Sary Chelek - definitely one of the highlights of our trip to Central Asia. A secluded alpine lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains makes this one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen.

To get here we took a marshrutka from Osh to a town near the lake. It was a horrible and extremely long and slow bus ride in +30 degrees. When we got to the town some locals wanted us to stay for a night in a guesthouse in the town. We quickly decided to walk toward the lake instead and after only a kilometer or so we got picked up by a truck carrying clay ovens. We sat between the clay ovens while looking backwards. We got extremely dirty driving up winding gravel roads through a national park. However, it was all worth it when we arrived to the stunning lake which was crystal clear and mirror-like. We stayed 3 nights in our tent. We also swam in the lake, we met the most hospitable Kyrgyz people we met on the entire trip, and we saw a live slaughtering of a sheep.

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