Kyrgyzstan: Sarey Chelek

Date: 17th - 19th, June 2026

Sarey Chelek

Sarey Chelek is a huge lake with cluster of small lakes surrounding it. It lies south west of Bishkek and takes around 12 hours to get there including rest times, taking photos. Since I am waiting for the Uzbekistan visa till monday which means I have 5 days, I decided to do Sarey chelek trip. After talking to couple of locals everyone suggested to go for a guided tour instead of exploring on my own. I always had strong aversion to guided tours as they have a packed schedule which this trip unfortunately turned out to be. However, the best part of the trip was the company of local people and the beauty of Sarey Chelek national reserve.

We started around 6:00AM waiting for the bus and almost every joined by 6:30AM and headed to the lakes. In total there are 14 people, 5 singles, two pairs of siblings, two pairs of 3 family members and the tour guide. I was the only foreigner and rest of the people are locals. They enjoyed singing songs and interestingly they love punjabi songs. We took several breaks for restrooms, food, panoramic views and fun bonding time. We had our introductions and apparently they liked my paintings.

At the panoramic view:

We stopped at the reservoir for folks to swim and I collected bunch of aprikots from the local tree which was very sweet and juicy.

After few hours of travel the view opens up to vast expansive grasslands, with cattle, horses, sheep grazing, running around the open lands. One will spot yurts (traditional nomadic housing), selling kumus - horse milk, cheese and honey. I bought some of it on the way back. A long river, more like a stream that follows through the road was good to watch. The water seems fresh as it comes down from the melted snow from the mountains. We reached the guest house around 6PM, played some games, and headed to eat around 8PM. Folks played some card games, I joined them but headed to bed around 9:30PM.

Folks playing at the guesthouse, photo to the left.

Flowers at the guest house:

Second day was the hiking day, after having breakfast we headed for the hike around 9AM. The hike is an easy hike not much elevation gain other than to view the main Sarey Chelek The distance to cover is 15 kms one way, if it were me i would have started the hike at 6AM and finish it by 2PM. There are plenty of opportunities one would get to take photos.

Some of the interesting fauna I found on the hike:

Tree photos:

There are also horses around for people to try and for people who could not hike. An old lady in our group who did horse riding for part of the hike. Interestingly she was able to reach to the peak on her own, where we felt she wont make it. The view from the final destination is amazing and worth spending an hour. We all had lunch which is not much, just pilaf, bread and water, packed by the guest house team. People shared their snacks and candy which was nice.

Photos of the lakes:

Around 1PM we started heading down and the hike started slowing down as the old lady had some knee issues. So it took a while to get down, we almost reached to the parking lot around 7PM. Folks had swimming in the lake and after an hour of relaxing we headed to the guesthouse around 9PM. Immediately we had dinner and initially I did not want to participate in the bonfire as 9:30PM is my sleeping time. I think around 11:30PM, Elvira, one of the group member came to my room to ask me to join the bonfire. At the bon fire everyone is dancing and playing different songs. Apparently folks are excited about punjabi songs :), so I played some. We finished our bonfire at 12:00AM and I think I slept around 1AM midnight.

Some of the interesting photos that I of various members of our group:

At the lake, these two kids loved playing with me. They definitely want to throw stones in the lake, I wished their mom allowed to hike up the trail.

Next morning at 8AM we had breakfast and headed back to Bishkek. Folks did sang some songs and played some games. Somehow my stomach was not so good, so I skipped lunch to avoid any diarrhea. As usual we stopped multiple times for restrooms, food break and to take photos. In the valley, there were selling lot of cheese, kumus and honey. I bought some and had kumus at night for relaxing as it would give some intoxication.

Reached bishkek at 8PM and I took rest after that. I would say the trip was very exhausting because of travel but the company was awesome.