Introduction

The Issyk Kul region of Kyrgyzstan is the jewel of the country. In this one oblast is the second largest high mountain lake in the world, Khan Tengri, one of the most beautiful 7000m peaks in the world, remote forested mountains, large glaciers, wildlife, semi deserts, in short there is not enough time in one lifetime to explore all the magic of this region. For this report I spent two weeks and tried to visit the best the region has to offer.

Bishkek, the capital city (population 700,000 est.), is very disconnected from the rest of Kyrgyzstan. Here you can get a cappuccino at an Italian restaurant, go bowling or to a disco, and walk nicely paved boulevards, here you can even find clean toilets. These are all luxuries you need to be prepared to leave behind as you start your journey.

I left Bishkek late morning for the 5 hour drive to Koch Kor, a nothing city that now has the reputation as the center of Jailoo tourism in Kyrgyzstan. “Jailoo” is a Kyrgyz term that refers to the practice of shepards and their families setting up yurts high in the mountains during summer time to tend to their sheep, cows, horses and goats.  Koch Kor as a town has little to recommend other than it sits centrally located between Lake Issyk Kul, Lake Son Kul and Naryn. The town itself is little more than one main street with a few stores and cafes (and internet at the post office). But in this little town are already three companies that are involved in Jailoo tourism. How competition came to this little town is an interesting story that starts back in the mid 1990s when Helvatas, a Swiss development organization, started a Community Based Tourism (CBT) project in Kyrgyzstan.

CBT is based on the principle that money spent on tourism should end up as close to the service provider as possible. Too often large companies based in regional centers such as Bishkek are able to find the clients, charge high prices and pay locals as little as possible. CBT strives to create a network of locally based organizations that keep quality standards high, and are paid directly by the clients without the use of a middle company. Each CBT town has a coordinator that is responsible for advertising and collecting 15% of the money the homestay receives, this money then goes back into the organization. While this CBT project was nationwide, two employees of Helvatas, Susan and Walter Schaeppi, took a special interest in developing the region around Koch Kor. They helped develop CBT and a network of homestays in the city of Koch Kor, as well as started a separate company, Shepards life that dealt directly with the Jailoo tourism. Meanwhile there was a fight within CBT and the coordinator was voted out two years ago by the members, she then started her own company, Community Jailoo tourism, that now competes directly with the other two.  

That night I spent the evening in a pleasant homestay in the center of town. I spoke with my host at length about how she became involved in CBT. She is a teacher and having guests is an excellent way to provide extra income. She has used the money in part to improve her home with such additions as a shower and new furniture. She of course had some complaints, for example that the coordinator did not send her a fair amount of clients, but she said that almost everybody had that same complaint. In the morning she fed me a delicious breakfast and I was on my way.

That morning I drove to the end of the road leading to the mountains just above the town, parked my car next to a farmhouse and started hiking. The first three hours of the hike were indeed boring, up a long dry canyon on a non drivable dirt road (perfect horse country). I was even met by a couple locals that asked me where my horse was, this is not hiking country. But the road rose higher then over a small pass to the most beautiful green valley you can imagine, with a lake in the center and a group of yurts at the far end. I walked around to the yurts and was welcomed by a woman, her family of four children and husband.

In a valley above Koch Kor I visited a mountain yurt advertised by CBT. This was a working yurt not specially set up for tourists. In the valley there were a total of 9 yurts, three of them accepted guests; one had a contract with CBT, another with Shepards life and the third with Jailoo Tourism. The family actually had little time to sit and talk during the day, they were busy working, but the mother took the time to describe her opinions toward tourism. Of course she was enthusiastic about this new revenue. She did not know exactly what percentage of her revenue was from tourists, but stated that because of this new income source they were better able to continue working in the mountains. The number of Jailoos is decreasing throughout Kyrgyzstan as the number of overall sheep in Kyrgyzstan as dramatically decreased over the last decade. When state controls were removed in the early 1900's sheep were sold to raise needed revenue, the numebr of sheep is rising but nowhere near its level in the 1980s. By adding tourism as a part of their income they are able to keep alive Kyrgyz traditions that might otherwise disappear. She also described how it makes life more interesting, not knowing if in the evening there will be guests, and especially guests from all parts of the world, she loved it.

