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Published: July 27th 2008
cooking a feast
i walked past this place and had to stop! they let me try a dumpling, and after telling them how good it was, they invited me to their house to eat!!! i was so gutted i couldn't go as we were leaving :( Within one hour, we were eating lunch in Andijon, Uzbekistan and the next thing we knew, we were walking across the border into Kyrgyzstan. It was a sad goodbye with Dav - we all agreed that he far exceeded our expectations and taught us so much about his country.
Once we went through the formalities, Freya, our Kyrgyz guide met us in Osh with cold water and ice-cream so she instantly scored points with us. She speaks English faster than any of us which is quite amusing given it's not her first language. Osh is Kyrgyzstan's capital of the south, with Bishkek being the official capital in the north. This city has a large number of Uzbeks living here, so we still felt like we were in Uzbekistan for a little while.
Luckily the Uzbek and Kyrgyz language is more similar than any combination of the other languages we've been attempting to communicate in, so getting around with the basics is going to be a breeze! Changing currencies was something that we had to think about though. In Uzbekistan the currency was sum, in Kyrgyzstan it is som so the similarity got us a bit mixed up at first.
samsa
pastry filled with meat. these make for a good snack! We no longer have to walk around with wads of cash bursting out of our pockets as they have bigger notes here, so we feel a lot poorer!
So after our one night in Kyrgyzstan, we prepared to cross the Irkeshtam Pass (3750m altitude) and border into China. It is a fairly remote border crossing, and has only been opened to foreigners in the last few years. I'm not sure that anything could have prepared us for our journey over the last two days. Yesterday we travelled from Osh, through the Alay mountain range along an unpaved, bumpy road - if you can even call it that! The estimated travelling time was 5 hours, which wasn't too bad considering the distance we had covered over the last week.
The 180km to Sary-Tash a small village, which is the closest to the border ended up taking 7 hours, which equates to less than 30km per hour! So you can imagine how bumpy the road was the whole way, not to mention that we were driving in a beaten up 70's "mercedes" van.
Thankfully the scenery was more picturesque than what we saw in Uzbekistan. The landscape has changed
into what are known as
jailoos which are summer pastures of breathtaking alpine scenery. Nomads spend the summer wandering around the jailoos with their cattle and take advantage of the warm weather. We will be camping with them in their yurts when we cross back into Kyrgyzstan.
As we drove through the jailoos, we started to notice the change in appearance of the Kyrgyz from the Uzbek people. Kyrgyz people are known to have come from Siberia centuries ago. Nowadays they look like Mongolian/Chinese where as the Uzbeks look like they have more Turkic blood in them.
By the time we crossed the pass at 3750m, I was starting to feel the altitude a little and was already feeling wheezy from all the dust flying around as well as the lack of air. But the views were well worth it. Arriving in Sary-Tash we were once again welcomed by lovely hosts but not just by the ones whose guesthouse we were staying at. We went for a walk in the village (which consists of about 5 houses) and were accosted by two small children who had heard we arrived. The mother was able to speak a
kyrgyz gold
this section of the market was teeming with women and gold! little bit of English which saved us. Her children were absolutely adorable and they kept on running around us, basking in our presence. We obliged to eating some food as it's offensive not to accept what you're offered as a guest. After taking some pictures of the family, they gave us their address so we could send the photos to them, something I will definitely do.
In one day we went from 40 degree heat down to 0 degrees once the sun went down, so during dinner I had an obligatory shot of vodka to keep me warm. With thermals on from head to toe and a tummy full of delicious plov, we tried to get some sleep before embarking on our journey across the border.
Our poor driver slept in the van as he wanted to start the engine every couple of hours to make sure that it would start when we needed it to. At 6am, just as the sun was coming up, we were already on the road and it was another 3 hours of bumpy road. We probably spent just as much time out of our seats as we did in them! The scenery
how big are your melons!
as you can see, they are triple the size of of a hand! was stunning again, with snow capped mountains in the distance and a river below us. We passed more nomads along the way, and were amazed at how these people can live so remotely and be so self sufficient.
It was just before 9am when we made it to the first Kyrgyz checkpoint, and we got through the other two checkpoints within the hour, supposedly making good time. Freya had briefed us about the process of crossing the border and advised us that the Chinese side was going to be the challenge. With more than 5km of neutral territory before we hit the Chinese side, it made things difficult for us as Freya was not allowed to step over the Kyrgyz side. We were left to our own devices, and if these were normal circumstances would have been no issue. But trying to negotiate our way across the neutral territory without having to walk proved to be more difficult than expected.
In the end, we befriended a Kyrgyz officer to convince the Chinese truck drivers that were also crossing the border to take us to the checkpoint. As there were five of us, we needed to split into two
freya and her mum
we bumped into freya's mum at the market. in order to fit into the trucks, and the drivers were not happy with having to take us as it meant longer waiting time for them. They were in a hurry, so without even time to think about it, we jumped straight into the truck (and I onto the drivers bed behind his seat) and off we went. I seriously felt like a fugitive trying to sneak across the border! After a couple of kilometres, we hit a stand still and the driver signaled to us that it would probably be quicker to walk the final distance instead of waiting with him. This is where I thanked myself for only packing 9kg of luggage, some of the other guys were having to lug 17kg on their backs up the mountain, past a long queue of Chinese trucks.
We had no idea how far we had to walk and there was so much dust flying around that I put my head into my top to avoid it as much as I could. The next thing I knew I had walked into the back of a truck and banged my head so hard that I did see stars, like in the
kyrgyz nomad
this girl's family hosted us for lunch on the way to irkeshtam pass. cartoons! haha. I had no chance to feel sorry for myself, so on we went up the hill and thankfully the 500m or so we walked up led us to a sign "Welcome to China". Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy!
Freya had also told us that the customs officials on the Chinese side could potentially search our luggage, and they had been known to go through EVERYTHING. She also mentioned that the officers take siestas throughout the day and close the border - but never advise the time or for how long, so there was a possibility that we were going to be stuck there for a while.
Being the only person in our group with an understanding of Chinese, I had to try and forget all the Uzbek/Russian/Tajik and Kyrgyz I had learned in the last two weeks and muster up as much Chinese as possible to sweet talk the officers into giving us an easy go. Surprisingly, they were quite jovial for the first 10 minutes or so before we both got frustrated at each other - for my inability to communicate with them, and for their frustration at me not being
boys in sary-tash village
these cuties heard us coming and ran all the way from their house to us (about 50m). then when they got there they just stood and looked at us for ages and then turned around and ran away again! able to understand what they were trying to tell me.
Luckily they were in a good mood and decided to wave us on after checking our passports and just our cameras - in case we had decided to take any pictures at the border. We still weren't there though, there was still another 2km before we hit the final checkpoint and were free to be on Chinese soil. Into another truck we got, although we had to pay for this one and we finally made it to the last checkpoint and were greeted by our tour guide.
Saying that this border crossing is rugged, remote and challenging to cross is an understatement! It was exhausting, draining and our patience was really tested. But at the same time, it was a great adventure and I wouldn't have it any other way. After all, this is what traveling is all about!
So onto our third country in three days. We are now in Kashgar, China's westernmost city (after an additional 5 hour drive after the border crossing). Needless to say we were happy to have a long hot shower, some food and some sleep!
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sai
non-member comment
such an adventure!
i could never complete this mission with you. glad i can hear about it here tho.