Exploring Kyrgyzstan, Fermented Mare's Milk and Responsible Tourism with Shannon O'Donnell from A Little Adrift

Our Food Adventures

Our Guest Shannon O'Donnell created ALittleAdrift.com to share her journey around the world. Eventually, it evolved into a resource point to motivate and encourage other travelers through stories, advice, and photography. She has become an advocate of responsible travel and tourism and won Traveler of the year from National Geographic for her work in responsible tourism. In this episode, we explore the mysterious country of Kyrgyzstan. We'll learn what to do there, their culture and wonderful people that live there. What You’ll Learn

• How to become a responsible traveler
• What responsible tourism is
• How to travel to Kyrgyzstan
• What to do in Kyrgyzstan

Shannon’s Recommendations

• Head to Karakol and Osh to for affordable and tasty food that will immerse you in the best food cultures in Kyrgyzstan. Both cities have tours that take you through the best dishes in the region (vegetarians are welcome!), and you can try the dishes that I mentioned (including my beloved Ashlan-fu!).
• The South Shore of Lake Issyk-Kul is a wonderful place experience the culture of Kyrgyzstan. You can not only stay in a yurt (because that's a must), but also to see Salburuun, eagle hunting, which is a traditional sport in the area. It's here that you'll find some incredibly diverse landscapes—waterfalls, lunar-like landscapes, and Alpine hiking all nearby.
• Horse lovers should head to Jyrgalan—this is where you can really do some amazing horse or treks into the Tian Shan mountains from a small village. The homestays here are particularly memorable.
• There's tons of Silk Road history, and you could even do a road-trip of the region pretty easily visiting some historic sites with Silk Road history (there's a lot of this around Osh).
• You can easily navigate the country on either the larger long-distance buses or smaller marshrutkas that zip between cities. It's easy to rent a car, but you should be confident driving on winding mountain roads.
• Most road signs are in Cyrillic so learning to at least sound out the alphabet, or at least have familiarity with it, would go a long-way to feeling comfortable if you planned to drive.
• There are more regional flights during the high season summer months, so you can sometimes jump the longer distances with a short and inexpensive flight.

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Thanks for listening! -Chris and Tiarra