There is a danger here however, that they will become too dependant on the tourist. If say over the next five years tourism revenues increase dramatically they could start to focus more on tourism to the neglect of why they have a Jailoo in the first place, to raise livestock. This unexpected consequence could result in the opposite effect; that instead of supporting Kyrgyz traditions tourism replaces Kyrgyz traditions. The second concern is that there is an inherent danger in creating a dependency on tourism in this very unstable region of the world. Although now all is quite and tourism is slowly increasing after the slow periods during the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq and the SARS epidemic, the tour operators here learned the hard way that tourism revenues are fragile and events thousands of kilometers away can destroy a tourism based economy. When I asked the CBT coordinator in Koch Kor what they needed most for tourism development she replied quite sincerely, “World Peace.”

But that night, at that yurt high up in the mountains with a family that worked hard all day with the livestock the world’s troubles could not have been further away. When night arrived we all retreated to the yurt. Dinner had been boiling on the stove, an odd collection of internal parts of some animal, perhaps a liver, perhaps a lung, it was hard to tell. With unwashed hands the father grabbed a piece of the mystery meat and carved me off a piece, there were also potatoes boiled with the meat, and the liquid remainder was served as soup. This all in a crowded yurt to the light of only a small oil lamp; I could have been back in time 100 years and the scene would have looked the exact same. After the meat was served we drank tea and komuz, fermented horses milk and a staple of Jailoo life. That night we all slept together in a crowded yurt, and as it was cold outside they brought in six of baby goats to join us.

The next morning I woke to fresh mountain air, sights of a family going about the morning chores, milking the cows, chasing goats away from the yurt and herding the sheep higher up to feed for the day. After a breakfast of more meat and komuz  I walked back to the valley, wondering what will happen to this image as more and more tourists are destined to come each year. And more tourists will come, the lonely planet will be publishing a new edition soon and Koch Kor is said to be prominently described. The region has the reputation as a place an independent backpacker can show up and experience Kyrgyz life high in the mountains.

Back in the Koch Kor I had the chance to meet with Susan and Walter Schaeppi, the originators of CBT in Koch Kor. For the past several years they have lead trips to the region for Swiss clients, this has helped support the Shepard’s Life company. Each year they also travel with the group as guides. While we sat and talked about development issues they said that this was in the mid-point of their trip with clients. They went on the first hike with their group and the local guide, now the local guide was alone on a hike with the group. This was the first time they allowed the guide to work directly with the group without them being there. I found that interesting, that after more than five years they still did not think the local human resources were adequate to lead one of their groups. They said they hoped next year to send a group without their support, but were not sure.

I also asked them what ideas they would have for new projects to assist in tourism development. Their answer was either based on cynicism, realism, or protectionism for a place they think of as their own. “Stay out” was the curt reply. In their opinion there is already too many foreign projects in the region and all it is does is create dependency at a time when local operators need to learn how to work for themselves. Also there is no coordination between projects, TACIS, Helvatas, the Swiss Central Asian Mountain Project all work here but there is absolutely no cooperation. Walter described how he respects the CBT project greatly, because if all fails the people involved have not made major changes in their lives, but will  “at least have a shower in their homes that was not their before.” Best, in his opinion, is that the donors do more internal marketing to get more clients here, that is what is needed.

I left early that morning after a stay in Koch Kor, heading for the city of Bokonbaeva on the south shore of Lake Issyk Kul. This is where the mountain ranges rise higher and there are areas of forest and green valleys. The best hiking is still further east toward Kara Kol, but this is where the geographic region begins. In Bokonbaeva I visited a rug and souvenir making factory called “Thimble”. This private business was started 7 years ago with the help of Helvatas and a loan of $2000 for start up costs. The business is a husband and wife team, the wife being in charge of the staff and sales, the husband being the engineer and developer of the machinery used to make the rugs. They were very proud that they managed to pay back to loan many years ahead of schedule. The company employees 20 people and even though it is called a woman’s cooperative this seems to be more a tool to get grants, in the end it is a business run by a couple. They have dreams of expanding and already have plans to build a small hotel if they can find another grant. They have committed to tourism, and have left all other forms of income behind.

After my visit to the nearby mountains I went back to the small factory where I met a representative from TACIS who was writing a report of yurt tourism and was giving specific recommendations to yurt owners on how to best suit the yurts to the needs of tourists. He invited me to join him that evening at a yurt nearby where they had made reservations for the evening. We drove to a yurt run by a small tour operator called Beltam Tours, about an hours drive west and south of Bokonbaeva. It was not at all the Jailoo that I had experienced high up in the mountains near Koch Kor. This was more of a commercial experience; they rent the yurt for the summer and set it up near a relative’s house specifically for guests. Here is another side of yurt tourism development, that of the idea of a yurt not as a reality of life, but as purely a tourist attraction.

