Hitchhiking in Kyrgyzstan
On our travels, we’ve hitchhiked across continents, and in this article, we’ve gathered all the essential information you need for hitchhiking in Kyrgyzstan.
Why do we hitchhike?
I would like to say that we hitchhike for many reasons. By hitchhiking you can get to know about other cultures, you can meet some locals and talk with them about things which you can’t get to know as a tourist.
Another benefit and the thing why we started to hitchhike was that in some countries buses simply don’t work at all. Even if they work, they stop everywhere, and all the time, which makes them sooo slow. This was a problem in Madeira for instance.
But what bothered us in Kyrgyzstan was the waiting time before marshrutkas start the journey, because you need to wait until it fills up, which can take ages, even when you travel on frequent roads.
That’s how we basically started to hitchhike. I remember the moment when we looked at the buses and we were sad from its schedules or when we went by some buses which were soo slow and we couldn’t catch anything.
So we basically recognized that hitchhiking is quite easy and sometimes even much quicker than other buses, marshrutkas and so on.
However, hitchhiking isn’t always as easy as I am describing. With hitchhiking also comes some obstacles on the way of course.
As we hitchhike with my boyfriend I have to say I am not scared at all and I can’t remember even one situation in which I would have been scared.
Anyway, especially if you go hitchhiking alone you should be aware of anything which looks weird on your way.
How does hitchhiking in Kyrgyzstan work?
Well, it was our first time experience with hitchhiking in Central Asia at all, so we didn’t have any previous experiences.
In Kyrgyzstan, hitchhiking is kind of different to other countries (even Kazakhstan). The waiting time to stop a car is much shorter than in any other destination we hitchhiked before, but…
It’s because people are expecting to get money from hitchhikers. It’s not a lot, usually it’s around the same price as you would pay for marshrutka, even less sometimes, but you should prepare for this.
Below, I’m adding a table of prices we paid for hitchhiking. The price is for 2 people.
| Initial destination | Final Destination | Kilometers | Price |
| Jeti Oguz | Barskoon | 69 | 500 SOM |
| Skazka | Bokonbaevo | 33 | 250 SOM |
| Bokonbaevo | Kochkor | 118 | 500 SOM |
| Kochkor | At-Bashi | 165 | 1 200 SOM |
| At-Bashi | Tash Rabat | 66 | 0 SOM |
| Kochkor | Kemin | 110 | 500 SOM |
| Kemin | Bishkek | 122 | 0 SOM |
Speaking of it, hitchhiking in Kyrgyzstan is more like carpooling. Not everyone expects getting money, especially people we met around Bishkek. But to avoid misunderstanding it is better to ask before whether they want money or not – if you want to truly hitchhike.
We actually didn’t know this until our third hitchhike ride. We got into the car with an old lady and her probable husband. The whole drive was kind of weird, as the husband was asking me all the time why we are not learning Russian in our country. After a while I tried to speak with him in Russian I decided to stop conversation (saying “я не понимаю тебя”), and was just glad that they are taking us to our final destination.
Once we stopped, the old lady started yelling at us “давай деньги”, which basically means give me money and she overpriced a lot. We were arguing a bit and then we gave her a bit more than marshrutka’s price.
After googling it, we found out it’s quite common to pay when you want to hitchhike in Kyrgyzstan, so we accepted it.
And started negotiating before the ride, because some of the drivers were asking for .. huge prices. 🙂
Moreover, almost everyone but the old lady wanted similar money to marshrutkas which was really worth it due to time saving and comfort.
So in practice, we simply asked before every ride how much it would cost before we got to the car so we avoided many misunderstandings on the way.
Anyway, I would like to say that the combination of marshrutkas and hitchhiking was a perfect way to travel around Kyrgyzstan. You don’t waste your time for waiting, and get as soon as possible to your final destination.
If you know a bit of Russian it can make your hitchhiking in Kyrgyzstan pretty easier because unfortunately most of the people here don’t speak English but if you learn a couple of words whether it is in Russian or Kyrgyz it will help you a lot.
