While many expect international travel to come back only after a vaccine, we’ve decided to come up with a list of feasible and safe activities . Even when shelter in place order is lifted, we can’t, unfortunately, go back to our normal pre-covid 19 lives right away. We are to avoid crowds, public areas, parks and our usual jogging/running routes. Luckily we live in a country where, with as little as 40 minute drive, you can get to areas with no other people around for miles. So, this presents us with an option to pack our tents, cooking gear and jump into our cars and hitting the open road to venture out as far as Song Kol, Sary Chelek or other places. Borders being closed for international travelers will mean that popular destinations around the country will be as empty as they’ll ever be making social distancing easy. With a few changes to our usual travel routines we should be able to go on picnics, hikes, treks, and bike trips with our families or immediate household. A major step will be to design your trips in a way that allows you to travel within the country without having to interact with other people once you’ve left the city. Such measures will be necessary not only to protect yourself from potentially contracting the virus, but also to keep others who may be at risk safe. While we work on an algorithm of actions to make travelling within the country possible making it as safe as possible. Here are some activities that can be done with minimal risk of catching or spreading the virus.
Picnics:
Family picnics in any outdoor area outside of Bishkek should provide enough space and safety - given families or housemates travel to their picnic spots in private cars.
Biking/Mountain Biking:
Biking, better yet biking out in the nature, will provide us with everything we’ve been missing during our quarantine - movement, cardio, fresh air, and much much needed release of endorphins.
We have devised a plan how to provide mountain biking experience without bikers having to go to the rental shop or having to haul the bicycles to the start of the trail. Coming soon….
Hiking:
I don’t think person reading this needs to be sold on the benefits of hiking. Grab your backpack, hop into a car and head into the valleys with your family and immediate household.
Overlanding/Off-roading
Now this one is a bit tricky. For an exciting few days of an overlanding trip you can’t completely avoid having to use facilities along the way like gas stations, park pass booths and so on. In addition to challenges presented by this rampaging virus off-roading comes with its own prerequisites; one of them being traveling in groups. One of the basic rules is to have friends or fellow travelers in other cars to get you out if you get stuck or tow if the car breaks down. Pack a set of handheld radios to keep in touch with friends in other cars and a megaphone, mainly to annoy them from a distance, and have an adventure while maintaining distance. Luckily it’s easy to practice social distancing while travelling in cars and even after you have reached your destination. Setting up camps at a recommended distance and “sharing” beer whilst enjoying the views with familiar faces can reward and mend your psyche. We also recommend packing soccer balls and kites for your kids to play with their friends at a distance.
Once movement between oblasts will be permitted again we will be going on overlanding trips to Sary Chelek, Kel Suu and Song Kol. If you’d like to join in your own car or rent an SUV disinfected by professionals - reach out to us at contact@tenti.kg.
Staying in a yurt
No “touch points”, no lobbies, and no commonplace amenities - yurts seem to have one upped the posh hotels once again. After studying new guidelines from CDC, NHS, and The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) at great length we came to the conclusion that yurts have a big advantage over hotels due to their simplicity and mobility. These advantages make yurts safer than other establishments with just minimal changes to their usual routines. Our recent discussion with a few of the yurt camp owners resulted in them agreeing to take precautionary measures even further by setting up the yurt at a greater distance than previously practiced and introduce new practices and procedures. Together with our partners from different parts of the country we are working on our own set of guidelines for guest houses, yurts and hotels.
