Our sleep-over in aYurt.

At beautiful Lake Karakul, far Western China, live a group of Tajiks, whose homes are yurts.  (A photo of the Lake and some of the yurts was included in the previous Blog)

And here is another photo of a yurt. This one is typical of the felt-walled yurts.

We were to spend a night in one of the yurts.
At first glance at our "sleep-over" accommodation we were a little bemused. The late afternoon was freezing, and the aforesaid yurts did not look too warm.
How wrong we were.

"Our" yurt was made with mud-brick walls. This adobe brick is common for building in countries which receive very little rain, and around Lake Karakul the annual rainfall is only a few scant millilitres.
(The red which you can see to the right of the photo is the door to the yurt.)

Most unprepossessing, I think you'll agree.
But inside is a different story.

It is a single room. No running water. No toilet. A stove burning yaks' dung in one section. Very very basic.
There is an L-shaped raised platform running along 3 sides of the yurt. It is carpeted, and we sit on the side of the platform to eat...feet on the floor.
We also sleep on the platform, but shoes MUST be removed before stepping onto this.


There are brightly coloured carpets hanging on the walls around the yurt, and the colours give a luxurious feel to this very humble abode. And keep out the cold winds too....excellent insulation.

Our hostess, in the background, and her  two daughters.

Our dinner/supper was a rice- based mutton dish washed down with yaks' milk tea. The tea is served in a small bowl, which you hold in two hands to drink.

Drinking yaks' milk tea, close to the stove.

After eating, our hostess was like a magician. She lifted some of the some hanging carpets on the walls, and pulled out mattresses. (you can see one mattress still on the platform in the 2nd  photo)  
8 mattresses.....our party of 6, plus our guide, plus our driver. Yes, we all slept in the yurt together.
Then our hostess, again magically, produced warm "doonas"....I am not sure what the Tajiks call them, but they were soft and very warm.

Calls of nature, throughout the night, were answered simply by going outside and finding a suitable spot. The night was cold, there was no sound, and the sky was clear, and the stars were absolutely magnificent. A privilege to see them. 


The next morning we were woken by our hostess stoking up the stove, with dried yak dung, and heating water on the top of it. (You can see the kettle on the stove above)
We watched the family, who took the kettle outside and used the warm water to wash their faces and hands. Naturally we did likewise.

Next our hostess prepared to milk the yaks.

She led the calf to its mother, and let it suckle for a few minutes.
When the female yak had let down her milk, the calf was physically  pulled off the udder, and our hostess took over the milking.

(Look at the surrounding landscape in these photos, and you will get an idea of how desolate the area is.  And also note the remains of frost on the yak's coat......the night had been very cold)




Breakfast was broken local bread, served with yaks' milk tea.

This is what the local flat bread looks like.

I imagined that the yaks' milk tea would be quite viscous and rather fatty.
It was nothing like that.
It was very tasty, with a mixture of sweetness and a touch of saltiness. Quite delicious.
It was like drinking tea with unhomegenised milk, just like we had in Australia as kids....so long ago.


Then it was time to leave.

Just before we left our yurt family, some of their friends called in.
They were heading off to a nearby village where they would attend a wedding.
Aren't they interesting?
You see whole families squeezed onto bikes, like this family here. (Our nanny state would have helmets on them all, and certainly not FOUR on one bike!)
And the men wear distinctive hats, which reflect the ethnic origins of the wearer.

This overnight stay in the yurt, with a host family, was one of the highlights of our trip to Western China.