Day 14 Altyn Arashan to.Karakol and walking tour

Our time at the Golden Spa had come to an end and we had to head back down the hill to Karakol. It wasnt going to be an easy trip as we had a little rain overnight and the already poor road condtion was bound to be worse. I managed to get a seat in the front of the truck for the trip down  and get some video footage. Unfortunately it doesnt look as difficult as it really was because the angle of the ground does not show true.

We stopped several times to let other vehicles pass and at one point  picked up an extra passenger for the  trip down. We stopped after 90 minutes of rock crawling for an early lunch and break from the bone jarring ride.

With lunch out of the way we finished our journey back to the Karakat hotel in Karakol. It didnt take long to get our gear and into our rooms for a nice  hot shower. We had to be back down in reception for a walking tour of Karakol in 45 minutes.
Our guide spoke very good engliah and took is to a lot of historic places around town. The Russian Orthodox church is an amazing timber structure that has survived earthquakes and war since 1895. Unfortunately we were not allowed to photograph inside but the outside is impressive.

We then went to the Russian  Quarter and saw some of the original buildings from the early days. These are called gingerbread houses because of their appearance.

From there we walked to the Dungan Mosque. This is not your ordinary mosque but one for chinese muslims. You can see the Chinese influence in the building. The women had to cover up before they could enter.

We then walked back towards the  city centre passing several monuments and through some food, vegetable and assorted goods markets before finishing at a souvenir shop.

The whole tour relies  on donations and money is used to help youth and worthy local charites. 

We finished our day with dinner at the lighthouse cafe. We took the long way there after looking at several  other options. The food was great, our waitress spoke good  english and the local beer was pretty potent.