Cambodia (again)

Well it's been forever since I've done any blogging, but here we go. I'm back in Cambodia, but this time around I'm based not in Phnom Penh, but in the much smaller coastal city, Sihanoukville. On one hand, it's nice being near the beach, on the other hand you miss out in quite a few ways. The food is nowhere near as good (or diverse), the nightlife options are much worse, the massage places are weak, and shockingly, it's more expensive to live! There has been a massive Chinese influx and they've basically been buying up the whole town, driving real estate prices way up. If you had owned property in sleep little Sihanoukville, you're now in luck!

Of course this is bad news for backpackers and expats who are used to living on the cheap down here. All of the backpacker bars down by the beach have been knocked down to make way for a new resort. The backpacker scene has largely been forced out of Sihanoukville and down a few kilometers away to a place called Otres Village. People who have been living here long term have seen their landlords sell out their apartment units with rents subsequently being jacked through the roof. A one year lease you say? Not anymore. The Chinese are a very sore subject in the ex-pat community.  So while many people are unhappy,  life is great if you're a poker player, as the games here are nothing short of amazing. It has the be the best place in the entire world to play at the moment. 

To right is where all the beach shacks used to be. A brand new hotel dominates the skyline

The main draw for the Chinese in Sihanoukville isn't the islands, the beaches, Cambodian culture or anything like that it. It's the gambling! Gambling is illegal in mainland China, so many people are coming to Sihanoukville, which is a cheaper alternative to Macau, the Chinese version of Las Vegas. When I was here last year there were a few casinos around, this year there's around 20! It's amazing the scale of things being built around here. In the next year or two that number will be at least doubled. The Cambodian government has basically sold out the whole town to Chinese developers. Hotel/casinos are currently being built in any halfway decent location you can imagine. The whole town feels like it's under construction. The sheer scale of it is really something to see.

Some grand plans in the next few years

There is so much money coming into this town! If you just walk around the table games in some of these casinos you see some of these guys sitting with $10,000 bricks, rifling in hundreds or thousands at a time. And many of them are so young! I don't know where some of these young Chinese kids are getting this kind of cash to throw around, but they've got it.  Then there's the shadier side of the industry, as it's widely known that a lot people want to get their money out of China and these casinos are perfect way to launder lots of cash. It's kind of the wild wild west out here. All these casinos and basically no regulation. Supposedly the Chinese mafia has a strong presence around here as well. God only knows how much some of these casino operators are currently making. 

The gaming floor at the Oriental Pearl. It's always packed. 

Driving around town you can play a fun game called count the Bentleys. If I cruise around on my scooter for an hour I'm sure to spot at least a couple, plus maybe one or two of the various Rolls Royces and Ferraris that are also around.  It's a stark contrast the rest of town that is relatively poor and undeveloped. The roads in Sihanoukville are still by and largely atrocious! Chinese infrastructure spending is supposed to change that, but it hasn't happened yet. 

One of the roads leading out of town

In a bunch of these casinos you can find poker tables set off to side, offering Texas No Limit hold'em, the poker game of choice. The people who operate these poker tables pay the casino itself to rent out the floor space for a table or two. As it happens the best games are usually the ones in the most popular casinos where anyone can watch the game from the side and decide to sit in. There's good money to be made running these games so there's lots of card rooms all vying for a piece of the pie. This is also good for the poker players as you can sit in any game you like and if it's not good you can hop around to try and find a better one. And there is almost always a good game going on somewhere. 

Some random poker hands

Compared to the games back in the States, these games are just incredibly soft. Poker is much newer in China so most of the Chinese players don't have very developed poker games. Of course there are some good players, but your average player is pretty pretty bad. But also pretty pretty loaded. Most of these guys don't really mind losing, poker is just another form of gambling entertainment to them. They expect to lose like most people playing roulette expect to lose, but maybe they'll get lucky for a bit and run up a big stack every once in a while and that keeps them happy.  Or they have a trial by fire type mentality, where the only way to get better at poker is to learn the hard way, by getting stacked many, many, many times! 

So yea, poker is good here. I've already stayed much longer than I expected to and honestly can't justify leaving. But my visa is finished on June 15th so that kinda when I have to get outta here. I originally had some grand plans to hop around Eastern Europe and parts of the Middle East fpr a few months, but now I'm not sure if I really want to take that much time off from these games. So we'll see. 

Here's some semi-random iphone shots from various places around town

View from my bungalow in Otres Beach

Pretty damn good pizza

A day out at the waterfalls

some untouched coastline way outside town. Untouched except for all the trash gets washed up from Vietnam. Seriously the plastic waste situation in SE Asia is a massive problem. 

Some massive Chinese housing community being built somewhere down along the coast

Gotta love this decor that looks like came straight outta the 70's

The pool I go to, it's pretty awesome

The pho place I like

Otres Corner, the psychedelic hang out

Otres Beach

Otres Market, where they have good live music. Here's a Russian metal band. 

Otres Market

Riding around the hills outside of town

Jack Daniel's the after hours bar

pulled pork on the beach

This guy has got his stack up to $26,000!

