Having recently returned from my holiday in Kyrgyzstan (mid June 2026), I can say with absolute certainty that it is one of my favourite countries in the world. No words can do justice to how breathtaking the landscape is – with untamed mountains that appear to descend from the heavens, pristine rivers flowing through luscious steppes and eagles circling silently above as you ride horses through the wilderness. Not to mention Kyrgystan’s incredibly rich and vibrant culture, with some of the most genuine and soulful people I have ever met.

I hadn’t heard much about Kyrgyzstan until I began following Alexandra Tolstoy, a descendant of Leo Tolstoy, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in person just last month at the Sloane Club. I resonated with her Russian heritage (as my mother is Russian and I was raised bilingual), as well as her passion for horses and Slavic/Central Asian folklore. She runs tours around Kyrgyzstan all through the year, but unfortunately by the time I set aside holiday dates, she was fully booked – so I looked up other agencies and booked the Six Day Horse Trek to Kel Suu Lake with Visit Alay Tours. Here, I list out my day-by-day horse trekking adventures and hope to inspire at least one of you to explore this incredible country for yourself!

DAY 1 –  BISHKEK TO AT-BASHY

I woke up at around 5am, having not slept well on the plane and then overcompensating with a nap. I had flown in from Istanbul the previous day as there aren’t any direct flights into Kyrgyzstan from the UK. I took a look outside to remind myself that I finally made it to Central Asia – a region I wanted to visit since I was a wee lass. My mother was born in Kazakhstan, where her family escaped to during the Russian Revolution and the communist purges of anyone who supported the tsar. My relatives were part of the Russian nobility on one side as well as Cossacks on the other, which undoubtedly explains my passion for horses and the monarchy.

Our group arrived to the Visit Alay Bishkek office at around 9am. We were a mix of Germans, Russians, Australians and Brits. Only three of us had advanced riding experience (1+ years) and three could speak in Russian. We all met with our tour guide, Sanjar, a handsome and charming young Kyrgyz man, who had a great sense of humour and a very positive outlook on life. His English was excellent, considering he had never lived in an English speaking country (most of the tour was conducted in English, with some back and forth in Russian to the ones who could speak it). He gave us a day-by-day itinerary of our trip and we set off relatively quickly in our mini van.

We were also able to leave some things we didn’t need for our trip in the office and there were options to rent riding helmets (note that Kyrgyz people don’t wear them and you trek at slow pace), as well as sleeping bags (highly advisable as you will only need it for one night, unless you travel in colder seasons and want to double up or use it to line the camping ground mat).

We drove for around an hour and a half, playing games to get to know each other, and arrived at our first stop, Burana Tower. The tower was built in the 11th century as a minaret by the Karluk Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia between the 9th-13th century. It was originally nearly twice the height it is today, but was partially destroyed by a series of earthquakes.

Scattered around the tower are ancient Kurgan stelae (bal-bals) which are commemorative gravestones of warriors, as well as ancient petroglyphs painted on rocks, mainly of hunted animals, such as deer, goats, ibex etc. which were brought there from different regions of the country.

We continued to a lunch spot with a buffet service, where I ordered fried pelmeni (a Russian meat dumping), Markovcha (a spicy carrot salad), and some okroshka (a delightful cold yoghurt or keffir based gazpacho). We then set off deeper into the mountains, the landscape becoming more dramatic as we drove.

We finally reached At-Bashi, a sleepy village at the foothills of the mountains and checked in to our guest house Jibek Jolu. We left all our belongings in our room and went to the local supermarket to stock up for the trip.

This is where I would suggest buying several bottles of water, several bags of crisps and anything you want to snack on for the next few days, as it’s the last time you’ll be able to use a supermarket. There is no fresh water after this point, unless you boil it or use chlorine tablets. If you also fancy a cheeky drink throughout your trip, this is your chance to stock up on some alcohol. The supermarket was also full of original Soviet ice creams and other interesting foods, such as smoked cheese and freshly baked meat pastries called ‘Samsa’, that are worth a try.

The guesthouse was fairly comfortable (nice bed, hot shower, free Wi-Fi) and we were given a hearty meal of meat broth with vegetables, carrots, salad, as well as meat and potato manti (a type of large dumpling). It was a bit of a shame that all the lighting inside was fluorescent white, so it didn’t feel particularly cosy in the dining room. I have noticed this is a recurring theme throughout Kyrgyzstan, that they seem to not like warm coloured lightbulbs, so all the dining areas end up feeling like a hospital!

