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From Arslanbob we drove to Jalal-Abad, a place Fintan wanted to visit because it sounded like a place that's been on the news… O, no it doesn't sound like a place on the news, it is the place on the news! Excellent! There had been riots in 2010, but what we say of the city just looked like any other in Central Asia - chaikhana - check, bazaar - check, weird city gate things over the road - check. So after some lagman (noodles with meat) and a quick shop in the bazaar for bread and veg, we set off for Kazarman.
Being in the third largest city in Kyrgyzstan and looking for the one road north to a small isolated village should be easy you might think - well, you're not wrong… we spent about 20 minutes driving around until Fintan conceded and I was allowed to ask for directions. The man I asked proceeded to tell me in great detail, but in Kyrgyz… until he saw the blank look on my face and began to mime using my guidebook to demonstrate a T-junction. I got back in the car and told Fintan to turn around then go right at the T-junction, straight on to the next T-junction and then over the roundabout. All he had to say was - Wow, where did that guy learn such good English!
We set up camp on the south side of the mountain pass and continued the next day towards Kazarman. There were some bulls about, but we figured they were far enough away, and worst comes to worst we could stay in the car!
The Kaldama Pass is at 3062m, it was so windy and cold! In Kazarman we found the local CBT co-ordinaters house from the large B+B sign and called the number listed in the Bradt guide. She then called her daughter to let us in and we settled in and waited for Bujumal to arrive home.The house was lovely, very large with a big back garden for the chickens, shower and long drop. The room we had was at the back of the house and very quiet. On the floor between the twin beds (very popular in Central Asia, we rarely see a double bed) was a gorgeous, colourful felt carpet. As Fintan says - it's all about the soft furnishings!
She very kindly told us all the information for getting to Saimaluu Tash (a petroglyph site dating from 2000 BC). So she booked us a guide/driver organised a lunch and set the breakfast time for 4:30am! Good thing we have a lovely quiet room!
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