Kyrgyzstan Diaries #2

 Сон-Куль

The most important event of this week was the first trip outside Bishkek to a famous lake in the country, but first I want to talk about 2 things, first, finally, my coordinator arrived and we started work together. We were having only online meetings, which is not the best option to know someone else. I enjoyed meeting him in person, now I have a good feeling about our project and my staying in Kyrgyzstan.

I took this picture in a village on the way to the Song Kul lake

Second, last week I didn't mention that I did a reportage with another association. I was able to get in contact with the founder of this association that is willing to give a place to the homeless of the city, he was looking for a photographer to do a reportage about the situation of these people in Bishkek. With a journalist and a volunteer of the association, we went to look for the homeless and interview them to understand their stories and needs.

It was an intense day, full of emotions, I understood how difficult is to do a reportage because of the strong feelings you have to get deal with, it's not easy to take portraits of people in need, and while they are talking about their struggling.

The main event of this week was the trip to Song-Kul lake, one of the most famous places in Kyrgyzstan. I did a 2 days trip, organised by an agency. I had a lot of nice feedback about this place, and a friend gave me a discount to use with this agency, so I couldn't catch this opportunity.

During the trip, we stopped by a village on the way, and I used the opportunity to take some pictures in a reality quite different from the capital. From a European point of view, it's a blast from the past, old cars, old shops and people that live easily. 

We stopped by at several panorama points where take a landscape picture is quite easy because the views were amazing. Kyrgyzstan territory is 80% mountains, and for this, it is called the "Switzerland of Central Asia", the highest peak is 7500m tall. 

Song-Kul lake is at 3000m altitude, the water is amazing and the mountains that surround the lake are wonderful. There we swam in the lake, rode the horses and slept in yurts, I really suggest this experience to everyone. There was no electricity, no tap water and no internet connection: two days disconnected from civilization.

The sunset was really a cool part of the day, yurts, the lake and that light were simply magical, and a thing that I wasn't able to report because my camera wasn't good enough, is the moon rising, with the reflection on the lake, I was speechless. Simply when on a side the sunset finished on the other the moon was rising. 

On the way back to Bishkek we stopped on a panorama point, in the first picture you can see the route we did downhill to go back to the city. At the end of the route, we stopped by a waterfall, I have to say nothing to envy Iceland.