In two years, all of this will be totally different!

We took off from our spot near the hot springs... but in different directions. Bjorn and Freya wanted to go to Engilchek... a ghost town high up in the mountains. To be honest, we wanted to go too. But it was going to be another 150 kms each way, and I'm getting tired of driving Vladdy. 

We should have named him Bouncy Buhanka!

Yes, Vladdy can go pretty much anywhere... but the suspension is actually quite soft and with all the road construction that we've encountered, we've been bouncing around a lot! After almost a month of this, we're pretty much done!

Anyhow, they took off to Englichek and we decided to go to Jyrgalan. The Spanish couple we had met at Song Kol had told us about some great hiking and a nice guest house at Jyrgalan and it was only 60 kms instead of the 150 that Bjorn and Freya decided to do.

Orthodox church in Ak Suu.

There are a lot of these types of monuments around.

Scenery along the way.

Yes, more road construction.

It turns out that they are building a major four lane highway to Jyrgalan!

Fortunately it's only 15 kms, but it feels like much more with all of the dust and dump trucks and bouncing around at 20 or 30 km/h.

Now the question was... why are they building a major four lane highway to the sleepy mountain coal mining town of Jyrgalan (pop 1,500)?

Well it turns out that the government is investing the equivalent of $1.2B to turn Jyrgalan into a world class ski destination! 

The view from our guest house.

Nothing special, but it'll do.

The highlight here is the hiking around this future ski destination. But also, our host Zihbek. She's a 42 year old local with five children and she just loves interacting with the tourists.

We got settled and then set off for a 10 km hike to a waterfall and back.

The pipes are for a small hydroelectric plant they are building to support the ski resort.

Yes, all of this will be changed over the next couple of years.

Ruth, saying hi to another horse.

Jyrgalan was built in the 1960's as a coal mining town.

Huh? What's that up ahead??

We met the couple as they were returning from the waterfall. A couple from Denmark traveling in their home built Toyota Landcruiser camper! We chatted with them for a while, and probably could have talked for hours. They have been through Iran, Oman, Russia, and many other countries on their journey. Wow!

Zoomed in on the waterfall.

We had to clamber over a lot of rocks to get up there.

I tried to get on top of that big boulder for a photo, but it wasn't possible.

So this will have to do.

Taking a shower...too funny.

Scenery along the way back.

Meanwhile, we had a message from Bjorn and Freya. It turns out that they made it as far as the border checkpoint to Engilchek and were turned away because the permits they had weren't valid for that area. Which is not what I had been told when I purchased them, so something's not right. I'll have to check into that, but of course it's too late to do anything about it. 

Anyhow, they were now on their way to our guest house to meet up again, and fortunately our room has two more beds in it!

Next up... a fantastic hike above Jyrgalan!

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