What 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan Taught a City Girl

Part 1 - The Beginning

Why? That’s the big question. Being a corporate girlie is tiring. There’s just something about meeting deadlines, daily morning rushes and pressures to perform that takes the exuberance out of anyone.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate my job. It brings meaning, it brings growth, and yes, it brings money. But it’s also tough. It makes me feel rewarded on some days, but on others, I feel defeated when things don’t go well.

So I decided to take a break when the opportunity in between jobs came. Central Asia popped up.

No idea why, because I’ve always been a city traveller. The occasional scenery, yes, but climbing mountains never quite spoke to me. Why suffer by climbing when you can take a cable car?

But I decided to get in touch with what little I had of nature in me. I guess it’s the relative unfamiliarity of the land that attracted me. To try something different for a change of perspective. To be away from the hustle and bustle.

I signed up for a 10 day tour. Just 10 days. This is do-able. I told myself.

Before I left, friends gave me tips. Please post everyday so we know you’re alive. Bring wet wipes because you can’t shower. Make sure the locks at the guestrooms are secure. Bring Gaviscon and charcoal pills. All of them well intentioned, none of them I needed (okay, except the wet wipes).

But to be honest, their tips made me a little nervous. Will I survive or fail tremendously and ask to be evacuated out of nature land to my modern comfort? Read on to find out more!

Part 2 - The Trip

If you’d like to know the places I’ve visited, you can check it out here. Here are some of my more memorable things I’ve experienced. If anyone is reading this as a travel guide, then this is probably the closest to it.

1. I have not seen a traffic light in 5 days

How relaxing it is not to let your journey be controlled by automated things? For days we drove along unpaved roads in through the mountains, over the plains, around lakes bigger than the size of Singapore. No words can describe the beauty, the vastness.

On the drives, we napped. We zoned out into our own worlds. We caught up with our insta stories as any city girl would. We chatted about life. We did karaoke. The pace slows down. There are no constant to-do things on our mind.

2. Boys learn to ride horses before they can drive a car

That is, essentially, a different way of life. I hear the sound of horses at night more than the rumble of vehicles because our yurts are in the open plains. Meal times are us seated on the ground in the yurt, filled with freshly prepared sheep, never-ending tea and brave old ladies belting out songs.

One day, an unplanned toilet break (so short I didn’t bother to bring my phone with me) to a villager’s home became an afternoon high tea session with drinks, bread and mutton rice. I felt the warmth of community even though we spoke no common language.

At night, it gets cold in the mountains, so we have firewood in our yurt. One night it turned the space into a furnace. My daily essentials moved from wifi and social media to regular morning greetings and night conversations with a newfound group of friends. It was memorable.

3. Horse-riding is the new way to hike

On my first day, we went on a horse riding trek through Chong Kemin. I was nervous. I had images of the horse going berserk and throwing me on the ground. Not rational, I know. Thankfully, everyone around me was new-ish too so we all had some time to get used to be on top of a large moving animal.

The first few minutes was like riding on a giant see saw. But he was calm. After 5 mins, with good instructions from our guide on how to control my horse, I settled into a comfortable momentum. He rode up and down slopes. He knew the route and it felt like the rolling mountains was its backyard.

I felt supported and at ease. A 4-hour hike by foot became a 2-hour one. It’s not so scarey after all. Successfully mounted the horse with a nervous smile.

4. Tea in a cup, food in a bowl

Next most curious question, how is the food? Pleased to update that the food was more well balanced than what I would get at say, a food court in Singapore. Meals always started with a hearty bowl of soup that could rival Soup Spoon and my grandma’s.

There are clear beef soups, vegetable potato soups. So hearty that often times we thought it was the main course. Then the family hosting us would whip out the real main course when we were about to start on desserts. Sometimes it’s beef, sometimes it’s lamb.

Simple but flavourful with mostly tomato, thyme, garlic and onion herbs. And we have freeflow tea, served in a bowl. Note to future travelers: save space for the main course.

4. Peeing in the wild

So my friends who travel with me know one of the first few questions I always ask will be, how is the toilet? I need clean toilets. But I have been schooled. I have peed in the wild, in the bushes, in man-made holes that looked and smelled like they were not cleared for centuries. This happened because of long drives through the mountains.

Thankfully, my travel buddy would help cover my ass, literally, so I could pee without shame. I guess the term covering your ass is as applicable in the corporate world as it is in the wilderness. So I have conquered the toilets. I am now ready for anything, bring it on.

Part 3 - The Lessons

Well the good news is, I survived! And these are my takeaways.

1. Breaks are good

The most painful part about a holiday is coming back to our “normal” life. The holiday glow can come to an end quickly, depending on what await us after the trip. We could be back to the daily grind. So I’ve come to appreciate that breaks are good when we don’t see it as another itinerary to complete, or an escape from the present.

Instead, I see breaks as a chance to pause, to take a broader perspective and let those special moments help us be more present than ever in wherever we are called to be at. I am reminded to take time out to do what I am passionate about, to write stories like this article here, rather than chasing the endless to-do-list.

In the workplace, I re-focus my energies on doing things that help me grow, like learning new skills, rather than fussing over smaller issues. Perhaps one of the most surreal lessons is to embrace each season in life as it is. There will be a time to work hard and eventually savour the fruits of our labour, and there will be a time for rest and to do wanderlust trips like this one.

2. Connections are good

As we grow older, the number of friends we can call and rant randomly gets lesser and these honest conversations don’t come by as much as we want to. It could be busyness, or perhaps we’re expected to know how to handle adulting on our own.

I signed up for a group tour to Kyrgyzstan with zero expectations, more to save myself the trouble of having to do trip planning and admin than to find new BFFs. So I was pleasantly surprised to have met a great bunch of likeminded new friends on this trip.

We started off as strangers with polite greetings, and after the ice was broken, we moved on to deeper questions about the disappointments and struggles in our lives over dinner and drinks. Rediscovering the simplicity of human connection is so beautiful, and I’m reminded that all it takes is to stay open, be present and genuinely curious about each other’s lives.

3. Courage is good

To be able to talk about the losses as much as the gains, to be energised to try again when things don’t go as planned. Over the years, because of setbacks, words by others, we sometimes settle into a quiet lull in our lives.

On this trip, I rode a horse, slept in a bed with flies, adapted to less comfort, made new friends and opened up about my challenges. Nothing extremely adventurous but all things vulnerable.

And as we travelled through the vast nature, I was struck by how beautiful and tough it was. The mountains, immovable as it is, are not immune to storms, but it adapts and rebuilds. So much natural lessons to learn from this, on being courageous and staying resilient.

Grace L, IG @the.quiet.traveler

Aspiring Travel Writer

Grace gets breathless every time she explores new places and tries earnestly to integrate travel glows into everyday life, till the next adventure calls.

Want to join our next 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan Adventure in 2026? Find out more here.