Pamir Highway trip Day 2 - Kalai Kuln to Vanj

---

July 13 - Pamir Highway trip Day 2 - Kalai Kuln to Vanj

No water in the homestay in the morning, so we had to use the bathroom in the hotel next door. We also ate breakfast there. We had another long drive today, starting around 9:30 am. At 2pm we had lunch in a town called Vanj after another super long police check. While the check was going on, we were eating cherries off the trees outside. There are so many cherry and apricot trees just dropping fruit on the ground here. Amazing. Lunch was good and only cost about $1.5, with water and tea. Tea is everywhere and we have it all the time.

Our van started developing overheating problems after lunch, and eventually the water tank cracked wide open. Not good. We were nearly where we had planned to get, and stopped right in front of someone's house/fields. We started to pet their baby cows while we waited. We ended up staying with them, as a homestay. A couple of Belgian's also stayed the night, as they couldn't get through to the next town either, due to road conditions. Their driver helped us a lot, including driving our luggage up to the house. He spoke English, which was also helpful.The homestay family was very nice, though they didn't speak English, and they went out of their way to make us nice food with what they had. And it was tasty. There was no shower, and the toilet was in an outhouse. Not uncommon, but it was the scariest thing I'd ever seen. Many of the outhouses here and squat toilets and just empty into a deep hole. But this one had you hovering over the hole on a not very sturdy stand, and I thought for sure I would end up in that hole, Slumdog Millionaire style. Awful. Once it got dark, I couldn't go back. Anna and I went back to the cow field instead before bed. So much safer feeling.

---

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Beautiful children
Glad you are doing a homestay.