The TACIS representative took notes on his computer and gave the woman several suggestions, including not having electricity in the yurt as this ruins the experience, to serve more traditional foods and to do all she can to make it seem as though the yurt is a real working yurt. This will lead us in the end to the yurt as tourist attraction, a play land for curious tourists, but at least the yurt was clean and the hygiene was proper. For most tourists they would prefer a hygienic if not quite real experience, over a real experience where the food and atmosphere are not hygienic and even dangerous to ones health.

After a good nights sleep in the clean yurt near Bokonbaeva, I continued east down the lake toward to the city of Tamga. Along the way I stopped in at a yurt camp on the shore near the city of Torsun run by Dostuk Trekking. In the scheme of traditional yurts this camp was as far away from Kyrgyz culture as possible. There were a total of five yurts set up in a field near the lake. In the yurts were old spring beds with bad mattresses and no sign of Kyrgyz culture to be seen. This might be a good time to bring up a small linguistic matter between the words “Kyrgyz” and “Kyrgyzstani”. The adjective “Kyrgyz” directly refers to items of Kyrgyz ethnic origin. This could include a Kyrgyz person, or a Kyrgyz rug, or a Kyrgyz ethnic game. The word “Kyrgyzstani” refers to something that comes from the country of Kyrgyzstan. This is an important distinction, because Russians and other cultures have been in Kyrgyzstan since at least 1917 and during this time have created cultures and ideas within Kyrgyzstan, but they are not Kyrgyz in the sense of deriving from the nomadic culture of the Kyrgyz people. So are these cultures to be ignored by tourists as something foreign, or is it all part of the ethnic mix in this country called Kyrgyzstan?

In the case of Dostuk Trekking using yurts for dwellings, they made no attempt to have it Kyrgyz, they are ethnic Russians who specialize in running mountain expeditions. While I was at the yurt hotel there was a group of three Americans that were heading off the next day for a three week trek over the mountains to the border of China. They had questions about Kyrgyz culture and when I mentioned that the area they were hiking into is a military border zone, here the local population was removed during the era of Soviet Union and they would have almost no contact with local population they were obviously disappointed. They had hoped for a trek that would be more along the lines of the cultural trekking, but the Dostuk tour operators had no indication that their clients wanted to learn more about Kyrgyz culture. Even more, when they asked to go to the nearby village to just have a look they were told that there is nothing interesting to see. For a foreigner that has only been in the country for two days even seeing a village that has nothing is something, but their ethnic Russian guides were not about to understand this.

After the visit to Dostuk yurt camp I drove to the city of Tamga. This region is perhaps the most beautiful along the southern shore of Issyk Kul. Snow capped mountains rise right up from behind the lake and the beaches are full of vacationing tourists. Still there is not a lot of tourism development here outside of the beach traffic in summer. In Tamga there are two guest houses that run trips and provide accommodation. One is 'Jak Tours', a guesthouse for about 20 people that also offers hunting, hiking and sightseeing tours. The owner, Jak, has been involved in tourism in his words for 30 years and used to be responsible for the search and rescue for that region during the Soviet times. When I asked him to describe potential hikes and cultural areas he had intimate knowledge of each trail and what would be found. He suggested two hikes, one of five days and one of 12 that travel through forests and high mountains. He also knew in great detail where yurts were located, who the owner was, and what special geographic and other sites could be seen. In Tamga there is also another guesthouse just down the road, I stopped in to speak with the owner but he was not in. The owner of this house is said to be a mountain hiker with a great knowledge of the area as well. The second guest house is where most foreigners stay, it costs about three times as much, $17 for a night with meals, but the grounds are much better kept and there is a view of the lake. So for this city, with a small infrastructure, near to the lake, and good access to hiking areas, there is much potential for increased tourism and the development of mountain trekking.

