Anyone heading to Irkeshtam?

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After a stupendous couple of weeks in the more remote regions of what is by any standards a pretty remote country, Kyrgyzstan, we're now back in the southern capital of Osh getting ready to cross into China via the Irkeshtam pass. When I say getting ready all I really mean is finishing this asap so we can get some sleep b4 the taxi arrives at 2 tomorrow morning. A tad expensive though as we couldn't find anyone to share costs with. Anyone fancy a trip to China tomorrow? Just turn up at the Taj Mahal hotel.

The Kyrghz border closing at 11am on a Friday explains the ungodly hour of departure, that and the fact that the 270 odd km trip will take about 8 hours. If we can keep our eyes open though we should see some magnificent mountain scenery as we wind our way thru the Pamirs. Once we get across the 8km of no man's land and assuming the Chinese let us in, we'll be heading to Kashgar to check out the famous Sunday market. Then it's a mad dash across western China to Beijing in time for my mother's arrival on June 10th. Don't know when we'll get a chance to update the blog though, our guidebook says that there are plenty of internet places in Kashgar, but none of them accept foreigners. Super. Still the Lonely Planet has been known to be wrong more than once.

Kyrgyzstan - another great country to travel in with some stunning spots of natural beauty - just don't plan on getting anywhere quickly. Can't say too much though as that'll spoil our Kyrghz blog when we finally get a chance to do it....a few other countries to get out of the way first though.

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