We celebrated the birthday of a lovely Russian lady on our tour with some delicious cake and then a few of us stayed later on to learn how to play ‘Shithead’ with Sanjar. It is actually quite a fun game and Sanjar had a great knack for remembering everyone’s cards and partaking in some cheeky sabotage. Right before bed, I took a nice warm shower – one of the last ones for several days!

DAY 2 – AT-BASHY TO KOK KIYA VALLEY

After a hearty breakfast of fried eggs, chicken pastries, and blinis (a type of Russian crepe), we set off again, this time driving through Bosogo Pass and the Ak-Sai Valley. We arrived to our yurt camp, Golden Moon, in the Kok Kiya Valley, right next to the Chinese border. We had a very tasty stuffed bell pepper and potato dish for lunch and were able to relax or hike until dinner.

It was noticeably colder here as the elevation was over 3,000m and we were surrounded by beautiful scenery with the mountains in the distance and horses all around. I came up to one and petted it for a good half hour until it went back to grazing. Some people in our group went hiking over the mountain, but I chose to nap as I was tired from the flight, all the driving and was still acclimatising to the high altitude.

The guesthouse didn’t have any showers, but had a sauna (for 500 som, equivalent of just over £4). The toilets and sink were all outside.

After collecting our saddle bags and having dinner we chatted a bit over tea and everyone went to bed quite early as it was cold and dark. However, we took the opportunity to do some stargazing. I was helpfully taught by the Russian couple who are excellent photographers that you need to turn on night mode and set it on max (10 seconds) to get the best pictures.

I was a little bit disappointed that there weren’t more activities in the evening as it felt a little boring and I didn’t bother to buy the Internet (500 som which shuts off at 10:30pm), in the spirit of having a digital detox.

DAY 3 – KOK KIYA VALLEY TO LUSH VALLEY VIA SAZDUU PASS

The next morning we had a hearty breakfast of fried eggs and spam sausage. In Russia, we call it doctor’s sausage, bizarrely it gained a reputation for being healthy, when in fact it is just ultra processed meat. That said, I actually secretly love it – especially when it’s fried.

We finally set off with our saddle bags and were given a short briefing on horse riding. Two local Kyrgyz horsemen, Anarbek and Mirlan accompanied us. They both spoke Russian and one very kindly told me that I look a bit Kyrgyz, which was a huge compliment! I did take a DNA test and apparently am 1% Mongolian, so that would explain it, ha!

I begged Sanjar for a chestnut horse (my absolute favourite, and helps that it matches my hair) and he very kindly granted me my wish. My horse, Patron (Russian for ‘cartridge’ but effectively translates to ‘bullet’) was one of the largest in the group.

The moment I saw him I fell head over heels in love. He took one look at me and knew I was a complete pushover, not a particularly good rider and would just spend the next few days fawning over him. We had a very energised ride through the mountains where he relentlessly pushed his way to the front of the group, even trying to outpace our guides. I really loved being back on a horse after about a year of not being able to ride, the feeling of being so high up on such a powerful and intuitive animal is unmatched. No fancy car can remotely compare.

The landscapes were simply breathtaking and we had excellent weather, although it was still a bit chilly in the wind. We were given a packed lunch (chicken with red pepper and potatoes, an apple, oreos, a snickers bar and some water) and enjoyed the scenic viewpoint of the rugged mountains.

We passed melting ice and streams and kept going uphill to Sazduu Pass (3,770 meters). The view here was one of the most beautiful I’d ever seen. We also saw a vulture flying above and a few Marmots – chunky squirrel-like mammals that live in holes in the ground and communicate through loud whistles.

We reached our tent campsite in the middle of a beautiful valley with a river passing through and one yurt nestled neatly on the hill. We soaked up some sunshine with some Taigan dogs that belonged to the horsemen – a type of hound but with very matted hair, they were very sweet. They are used for a very practical purpose – to protect against wolves and bears which are known to roam these areas. The bears in particular can be quite dangerous when they wake up from hibernation but the wolves mainly hunt the local wildlife – such as ibex, argali, Marco Polo sheep and marmots. Around Kyrgyzstan you can also find wild snow leopards, lynx and Pallas’s cats, but sadly we didn’t see any.

In the evening we had a tasty veggie supper cooked by our guides and spent the night playing more card games in the yurt until it got dark. Being in the yurt surrounded by nothing but mountains felt incredibly surreal, it reminded me of being in Morocco when I went into the Sahara. You feel very small and insignificant, but at the same time the silence surrounding you fills you with a profound sense of serenity. We are often so detached from nature that when we finally spend a night in true wilderness it genuinely feels like being on another planet..