Ok that's all for now! Snooky is an interesting place!

Beach Life: Mirissa and Unawatuna

These are two of the more popular beach towns on the Sri Lanka’s southern coast. Located about 30 minutes apart, they’re pretty similar, a nice stretch of sand lined with bar/restaurant/guesthouses. Every night these places put out all their tables and chairs and everyone eats and drinks out on the beach. It’s pretty tame, everything shuts down around midnight and maybe one of the bars will try to get some sort of party going.

There’s not a ton of stuff to do outside of laying at the beach if you’re not a surfer, but Unawatuna does have a couple of shipwrecks that you can dive at, where Mirissa is known for it’s whale watching tours. Although the amount of time you spend battling the choppy seas only to see the back end of a whale for a few seconds didn’t exactly sound worth it to me. As for the scuba diving, the current was too strong to do the well preserved wreck so we had to settle for the one that was in pieces, not really the most spectacular dive! Overall I liked Mirissa a bit better because it’s easier to find accommodation right by the beach, it’s slightly more upscale, a little cleaner, and has less Russians. But either way it’s best to rent a scooter so you don’t have to limit yourself to just the beach, as there is lots of great scenery all around the coast!

the lighthouse at Gaulle

Welligama bay

From Ella it took me about seven hours on three different buses to finally get to Mirissa. When these bus drivers get on the open road it feels like you’re in the movie Speed or something, no going below 50mph! These guys spend half the time in the opposite lane blaring on their horn and overtaking every possible vehicle, forcing oncoming traffic off to the far side of their own lane. And its so silly because then eventually somebody pulls the ropey thing that signals they want off  and the driver has to slam on the brakes, pull over, and then try and retake all the cars that just passed them all over again. I mean what’s the point of being a maniac driver if you have to stop all the time?!

Anyway, I got dropped off on the main road in town, and found the place that was recommended to me. It was between Christmas and New Years so unfortunately it was all booked up. But there was a new hostel right across the street, and being the lazy person that I am, decided that was my best option. Apparently hostels are popping up all over Mirissa and Unawatuna this year. The owner of this place (Colors Hostel) said that last year there were five hostels in Mirissa and this year there’s now twelve! People are very optimistic about the continued increase in tourism in Sri Lanka. I even noticed it a bit myself when I posted some photos on facebook and a bunch of people asked for travel advice because they were headed there soon or were thinking about going. I guess Sri Lanka is the place to be!

Mirissa Rock

sunset shoot

The hostel itself had a nice open balcony on the top floor and big long table for people to hang out at (very important!) and speakers – all you need really. So I met some pretty cool people there. Although it was kinda weird because everyone was either Australian, Dutch, or American and hardly anyone from anywhere else, and there’s just not that many Americans in Sri Lanka to begin with.

Most people there were content to just chill on the beach all day, which I’m happy to do for an hour or two, but I also wanted to do some exploring, so I made to sure to find the nearest scooter rental place. It’s so incredibly nice to be able to go wherever you want, whenever you want. I can’t live without my scooter! And Sri Lanka has a long gorgeous beachside road, plus lots of smaller roads that snake their way throughout the countryside. There’s nothing like cruising around on well paved, winding country roads early in the morning or around sunset. Good stuff. I even stumbled upon a snake farm one of the days.

took a little trip to the temple in Matara

got some curious looks

I like how they weighed out the produce in the market

the snake guy teasing the cobra

tree snake

So I was enjoying my time in Mirissa and decided to stick around for New Years Eve, when there would be lots of big parties on the beach. The owner of the hostel suggested going to an all white party, which sounds a bit weird saying, but it’s just a party on the beach where you have to wear all white clothes. We ended up buying tickets for $40 a pop, which I thought was a bit crazy for Sri Lankan standards, but that’s New Years Eve I guess. Overpriced NYE parties are certainly not limited to the States! So we all went to the market in town to buy white clothes, as most backpacking types don’t wear too much white because it gets dirty and disgusting wayyy too quickly.

As I was kind of expecting, the party was kinda pretentious and lame. The $40 didn’t even get you free drinks, and the drinks of course, were not cheap. Our section of beach was fenced off from the rest, very exclusive indeed! There was the DJ at the front and lots of cheap white plastic tables and chairs in the sand. The crowd was somewhat surprising, mostly well-to-do Sri Lankans and not that many foreign tourists. Bathroom facilities were lacking, so it was a long line whenever you had to go. I mean it was still fun, but I much rather would have been at one of the many free parties going on further along the beach. Oh well!

The next day I had to say goodbye and get back to Colombo as my visa was now one day past the expiry date. Uh oh!

Up in the hill stations: Ella

It’s the most popular tourist spot for those looking to experience Sri Lanka’s hill country. Ella is a small town located among the various tea plantations. It also has some nice easy hikes that aren’t in national park land, hence no need to fork over $25 for a hike that may or may not have views totally obscured by fog/rain. I liked Ella. It has plenty of things to do during the day to keep you busy and lots of decent restaurants for somewhat higher end Sri Lankan food at night.

