This is where the World Nomad Games were born in 2014 — eagle hunting, horseback wrestling and kok-boru in front of the yurts of Lake Issyk-Kul.
Issyk-Kul, the world's second-largest mountain lake, never freezes despite sitting at 1,600 m — its name means “warm lake”.
You sleep in a yurt at Song-Kul, with no electricity: a power bank is essential. An eSIM helps: offline maps before the mountains, marshrutkas and pass weather.