Our hitchhiking in Kyrgyzstan
As I wrote we were getting around the whole Kyrgyzstan with the help of marshrutkas, taxis (only if really necessary), and hitchhiking and now we would like to share some experiences with hitchhiking.
Our first hitchhike
Our first hitchhiking was from Tokmok to Burana Tower where we got by marshrutka from Bishkek. We were hitchhiking for only around 3 minutes and suddenly one car stopped. It was a man and his name was Azmat and he only went to work five minutes away but he took us to Burana which was so nice of him.
Hitchhiking for free
Almost every short ride was for free and no one wanted anything even though we asked them. But we also had some longer rides for free with very interesting people.
From the short rides It was the ride from Tokmok to Burana, a car in Karakol which took us to marshrutka station, a truck which took us behind the start of Ala Kul Trek, the couple of Italians with their private taxi who took us to Tash Rabat and the group of our italian friends of course who took us from Tash Rabat to the main road.
From the longer rides we had great experience with tourists from Kazachstan who took us from At Bashi to Tash Rabat crossroads, truck which took us from Tash Rabat to At Bashi and my favorite one was a family which we stopped at gas station in Kemin and they took us to Bishkek in the end of our trip.
Hitchhiking for small money
In Kyrgyzstan hitchhike lots of people and lots of people take it as a good way to help someone and also earn a little money.
So most of our rides were paid but it was worth it, comfortable and quick. If we had to wait for marshrutkas every time we wanted to go anywhere, maybe we would have been waiting till now. 😀
We hitchhiked the whole way from Karakol to Tash Rabat and then to Kochkor from Tash Rabat back, however I think that I can’t call it proper hitchhiking as we paid for that 😀 but we had to respect culture and it was really small money.
Is hitchhiking in Kyrgyzstan safe?
Definitely yes, as it is quite common and also girls who are traveling alone are hitchhiking. I wouldn’t be scared at all.
Of course you should pay attention to who you get in the car with and try to be aware if something doesn’t fit but Kyrgyzstan is one of the safer countries so you don’t have to be afraid much.
Our last hitchhike
Our last hitchhike and also one of my favorite ones was from Kemin to Bishkek the day before we left Kyrgyzstan.
We started hitchhiking in Kemin at a gas station and one lady came to us and asked us if we wanted to go with them. She was with her daughter and husband and they went from Cholpon Ata where they visited their apartment by the beach.
It was a very interesting ride because they both talked fluently in English so we could talk together. We were talking about Kyrgyz cultures, fairy tales in Kyrgyzstan, their wedding, our jobs, and yurt cultures a lot!
It was so interesting. Did you know there are almost no fairy tales in Kyrgyz languages?
But she was taking it as a benefit. Her kids are raised to learn English from a very young age, which is definitely going to help them in the future.
The parents of the man who was driving are living in a yurt, which was also so interesting. He was comparing the traditional yurt living with a tourist “traditional yurt living”.
These people are simply more self-sufficient. Everything they eat, they have, is made by them. Then he compared prices. Honestly, I totally forgot them, but I remember e.g. horse driving in a traditional yurt camp was soooo cheaper than the horse trekking in Song Kul lake.
We really enjoyed the ride with them. They even invited us to their house but unfortunately we had already booked our stay in Bishkek and it was getting dark, so we said goodbye to each other in Bishkek and went to our accommodation.
Why you should hitchhike in Kyrgyzstan
There are many reasons why you should hitchhike in Kyrgyzstan. The first one is that it is funny, more interesting than going by car and also more interesting, comfortable and quicker than going by marshrutkas.
However that sometimes you have to pay, you never wait more than a few minutes and you can get to your dreamy place quick and many people did from themselves these “very cheap taxis”.
As Kyrgyzstan is “the land of the one road” hitchhiking works great because almost everyone goes to your direction 😀