After a night in Tamga at the guesthouse I drove up the Barskoon valley,  a ten minute drive from Tamga. This area is famous for being the entrance road to the Kumtor Gold mine, the mine is a joint Canadian/Kyrgyzstan venture that has for the past 8 years been removing gold using a chemical process in a high deserted mountain region. The Kumtor company has been very generous in supporting projects along the southern shore of Lake Issyk Kul, especially tourism and health projects.  Towards the head of the Barscoon valley I reached the tourist area near the waterfall right at dusk. There was a yurt set up along the road so I pulled up in my car and asked if I could stay the night. The family was very welcoming and used to tourists, although usually the tourists stop by during the day for a drink of Kumuz or tea, they also took in evening guests. The yurt was clean and pleasant and since there were two yurts I had one to myself while the family slept in the second yurt. I asked them about business and they mentioned that day business was good, but in the evening they only have had 6 guests this year, and at two dollars per night that is not much income. But they also have diversified their income sources; they raise cattle and have a garden in town as well as live off tourism. The tourist trade is for now only a small percentage of their overall income.

That morning early I went on a short walk to the waterfall, the views were superb, Lake Isyyk Kul and the mountains on the northern shore in one direction, a tree lined valley rising up to the mountains in the other.  I returned to the yurt in the early afternoon. I was sitting by myself in the yurt having a cup of tea when an unpleasant situation occurred and since it is a situation that happens all to frequently I will give it some words.

It is commonly known as “vodka terrorism” and it can take many forms, almost always ending with bad feelings, either of the guest, the host and usually both. Heavy drinking of vodka is one of the plagues that affect Kyrgyzstan and is more damaging to the health of mental stability of the population that any other factor. This affects tourism in that almost all tourists will at some point, if they try to meet and get close to the local culture, meet a person or a group that very aggressively tries to get the tourist drunk by taking shots of vodka. Why the local population is insistent and so seemly offended by those who do not want to get drunk is honestly a bit of a mystery. But the facts remain as they are, this “vodka terrorism” will be a damaging tradition for tourism as more tourists return and say what a great trip they had, “except for that one time (or those times) when a group of drunks hassled me.” One tourist wrote this on a recent posting in the lonely Planet Thorntree online travel forum:

"After 6 weeks of CA, I can tell that local drunks have been the single most annoyance during my trip. I had the most problems in Kyrgystan (especially Naryn, Kazarman, Jalalabad), but also quite a lot in Uzbekistan. They've really ruined quite a few evenings for me. Of course, not everyone who's offering you a drink has got to be a complete bastard (when they offer you a drink in their own private houses, it's mostly okay), but surely most of them who've already had quite a few vodka's have turned out to get really really annoying. They simply won't accept that you don't want a drink, get all offended, will start pushing you into it, and sometimes even become violent. I've had some really bad experiences on this, and I haven't been looking for trouble. I got beat up and kicked two times completely out of the blue (this was in hotels in Naryn and in Kyzyl Kia, KYR), and many times I simply left the place just before things started looking bad. And these were not what you would call "bad places", but regular cafes or restaurants. A few sleepless nights as well, because of the drunk noise. I've never had any troubles like this in the Middle East or other parts of Asia."  

In my case I was sitting in the yurt drinking tea and resting when two Mercedes pulled up and out got a group of about 10 people that joined me in the yurt. They were obviously a well to do group, but several in the group were very drunk, and unfortunately I ended up sitting in the middle of the drunkest. After about ten minutes of having them put their arms around me, calling me their 'American Friend', I decided it was time to leave. They would not allow me, I was their toy and they did not want to let me go. I finally got visibly upset which was a mistake, one of the drunks was offended and began to describe what they did to people that did not show proper respect. “We throw you into the river,” he explained. “But first we slowly cut out your liver and throw that in the river, and since you are not dead you are still watching as we cut out your stomach. At last we cut out your heart and that goes in the river, flowed by your body.” He was quite serious and methodical in his explanation, leading me to only believe that this was something he had done. After there was calm and all got up to leave one member of the group explained that they were high ranking people in the police, and I should not be rude in the future.

I am not writing this section to put a negative spin to the whole concept of tourism development in Kyrgyzstan. But you have to be told and reminded that this is not Disneyland; beneath the beautiful mountains, not in view of the beautiful valley with yurt sitting on high, is a country with serious problems. Alcohol and corruption are just the beginning, girls are still forced to marry men they do not know, the economy is breaking apart into two groups of rich and poor, anger is fermenting, and worst of all is that there is little or no optimism that life will get better anytime soon. It is in this framework that tourism can help people, to connect them to outside sources of income, as well as to people from other cultures. Cultural exchange is a two way street, the arriving foreigners can also help show women that independence is possible, that drinking to the end of the bottle is not inevitable and that laws are meant for all, not a select few. I will end this small moralizing section by simply adding that development is hard work, if you want to come here and make changes in society for the betterment of the people, do not expect it to be an easy task full of thankful people. You will have to commit for a long term view and not expect results overnight. Unfortunately most development projects want quick and easy success  and that is why they fail.

