After finding that the price for a car to Song-Kol (alpine lake) is far too expensive, I decide to hitch and wing it. I end up catching a marshrutka to Kyzart (Jumgal area) and one of the passengers chatting with me (Aibek) decides he’ll make a quick buck off me. He says he’ll drive me up most of the way the following morning for 300 som, petrol money. I agree and he goes off to fill up the car.
In the evening he says one of his mates (Ruslan) is going up to his yurt, which is most of the way to the lake. I tell him to return the money, he says he can’t since he’s filled the car up with petrol. I tell him that I’m not paying Ruslan for the lift, which they agree to. Aibek says he gave Ruslan the money and that I don’t have to pay. Something is not quite right but I don’t put my finger on it until we drive off.
The friend’s car is a people mover, something that won’t handle the drive up to the lake. After fifteen minutes of driving, we’re still at the bottom of the mountain that you need to cross to get to the lake. Ruslan says I’m free to stay in the yurt.
Meanwhile, I’m pissed off that I paid such a large sum of money for such a short lift and Ruslan and I have an argument for fifteen minutes until he returns the money. I still have no place to stay and Ruslan, having made no money from me doesn’t hesitate in the slightest in offering me to stay in his yurt.
Ruslan’s yurt.
The stockpile of meat inside the yurt.
Ruslan making mud bricks for building a stable.
Ruslan’s daughter carrying a bucket of water for making tea.
Ruslan’s wife making cream from the cow’s milk.
Ruslan’s son standing in the classic Oliver Twist, “Please sir, can I have some more?” pose.
Ruslan’s fowls. He uses them when his wife is milking their horses, seven to eight times a day.
Ruslan’s father barely speaks two words of Russian. All he says to me is pay money every time I get another cup of tea or eat some food. Ruslan tries to pretend that his father is joking.
I like Ruslan’s hospitality and family so much that I end up leaving his wife the money that I had paid for the fifteen minute lift.
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