The hills are alive with the sound of music...

As promised, some beautiful photos from the Switzerland of Central Asia. Can't you just hear Julie Andrews? :)

Every afternoon these mysterious, foggy-ish clouds would roll in and hug the peaks, only to leave them a little whiter just and hour or two later.

Lost?

A man taking his horse home where I presume he intends to get warm with a nice cuppa.

The view from the atrium of our cute little cabin at Altyn Arashan hot springs.

Amazing fall days in the mountains. Bliss.

I think I should sell this photo to Downy. What do you think?

Mountain madness. Heidi land? Those itty-bitty shacks by the river are hot spring sheds.

After a really long and cold night, we woke up to find ourselves pleasantly surprised with a little snow to enhance the hot spring atmosphere at Altyn Arashan.

One of the cool (or should I say hot?) hot spring sheds. The place reeked of sulphur but surprisingly it didn't stick to our skin or our hair. The water was on the warm side of boiling.

The long, steep, rocky, scary, windy, bumpy, impassable road that we somehow passed on our way to Altyn Arashan. I'm pretty sure my off-road loving dad and brother would have been proud and would have bought one of those old Soviet jeeps on the spot.

Our camp site night 3 on the big trek. This guy walking in the foreground is one of the nomadic people who drive their horses and cattle into the mountains for grazing during the warmer months. I missed my opportunity to get a shot of his yurt. They took it down really fast that morning as they left camp for the warmer valleys below. We should have followed suit. They must have heard about the storm moving in that night....

One of the beautiful meadows we passed through during our trek up the Karakol Valley.
I think this was on the way to Issyk Kol but it could have been at the start of our trip up the Karakol Valley... I'm not too sure. :S
Very cold water which I attempted to wash my hair in but instead found myself victim to the most intense brain freeze of this century (minus the slurpie).

My main squeeze, looking cute. As usual.

And one more thing: in just a few hours, it will be my birthday. Yay! 24!! Time sure flies when you're having fun. I can hardly remember the last one, celebrated in Korea with about a gajillion cakes! Not sure what we're going to do to celebrate tomorrow but I fully intend to wear my nice polka-dot sun dress (originally bought for India) despite the cold weather. So Happy Birthday to ME!!