When I heard about the animal market, I felt it must be an interesting thing to see. In Kyrgyzstan there is a saying that its people are born on a horse. As the boy from the shepherd family, with whom I stayed near the Kyrgyz-China border, told me, ever since he had memory, he has always remembered riding a horse.
There are still quite a few shepherds living in Kyrgyz highlands, but most of the shepherds live a nomadic lifestyle: they take their animals to the high lands in the summer months only. For them, every once in a while, they gather in the city to trade their animals.
The animal market in Kyrgyzstan is truly a authentic and unique experience for me. Surrounded by mountains and grasslands, a lot of farmers and shepherd live nearby. That makes the meat and milk product in Karakol region cheap and of great quality. Karakol’s weekly animal market is also among the biggest ones in the country.
The animal market is held every Sunday morning. I could already hear a lot of noise from the trucks driving by early morning from the yurt I stay. I also decided not to stay in bed too long because by 10 o’clock it was already packed.
The market is huge, with different areas for different animals, mainly sheep, horses, cattle. It was great atmosphere to see local shepherds’ life, with beautiful mountains in the background. Certainly something unusual (for me at least) to see althought it is so common here in Kyrgyzstan.
I didn’t go there early enough, but at 9am there were still some activities and tradings going on. If you go as early as 7am, more traders and activities can be seen. *From Karakol it was only a short taxi ride which costs only 70 Som (~ 0.8€) *
For today’s price a decent horse costs about 650$ if you consider buying one as your transport in Kyrgyzstan. It’s a bargain. You can test-ride it if you want 🙂
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It was interesting to see how animals refused to get back on the truck and how farmers had to push and pull them to get in.
Kyrgyz farmers were super friendly to foreign visitors. I always feel a but awkward to take pictures of them or even ask permits, even though I only use my phone to make photos. Kyrgyz people don’t seem to mind though, funny thing is that sometimes when I try to catch some quick shots of them, they stretch their hands, I always thought it must mean no photos please, but in fact they were simply waving at me. Something nice about travelling in a still unexplored spot.
Karakol的周日动物市集
吉尔吉斯斯坦是个以农业和牧业为主的国家，每周末在很多大城市有动物市集，当时我听到这个名字就觉得一定很有意思。伊塞克湖附近很多牧民居住，所以在伊塞克地区肉价非常便宜而且肉质很好。在Karakol每周日早上有吉尔吉斯斯坦数一数二规模的动物市集，交换以及购买动物。
周日清晨我在毡房睡觉，就被赶路去赶集的人们吵醒了，真是太热闹了。但是我后知后觉，没有意识到市集最有意思的是7点左右，那时很多人讨价还价交易。等我拖拖拉拉，9点赶去那里的时候，已经没有那么热闹，虽然还是可以看到一些交易的人们。
从Korakol过去很方便，打车大概不到一欧。不同动物有各自的区域，基本上最多得是羊?，牛?，马?，猪?。羊的价钱由脂肪含量和体质决定，买一匹马需要差不多650刀。很酷吧，还可以试骑一下，我在上两篇写了可以去当地市场买马，然后骑行吉尔吉斯可不是闹着玩的！
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