A 16-hour trek to Eshenkul Lake to touch this wonder amidst the vast wilderness.

Living a life of travel, Nguyen Le Quang Vinh (33 years old, Ho Chi Minh City) always longed to visit pristine, less-tourist-seen areas to experience and feel the "insignificance" of humanity in the face of majestic nature. After accidentally seeing images of Lake Eshenkul in Kyrgyzstan, he was surprised that such a beautiful natural landscape lacked detailed information. "It seems very few people have been to the lake, so I decided to challenge myself and go to a place few people know about," Vinh shared.

He was eager to learn more about the lake, but also somewhat cautious. Lake Eshenkul is located in the Eshenkul Valley (Eshenkul Gorge), in the remote Chatkal region of Kyrgyzstan, where the Pamir-Alay and Tien Shan mountain ranges meet. This is one of the wildest and most rugged mountain ranges in Central Asia, bordering China and Tajikistan.

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The journey from exhaustion to awe.

On the evening of June 4th, the off-road vehicle rolled from Talas city to the campsite, the last place the vehicle could reach after about six hours. As dawn broke, his 30km trekking journey began with a local driver, someone he had never even heard of the lake before. “Someone said only about 100 people make it here each year, and I’m probably one of the very few Vietnamese who have ever set foot on the lake, simply because the road is so difficult,” Vinh recalled.

Even with a pre-downloaded offline map, Vinh still struggled with a trek that had almost no trails. Two-thirds of the route consisted of huge, rugged, slippery rock pits. At times, he had to cross icy streams formed from melting ice on the mountains. The water flowed swiftly and strongly, making it impossible to wade; he had to jump over large rocks, and a single slip could send him flying. Fortunately, the remaining one-third of the route was a grassland full of wildflowers, surrounded by towering snow-capped mountains typical of Central Asia.

The most difficult part was the last 200 meters before reaching the lake, with steep slopes of nearly 80 degrees, crumbling and slippery soil. Vinh and the driver had to crawl for almost 45 minutes using only their hands and feet to reach the top. After 9 hours of struggling with rocky terrain, streams, and steep slopes, the moment Lake Eshenkul appeared from beneath the clouds was like a miracle bestowed by nature upon those who persevere and are courageous.

Surrounded by rocky mountain ranges with bizarre colors, a blend of snow white, earth orange, and ancient rock gray, thick clouds constantly rolled in and then dissipated above the lake, revealing patches of blue water where sunlight shone down and shimmered brilliantly. “It was an incredibly pristine, classic beauty I’d never seen before in my life; no photograph could ever fully capture what my eyes saw,” Vinh excitedly recalled the scene.

According to Vinh, Lake Eshenkul is stunning, but the journey there isn't just about "going to a beautiful place," it shows that one deserves to see something miraculous after overcoming their own fears and limitations.

Confronting your own darkness and limitations.

If the journey there was exhausting, the return trip was a battle of wits and survival. Vinh slowly recalled the moment they left the lake, the faint light on the mountaintop gradually fading, plunging the landscape into deep black. After two hours of twilight, Vinh and his companions groped their way for the remaining five hours in the darkness with the meager light from their phone flashlights and headlamps. The terrain was extremely difficult, with huge rocks piled up, obscuring their view, and no clear directions. With no support other than intuition and memory, each steep slope and rocky pit was a life-or-death challenge, keeping all senses on edge.

There was no other option but to jump or take long strides across the large rocks. He had stumbled many times on the 80-degree slope near the lake, but the slip right at the rock pit truly stunned and terrified Vinh. “My body fell straight onto a large rock, hitting sharp edges. The sharp pain radiated from my knee, making my head tingle with fear in a place with no phone signal, not a soul in sight, and far from any support,” Vinh said, still visibly shaken by the experience.

Fortunately, the local driver who was with Vinh managed to pull him up in time and reassure him, helping him calmly complete the final leg of the journey. After recalling the most terrifying moment of the trip, Vinh said: "If I had been alone at that time, injured, and disoriented in the large rock maze, I probably wouldn't have made it back."

The lingering emotions from the wilderness.

After all, what Vinh remembered was not only the pristine beauty of Eshenkul but also the feeling of overcoming himself. Never before had he experienced a journey that was so "crazy," "scary," and "exhilarating": pushing his limits, setting foot in a little-known place, silently witnessing the wondrous beauty of nature, trembling with extreme fear that nature brought. Those 16 hours of trekking were the greatest record he achieved for himself, not in terms of distance or altitude, but in the courage to face and move forward.

Vinh once believed that independence was the best way to listen to himself and learn to stand on his own two feet, but after this trip, he realized that the presence of a companion can sometimes be invaluable. "You don't always need to appear strong or independent, because at some point, we all need a hand to pull us up" is the message Vinh wants to send to those who aspire to visit Eshenkul and fully enjoy the wonders of nature.

Quynh Mai - Photo: Vinh Nguyen