Kochkor

Kochkor is a low town on the plain where the roads to Song-Köl, Naryn and Issyk-Kul meet, and its importance to travellers is organisational: the community tourism offices here have arranged yurt stays, horse treks and drivers for decades, and most trips to Song-Köl and Köl-Ükök start at a desk in this town. Its other trade is felt: workshops and cooperatives make shyrdak and ala-kiyiz carpets, the two traditional Kyrgyz felt forms, and demonstrations show the whole process from washing wool to stitching the pattern. The town itself is unremarkable, a grid of single-storey houses with a bazaar, and nobody comes for the town. It works as the practical base for the central mountains.

What you actually see

• Felt workshops - shyrdak and ala-kiyiz carpets made from raw wool.
• Trek arrangement offices - where horse trips and yurt stays are booked.
• The bazaar - the everyday market of a road-junction town.
• The open plain - the flat country between the ranges.

When to go

May to September, which is when the yurt camps in the mountains above are open and the trips this town arranges actually run. Outside that window there is little reason to stop.

Honest expectations

The town has no sights of its own and is plain. Accommodation is guesthouses and homestays, simple but adequate. Felt demonstrations end in a shop, which is fair enough. Booking treks in person a day ahead is usually necessary since online arrangements are unreliable.

Nearby

Song-Köl lies southwest; Köl-Ükök is south; Orto-Tokoy is north.