Char Hotel

The location is fantastic, but the service was poor. We’d booked two-bed rooms a week ahead and were refused them. It seemed they wanted to rent those rooms to foreigners for more money. Instead, we were given a choice of five-bed rooms with bunk beds or leaving.

This is just my personal view, maybe someone else will like it. I’d treat this as a place to sleep for one night. The rooms are very basic, though at least they have a shower and toilet. The boiler was switched off, and the toilet is inside the shower stall, so you can do two things at once, as the joke goes. The beds are about a three for comfort. Soundproofing is perfect, apparently because the whole hotel is metal with OSB partitions, so there’s no sneaking off for a pee without everyone knowing. There’s no parking. The gorge gets a three for scenery.

The gorge itself is lovely, and the stone arch on the cliff is worth the walk. The route is tough, though, and would be quite difficult for unprepared tourists. The entrance was blocked by a gate, which I understand is generally prohibited. Kyrgyz law says access to natural sites can’t be restricted or charged for. I don’t know whether anyone actually collects a fee, since our driver knew the hotel owners. We arrived around lunchtime and planned to eat before hiking. The staff offered the dining room, dishes, and boiling water for an extra charge if you weren’t ordering food. We planned to sort out rooms and the number of guests after the hike, since it was already getting late. We came back eight hours later in heavy rain, soaked, cold, and exhausted. It was dark, windy, and pouring, so most of our group of about 15 couldn’t face putting up tents. People checked into the hotel after being promised hot showers and cozy beds. The lunchtime price quoted for a double room turned out to mean a bunk in a five-person room with bunk beds. The owners saw how we were feeling and that we couldn’t really refuse. The shower was cold because the boiler hadn’t been switched on before check-in to save energy. They said it would be turned off at 11 p.m., but it wasn’t even after 9 p.m. With a 50-liter boiler, waiting for hot water and getting five people showered was unrealistic. Even the cold shower was a problem: the floor sloped toward the room instead of the drain, and water ran straight into the room. At least the heaters worked, and the beds, though uncomfortable, held together. At checkout they added a dining-room charge on top of the rooms and paid dinner and breakfast, saying we’d used it before checking in. The hotel and its owners left me with nothing but negative feelings.

It’s around 30 km from Naryn, tucked deep in a beautiful mountain gorge. For somewhere so remote, it’s a pretty good hotel.