Today is the day I’ve been most looking forward to this week.

A trip up to Kyrchyn Gorge where most of the Nomad Games are taking place.

The Gorge is about 60km northeast of the city and takes about an hour to get there.

But first, breakfast…

Free meal?

We went into the hotel’s dining room and found two breakfast plates wrapped and set aside for us.

I don’t remember breakfast being included with our stay but, hey, I’ll take it.

Cold eggs and undercooked hotdogs weren’t quite what I was looking for but free is free.

We ate and got up and only then did we find out that the breakfast was indeed not free.

Nope, that sad little breakfast would cost us 325som ($6).

Tricky, tricky – ya got us.

We won’t be making that mistake tomorrow…

A ride to the ride

To get to the gorge you have to take a free shuttle bus.

Now, like with everything else we’ve experienced here in the games, direction, signage, and instructions are sparce if at all.

On our way here yesterday we passed a free shuttle location which was pretty much a park and ride.

There were hundreds of cars parked in the grass and a swarm of people waiting for buses.

Luckily, our hotel host told us that there’d be a bus taking us up to the gorge from the bus station nearby and we wouldn’t have to make the 45 minute trek out there and fight the hordes of people.

She told us the tickets were in the 150som ($2.50) range and we were more than okay with that.

So, we walked up the bus station and, well, wouldn’t you know it, nobody had any clue about what we were looking for.

A Dutch lady waiting for a ride to Karakol called us over to let us know that there were no buses here and that we’d actually have to get a ride to the park and ride we passed yesterday.

Sigh.

Around the same time two other girls showed up looking for the same thing.

The four of us ended up hopping in a car with the Dutch lady headed to Karakol.

For 1000som ($16) each we’d get off at the park and ride while she’d continue on to Karakol.

Seemed like a fair deal.

Up to Kyrchyn Gorge

It took about 45 minutes to get to the town of Semenovka which is where the park and ride is.

As it turns out all the craziness I saw yesterday wasn’t actually that crazy at all.

Sure, there were tons of cars parked there and, yeah, there was a horde of people waiting to board buses but there was a constant flow of buses to temper all that.

In fact, we waited less than 10 minutes to hop on board one of the shuttle buses making its’ way up to the Gorge.

Fifteen minutes later and we had finally reached the gorge.

The true home of the Nomad Games.

Um, where’s all the games?

As we entered the main gate we were astonished with the vast lay of the land.

It was almost like a several makeshift villages with yurts as far as the eye could see.

Each “village” represented one of the Kyrgyzstan cities and had yurts encircling a different cultural show.

I guess it was kind of like each city showing off what they’re known for kind of like a World Expo but in smaller terms.

As we walked a little further up the path we noticed a clay formed structures on the opposite side.

Aha, we had stumbled upon the food area where there must of have been 100 different stalls offering, well, basically the same 10 items.

You know – plov, beef and potatoes, kebabs – that kind of stuff.

It had now been a half hour of walking and we still hadn’t seen anything that seemed like a games area.

There are games here, right?

Games!   Well, kind of…

Finally, over a ridge, we found a gaming area.

There was an archery area next to a gaming area and a wrestling mat.

Not huge but at least we found the games.

We watched a bit of archery but sadly there was no Canadian team or our friends from the Malaysian team anywhere to be found.

Over in the next area was a strongmen competition where they by took turns lifting a huge, heavy, fake camel on their shoulders.

And, finally, in the third area was a tug of war contest.

The problem with all of it was that we couldn’t get anywhere close to the action to see what was going on.

All those social media posts I’ve been watching the last few days have looked spectacular but that’s because they are from people with media accreditation who get up close access.

For the rest of us normal people there just wasn’t much to see which is really sad.

The funny thing is I could have probably pushed for media access myself since I have this lovely blog but I decided not to.

In all, the gaming part of the World Nomad Games was extremely underwhelming both yesterday in Cholpon Ata and today up here in Kyrchyn Gorge.

An abundance of culture?   Absolutely.

The games though, not so much.

And I have yet to find a single souvenir for the games anywhere let along a program guide or anything with the 2026 World Nomad Games insignia on it.

Not at the opening ceremonies in Bishkek, any of the venues yesterday in Cholpon Ata, or up here in the gorge today.

Not a single one.

And that blows me away!   Why on earth would you not cash in on this huge opportunity to sell merchandise?

I, for one, would have picked up tons of stuff.

Culture and Food

We did make a valiant attempt to find more games but came up with our hands empty.

It would appear that the gorge was 95% culture and 5% games.

Oh well, may as well take in some more culture.

We spent a little time watching a relay competition on the main stage where teams from two cities went head to head in different arts and crafts.

There was weaving, taking strips off of bamboo, folding and stacking blankets, and spinning yarn.

We also stopped by an arts and crafts area where I picked up some goodies for the people watching my cats while I’m away.

Next was the food area where we searched and searched for something that wasn’t lamb, beef, rice, or potatoe.

A tall order indeed!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Kyrgyz food but to have it every meal every day is a bit daunting.

I finally found a place selling seafood in a bowl atop fries and salad.

Perfect!

Despite picking scales out of my food, the meal was exactly what I was looking for.

Back to town

By 2:45 we had had our fix of the gorge.

It was a cool experience for sure but just not what we were expecting.

We had planned to come back tomorrow but now we’re switching up plans to just hang out in Cholpon Ata instead.

Boarding the shuttle bus back to the park and ride was, again, fairly easy and from there we took a taxi back to our hotel.

It was closing in on 4:30 by the time we got back in our room.

I know, myself, I was exhausted.   That was alot of walking today and I’m not that young, spry, in shape guy I was way back when.

We just vegged in our room for a couple of hours until our stomachs said “hey, feed us!”

Steak and Sushi

Normally I try to eat local all the time and kind of frown upon eating any kind of Western or other ethnic food while I travel.

Like I said earlier though, eating the same thing over and over again gets to be a bit too much.

So, tonight, I was going in the complete opposite direction.

We had passed by a restaurant earlier that had a board outside with pictures of sushi on it and I knew that’s where we’d be having dinner tonight.

Along with a sushi roll, I also order a striploin dinner with potato wedges and corn.

And a pina colada smoothie cause, dammit, I deserve it!

I was even joined by a little stray kitten who hopped up in my lap bringing back memories of both Dubrovnik and Aswan.

It was exactly what I craved and needed.

And also a great way to end the day.