Osh (KGZ)- Toktogul (KGZ)- Tien Shan (KGZ)- Bishkek (KGZ)- Korday (KAZ) + Mission Completed!
August 22, 2014
(continue from part 1) After taking a dip at the Toktogul reservoir we headed towards the Toktogul town and have our lunch there.
We ordered lamb Mantis and some lamb stew. They gave us some very generous portion! The beer tasted exceptionally delicious because of the 110F degrees temperature.
Kyrgyzstan bee is fierce! They eat meat! This little buddy had been savouring my leftover lamb bones for several minutes.
Then we kept sailing on and reached a section of M-41 highway full of Kyrgyz nomads.
MISSION COMPLETED: “DRINK FERMENTED MARE’S MILK WITH LOCALS“
While driving on the M-41 highway from Osh to Bishkek we visited a beautiful high-attitude valley full of Kyrgyz nomads.
We stopped by a roadside stand where a Kyrgyz Grandma was sitting in fierce wind selling Kumis (fermented mare’s milk) in recycled plastic bottles.
Her family yurt was only several hundred feet away, down by the Tien Shan mountain river where one could see her horses grazing. You can’t get more “locally grown”, “organic” and “fair trade” than this ;-)
We bought a bottle of Kumis and some Kashk or курут (Kyrgyz dried horse cheese balls) and drank it with the family!
Yes we completed our mission “DRINK FERMENTED MARE’S MILK WITH LOCALS“! THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATIONS together we raised $323.88 for our charity Cool Earth! Here is the video:
So how did the Kumis fermented mare’s milk taste like? It got a light smoked Gouda cheese flavor to it, very earthy and barnyard, with hint of saltiness and a bit sour and tart finish.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATIONS for this mission, together we saved over 3.2 acres of rainforest in Peru through our charity Cool Earth ;-)
This drive was absolutely stunning! So far my favorite scenic drive of the entire trip! It made me think of how complicated modern life is. Do we really need all those apps and social media to reassure our existence?
Kyrgyzstan Kazakhstan Border Crossing
We kept driving at night, skipped Bishkek and finally arrived at the Kyrgyzstan- Kazakhstan Border Crossing. We arrived around 10:30pm, waited in line for the customs gate to open. We waited until midnight and finally our car Takhi Butter gained entry inside the gate for the official border-crossing procedure.
Fast forward Graham and Takhi Butter was finally released around 4:30am. Graham had to pay USD $5 to bribe some Kazakh officer.
It took altogether 6 hours for us to cross this border, the longest we had on the Mongol Rally.
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