One of the hikes, Ella rock, is particularly interesting, not just for the scenery at the top, but also for finding the proper route. At the beginning of the hike you walk along the railroad tracks and you have to find the proper turnoff point to get you on your way up the mountain. Various people have tried to put up signs or markers to let hikers know the right way, but those seem to always mysteriously disappear, as there guides along the way hoping that lost tourists might employ their services. Those sneaky guys!

view part of the way up the hike

But you can get a map and decent description online ahead of time to help you on your way. And don’t listen to anyone telling you that you’re going the wrong way! I might have taken this too far when a little old lady pointed me in the direction of the trail near her home that veered off from the main trail I was on and I didn’t believe her! I kept heading on my current path and ended up getting temporarily lost and had to scramble my way back to the main path. Hmmm.

Eventually I made it up to the top to find this view of stunning, gorgeous, total whiteness! The best! You never really know what you’re gonna get with weather in this part of the country. Eventually a couple of girls from Perth joined me to view into the abyss. We decided to stick around for a while and eventually the mist disappeared for a few moments at a time, just enough to get off some photos. Success!

the climax

the excitement is palpable

Finally the mist cleared for a bit. We also made some new friends

We also did the other small hike, little Adam’s peak, which I kind of had to do, as it bears my namesake. This one is easy, just stairs to the top with some more nice views of the hills and tea plantations. We could have done a tea plantation tour as well, but I’ve done them in India and I think they’re one of those things where once you’ve done one, you’ve done them all. Plus I don’t really care for tea all that much anyway! But we did have some time to walk through the tea bushes and have a drink at the resort on top of a hill overlooking everything. It’s a very pleasant place!

The view of Ella Rock from the other side of the valley

One of the tea plantations

one of the tea pickers

the landscape

So I stayed two nights in Ella, and would have liked to stay three so I could rent a scooter and explore around a bit, but some rain was coming and I decided it would be better to get down from the highlands and off to the beach. Next up, Mirissa.

good place for a beer

Kandy to Ella Train

The Kandy to Ella train (or vice versa) is certainly the most famous train ride in the country, thanks to the marvelous landscapes it winds through in the Sri Lankan hill country. Undulating terrain, tea plantations, and small villages all add to the charm of the journey. Of course with tourist numbers picking up in Sri Lanka and the fact that it was peak peak season, getting a ticket for this train was no easy task. All 1st and 2nd class tickets were all booked up and the only option left is buying 3rd class tickets the morning of, which basically means you'll be crammed in the car standing for most of the trip. 

A popular trick to avoid this is to go the Kadugannawa station, 30 minutes outside of Kandy, and board there, waiting for people to get off in Kandy so you can snag a seat. But I've heard that this method isn't so secret anymore and doing this in no way guarantees you a seat during peak season. 

I liked the flowers planted at every station, a nice touch

So what to do? I already took one standing train ride from Colombo to Kandy and it was miserable! So if it was likely that I was going to have to stand again, I'd much rather take the bus. But to many this train journey is the highlight of their whole Sri Lanka trip and I didn't want to miss out on it. Fortunately there is one last option, the 3:30am goods train! This is also a slower train because it stops at each station to load/unload stuff, so what is normally a 7 hour ride turns into 10. Obviously a 3:30 start on the slow train isn't for everyone, but you do get avoid the hordes of tourists during the day trains!

This train had four other tourists and the rest were locals. I was easily able to snag a forward facing window seat on the right side, the optimum seat for the views. And there was plenty of room to lay out on my bench seat and 'try' to sleep until the sun came up. There was one interesting quirk about this train. In my car and in one other car were a group of Sri Lankan teens, and they brought with them drums and their singing voices. Normally this would be a welcome cultural experience, hearing all of their traditional songs, which everyone in the group knew, enthusiastically. But not at 3:30 in the morning! 

With my noise cancelling headphones in I did manage some sleep and eventually got up when the sky started turning a faint blue. I could start seeing the outlines of the tumultuous landscape and the fog that sat in the valleys. It was Christmas morning and as others back home were waiting for daybreak to run downstairs and see what was under the tree, I was waiting for daybreak to see these lush green tea plantations illuminated in the soft, warm light. It was a very nice experience watching the sunrise from the train in the hill country while listening to some traditional Sri Lankan music. 

The view from outside my window as we headed into the rising sun

looking back

tea plantations everywhere

With so few people on the train you're free to get up and walk around the cabins and hang out the door to get a better view if you'd like. We'd stop for a few minutes in each station so you could hop off and stretch your legs a bit and not worry about having someone take your seat. So much more laid back than the other train I had been on. Vendors would hop on occasionally and sell some fried snacks, which were pretty tasty! After a few hours the train finally started filling up and all the seats were taken. A Sri Lankan family packed in around me. They didn't speak much English and their children eyed me curiously, but they did offer me some sweet snacks, which I happily accepted! 

