Over the River and Through the Tian Shan

If anyone from the outside ever comes to Turgen, excluding the people who are merely passing through, it’s usually to visit the area’s primary tourist attraction: The National Nature Preserve. The people who live in Turgen don’t actually benefit from the thousands of tourists who travel from all parts of Kazakhstan to see the source of the Turgenka River and its waterfalls. In fact, the local economy is solely reliant on magazines (tiny shops), taxis, the school system, the village bazaar, a vineyard, and a brick factory located on the outskirts of the village. I’ve heard that there are a couple of resorts in these mountains, but so far no one I’ve met in Turgen has ever actually been to one. Most of the tourists don’t make it into the village at all.

In all the time that I’ve lived here, I had never been able to hike up to the waterfalls. For one thing, the twenty minute taxi ride into the preserve is a bit pricey (1,000 Tenge one way, and that doesn’t include the 200 Tenge park entrance fee). It’s better to go out there if you know someone who has a car, which is unfortunate for me. Luckily some volunteers came to visit me in Turgen recently, and we were able to all pull together to invest in a taxi ride. The excursion was very cool. Worth every Tenge. Check it out.

Up, up, up the mountain we go. Where does it end? Nobody knows... (Art, Heather, Me)

In Jee and Art get their first glimpse of the waterfall.

Art, dissatisfied with not having reached the tippy-top of this particular mountain, decided to climb an additional kilometer to reach the top of the waterfall. That little speck on top (Art) kind of puts things into perspective as to how large the smallest of all the waterfalls actually is.

The hills are alive!

The Turgenka River. We laid there on the rocky bank for an hour just listening to water. Our skin sizzled in the sun, but it didn't matter.

Happiness. Cheese.