Photo: An attractive place for a pit-stop (vertical)

Kyrgyzstan isn’t exactly a great place for finding convenient public toilets. As we drove from Balykchy towards our destination of Karakoo, we found ourselves desperately in need of a pit-stop. Somewhere just outside of the small town of Kara Talaa, on the shore of Lake Issyk Kul, we found a spot with some large piles of earth and rock – excellent ground cover for a pit-stop, as it were. In addition to being a convenient place for toilet au naturale, the scenery along the lake shore was incredible. It was an area known as a дикий берег, or wild shore (as opposed to so much of the lake shore which has been developed for summer tourism), with over grown fields of grazing cattle running down to the shore itself. The water along the shoreline was still frozen, but in the distance, we could see the brilliant blue where the lake had begun to thaw. In the distance, we could barely make out the mountains on the opposite side of the lake, shrouded in clouds and mist.