The stars were very bright that night, but it was very cold (5 degrees), so we all went to bed as quickly as we could in the tents we had set up earlier.

Now this is the part where I didn’t expect the conditions to be quite so harsh, the temperature dropped to around 0° in the night, there were no showers, just a small tent toilet (a squatty potty), and the main yurt was reserved for the guides and the horsemen. The tents themselves were stable, but not designed for particularly harsh weather. We had thin ground mats which didn’t offer much protection from the ground (which, just a week before had 20 cm of snow on it!). Aside from that, we just had our sleeping bags and the clothes we had on.

I spent the entire night shivering and not being able to sleep. On top of that, all the UV from the morning had unfortunately triggered a migraine and I had to constantly take paracetamol in the night just so I could get a bit of respite. At one point I even started hyperventilating, which is apparently a symptom of altitude sickness, but thankfully through some techniques I learnt in meditation I was able to calm myself down and go back to sleep.

If I did it again, I would definitely go later in the year, around late July or August, when the ground isn’t so cold and the temperatures at night are more bearable.

DAY 4 – CAR PASS TO TOWERING PEAKS 

I woke up with a horrible headache, having had barely any sleep. We had a breakfast of porridge and coffee, kindly made by our guides, packed up our tents and set off further into the mountains. I can’t stress enough how good of a guide Sanjar was, as despite our tiredness he still managed to make us all smile and laugh.

We continued through Car Pass at 3,791 meters and then crossed a river through to Eshek Tor Pass. We were very close to the peaks of the Alay mountains, which were still snow-capped. There were many marmot holes around this area and we spotted at least two dozen of them.

We reached a flat grassy slope and Sanjar suggested that we could do a quick gallop across it. I, along with a few others volunteered. I hadn’t galloped for a very long time, so was quite out of practice, unlike my stallion, Patron. He had eagerly watched as Sanjar sped ahead first and as soon as I gave the signal he flew like a bazooka. I held on for dear life, suddenly regretting how unprepared I was for his pace.

For a whole five seconds it was one of the most exhilarating experience of my life. The mountain wind blasted my face and my hair flew back dramatically – I felt like I was flying. But his speed was just too much, my feet were wobbling around in the stirrups until finally my left foot came loose and I felt myself slowly sliding to the side. I realised then and there that unless I stopped him, I was going to fall off.

I tightened the reigns as much as possible, shouting at the top of my lungs ‘TRRRRR’ which is the command for stop in Kyrgyz, but aside from Patron moving his head in agitation to the side, he galloped on. Slowly, but surely, I slid off to the left until I landed with a thump on the grass. Thankfully, the damp ground gave me a fairly soft landing – I didn’t break any bones, and only sustained a few bruises, then largest of which was to my ego..

I got back up on my feet immediately, but Patron was already over 200 metres ahead. If he hadn’t been stopped by one of our horsemen I think he would have galloped all the way to China!

For the last half hour or so I swapped Patron for Sanjar’s horse out of a slight worry that he would find another opportunity to shake me off. It was heartbreaking! Sanjar was genuinely surprised at how I had managed to control Patron for the last two days, which gave me some reassurance that I wasn’t as bad of a rider as I had thought, just lacking galloping experience on a Kyrgyz beast.

Physically shattered, but thoroughly exhilarated, we continued on till we arrived in Bars Yurt Camp. The main ‘house’ was a makeshift tunnel structure secured with expanding foam, it was clear that getting materials this far up the mountains was quite challenging, but they the locals are clearly a very pragmatic and efficient lot – alas, the Soviet mindset! The rest of the area was surrounded by yurts with just grass on the ground and a small stove.

After lunch (lentil soup) I took the opportunity to lick my wounds and rest from the terrible sleep the night before. I only resurfaced at supper after a very long nap. We stayed up fairly late, playing more card games, including ‘Black Lady’. As a dare, Sanjar and Bek had to have their faces painted, although the only material we had was ash from the samovar!

DAY 5 – KEL SUU LAKE

We had another nice breakfast of more porridge and had a fairly early start up to Kel Suu lake. We didn’t take our saddle bags as we were returning back to the camp, which took a bit of weight off our horses. Sadly the clouds circled us and at about 11am it started raining pretty relentlessly.

Despite wearing waterproof Dubarry’s, my feet were completely saturated from the rain dripping slowly in. However, my fairly new Northface waterproof (that I had only used once before on a trek up Ben Nevis), managed to protect me for some rain, and my Schoffel did a phenomenal job at keeping my core dry. My hands were possibly the worst – my LeMieux leather riding gloves were not designed for rain and 5 degrees and when I finally took them off, I genuinely thought I had the early onset of frostbite!

