takes longer than you'd expect to hitch to ala-archa if you don't want to pay taxi-equivalent prices there's a bus that goes straight from central bishkek all the way up to the trailheads, much less hassle

random spot but got a 7ish hours ride. overall luck

shitty road but lots of traffic and dust, slow but good catchout

sorta past the taxi stand just after 3 cars simple ride to the border

You gotta fend off a few taxis and most drivers ask for money. There is a small shop with a friendly guy to resupply. After 10min I got a ride. Pretty good spot, just stand after the Bus stop.

Great spot for Naryn direction. The road is better now. I stood after the bridge so there's a bit more room to stop.

One hour and 0 cars going past the first house. Don't take this route to Kochkor but take the next road more towards Bishkek. Got a ride in 2 mins from there.

Very very quiet. 2 cars going down the valley my way in an hour and a half. The 2nd one luckily took me and for free too. It's really windy and cold up here so be prepared^^

Not many cars drive up to the lake. Tried in the evening time but had to camp and wait for the morning. Most drivers are probably hired drivers by tourists so expect to pay big money. Maybe you get lucky with overlanders. Some driver asked for 2000som for example. If you wait long enough, free ones will surely come. I was in late season so only 1 yurt camp was open up there.

Direction north/Suusamyr. It's very very quiet. In one hour, maybe 2 cars that only went to the houses down the road and 2 slow trucks, one of which picked me up. They were heading to Bishkek. The road is bad so progress is slow.

Fast speeds but plenty of visibility and room to stop. There's a gas station across the road too. Probably able to find one straight to Osh if lucky but I about half way with my ride.

Was easy to find a free ride to Osh. A lot of taxis too though so make sure it's free as always here.

More chill and less local rides or taxis than in Osh.

Easy rides to Sary-Tash as long as there's cars.

Very quiet but beautiful views. Border was quite easy to cross. Make sure you have your GBAO permits printed out!!

Hitchhiked the Pamir Highway. It's very possible but slow and cold (early october). It took me only 5 days from Sary-Tash to Dushanbe. I didn't do much sightseeing/detours etc. Some locals and some European overlanders. After Murghab plenty of trucks from China driving to Dushanbe but they drive ~20km/h because how bad the roads are. Don't expect to make much progress in a day. Plenty of guesthouses even in small villages, iOverlander offline map is handy for that^^

After coming back from a horse riding track at Songkul, I was trying to hitch westwards to Karakol. Definitely a remote area with only a few villages around. Best chances are probably trucks which also gave me a ride to Balyktschy from where I continued. At this point is enough space for cars to stop and also a bus station for the Marshrutkas. All in all possible but some patience needed but more traffic than expected

easy to hitch, but make sure the driver doesn't want payment before you get in (do this across KG in general but especially here)

Got lucky as there were 2 tourists crossing the border with their guide/driver at the same time as me and they agreed to take me to Karakol. Otherwise it might be a small wait as the border is not too crowded but you only need a few cars here to find s free ride. Border is quite smooth and fast to cross.

Not many cars. Backpackers were accumulating at this spot. Soon will be more traffic and more easy when new road is open. We took a taxi from Kazarman to get to this spot.

Trucker from Kyrgyzstan took me all the way to the 80/84 split east of Salt Lake.

Take a bus until the final stop(terminal), escape the taxi drivers and go past the gate. If you walk a bit there is a bunch of great spots. Keep in mind, that the karamyk border crossing to kyrgyzstan is closed for foreigners (07.2025)

Not long before a Semi pulled over. Unfortunately he had to drop us off after a couple miles because of the weigh station. Weigh station turned out to be closed but it was too late. Trucker was a cool guy from Kyrgyzstan.

Outside the gas station. Thumb out directly on road using sign as well. Good spot for east towards kegen, kaindy lake and Kyrgyzstan. A bit messy with slip roads etc by the side of a fast 2 lane road, but it worked as people pulled over in the slip road. Drivers where a shared taxi, spoke zero English but basic Russian worked. They wanted 4000t (7.50 EURO) to legend. I could have rejected but as it was getting dark and in a hurry I paid. Driver was honest and fun and waited with the foreign idiot.

Crossed the border from Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan in the middle of May. The guards were nice and chilling. We crossed at 2 or 3 pm and there was no traffic at all. Got the ride with the first passing car after 1,5h of walking. The landscapes are awesome.

nice spot to start your way to the south of Kyrgyzstan. waiting time less than 1 hour p.s. never refuse to h-hike to ecological checkpoint after Sosnovka siberian_explorer