After 6 hours we arrived at Nuwara Eliya, which is one of the hill station hot spots. The whole station was filled with tourists getting on this train! At this point there were almost no seats left so the vast majority of the people getting on would have to stand, at least for now. Eventually Sri Lankans would get off and people would snag those seats, and some very polite Sri Lankans actually voluntarily gave up their seats, knowing that it's such a novelty to foreigners. But still, a lot people were standing the four hours to Ella. I was pretty content with my spot! Although the majority of the views switched over from right side to the left side, but I guess you can't have everything. 

selfie time

After 10 hours we finally rolled into Ella station at 1:30 pm. At this point my butt was thoroughly sore and I couldn't wait to get off the train. I hadn't booked anything yet, so I basically found the nearest guesthouse, checked in, and promptly passed out for the next few hours. I'll get into Ella in the next post!

Sri Lanka

I hadn’t done much research before getting to Sri Lanka, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. For some reason I was thinking the country was going to be a bit more off the beaten track, perhaps given to the island’s remote location of the SE tip of India. That was not exactly the case! Apparently Sri Lanka has gotten pretty popular in the last couple of years, so there was no shortage of people on the beaches and prowling around the country’s cultural sites. I even met some young Australian girls who joked they were doing an instagram tour, trying to recreate some of the their favorite photos they had seen on various instagram accounts. Hmmm…

I arrived at the airport in the mid-morning and got through immigration in no time. I had plenty of Indian rupees that I was hoping to exchange for Sri Lankan rupees, but to my surprise at the money exchanges, with about 30 currencies listed on their boards, did not change Indian rupees. What!? I still don’t know what the deal is with this one, but the ATM worked fine. Outside the airport it was very easy to find the airport-city bus. It seems like most of the time you have to go off hunting in far flung corners of the airport to find these buses, so it was nice to have it just waiting out front. $1 to get into the city center vs $30 for a taxi. I was welcomed by a pouring rain, which felt strange because it never rained in Goa.

arriving at the bus station in a drizzle

The streets of Colombo, tuk-tuks and busses 

the touristy Fort area

The main city, Colombo, was nicer than I would have expected. It’s certainly not as crowded, chaotic, and dirty as similar Indian cities. Although the traffic is still pretty awful and the bus drivers arguably crazier. I still can’t understand the need to overtake every single car as possible in heavy traffic, especially when you have to pull over every couple of minutes anyway! Then there’s the honking, dear god! And the sudden braking with absolute no regard for the passengers on board. Fun times. But I still prefer the bus over getting a tuk-tuk, who just wait around at touristy areas to try and rip people off.

I ended spending more time in Colombo than 99% percent of tourists would, due to the poker games. And what I came to realize is that Colombo is friggen BORING. I can’t think of many big cities that have less to do than Colombo. Once you hit the museum, one or two fairly average temples, and spend the sunset at the Galle Face waterfront area, you’ve got the city covered. There’s very little local nightlife, and even if there is something on a weekend night there’s hardly any girls, except maybe the handful there with their boyfriends. It’s redeeming factor for me was the poker action.

Some rotis and seafood snacks at the waterfront

The sacred tree at the Gangaramaya Temple

playing some cricket till dark

A lovely view of the whole new island-city complex starting to be built

playing in the waves (but never swimming!) at the waterfront

Colombo has a few casinos, two of which offer poker, with most of the action at the biggest casino, Ballys. It’s still a very small player pool, just one table going during weekdays and maybe two tables during the weekends. The nice thing about the casino is that everything you could possible want is free. There is a big buffet going all night, but if you don’t want any of that food then you can order a bunch of things ala carte. Want a shrimp tray, fruit plate, cheese plate, some sandwiches? Done! All alcoholic drinks are free, including top shelf type stuff. If you want to smoke they’ll give you cigarettes or a cigar, or even a shisha to smoke at the table. This is also one of the biggest downsides of the room if you care about your health at all. The majority of the players playing poker are smoking cigarettes at the table and the whole place is just way too smoky in general. But I do really like the novelty of smoking shisha at the table! Oh and they have all these different live song and dance routines going on at the center stage, so plenty of entertainment.

The Indian food part of the casino buffet. I realize this picture doesn't look particularly appetizing!

pole dancers? sure why not?

As far as the gameplay, it’s about double the stakes of India, and the games are quite a bit more aggressive. There is much more reraising preflop and bluffs/semibluffs. There are more very good regulars in the game, but also more loaded dudes who don’t care about money and will happily blow a couple thousand in a night. When I was there, there were some guys in from the middle east making the games pretty crazy, which unfortunately did not go well for me that week, but what can I say, those are types of games I want to be playing in. Certainly nothing like that action in Chicago. But this is the problem of trying to play poker and travel at the same time, obviously I don’t want to spend all my time in Sri Lanka in the casino, but traveling after losing a bunch of money tends to put a damper on things. But that’s how things go sometimes.

my shisha, hehe

As for the rest of the country tourists mainly go to three areas: the southern beaches, the hill country, and the ‘cultural triangle’ where they have some ruins of ancient cities. The one thing to note in Sri Lanka, that annoys the hell out of most travellers is their policy of tourist pricing, where anything of tourist interest they charge the hell out of you, especially by Sri Lankan standards. Want to go to a temple? $10. Go for a hike in a national park? $25. See some ruins? $25. Meanwhile the local price would be 50c or something like that. At least on the beaches they can’t charge you to go into the ocean.

