safe trail for the kids, too.

Adygene Valley Loop and Extension

This is a much more interesting hike, from my perspective, anyway.  You climb up past the Climber’s Cemetery to a meadow of wildflowers and then down the other side of the valley.  There is an extension you can follow as far as you like – reportedly it takes you over the Sokuluk Canyon in a couple of days.

The Waterfall & The Climber’s Lodge

One of the best-known hikes takes you up to a waterfall well above the canyon floor.  You can then continue on to a hut which serves as base camp for climbers mounting some of the nearby peaks.

Another alternative is to enjoy the drive from the Ala Archa Canyon to the next canyon east, Alamedin.

This is perhaps the closest and easiest way to see the high Ala Too Mountains up close from Bishkek. The full loop is about 55 miles long and makes a nice daytrip. The fields of wildflowers are gorgeous, in season. The loop trip can be easily combined with a stop off at Ata Beit, the memorial to soviet repression (and now to those who died in the April 7 revolution.

What’s more, in the spring, this may be one of the best places to go to see the famed wild tulips of Kyrgyzstan.  Good hunting!

This route is mostly on a reasonably well maintained dirt road, and, though it is passable in a car, is clearly more suited to an SUV. This is not a route you want to be driving in the rain, or soon after rain, as the road will get pretty muddy, and quite possibly, impassible.

The route begins by heading up toward Ala Archa. About 12 miles from the intersection of Masalieva Absamata Prospect and Prospect Mira (the corner on which the U.S. Embassy sits), you will come to a left turn on a dirt road. From there on out, you basically just follow that road up from the Ala Archa canyon, over the mountains and down into the Alamedin canyon.

I’ve included a .gdb file you can use in your GPS or with Google Earth to orient yourself.

There are lots of places where you could stop for lunch, but my preference is probably in the Juniper-woods marked in the GPS file as “Barbaris” at about 20 miles. At its highest point, about 23 miles along, you will reach the maximum altitude of about 7,500 feet above sea level.

At 25 miles from the Embassy, you come to the upper Chong Kurchak Gorge.  The lower reaches of the gorge (where you will meet it again at 32 miles) are a favorite climbing area (see http://alpinefund.org/Chong-Kurchak.html) and home of the Chunkurchak State Biological Reserve, protecting rare tulips, including the Craig (or “King”) Tulip, which grows heads as wide as 15-18 cms, and the Zinaida Tulip with red flowers and veins which are green on the outside and yellow-gold inside. The flowers reportedly bloom in April and May.  It might be interesting to hike down the gorge from the upper road crossing to the lower.  As you can see on the map and the .gdb file, I’ve also followed spurs up the gorge from both of its intersections with the road.  I also put the path of the gorge, as closely as I could guage it from Google Earth onto the .gdb file, labeled as “C Kurchak Gorge.”

At 36 miles, after descending into the Alamedin canyon, you come to a road turning off to the right which you can use to cross the river and connect with the Alamedin canyon road, an alternative (and faster) route back to Bishkek. If you continue, you can visit, instead, Ata Beit, on the way back.

The Ancient Walls of Sauran

If you make it to Turkistan, there is no sense missing Sauran. While the old Silk Road City is mostly gone, its wall, still standing, certainly makes the place evocative. And it is only about an hour out of town, anyway.

As you can see from looking at the map below, there are lots of ways to get through town to M32, and then it is a straight shot, some 27 miles from the junction with M32 to the turnoff onto a dirt road to Sauran. The fortress is only a mile south of M32.

Strait Shot

Here’s the .gdb file, you can use in your GPS or in Google Earth.

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Aliciya’s been having a great time playing on the beach these past few days.

So, after 48 long hours of travel, we made it to Hawaii four days ago.  It’s a tremendous relief to have the packing done, the car sold, the last work from the office finished (well, almost, I did bring a little bit with me), and get someplace warm.  Still, we are already missing Bishkek and our friends there.

Hawaii is a good place to be missing you all from, though (especially since I understand the weather has been even more miserable since we left).

We did a lot in our first three days in Hawaii.  Perhaps too much.  We visited Pearl Harbor and the Polynesian Cultural Center and then flew to Kaua’i to begin what I expect will be a more relaxing part of the vacation.  Still, we had a great time.  We hadn’t been to Pearl Harbor or the Cultural Center before, and both were very interesting.  In both cases, we could clearly have spent a lot more time.

Of course, we got in some relaxation, too.  We all enjoyed the fantastic swimming pools and relaxing landscaping of the resort we were at. 

We are in Kaua’i now, at Marriott’s Waiohai Beach Club, until next Saturday.

So, the subject matter of this blog is going to change!  Tatyana, Aliciya and I have left Bishkek to begin our next adventure.  Over the next few months we will be reacquainting ourselves with the U.S. and getting ready to move to La Paz, Bolivia, where I will serve as Deputy Chief of Mission.

For those who have enjoyed my travel pieces on exploring the Kyrgyz Republic, I just want to note that I still have some material to come, and will be putting it up over the coming months.  I also plan to organize it in a more permanent and serious way, as a (limited) travel guide with its own index page.  Of course, once I get to Bolivia, my ramblings on travel will likely take a more South American direction.

Nickelback with special guests Bush, Seether, & My Darkest Days

Verizon Center
Washington, DC
Mon, Apr 30, 2012 06:00 PM

That’s where I’ll be!