Blogs from Langar, Tajikistan, Asia

TAJIKISTAN with the Tajik Outlaws Part 3. I once had a muscular physique...girls used to watch me play tennis...said they liked my legs. Then I met Denise and the girl followers dropped off as my new hot blonde made it clear they should..."clear off". Our first day was at a music festival. Years passed. I still played tennis and kept trim & taut. When the body started giving out...the mirror became a last resort. Attending music festivals, band gigs and dancing became our forte...as life of music heaven constantly kicked in. There was also our love of travel...the remoter the better. When Travel Camel invited us to Tajikistan he said as there was a Dancing Car he'd arrange a music event. That was NOT in the printed itinerary...nor was being challenged to take my clothes off. ... read more

It was about 160km from Ishkashim to Langar. For most part the road was pretty reasonable and with quite a few stops it still only took us 5.5 hours to get there. The scenery was beautiful, wide open valleys with big mountains forming a guard on either side. As we left Ishkashim there was a lot of life in the valley as people were heading out to work in the fields with donkeys and cows in tow, before it got hot. Our first stop of the day was Yamchum Fort. It sits high above the valley, up a series of steep switchbacks, so has the most fantastic views - down the valley to the left and right, and directly in front the huge mountains in Afghanistan. Built in the 12th Century it played a key role ... read more

July 18 - Pamir Highway trip Day 7 - Yamchun to Langar Not so good sleep again, but that is normal. I woke up before 7am but the others slept on until at least 8:30. We had breakfast around 9am, and again, there was a bit of a misunderstanding. Three of us had ordered porridge, with one getting fried eggs (but no sausage), but in the end, we all got everything. Not bad, though. We left a little after 10am and I got the front seat for a change. Good views. We were supposed to stop in Yamg first, but the driver passed it and we ended up in nearby Vrang. Here we hiked a short distance up to see a Buddist stupa. The views from up there were really good. Next we headed back to ... read more

Here we are happily riding through Tajikistan waving at people in Afghanistan. They are not far away, just on the other side of the river less than 100m away. Mind it looks a lot poorer in Afghanistan. We have electricity cables running along our side, brick houses and, obviously, a motorable road. On the Afghan side there's no signs of electricity, its mud houses and the 'road' is just a donkey track - but what a donkey track. It clings to the side of the mountain following the contours and where there's not even enough flat space for a donkey track they have built out the most amazing dry stone wall to support the track. It goes on for miles and miles and miles. Between Kalaikhum and Khorog the scenery is amazing. We are right deep ... read more