A plague on your shores

Lake Issyk-Kul is the second largest saline lake in the world, and it's a beauty.

Most of its shores are surrounded by low key beaches, good for lounging in the sun alongside Kazakh tourists and with snow-capped mountains looming behind.

Some areas of the lake have tacky resorts, which we avoided like the plague.*

By this point already falling in love with Kyrgyzstan.

*Incidentally two days after we got home, someone died of the bubonic plague in Kyrgyzstan.