We return from the glacial lakes in the evening to the GeoAsia cabins that we were invited to stay in by the head of the expedition.

Since the GeoAsia crew have moved on to survey another part of the Tian Shan range,  we speak with one of the guys (Stas) who look after the cabins in their absence.

To say that Stas is an interesting character would be an understatement. The guy comes off as a drunk and a junkie. He claims to be a geologist and talks about some of the work that goes on in the mountains, offering our geologists some samples (rocks) for their collection.

Yura, the Russian Kyrgyz driver, has a bad feeling from the start and in retrospect, we should have paid heed to his advice to not stop at the cabins and to keep on going. He warns us to look after all of our valuables and I heed the advice by locking all of my possessions in the car.

Stas tells us that their manager has gone off into the mountains and was supposed to return hours ago. If we don’t pick him up, he could die and he pleads with us to go after him.

After reluctantly agreeing, everyone had incredible doubts that the story was false, Yura, myself and two of Stas’ friends drive down in our car to find the lost manager. After ten minutes driving, we reach the first house where the two friends climb out and chat with the owners.

After a chat and a smoke, the guys return, saying that their manager is in the next house, a mere two kilometres away. Almost ten kilometres later, we’re told it’s five more minutes. Ten minutes later we arrive at the house and one of the guys goes in to get the manager. Five minutes later he returns from the shop (er… cabin) sans manager and with two bottle shaped bulges in his jacket. He tells us that the manager has gone to the town of Inylchek, twenty kilometres away and that he has a place to spend the night, we can return without him.

Along the way back we casually mention to the friends of our quest for meat during the trip and ask if they have any. They want to know how much we’re paying for it. I tell them that since we took them to search for their manager *cough* buy vodka *cough* maybe they can share some with us.

The guys mention that they have a marmot and say we can have it. Yura and I almost crack up laughing at the idea of being promised another marmot, we have low expectations of seeing the marmot materialise.

We return to find Euan, Pasha and Vasya standing outside, having waited almost an hour for us to return. They mention that Stas is borderline psychotic at which point he greets us by asking Yura for a cigarette.

We sit down in the cabin to some tea and mention to Stas that his friends offered to share some marmot meat with us. Stas says he can do better. Since they have so many sheep they’re always slaughtering sheep to sell in Karakol. Of course all of the meat they have has already been sold or promised to their waiting wives, but since we’re such good friends of his, he’ll share some of his personal stash of mutton with us, as a token of his generosity , so long as we don’t tell the others about it.

We’re deciding how we’re going to cook the meat when he adds something that puts us off eating the meat. Stas casually says, “You will eat the meat now, this evening… and tomorrow, I’ll tell you something about it.” Me “Tell us what about it.” Stas: “Nothing, just eat it now and I’ll tell you in the morning.”

We decide to not cook the meat right away, leaving it for the following day after we hear the story. In the morning, we ask him what the story was. He mentions that there was no story and that he was joking with us.

Having woken up early, we pack the car and leave without any breakfast as we’re all eager to get away from the weird situation we found ourselves in.

We stop for a late breakfast/lunch down the road and decide to cook a nice plov with the meat. We discover why Stas never sold this meat, why he was so happy to share it with us, why he didn’t want us to tell the others about the meat he gave us and the story he wanted to tell us. Hiding in the several kilograms of sheep meat, slowly devouring it is a large group of maggots.

We throw the meat away and decide that should we ever see again, we’ll personally thank him for his generosity.