Would You Drive This Mountain Road?

We left a poor hotel with a Soviet sink as a souvenir and drove through the changing villages and mountain landscapes of Kyrgyzstan. We crossed the Ala-Too range, passed checkpoints and tunnels, learned about the region’s Great Game history, and ate Kyrgyz manti. After a long drive past the Uzbek border, we finally reached Mailuu-Suu and prepared to explore the former Soviet closed town and radioactive city the next morning.