10/31 – Horse Games – and Happy Halloween!

(We didn’t do anything for Halloween – it’s not exactly popular in Kyrgyzstan. However, one of our classmates ended up going to the American pub in Bishkek and we heard that people wore costumes and strangely that they had a strip show at the pub. I’m glad I gave Halloween in Bishkek a pass. )

We got up bright and early for the Horse Games, ate an amazing breakfast, and walked about 2km to where the games would be held. We were at first told that everything would start at 9am, then 10am…somehow in Kyrgyz time that ended up being around noon. But it was a clear, crisp beautiful day (with fresh non-polluted air!) so we didn’t mind waiting around. The spot where the games were held was at the base of some mountains and had a great view of Lake Issuk Kul with the mountains in the background on the other side of the lake. The lake is so big that the snowcaps on the mountains looked like clouds in the sky.

There were a few different games played – with players on teams coming from around the region. The first game was with individual riders going at full speed and bending down to pick up flags on the ground. Another had the men wrestling to pull one another from their horses.

Then one of the favorite games was called Kiss the Girl (I forgot the Kyrgyz name). A girl and a man are on different horses going at full gallop and the man tries to catch the girl and give her kisses – it is 2 points a kiss. Then the girl chases the man and tries to whip him with her horse whip – again 2 points a whip. They are both dressed in costumes that make them look like princesses and princes. We actually missed this game the first day because we were eating lunch (most delicious Lagman I have tasted), but caught one round on Sunday. Tragically during the beginning of that round the girl’s horse slipped and fell on her – we think breaking her leg. On the bright side – she whipped the guy twice before falling. On the non-bright side, medical care out there isn’t really top notch and I’d hate to think how long it took before she got to a doctor. (I think there is a hospital a few hours away).

But the best game of them all is Kakburru – the goat game. I had mistakenly thought that the premise of the game was sort of a polo style match with a goat’s head. Not so – even more interestingly it was a rugby style match on horseback with a decapitated goat’s body. They boil the body to make the skin tougher because they really fight over this thing. The goal is to carry the goat’s body across the field and put it into a turned over tractor tire. These guys were pretty aggressive and there was some impressive usage of the horses for blocking. It didn’t take long for us to get into the game and it suddenly became quite normal to be shouting over who controlled the goat’s body. After the games, this poor battered goat body gets cooked up and is supposed to have magical healing properties. Yummy.

After spending a few hours at the games we walked back down to our guesthouse and one the way stopped outside a store so our friend could buy something to eat. While waiting a few minutes this Kyrgyz man walks up wearing a track suit with camouflage and a camo jacket. Now lots of men wear camo around here and it is pretty obvious who is and isn’t police/military (they have proper uniforms). So the guy comes and flashes an official police card, says KGB and asks us for our documents (which if he was a police officer we’d be obligated to show him). Seriously? Dude…you really think we’d believe you are KGB? But it is clear that is all he can say in English is KGB and documents. Our friend looks at the guys ID again and tells us in English to play dumb – which we can do with gusto. I’m thinking that worst case scenario this guy is legit (slim chance) and worst thing is we get “arrested” and have to pay a bit. We keep refusing him our documents and finally get on the cell phone to our host because the guy won’t let us leave. At that moment the guy sneaks to behind our group and then runs through a fence behind us to get away. Hilarious escape move. Our friend then told us that the picture on the ID was completely different and we all knew that what he wanted was to take our documents and demand a bribe for their return. There is no way that man was touching my passport unless I was actually in the police station being arrested! The whole scenario gave us a good laugh – plus the idea that you know that scheme has worked on other foreigners.

We capped the night off with a delicious meal of Plov, and soup, and bread with homemade jam. The plov was like a rice dish with carrots – I added raisins to mine and it was very tasty. This weekend I ate every meal until bursting, which was a welcome respite to the past 2 weeks of continuous hunger. We ate in the family’s yurt behind the guesthouse – they brought in a big heater and we all sat around a table on the ground. At the games we ate lunch inside a yurt too – that one had benches. The yurts are nice and warm and cozy. Usually they are only used in the summer, so it was a real treat to get to be inside one as most have been taken down by now.
After dinner Friday and Saturday we stayed up for a while playing cards. In this town all the electricity is shut off from midnight-6am, so when it got late we had to use candles. There was also one toilet we could use in the house at night time (so we didn’t have to go out to the outhouse), which was interesting to try to use in pitch black. As a consequence of no electricity, our room heaters also didn’t work at night – so I slept all bundled up in a few layers of clothes and wool socks.

Here are a few more pics from the Horse Games:
Venue where it was played:

Yurts where we ate:

Lineup of players/teams:

Fantastic picture of a yurt and Lada:

And the obligatory pictures proving I was there:

And before I forget - the tastiest Lagman i've eaten since coming here (along with what i think was called Haran - meat and onion filled dough), with green tea to drink: