Blogs from Kyrgyzstan, Asia

A couple of friends I made on the Africa trip and I decided to do a nice weekend trip. This was coming soon after my trip to the US, but it was Islamic New Year and expected to be a three day weekend - for most, it turned out that they did not get the day off, but two of us did. We won't go into too much detail about me joining a friend for drinks before my flight.... almost missing said flight and losing my camera enroute. I'm still devastated about the camera. Friday Anyway, I made the 10:45pm flight, slept fairly well and felt ok when we arrived early in the morning at the Bishkek airport. Anita and Rej and I were joined by three others and our extremely adorable guide, Merriam, along with ... read more

FACES OF KYRGYZSTAN- Mr Zee pulls up at the Tajikistan/ Kyrgyzstan border post and I run down the Tajik side for one last look...a river of grey moraine winding down a mountain of maroon, pink, orange and green...white meringue snow from the head of the peak hovering behind...the giant horned goat preparing to leap...my heart not sure whether I'm needing more oxygen at high altitude or just more time. Wave beckoning me come now...half running up the hill...panting for eternity as armed border guards contemplate whether they will commence to process our entry or continue chatting among themselves...spitting every few minutes as if spittle was another sentence. After an hour of spitting and lounging they let us through...not before grilling me whether I got my wrist watch in China...and what was I doing there anyway...the drug-sniffing ... read more

The driver who brought us to Kazarman swung by before dinner and we did a deal with him to take us to Song-Kul Lake the next morning. Our routine in the Pamirs had been to breakfast at 7:30 and leave at 8, so that has become our default but he suggested 7, which was fine by us, the earlier you hit the road the more of the day you have when you get there. We couldn't budge him on the hefty price, but drivers have the negotiating power because they know you're effectively stuck. When the next morning over a quarter of the fare went into the fuel tank it felt less hefty. He asked to bring a friend along for the drive back, we knew it was going to take between 4-5 hours and he ... read more

When we weren't eating dinner and talking to the 3 other guests, we spent the evening in Arslanbob doing some planning, as we hadn't got anything more than a very rough idea of how we are going to get to Bishkek from Arslanbob and we couldn't put off any longer getting a plan. The guidebook says "beware although maps show a road across Kyrgyzstan...the central cross-mountain section...is an unpaved, seasonal affair. It can become impassable after mudslides and closes altogether from October to late June." "With barely 2 vehicles an hour passing through even in summer." We looked it up on the map and noticed it went over a 3000+m pass. We asked the CBT coordinator in Arslanbob. Bad road he said "very rough". That sealed it and it became our Plan A - to get ... read more

As much as anything Osh is a functional stop to give us chance to regather before we head off on the next leg - we need a couple of consecutive hot showers to steam the dust off, good internet so we can get some of the videos uploaded, to do the laundry that has been backing up since we left the heat of the Wakhan Valley, and to switch the alarm clock off for a day. We also haven't got past the stage of only having a very loose plan for the rest of our trip because our pre-trip reading/planning focussed mainly on the Pamir Highway and we were too social at the homestays to have got any more reading done. With a bit of internet at the hotel in Sary-Tash we'd looked up and found ... read more