Kara Kol is the capital of the Issyk Kul Oblast and is located on the eastern most part of the lake. It is also the unofficial capital for hiking and trekking in Kyrgyzstan. When people write to me saying that they are coming to Kyrgyzstan and want to go hiking I tell them, 'go to Kara Kol and then go from there'. The region around Kara Kol has something for any hiker, high mountain lakes, jailoos, wooded areas, steep passes to cross and on and on. A half days drive past Kara Kol takes you to the foot of the Enylchek glacier which leads to the mighty 7000m peaks of the Tien Shan. If there is an single place in Kyrgyzstan that will be a Mecca for hikers and trekkers it is the eastern portion of Kyrgyzstan in and around Kara Kol.

Already the infrastructure is in place and the center of town always had a few tourists wandering about with large backpacks either just about to go hiking or having just returned from a mountain trip.  There are also several companies and projects here that are worth describing. First there is a CBT tourism office in the town and list of clean homestays for the traveler. They also offer the full range of treks and horseback tours as well as can arrange cultural events and excursions.

Right near the CBT office is a new information center started with funding by TACIS and started in cooperation with the institute for tourism, a faculty of the Kara Kol University. The information center was opened only this June so it does not have a track record of assisting the community of travelers, but it is an idea that is necessary for this region, a place where non-biased information can be obtained. It is with this idea that TACIS started the information center as a way to develop tourism in Kara Kol. CBT and others have the pretence of offering information, but in the end it is their products that they advertise, the challenge is to offer independent information.

At the center there is not much other than a person, a few brochures and maps on the wall, but it is a start. I called met with Genevieve Cahill, tourism advisor for regional development in Issyk Kul, who has been working in Kara Kol for TACIS since February on development of the center and other issues including processing of products and micro-credit. The tourism center has been started with minimal funding and a two year funding cycle. In that time it will have to find a way to be self-sustainable perhaps through percentages from reservations, or direct support from tour operators. The center has for now only limited information, again there is a complete lack of useable hiking maps for the region.  I find this lack of printed information to be amazing, after all the projects that have come and gone there are still no maps or basic trail descriptions available. The woman at the center knew some English, but was not able to fully describe the classic hikes near Kara Kol as she had not done them herself.

An important part of the center is that is it under the jurisdiction or the tourism department of the local university. This is supposed to be a symbiotic relationship where the students can gain practical information working at the center, then find work with the various tour agencies in town. The center both helps tourists, and future guides as well as the tourism companies by helping to train better employees for the job market. This unfortunately has the potential to all break down before it even starts. Genevieve explained that now the tourism department is thinking about starting their own company as a way to employ students and to make money for the department. They cannot be blamed, who would sit their poor while training student that they go to work for companies. Better to be a company from the beginning. For the information center this already means that they will lose any objectivity if there is a company owned by the university, they will end up like the other organizations, being an office that promotes one’s own services.

I then went and spoke to the director of the tourism institute, even though Genevieve objected to the formation of a new company as counter productive to an objective information center, she had nothing but praise for the efforts of the director of the institute.  While waiting for the director I spoke with one of the professors at the university, he was very enthusiastic about the possibilities for tourism development in Kara Kol. He did not do much focus on the hiking potentials, but instead viewed tourism as a much larger part of the economy. He viewed tourism as everybody when they leave their house to make a purchase, even in their own neighborhood. He saw tourism development as helping business people from Kyrgyzstan develop trade as well as the need to develop more products to entice people to come to the region. His enthusiasm was a welcome addition to my day, that there are intellects in Kara Kol that are discussing and teaching the larger philosophy of tourism.          

The meeting with the director lasted only about 15 minutes as there was a line of students outside the door waiting to speak with him, but he was also enthusiastic about tourism and spoke of the three needs of the region, information technology, marketing, and guide training being the three major areas he saw as important needs for the community. His university was working at developing a new curriculum and was very interested in outside assistance as their knowledge was limited and access to ideas inhibited by their remote location and absence of professionals in the field. I mentioned that there was the possibility of collaboration with the trekking association of Norway and he was very keen on meeting your representatives if you have time while you visit Kara Kol.

