You’re reading this because you want to see if it’s possible to travel from Kochkor (gateway to Song Kul Lake) to Kazarman or Jalal Abad rather than go via Bishkek. I’ve got you.
When two friends and I wanted to undertake this journey last year (August 2024), we asked several guesthouse owners if it was possible to go from Kochkor to Jalal-Abad via Kazarman.
They all said, “No, you need to go back to Bishkek; the road is very bad.”
We finally got a positive answer when my friend rang up a tourist agency based in Osh, who said that we’d need to take a taxi to Kazarman, and once we reached there, there would be shared taxi options.
So the next morning, we went to the taxi stand in Kochkor and asked a group of Kyrgyz men drinking their morning coffee, “How much to Kazarman?”
They quoted us 10,000 som, which is outrageously expensive given the price of transport in Kyrgyzstan. But we finally managed to negotiate it down to 7000 som (€70) and set off!
I just want to acknowledge that I know 7,000 som is expensive for a taxi in Kyrgyzstan, but thankfully, we could split it between the three of us. I expect that in a few years, once the word gets out how good the road is, there will be marshrutkas linking Kochkor and Kazarman, and the taxi drivers will have to charge less.
There is also a possibility of hitchhiking, albeit you’ll have to wait for a while, but it’ll definitely be possible.
After about 10 minutes on the road, the driver veered off onto a narrow road, which turned out to be a quick detour to his house, where he packed an overnight bag and loaded a spare tyre into the boot.
We exchanged glances and thought, “Alright, this is going to be a journey.”
But no, it wasn’t. Just 3.5 hours of smooth driving through lush, mountainous landscapes on a paved asphalt road, we arrived in Kazarman (also to the taxi driver’s surprise!).
The New “China Road”: Kochkor to Kazarman
This paved asphalt from Kochkor to Kazarman is the new road, which I’ve now learnt many locals call the “China Road” because dun dun dun….it’s built by the Chinese.
So yes, after 3 and a half hours of driving and just before reaching Kazarman, the driver pulled over at the site of a new bridge. Our taxi driver was so excited by it that he made us take photos of him standing on the bridge.
He pointed down the riverbed, where a dusty, rough road snaked through the valley. He was trying to explain to us something in Russian, and we interpreted it as “That was the old road—the one I thought we’d be on today.”
This new road linking Kochkor to Kazarman is not yet on Google Maps, but you can see it on Maps.me. So download the offline version of it.
Reaching Kazarman via Kochkor
We arrived in Kazarman around midday, way ahead of schedule. Our taxi driver drove us into the centre of town. First impression of the town? Weird.
He asked around for shared taxis to Jalalabad, but every local pointed to a different place, and we were going around in circles! After an hour, we asked him to drop us off on the road leading to Jalalabad, so that we could try to hitchhike.
The new road from Kazarman to Jalabad is still under construction, so the only accessible road is via the Kaldamo Pass (2985m). Just to note, the mountain pass road is also only accessible during the summer.
The Kaldamo Pass
While waiting on the main road exiting Kazarman, many people pulled over wanting to help us. In the end, a guy called a taxi driver who offered to take us for 800 som each. There were three of us, and we also picked up another guy in the village who was heading to Uzbekistan via Jalalabad.
The road from Kazarman to Jalalabad was gnarly. I made a big mistake by eating a chocolate bar while waiting for the ride in Kazarman. So don’t make the same mistake as me, and pack some sickness tablets!
We arrived in Jalalabad after 4 hours and found a marshrutka to take us to our final destination: Arslanbob, home to the world’s largest walnut forest. If I’m honest, I wasn’t impressed by Arslanbob, and I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit there again!
If your final destination is Osh, plenty of marshrutkas are heading from Jalalabad to Osh from the bus station. They leave when they’re full, which is normally every 30 minutes.
I hope you found this guide on how to travel from Kochkor to Jalal-Abad via Kazarman useful. As always, reach out if you have any questions!