Normally the best way to see the country is by train. Thanks to British, they’ve got a nice rail system running through the country. Unfortunately during heavy tourist season it’s extremely difficult to get a seat on the train. My first train ride from Colombo to Kandy was three hours of standing completely jammed into the car. Of course your head is over the window level so you can’t even look out and see the scenery. So I was careful to not replicate that experience again!

Train departing from the Fort Station

Our packed ride to Kandy. Not fun!

Riding around Goa

Just posting some photos from around Goa. Away from the beaches its a nice mix of small towns, rural scenery, brightly colored houses, churches and temples. It's very nice for an evening scooter ride!

New Delhi

I arrived at 1am, and after an hour of waiting in the e-visa line, I was off to the taxi line and on my way into the city. Just stepping out of the airport reminded me of being in Beijing, the air feels different, kind of musty and heavy. You feel like something is kind of tickling your throat. Then you remember you’re in one of the most polluted cities in the world, and perhaps that is what that feeling is!

There were a surprising amount of cars on the road for three in morning and even a few streetside food carts lit up by a single lightbulb to serve the late-night clientele. Fortunately my guesthouse was easy enough to find (most things are these days with google maps) although it was quite a bit dingier than it had appeared in the online photos. No matter, I’d have fallen asleep in a cockroach den at that point. Well, maybe.

After a few hours of sleep I was wide awake in a completely new city and anxious to explore. Of course as soon as I walked out the door I already had offers for a sightseeing guide, taxis, and rickshaws. It’s a pretty crazy city. The streets are just bursting with people all vying for space on the narrow streets. The traffic gets stopped every few minutes while two cars have to figure out how to squeeze past each other. The honking is incessant. I was in the main tourist part of town and every 10 seconds you have someone coming up to you, “Hey! Where you from? Ahh, Chicago, the windy city right?” Working their way into polite conversation before pitching their jewellery store or tour agency or what have you, mostly trying to just scam you entirely. The best way is to just ignore them completely from the get-go.

the streets of the main bazaar area

I was trying to get out of conversation with this one teenager without being too rude, so I told him I’m hopping on the metro now. He told me I’d save money by buying a day pass, which coincidentally I could buy at the travel agency I was just passing. I’m very skeptical at this point, but I went in there to see what they said. They could get me a metro pass to go anywhere in the city for 2,700 rupees, which is like $40, hahaha. I laughed in his face and walked out. At the station my fare was 25 cents. Gotta love India. Still, people manage to fall for this stuff all the time.

Like usual I didn’t have any hard set plans for the day. I had noted a few tourist attractions and what stations they were near, but the main idea was just to wander around and get a feel for the city. That morning I managed to find my way to the Gandi museum, his tomb, some gardens, and a smallish Hindu temple before it got too hot, then I went back to take a nap. That evening I met up with some other travellers and went out to eat together. My favorite dish is still  the very cliché, chicken tikka masala. It’s hard to get tired of that creamy yet spicy goodness and only a fraction of the cost of back home.

mmm

sun cricketeers around sunset

The crowd I was with wasn’t really a party crowd, which is pretty standard for people traveling in India (as opposed to SE Asia), so we wandered the streets a bit and called it an early night. All good with me. After feeling like I was drinking too much in Chicago (and back when I was in Phnom Penh) I decided that in India it was time to take a break from the booze. Plus I wanted to wake up early the next morning so I could cram as much as I could into my last day to see Delhi.

The following day I found my way over to the Gurudwara temple, which a Sikh temple. In case you don’t know, the Sikhs are the guys with the turbans, and they’ve got their own religion and cultural identity, originally hailing from the Punjab state in India. And all the Sikhs I’ve met in real life have been very nice people!  And I found it very India-esque that you can randomly walk down one street that has a Sikh temple, a church, a mosque, and Hindu temple. It is a very  diverse country.

Gurudwara Temple

I ended up hopping on a random bus just to ride around for a bit. One of the things that I kind of enjoy about the Indian buses is that a lot time they don’t even come to a complete stop to let people on and off. I mean it’s only a steady crawl, but it keeps people on their toes. You gotta be paying attention getting on and off. People seem a lot happier on public transportation too. You notice people talking with each other and laughing, joking about hitting a pothole. This one girl almost faceplanted when the bus came to a screeching halt and she got up and was cracking up with her friends. If that happened on a bus at home, that would not be the typical reaction! People seem to embrace the inconveniences that inevitably come along with life in a big Indian city.

That afternoon I met up with one of the girls from the night before and it was off to the iconic Red Fort, which was home to the Mughal emperors for 200 years, built by Shah Jahan, the same guy who built the Taj Mahal in the 1600’s. The Islamic reign was a particularly bad time for Indians. Fortunately the Mughals influence started to decline in the 1700’s and most of that empire was fully taken over by the British Raj in the 1800’s. Some excellent Mughal architecture still remains though. 

