Life at 3,000m above sea level has a way of toughening you up. Just ask the nomads of Kyrgyzstan, says Jini Reddy. Vertiginous mountain passes, eagle hunts on horseback - and vodka chasers with everything.
I'm walking, as if through treacle, up and up the mountain foothills. Behind me shimmers Issy Kul, the world's second largest alpine lake. It is so blue, so vast, it seems as though a chunk of the sky has fallen down.
Suddenly a horseman thunders past - the only sign of local life I've seen in the past hour, and yet a very fitting one in this wild and beautiful country.
