Kyrgyzstan has one of the top horse riding trails in the world.
With a rich history for horses, the land has some of the toughest horses and extremely skillful horsemen.
Unfortunately, getting to Kyrgyzstan is a bit of a pain for Malaysians as there is no direct flight.
AirAsia started a new route to Almaty, Kazakhstan (not Kyrgyzstan) in 2024. The flight takes about 8 hours.
Once we landed, we head to Almaty Hotel for our first night stay.
We did some groceries shopping and have ice cream by the road side under the chilling weather.
We have to start traveling early the next day at 7:00 AM.
The hotel buffet breakfast will only start serving at 8:00 AM so we requested the hotel to pack breakfast boxes for each of us.
We stopped by coffee store at petrol station for our morning coffee.
It’s such a blessing to get good coffee during road trip.
During the drive from Almaty (Kazakhstan) to Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan).
This is our Journey to the West bread because it has been through 7 x 7, 49 disasters.
Photo with our driver, Nuric. We stopped by for toilet break (yup, that one).
The crossing of border from Almaty to Bishkek is 5 hours of travel by private car.
Getting into Kyrgyzstan
The immigration checkpoint took us approximately 1 hour. However, walking outside under the afternoon heat is rather torturing.
After the immigration, it’s another 1 hour of driving to get to Bishkek.
We have lunch with Aigul (center), the owner of Apple Hostel in her cafe.
We engaged Aigul for arranging our riding trip. We really enjoyed her attentiveness and wonderful hospitality.
We selected Aigul to organize our trip because she offers the most value for money all-in package (transport, food, accommodation and horses) after our research and we were impressed.
If you want a similar experience, you may ask her to refer to my itinerary or feel free to customize the riding tour base on your preferences. Aigul’s WhatsApp +996 553 280 881 or email at applehostelkg@gmail.com
After a quick lunch, we hop on to another car to drive to Kyzart.
From Bishkek, it takes another 5 hours to drive to Kyzart, the small village where we get started with our riding tour to Song Kol Lake.
The sky was almost dark by the time we got to Kyzart.
A tastefully decorated homestay. It is one of the best accommodations in Kyzart.
Simple yet delicious dinner prepared by Azima’s kitchen.
Your’s truly tired face after sitting in car for almost 10 hours.
In summary, it took us 2 days of travel just to get to the Song Kol Lake trail in Kyzart.
1st Day: By flight (AirAsia) – KLIA to Almaty (8 hours)
2nd Day: By car – Almaty to Bishkek (5 hours including passing immigration)
2nd Day: By car Bishkek to Kyzart (~5 hours)
Next: 1st Day of Horse Riding in Kyrgyzstan.