Chimgan

by

Very much done with Taskhent but with some days left before my Kyrgyz visa would start I headed into the mountains north of the city. Despite the dire state of the little village where I was staying it was fun and finally cool at night!

The first day I hiked up the mountain in front of my hotel, this is the view from 1/3 up the hill.
Naturally I claimed the summit for the Netherlands, while I was being 'attacked' by a swarm of ladybugs (I walked down again a bit before having lunch). The second day I took shared taxi's around the mountains in front to meet some friends and go for a swim in the water reservoir in the distance.
My hotel (an old Sovjet alpine resort) had three towers and had definitely seen better days. This is the centre tower; I stayed in the right tower. I had running (cold) water from 08:00 until 08:30 in the morning and likewise from 20:00 until 20:30 in the evening. Ah well, the price was roughly E 4,- per night...
The mountains opposite of my hotel obstructed the light of the sun and the moon coming up and going down, so every evening there was a beautiful 'moonrise'.
While new cars are primarily Daewoo (Chevrolet), the stickering shows that the minibusses are usually imported second hand from the Netherlands and Germany (lot's of construction firms, plumbers and even 'Der Lederhosen Specialist').