Saturated and freezing, we finally reached Kel Suu – a glacial lake at 3,500 metres above sea-level. I audibly gasped as I looked up from dragging my wet feet through the mossy rocks. In front of me were craggy mountain tops, serenely enclosed with clouds from above and a grey-greenish lake below. The water was completely still apart from the trickles of rain and the occasional small boat that sailed from a rocky shore beneath.

We stayed at the lake for around 45 minutes in total, taking shelter from the rain under rocks. We rode back in what felt like one of the longest rides of my life, my body now physically shaking from the cold. We collected our saddle bags from Bars Yurt Camp and then continued on to Golden Moon for lunch. It would have really helped to at least have some hot tea at Bars waiting for us, but alas – we were sent on our way – sopping wet!

However, at Golden Moon we were greeted with a piping hot lunch that I devoured like a wild animal. Before sitting down, I had changed out of my wet clothes – literally everything I had on, including my underwear – yes, the rain reached all the way! After lunch I went to find Patron to say goodbye but couldn’t find him, I was absolutely heartbroken, but maybe it was easier for the both of us not to say goodbye.. I must go back, just so I can see him again.

Shortly after lunch, we set off back to Kochkor, another small village, about a three hour drive from Bishkek. We couldn’t wait for a hot shower and proper western loos, but sadly it was not to be – the whole village had had their entire water supply cut off due to a burst pipe! For some other reason there also wasn’t any wifi, so I joked that we were in worse conditions than in the yurt camps. Despite our collective disappointment, Sanjar stepped up to organise for another guesthouse to shower in and bought us all beer and vodka – what possible problem can’t be solved with Vodka!? I hope never to find out!

DAY 6: KOCHKOR TO BISHKEK

After a very generous portion of breakfast, which included blinis, we headed to a remote location where we met a local family of hunters, who hunted with prize winning dogs and an eagle.

Their 2-year old eagle was absolutely beautiful and had stunning soft wings. I had never seen an eagle that close before, and expected them to be more serene but this one was still just a toddler and squawked relentlessly. They let me stroke her which actually calmed her down temporarily.

The hunters had her retrieve fox skins that they threw off horses in a quick gallop and it was amazing to watch the precision and speed with which she dived at her target. Then we were seated up on the horse for the ultimate photo opportunity:

After some archery and watching some amazing horse gymnastics from the hunter’s very talented 8-year old boy, we took the drive back to Bishkek and returned to the tour office.

Sanjar took us to a fantastic restaurant called Navat. They had a very long menu of local food, including horse meat, which I couldn’t bring myself to eat. One standout dish was the beef lagman noodles. They also did amazing fried manti and chebureki (similar to a Cornish pasty but far better). It was so good that it warranted a second visit the same day for dinner!

After saying our goodbyes to such a wonderful group (I still miss you all by the way!), it was time to explore Osh Bazar. It was full of spice shops, dried fruit and nuts, interesting bread loaves called ‘Tandyr nan’ – baked in a clay oven, each baker has their own signature pattern that they stamp on the bread which helps steam to escape as its cooking.

One last thing to do in Bishkek is to try their interesting drinks which are sold everywhere by street vendors in the summer, which include:

• Maksym (максым) – a fermented drink, typically made of barley or millet. This actually tasted like a twiglet milkshake and I can see how you could get used to the flavour if you got over the initial sourness
• Chalap (чалап) – made from fermented milk, this tasted like a keffir mixed with sparkling water and salt, it was actually pretty refreshing
• Kvas (квас) – basically a very low alcohol beer made from leftover bread and raisins, very popular in Russia, each family has their own recipe. I wasn’t a fan of the street ones as I preferred mine in the style of a pale ale and really fizzy, whereas this one was darker, flatter and has caramel notes – perfect for ale drinkers!
• Kumis (кумыс) – fermented horse milk. This tasted like a keffir that had been set on fire, left out in the sun and mixed with anchovies.. definitely an acquired taste, but the smoky notes were actually really pleasant!

Now here are some of my ‘Lessons learnt’ for those who have read this far and are brave enough to go on an adventure of a lifetime:

• learn more card games
• take more waterproof clothes
• go later in the summer (July – August)
• pack more booze!

Enjoy, and don’t forget to treat the locals with respect – they are some of the most genuine, intuitive, welcoming and generous people I’ve ever met. I truly hope the tourism industry blossoms there in a sustainable way that benefits the country without detracting from the beauty of its wilderness.

I will undoubtedly be back again soon!

⚜️ Rowan