Sophie Sickert spent years planning three months of solo travel through Central Asia. She kicked it off on SoFe’s Kyrgyzstan trip for the World Nomad Games, with an unexpected travel buddy: her mom.
Five years in the making
I’d been planning a trip to Central Asia since around 2020. Things obviously didn’t work out then. This year I finally made it happen: three months traveling solo between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The long delay had one upside. I’d started learning Russian in the meantime, since I’d read it would come in handy across the region.
My plan was to start with an intensive Russian course and then ease into solo travel. The timing didn’t work. Many of the beautiful mountain passes close after September, and the World Nomad Games were happening shortly after I arrived. There was no way I was going to be in the region while the Nomad Games were on and not go.
A tour that fit a solo trip
Without my language skills up to scratch yet, I felt a little less confident about navigating unfamiliar transportation on my own. So I started looking at tours that included the Games, and found SoFe.
It was a great fit. It got me to the Games, and it was also a proper introduction to Kyrgyzstan as a whole. Since the rest of my trip would be mostly solo, I loved the idea of starting out with an informed guide who could introduce me to the region.
Then my mum asked to come
What I hadn’t taken into account was that my excitement might be contagious. A few weeks after I booked, my mum asked if she could join me for the first month of my trip.
Honestly, I shouldn’t have been surprised. My parents are the ones who taught me to love traveling. We quickly booked her onto the SoFe trip too.
SoFe is built for solo travelers, but it was amazing to go with my mum. For one thing, I already knew my roommate very well before the tour started.
“It was very fun to be on a trip where I was actually making memories with my mum, instead of just writing home to her about them.”
Tatiana and Dima
Our guide, Tatiana, was incredible and so well informed about her country. There wasn’t a single question that seemed to stump her, and she could recall an impressive amount of history, facts and dates. Her husband, Dima, was our driver and a wealth of information in his own right, with stories about Kyrgyz cooking customs and the country’s growing tourism industry.
Our group was small, and somehow perfectly sized: six of us, plus Tatiana and our SoFe rep. Everyone had so many interesting stories and experiences to share. We left with great memories of Kyrgyzstan and a whole new list of countries to explore, recommended by the others.
The Nomad Games, and everything else
The World Nomad Games were unquestionably a highlight, from the opening ceremonies to the games fields in Cholpon-Ata and Kyrchyn Gorge.
But so much else will stick in my memory. Crafting workshops with local women’s cooperatives. A cooking class and shared meals with local families. A horse trek up to the gorgeous Song Kul lake. A private eagle hunting demonstration. Nights in both traditional and modern yurt camps. The list goes on.
What surprised me
Two things. First, how absolutely safe I felt, at all times.
Second, the food. With influences from the local Uyghur and Dungan communities, we were served much more than the boiled meat I’d come expecting, and more delicious food than could possibly be eaten in one sitting.
“We were served much more than the boiled meat I’d come expecting.”
A country changing fast
Kyrgyzstan, and Central Asia as a whole, is changing incredibly quickly right now. New roads and infrastructure are going up everywhere as the country adapts to more tourism. It’s hard to know how those changes will affect the people who live there.
On our trip, Tatiana did an amazing job of showing us traditional Kyrgyz hospitality while keeping us comfortable with modern accommodations, clean toilet stops and endless good food.
Something we'll always share
I always try to keep people back home updated on my travels, but it’s different when someone is there with you in person. Our time in Kyrgyzstan is now something my mum and I will always share.
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I’d recommend Kyrgyzstan to any traveler interested in nature, nomadic culture and real connections with local people. My mum and I loved our time there, and we came home with a much better understanding of a part of the world we’d only ever read about in books.
