Hitchhiking to Naryn
I was headed from Song Kul lake back to Kochkor yesterday. By car with the yurt owners. But the idea of going to Naryn was on my mind all day. However, the main road was quite far from the lake and I thought it would be too late to hitchhike. Once we reached the main road I had to quicklay decide: stay in the car or take my chances and hitchhike. I went for the latter.
It was 6 pm, perhaps an hour or an hour and a half before it would be dark. I certainly didn’t want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere at night. The second car that stopped in less than ten minutes was a truck and I was given a lift for a bit more than 50 km, Naryn being 80 km away. Nice! But I can’t say I felt comfortable.
The driver glanced at me strangely at times and questions if we smoke weed in Slovakia, if I smoke weed or cigarettes, or drink vodka didn’t make me feel any better. I don’t practice any of these ‘sports’. But to give him some credit he also asked if we have Renaults in Slovakia, if we keep cows, why I travel alone and why I am not married indeed. After all, I was his age and he already fathered a son and a daughter.
When he dropped me off it wasn’t dark yet and the next car stopped in no time. Less than 5 minutes. The second driver wasn’t keen to talk at all, but was nice and dropped me off in the centre of Naryn.
I again found a place to stay by asking in one of the shops. It worked again. My other option would have been the only available hotel on booking.com. For 30 dollars. As a budget traveller I say: Thanks, but no thanks.
I didn’t want to stay in Naryn, my plan was to hitchhike further to the south the next day. But having walked, hiked and been too active lately, I needed to have a lazy day. Sleep late (it means till 8.30-9.00 in my world 😀 ), watch an episode of Friends, have lunch, have a good cup of coffee and the like.
So I stayed for the day. And did all the stuff. And walked a bit, too and found out that the town is surrounded by really nice hills. The village is really long. More than 5 km for sure. Standing on the main Lenin street and looking ahead you won’t see the end. But looking right and left you will see amazing hills that you can reach in three or five minutes. Really nice!
