6.30am came and so we all made our way past the now deserted bazaar to the old bus station where we found a marshrutka heading our way. Our destination is a small village called Arkit from where we will head to Sary Chelek lake - the easiest way to get here from Osh is by marshrutka to Kerben (Karavan) (early - our's left by 7.30am) and then catch a public bus to Arkit from there, which is exactly what we did today!!
The drive to Kerben was uneventful until we broke off the main Bishkek-Osh road we had come down on several days ago and turned onto a dusty road still in the process of being made. The most interesting thing was that we were skirting the edge of Uzbekistan where armed guards wandered along the road to prevent people crossing the border - this was the closest we will get to Uzbekistan until we return in the future!!
We arrived in Kerben with a few hours to spare before the bus left to Arkit so along with Stasha and Luca (both from Slovenia) we had some lunch and tea in a small cafe, before getting some food from the bazaar.
Our bus to Arkit must have been from the 1950s it was so old, but it definitely had a lot of character - how it managed the two and a half hour journey with seemingly hundreds of passengers we don't know! The character on the bus was intensified by the beautiful locals, intrigued by our presence. 
The rounded windows at the back made us feel as if we were riding a submarine, only going the wrong way! 
When we arrived in Arkit around sunset we were grateful that Stasha and Luca spoke Russian as they were able to negotiate us all a good price in a home stay - the only thing we added was extra bargaining power to the table! By 7.30pm we were sitting in our room with tea and noodles where we chatted until the power cut out at just before 10pm.
Adlibing it along Uzbekistan.
The drive to Kerben was uneventful until we broke off the main Bishkek-Osh road we had come down on several days ago and turned onto a dusty road still in the process of being made. The most interesting thing was that we were skirting the edge of Uzbekistan where armed guards wandered along the road to prevent people crossing the border - this was the closest we will get to Uzbekistan until we return in the future!!
We arrived in Kerben with a few hours to spare before the bus left to Arkit so along with Stasha and Luca (both from Slovenia) we had some lunch and tea in a small cafe, before getting some food from the bazaar.
Our bus to Arkit must have been from the 1950s it was so old, but it definitely had a lot of character - how it managed the two and a half hour journey with seemingly hundreds of passengers we don't know! The character on the bus was intensified by the beautiful locals, intrigued by our presence. The rounded windows at the back made us feel as if we were riding a submarine, only going the wrong way! When we arrived in Arkit around sunset we were grateful that Stasha and Luca spoke Russian as they were able to negotiate us all a good price in a home stay - the only thing we added was extra bargaining power to the table! By 7.30pm we were sitting in our room with tea and noodles where we chatted until the power cut out at just before 10pm.Adlibing it along Uzbekistan.
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