That afternoon I met with the owner of Turkistan tours, one of the larger and more established companies in Kara Kol. They have a yurt hotel located right in the middle of the city. It is a small walled off compound with 6 yurts for guests and two yurts that sell souvenirs. The owner is Sergie Pushenko, he is ethic Russian but is trying his best to create a Kyrgyz atmosphere in his company. The yurts have the beds on the ground and he has added some small touches such as drawings on rocks that represent famous petroglyphs that are found in Kyrgyzstan. He started his company several years ago and is focused on the traveler that wants a cultural experience and hikes. While having dinner at the yurt complex I spoke with two groups of travelers that represent two separate types of tourists. One was an independent British student doing a three month trip through the region; he was a bit put off by the pre-packaged culture that was being offered, such as a visit to see a falcon hunter, or a view of a Kyrgyz horse game. He would much rather see these touches of Kyrgyz culture, but for him it was much too packaged and unreal. The second group at the table, a British family of four was of a different opinion, they only had two week and no time to hope that they would see this part of Kyrgyz culture by chance and welcomed the pre-packaged tours. This shows how in the end it is the market that will decide how tourism develops, if there is a market for Kyrgyz culture in a neat package it will be sold that way, if not the traveler will have to seek out these moments of culture on their own. Sergie boasts that on his web site is a full service description of tours and options. And it is clear that he is attempting to get information public, but stops short of putting on any information that would help an independent traveler, so in the end he is also focusing on his tours, not general information.

I also interviewed Valentine Derevanko. I had heard much about Valentine and his company Yak Tours but had yet to meet him personally. The word on the street was that tourists either; loved him and recommended him highly, or they said he was rude and should be avoided. The ones that found him to be rude highly correlated to the people that did not take a trek with him. Those that did take a trek recommended his efficiency and price. At his guest house was the most tourist activity of any guesthouse that I saw. In his yard were camping in tents at least 15 people included a Japanese couple each riding Honda motorcycles across the region, two Swiss bicycle tourists and many trekkers. Three cars pulled up and left with the groups as we talked, he would jump up, see them off and then continue our conversation, all the time putting in videos of hiking and rafting in the area.

He has been in business since even before the break up of the Soviet Union, so a good source to find out what ideas he would have for the Norwegian trekking association. Unfortunately his answer was that nothing was necessary, business was fine and he had no time for seminars. I think some of the other international organizations such as Helvatas and TACIS have been more of an annoyance, creating information centers and  homestays does very little to help his business. He suggested if the Norwegians wanted to help they should not focus on tourism per say, but look at the peripheral areas that support tourism, such as replanting trees, building or repairing foot bridges over rivers. This alone could help open up new regions not accessible due to decaying infrastructure. There are a lot of ways to help tourism in this area, and for some good ideas a meeting  with Valentine would be informative.  

Present at the meeting near the end was a friendly competitor of Valentines, Igor – owner of the travel company “Alp-Tour-Issyk-Kul”. His business primary comes from groups from Russian that come to camp in the Kara Kol Park and hike into the Altyn Arachan. Of his 250 clients from this season less than 10% were from Western countries, including Eastern Europe. He has a tent map in the park at the base of some of the best mountain hikes in the region. From his camp it is a days walk to Yak tours high mountain cabins near the Ala Kul lake, one of the regions most popular hiking destinations. Igor also intimately knows all the trails of the region, but again had no prepared information to give out.

There was also it was clear an internal feud between Yak Tours/Tour Issyk Kul and the Turkistan company. During the course of conversations the owner of Turkistan claimed that Igor used money that was donated for the rescue team to buy a new car, while Valentine accused Turkistan of lying to customers saying that Yak Tours was out of business. All groups criticized CBT and the information center as being essentially a separate business that presented themselves as working for the community. I mention this because feuding between companies is a serious impediment to having successful development projects. Often the donor will feel forced to choose sides in disputes. For example it would be difficult to run a guide training program because the first question is whose guides. It is near impossible to select a neutral and random group to attend seminars or be given other trainings.

The drive to the Enylchek glacier is worth the drive by itself, although many choose to forgo the drive and in season, July and August, take a helicopter from a base near Kara Kol for the dramatic views from high in the air. The road rises from Kara Kol, passes a few small villages and continues up a beautiful green valley with yurts, livestock and river flowing through the center of the valley. At the end of the valley the road takes a left and starts the long drive over a pass, 4200m. On the other side of this pass you descend down to the Sary Jaz river valley and into some of the most beautiful trekking regions that Kyrgyzstan has to offer. This area also attests to the slow decline in high mountain yurts, I can recall that along the same valley just 5 years ago there was at least half a dozen yurts set up in the long Sara Jaz river valley, now there were none.