Down the street from the Red Fort was the Jama Masjid (mosque), the most famous mosque in the city and also built by Shah Jahan. One of the more fascinating parts was on the way up to the mosque, there was a market for large industrial parts that I walked through. I’ve never seen anything like it before, it felt almost otherworldly. It reminded me of the of the scrapyards in Tatooine. Really interesting place.  

As for the mosque it was beautiful and of course full of people praying. You can really feel the devotion and spirituality in places like this, and really India on the whole. You can also pay to climb up one of the minarets that has a spiral staircase embedded in it, which gives you a great 360 degree view of the entire city. We stayed there until they kicked us out for the 5:00 prayers. After that I had just enough time to get back, have some streetside chicken biryani and naan, and make way to the airport for my evening flight to Goa.

Delhi, as seen from the top of the minaret

And I'm off again: India round 2

Well, I didn't last too long in Chicago this time. With summer being just about over, not having a satisfactory living situation, and not owning a car, it really didn't make sense for me to stay in the city. I need a car to get out to the poker games, and I didn't feel like buying one, knowing that I'd be going out of the country again in the winter anyways. Renting one is needlessly expensive. So my thinking was basically this: I could be in Chicago, taking public transit to the poker game and living in my bandbox of a 'bedroom' or I could be in Goa (India), living on the beach for cheap, renting a scooter for a few dollars a day, and having easy access to good live poker games. I guess a lot of people were surprised I was leaving so soon, but it wasn't a particularly difficult choice for me. 


 

So I booked my flight to Delhi for October 1. I was flying Qatar Airlines, which along with Emirates, are my favorite airlines to fly. And thanks to the fact they are subsidized by their respective governments, they are often the cheapest flights along with being some of the highest quality! Plus it only cost $400 for a one way flight. I actually could have gotten cheaper flying the other way around via Shanghai, but it's more flying time and Chinese airlines seem to have difficulty not losing my luggage, so I opted with Qatar Airlines. 

After a farewell lunch of deep dish pizza my parents were nice enough to drop me off at the airport. Thirteen hours and three Fast and the Furious movies later, I was in Doha. Now I finally knew what I had been missing out on in the last few years! Although as bad as the F&F franchise is, mindless action entertainment is pretty good for killing time on a flight. I had about three hours to wait in Doha, which is a pretty cool airport, and then another four hours to Delhi. 

Our flight got in at 1am, and you'd think that getting through immigration would be a breeze, but no no no. The lines for people with an e-visa were jammed. In the last few years India has made it possible to apply for a 2 month visa online, as opposed to the tedious practice of assembling and printing out all your documents and applying at the consulate. So that's good! But huge lines bad! It took about an hour to get through immigration. It's not that there are so many people, but it takes like 5 minutes per person for the guy to do whatever it is he's doing on the computer and then to take your photo, scan your fingertips and stuff. Come up with a quicker system India! 

After I got my bag I started looking for a taxi and a guy asked if I was heading into the main bazaar area (I was) so we decided to get a taxi together. Actually his company was paying for the taxi, so he wouldn't even let me pay my half, so that was nice of him. I got to the guesthouse at 3am, had to wake up the guy behind the counter, and got to bed with enough time for a decent nights rest. 

Delhi Trip Report up next!

Back Home in Chicago

It's always nice to be back in Chicago after a long trip! It feels a little bit surreal sometimes, even just the normal things like walking through the airport, seeing the style of clothes people are wearing, swiping the ventra card, hopping on the blue line, etc. But this time I wouldn't be taking the metro, like I usually do. My brother Ed and his girlfriend would swing by and pick me up, and I got to meet their Golden/Beagle puppy, Thor. We headed back to Naperville to see our parents and then get ready for our friends Kevin and Tracie's wedding. 

The wedding also worked out well because I got to see a lot of friends that I haven't seen for a while all at one time. The venue itself was pretty cool, as it had a bowling alley and bocce ball courts attached to it. For someone who doesn't particularly want to be on the dance floor the whole night, I enjoyed this setup. The wedding of course was great, everything was smooth, the speeches were exactly how they should be: short, touching, humorous, etc; everybody was on the dance floor towards the end, and then pizza and bowling afterwards! A pretty good night. 

After the wedding I'd spend the week at home with my parents, which was nice to catch up with them, relax, get some laundry done, and run some errands. They fed me well, and I had a few opportunities to get in the kitchen with a complete set of pots and pans and a full spice rack, which is always nice after being on the road. But being without a car in the suburbs can get a bit boring and after a few days I headed back into the city. My brother let my stay in his guest bedroom at first and then I moved upstairs into my friend Jeff's spare bedroom, err glorified closet. But beggars can't be choosers. I mean I could have found a sublet on craigslist, but it's kind of a PITA and you never really know what you're gonna get, so this was just convenient. 

