The most authentic Silk Road route to China is through the Irkesktam crossing, a 2-day journey up and over part of the Pamir Mountains. Nemat, a young, energetic Kyrgyz guy who bikes around every hotel in Osh to do his business, arranges a 4-wheel drive Russian "jeep" I share with a couple from Italy. The car is a piece of junk, and a jerry can leaks gas on my backpack, but the driver Jinghis is an excellent driver. He takes it upon himself to look after me.
The first day's drive climbs up a beautiful little valley to the summer pastures of the Kyrgyz. Yurts become commonplace, along with the flocks of sheeps, goats, and yaks. Horses are beautifully taken care of.
Although distances aren't huge, travel takes forever because the road is truly atrocious. We must spend the night at Sary Tash, a "town" near the Tajik border. Elevation is about 11,000 feet. Jinghis looks around town for somewhere we can stay. Hey, a yurt is fantastic! They pile up enough quilts to keep you warm, but the night is freezing. We must leave at 5am to arrive at the Kyrgyz border crossing by 9. The irony is that no sooner are you through with the Kyrgyz side, you must wait an hour or two for the Chinese on the other side to finish lunch--they're 2 hours ahead. Jinghis (who we grat well) zips us through customs and puts us in a truck to take us several kilometers through no-man's land to Chinese customs. From there, it's another 4 hours and a new driver and taxi to Kashgar. The entire two days are just fantastic.
Note: will post more pictures when I can. These are just a few:
This Kyrgyz girl, upon seeing visitors by the side of the road, comes running to offer us some bread and sour cream. The Kyrgyz people are fantastic.
Entering the town of Sary Tash
Only lodging around is in a yurt. 50 lbs. of quilts keeps me warm because it's freezing out.
Along the mountains heading towards China.
Over the mountains into China, the landscape abruptly changes back to desert.
2 comments:
What a lovely story about the Kyrgyz girl with the brad and sour cream! These are beautiful pictures and along with sleeping in a yurt resemble my fantasies of what traveling the Silk Road would be (should be?) like. What were your Italian traveling companions like? tu amiga querida
Yurts seemed to feature prominently in the Lonely Planet Travel Book entries for this part of the world so it's neat to hear you had a chance to sleep in one. The landscape is incredibly beautiful, but it does look pretty cold.
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