Along this road, from Kara Kol to Enylchek there are several side valleys with great potential for treks. The first main road to the left after the pass leads up the Sary Jaz river valley. For this valley there is a very popular trek which leads over a small pass to the Enylchek glacier. The most popular trek in the Sary Jaz region starts at the village of Echkiltash, about three hours from the main road. The hike over the Tyuz pass and down to the Enylchek glacier takes about three days, with one day of strenuous hiking up to the pass and down the scree to the glacier below. At the top of this pass is the best place to get a view of Peak Nancina. After reaching the Enylchek glacier many groups hike up the glacier to lake Merzbacher.   

The main road continues past the Kuluu valley to the town of Enylchek and the first military checkpoint that is open. The town of Enylchek is a near abandoned mining and factory town. Right up until the end of the 1990s over 5000 people lived there, there were cafes and a good life and good pay, and then it overnight closed. Now about 20 families live there, in empty apartment blocks heading sheep and cows through the empty streets. Here the road is kept in good condition and there is electricity because further up the Enylchek river is a final military post before the begining of the valley that leads up to Peak Nancina (5697m) and the Enylchek glacier.  At the end of the valley stands peak Khan Tengri (6995m), this is the mountain that rises like a pyramid and can be seen glowing red at night far in the distance. At the military post there is a transit base camp run by Tien Shien Travel based from Bishkek. Here there are several cottages to sleep in, a very large sauna, cafeteria and the place can get very full as expeditions teams are ferried in and out. This area of the valley is known as called Maidadir, most of the climbing expeditions to Khan Tengri start from here and fly in a helicopter to one of the base camps at 4200m. I spent the evening here and enjoyed a good meal.

At the camp that night were only the camp manager, Peter Petrovonich who has for years and years been very active in the Kyrgyz Mountaineering Federation, and the carpenter, Misha Sukorov with whom I went on three expeditions in Kyrgyzstan.  That evening I asked them to discuss the history of alpinism during the Soviet era. I knew much of the information, of how strong the teams were, how organized the system was and how under control the system was, but I know it is always a good discussion topic. The discussion moved to the present day difficulties, how there is no registration system, no way to check abilities, and no accountability if something goes wrong. This is not the way alpinism was supposed to be organized, but they did not see any way out of the essential chaos that the climbing and rescue organizations were put in when state support was removed overnight. Much as the nearby town is abandoned, so are the traditions that used to guide them through the mountains.

This day started at Maidadir, here it is either a five day trek to the high mountaineering camps on the Enylchek glacier or a 20 helicopter ride. The soviet built helicopter, usually loaded beyond capacity with climbers and equipment, rises slowly and flies just above the length of the glacier. To the right peak Nancina rises high as the first noticeable peak in the chain, then to the left lake Merzbacher lake can be seen. This lake is famous in history as once per year the lake breaks through the winter ice dam and forms a lower lake until the dam freezes again. For two days, sometime in mid summer water pours out of the upper lake, some of the water forms the second lake; the rest floods the valley below. The helicopter then lands at the high camps. Here it is already too high for trekking and further descriptions would only involve glacier travel so I will not describe this climbing area.

There is a wide-spread impression among the ethnic Russians in Kyrgyzstan that they will always be at a disadvantage over ethnic Kyrgyz. The country is corrupt, meaning specifically that laws are not set in stone, payments and leases can change without discussion, family connections mean more than ability.  Family connects are very important, but very few ethic Russians have family in high government. This woman confirmed that fear, when a high level governmental delegation flew in on a helicopter last year she could feel them thinking that why should an ethnic Russian own such a beautiful place. She knows that they live life without insurance; the future is far from certain. How could they have known that a single event on the other side of the planet in 2001 would shut down tourism, then the wars that followed, and the SARS epidemic? There is just as much uncertainty with local influences, she has no insurance if taxes are raised, land use agreements are changed, or bribes in a variety of guises are demanded. We had a long discussion about this that delved deep into the consequences of foreign aid, the foreign dept owned by Kyrgyzstan which is now at 1.5 time the annual GNP,  and the legitimacy of the military base at Manas airport near Bishkek.    