So I took the train into the city and then had a chance to wander around the downtown for a bit. We have a pretty damn great downtown. It's right on the lake, the skyline is stunning, and the architecture is just so very impressive. The architecture is one of those things that you kind of take for granted living here. While Asia does have more modern looking high rises, a lot of times they can look a bit cookie cutter. I like that the buildings in Chicago have character! If you're paying attention there are really endless details carved into the massive slabs of granite.

After checking the museum of contemporary art (which is free!) it was time to find the nearest blue line station. Now as much as like Chicago, the metro system is not one of the highlights. Traveling in Asia is a constant reminder of how dated our public transit system is. The majority of the metros in Asia are relatively new, super clean, smooth, efficiently designed, run often and on time, let you easily buy fares based on how far you are going (and don't make you pay extra for a card) and in general are pleasant to use. As with the Chicago CTA, I can't exactly say the same thing. It's not bad (usually) but the rides are much more jerky and rickety, are delayed more frequently, smell worse, and suck at handling lots of people. Well at least they're slowly switching from the inefficiently designed two seater rows to the seating on the outer edges of the cars!

Photo 2 handles crowds of people much better than photo 1

Ok! So I got off at Logan Square, which would be my home neighborhood for now, as it was last year. It's a pretty nice area, not too expensive (yet), and good mix of yuppies, hipsters, and hispanics, with plenty of new bars and restaurants popping up all the time. I got off and wandered down Milwaukee Ave, the central thoroughfare. It's always pleasing walking past the usual bars, restaurants, and coffeeshops and looking for any new or interesting changes in the last 8 months. A pop up bar, dedicated to the show Stranger Things, was hopping early on a Friday evening. 

The old standbye: Logan Theater

Newish bar called Estereo that has a cool set up and South American inspired drinks

CTA stop

I walked south, towards where I would be living, a part of Logan that was changing very quickly, as it is near the 606 trail, a defunct train track turned into public use space. Many of the nearby buildings were getting bought out, remodeled and renovated, and selling for high prices. It's a weird mix of 40 year old homes and ultra modern 3 flats. So the place is gentrifying quickly, which is bad news for the hispanic residents who rent in this area. But that's how it goes, I guess.

So it was disappointing to me that there was no little mexican grocery store in close proximity, which is where I normally like to buy my fresh produce on the cheap. But there was a more stylish "Fresh Market" complete with many vegan options, craft cheeses, free range eggs, and pricey pre-made meals. The usual yuppie type fare. The amount of fresh produce in the "Fresh Market" was substandard to say the least! At least the craft beer selection was good. There were a couple of new local breweries that I hadn't seen on the shelves before, so I picked one up and headed another couple of blocks to my brother's new home, where I'd be settling in for a little bit. 

no shortage of churches

Central Asia Round Up

All in all I liked Central Asia quite a bit, and I definitely feel like it's an underrated part of the world that is only going to see more and more tourists in the years to come. Kyrgyzstan is certainly doing the best job out of all the countries in promoting tourism by being visa free and establishing community based tourism offices all around the country. It would be nice to see Uzbekistan, and especially Turkmenistan ease up on their visa requirements. But Turkmenistan is run by a crazy dictator, so I doubt that'll happen, but Uzbekistan might. I liked Uzbekistan, but considering I spent $200 to get my visa there, I'll certainly never be going back at that price. 

Here's my ranking of the places I went:

1. Kyrgyzstan: Absolute best country in Central Asia! It has the most interesting culture, some of the friendliest people, and best scenery out of all the Stans. I loved the rolling green countryside with the mountain backdrops, the alpine lakes, the semi-nomadic lifestyles, their obsession with horses, and all the yurts camps. Plus you can find great hiking almost anywhere in this mountainous gem. 
 

2. Tajikistan: Doing the Pamir Highway is just such a unique experience. Very few parts of the world are as rugged and desolate as the eastern part of the country. It's something I'd never do again, but it was a memorable experience nonetheless. Outside of that, there are some great untapped hiking opportunities in the Bauteng Vally and the Fann mountains, and probably quite a few other places that I don't know about. Like Kyrgyzstan, this country is 95% mountains, so the possibilities for hiking are quite endless. 

3. Uzbekistan: Amazing desert cities with stunning Islamic architecture. Certainly the most historically rich country in the region. I have to knock it down a few points due to the visa cost and difficulties. Plus the heat. 

4. Xinjiang: Even though I really liked Kashgar, and Chinese food is great, overall traveling in Xinjiang was the least enjoyable region that I traveled to. The problem is mostly the government's overbearing presence in the region. It's just frustrating being in a place that has had very few ethnic clashes in the last few years, but walking around you would think this place was an active warzone. You can't go outside any of the cities without stopping at police checkpoints every 10 miles. Getting to the Kyrgyz border was the biggest bureaucratic nightmare I've been apart of. But hey, I at least I got here before the government decides to just totally shut off the region to foreigners, which I suspect might happen in the not so distant future.  

