We are here in Kyrgyzstan, the country famous for its natural scenery.

We didn’t plan to stay in Bishkek (the capital) for many days, so after we completed the “registration”, we directly headed to Karakol by marshrutka (mini bus). The registration process is only for some countries, which of course Taiwan is included. It’s a long story about this registration but I will just skip it for now.

The trip from Bishkek to Karakol is around 5 – 6 hours, and we passed the north side of Issyk Kul. This lake is so big that it can be seen for more than 2 hours drive! We hired a taxi the next day to visit this never frozen lake.

吉爾吉斯，李白的故鄉。我們來拜訪它的壯麗山水。

我們沒有刻意在首都比十凱克停留，主要只是要完成住宿註冊。之前有些人說不需要做住宿登記，而且網路上也沒甚麼資訊，又有人說若是從機場出境一定會查，沒有的話會被罰款，因此我們決定先去發給我們邀請函的旅行社詢問，結果她馬上說需要註冊，但給他們辦要第二天才能拿，所以她給了我們辦理這個業務的機關住址，說我們自己過去的話當天可以拿到。好不容易找到了這個passport office，難得有一個稍微會說英文的先生，他卻說我們入境的邀請函不合格，需要重新準備一份，他提出了三四個問題，我們聽不大懂，好險他好心的幫我們直接打給旅行社告知，我們又趕快回去旅行社拿新的邀請函，第二天一早趕過去辦理，終於等到他在我們的護照上蓋了章，才安心的趕往Karakol。

從比十凱克坐小巴到Karakol大約是5-6小時，我們開過伊賽克湖的北邊，終於看到遠方右邊一條細細的藍線時感到很興奮! 我們第二天就請了計程車司機帶我們近距離欣賞這個美麗的高山湖。

Issyk Kul is the second largest mountain lake in the world. The lake is very blue and clean. The French guy who came with us even went swimming in this cold water! You can go to any part of the lake and our guest house owner suggested us to come here. We only saw a few locals and we enjoyed a quiet morning here.

伊賽克湖是世界上第二大的高山湖，所以我們昨天開車開了兩個多小時這個湖泊才真正離開我們的視線。這美麗的湖泊非常乾淨又湛藍，跟我們一起來的法國男生還忍不住跳下去游泳呢! 但水好冰，我們沒這個勇氣。感謝民宿主人推薦我們這個沒有遊客的小村莊，讓我們在湖邊度過了安靜的早晨。

In the afternoon, we went to another famous site called Jeti Oguz to see the Seven bulls rock. It is a very small village and we had a nice walk around the area. It was an easy and relaxing day to visit the two places today.

下午我們去到附近另一個有名的景點 Jeti Oguz. 民宿主人說這是他最喜歡的地方，這裡有一個叫做 Seven Bulls Rock 的七個岩石。這是一個很小的村莊，我們花了一個多小時在附近散步，河邊泡腳，真的是很優閒的一天行程。

很喜歡今天的司機先生，他在大學當程式設計的老師，閒暇之餘來開計程車多賺點錢，我們用簡單的英文字彙和google translate 交談的很快樂，他37歲，因為他們都早婚，所以他的老大十幾歲了，老婆是中學英文老師，喜歡夏天，家裡有馬，教學生C++ 什麼的，沒有出國過。最後離開前，他指著我們露出靦腆又真誠的笑容說: you are good girl and good guy. 我們握手說了再見，我內心覺得暖暖的。