After a good lunch and discussion at the hotel I started the hike up the glacier. The first day is very flat, walking well to the right of the main river flow. There are a few difficult river crossings, the first coming an hour up from the hotel, then there are several small crossings and after a full day of walking on flat river bed the end of the glacier is reached. There is a nice lunch spot about half way with one of the final areas to get clean water. Above this area most the water, except for a few small streams are full of glacier silt. At the end of the day’s hike there is one small tree that has become the magnet for campers and a good place to pitch a tent.

Finally I had a full a day hiking in the mountains, only peaks surrounding me. On the hike up I had met about 15 hikers in five different groups. All were from Eastern Europe, including people from the Czech Republic, Ukraine, East Germany and Poland. There is a strong link between Eastern Europeans and this area, in Soviet times this was one of the few high altitude areas where they could afford to go, the connections and traditions are still alive. There was also each day a helicopter fight that would fly up and back the glacier bringing loads of gear and people in and out. The helicopter is fun to watch the first time, after that the noise is an annoyance.

At the base of the Glacier I pitched my tent for the night and watched the sun set on Peak Nancina and on Khan Tengri in the far distance

A few perhaps obvious points. First is the importance on focusing a project on an area that needs assistance and that matches the expertise of the organization starting the project. The adages, "Do what you know best", and "If you try to help everybody you help nobody, " apply very well in this circumstance.

Lake Issyk Kul is in need of development assitance, before mass tourism spoils the very attractions that bring tourists to the region. It is accessible, has the full variety of geography available in Kyrgyzstan, including forested treks, high altitude regions, vast glaciers, high mountain lakes, hot springs, lake Issyk Kul, deserts and more. A compete tourism  package could  be developed to adjust the program to the individual needs of the potential clients, without having to change completely the region where they travel. For this type of flexibility no region is better than Issyk Kul. Also, the region is the closest region to Bishkek helping for quick access if time is short. Finally, the area is as far removed from political instability in the south as is geographically possible. If tourists are educated about the difference in the political situation of Batken and Issyk Kul they should have no fears about traveling to Kyrgyzstan.   

The actual development of any project will of course take time and should involve getting to know the local situation. It is important to remember is that the best projects do not cause or exacerbate problems between existing companies and individuals. This is much easier said than done, but it is important to focus on projects that help the community of tour operators and others involved in tourism. Too often a single company receives benefits that were meant for the entire community. This is why CBT is not integrated into the community of tour operators in Kara Kol, and why perhaps there is no community to begin with. Foreign assistance has done more to tear bridges down then to build them. Each company write grants independently, then uses the money solely to support their individual interests. The building of a tourism association seems an obvious place to start, but without local support the idea will get nowhere. Training guides and helping them form a union could also be a great idea, but the idea has to come from the guides themselves and the topic is never discussed.  

Perhaps most important is to have a clear idea of budget possibilities and length of the project before making any promises. Too often hastily started projects only give false hope, or at worst encourage bad decision making on the part of local organizations. An example would be to encourage development of Jailoo tourism in remote and popular hiking areas. The local companies could spend their limited resources developing new areas for tourists that never come. If increased tourism from abroad is a stated goal then the promise would have to be met. In the beginning you are suggesting a few groups of critical tourists, but then what? Are you prepared to make promises, to have people make financial decisions hoping that Norwegian tourists will help the industry? Very often words such as 'might', and 'will try', are heard as 'for sure' and 'have decided'.  

As I have from the beginning I have encouraged a focus on the southern region of lake Issyk Kul to the high peaks around the Enylchek glacier. This area is already becoming overwhelmed with hikers and needs assistance now to develop a sustainable and profitable tourist economy.  In concrete terms I would suggest a focusing on developing "Information Services" preferably  with the university as a primary partner. A possibility could be to send a student intern to work with the university to help teach students how to deliver information to clients in a way that can be understood and used. The lack of this ability among guides and companies is one of the most serious impediments to tourism development.

A longer term and perhaps more expensive direction could be to assist in the development of trekking related physical improvement projects. This could involve environmental projects such as erosion control, joint trail maintenance projects,  building of foot bridges to increase access to areas closed off due to high water, or supporting Jailoos as a way to keep them open in areas where trekking is popular. A grant based competition could be announced that public projects that support the industry as a whole are being supported. This would require, local representation, and local knowledge to judge that the projects do not unfairly support one company. For example a tree planting project may sound fair, until the location is revealed as next to a private lodge, or support for a rescue team could be used for private use. Grant making is the least desirable form of assistance and should only be started if you have a representative close to the actual project to monitor the results.    

Garth Willis
September 15th, 2003