"Mallorca in Kyrgystan" - Cholpon Ata

Kyrgystan is about as far away from any sea as you can get. To compensate for this they established their own "Mallorca" at the Issyk-Kul lake in the north east of the country. We were there during low season when it's a pleasant place at a lake. But even then you got a flavour for how it must be in summer. Most restaurant have a life singer performing all the famous songs but with Russian text and even charge about 50 cents extra for the performance (believe me, you would be willing to pay much more if he would just stop!). In general you can say tourists like two things - Vodka (starting 1 USD for a bottle here) and loud music (really loud and everywhere - including the nice restaurant for breakfast...). In June it was cold (we were wearing fleeces) but to locals and Kazakhs this is no problem. They were swimming, playing beach volley as would it be hot...

Cholpon Ata, Kyrgystan