PROS OF TRAVELING IN THE STANS

Culture: It's very unique! Being that all of the Stans were former USSR, it's a fascinating to see how Russian culture intermingles with Muslim culture. Russian is usually the 2nd language people speak, they use the cyrllic alphabet, and you can see Russian influence just about everywhere you look, from the buildings to the food to the music. I'd assume it also plays a role in that Central Asia has a very moderate interpretation of Islam. In the larger cities people wear what they please and are quite fashionable. Want to wear a tank top and booty shorts? No problem. Like everywhere else, the countryside is more conservative. 

Scenery: Spectacular mountains everywhere in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Deserts in Xinjiang and Uzbekistan. Whatever floats your boat. As stated before the hiking kicks ass. And it's mostly unregulated and free: Hike where you like, pitch a tent where you want, doesn't matter! Stop and see if a yurt family wants to take you in for a night? Sure why not?

Cost: Dirt cheap! Some of the cheaper traveling I've done. I actually went under budget on this trip! It's easy to eat street meals for 1 or $2. Getting a main course at a nicer restaurant was still only about $3-5. Hostels and yurt stays also about $5. Shared taxis: Only a few dollars for rides of a few hours. Hitchhiking is always possible (and easy) as well. There's not a ton of real touristy activities or nightlife, so it's hard to blow through a lot of money. The biggest expenses are taking shared taxis to distant, off the beaten track locations or having to hire a vehicle. 

Meeting people: In each major tourist destination there is usually one or two hostels where all the western tourist go. There's few enough travellers where you feel almost compelled to strike up conversations with the people you come into contact with, which I like. You don't get that same feeling in bigger tourist destinations. 

Shish Kebabs: Overall Central Asian food is pretty bland, but I had some damn good shish kebabs! Beer is halfway decent as well.

Hospitality: Considering tourism is still in it's infancy in this part of the world, locals, for the most part, will look out for tourists and help them in any way they can if they get lost or need help. I had numerous people go out of their way to help me out along the way. Also you almost never get hassled by annoying touts and the like.

Safety: Never felt even close to being in danger at any point in the trip. Never got anything stolen, never met anyone at all who had any problems whatsoever. 

Yurts! Well this mostly a Kyrgyzstan thing, but I stayed in yurt camps multiple times and always enjoyed it. Other non-yurt homestays are possible as well. 

Sim Cards: Easy to get, super cheap, and work pretty well in/around the cities.

CONS:

Location: Well, probably the biggest pain the ass about visiting the Stans, especially if you're American, is getting there. Flying into Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) is usually the cheapest way to go. Flying in and out of some of the other Stans is usually quite a bit more expensive. 

Transport: These countries aren't great for people with time constraints. Considering how much of it is mountains, and the state of the road, you might need a considerable amount of time to get from A to B. There are surprisingly few public buses, so shared taxi is the main mode of transport, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But if you're going somewhere that locals don't normally go and can't find anyone to share with, it'll get expensive quickly. Traveling in a small group is best. Also, most of the cars are old as hell and breakdowns are a semi regular occurrence. These guys are all gear heads though, (they have to be) so it usually doesn't take too long to get the problem sorted out.  

Language barrier: You'll be able to get by with just English in the cities, it'll be trickier in the smaller cities and countryside. And good luck reading a menu if you haven't learned the Cyrillic alphabet! I recommend learning some basic Russian phrases before coming. I enjoyed practicing my super basic Russian when I was here. Counterpoint: Google translate is so good nowadays that you can speak into it in English and it'll pump out a pretty good translation in Russian. 

Food: As mentioned earlier it is kind of bland. No spiciness whatsoever. It's not bad, it's just not great. I never really got tired of it though, unlike some other travelers I met. You've got: Manti (dumplings), lagman (oily spaghetti), Shashlik (skewered meats), Plov (rice or pilaf with meat), and Samsa (baked pastry of mutton and onions), and noodle soups as the bulk of the cuisine.  Naan bread is served with every meal along with tea. Oh, in cities they have fast food hamburger and kebab stands as well! Soft serve ice cream is everywhere too. I'm not even sure this category is a Con anymore!

Visas: Huge pain in the ass for Turkmenistan, large annoyance for Uzbekistan. Tajikistan is easy to do online, but still costs $70. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan: A+

Nightlife and Partying: Mostly non-existent outside of the capital cities. Most of the time in Central Asia you'll eat dinner, maybe have some drinks or play some cards for bit and then hit the hay. If you're looking to get wild after the sun goes down, it's not the place for you. Every once in a while you can find some locals taking down some Russian vodka though, which they might ask you to join...

Kumis: Fermented horse milk. It's gross, but it's a staple in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. If locals invite you in for a drink they're gonna either give you tea or kumis. Everyone is always hoping it's tea, but it's usually kumis. Your hosts are very proud of their kumis making ability and they want you to enjoy it as much as they do, so it's impolite to not finish the whole glass! 

Laundry: Unlike more touristy places, they don't have places where you can just give them your bag of laundry and get back the next day all neatly folded in a bag. Some hostels have a washer and dryer, but there is always a big line to get to it. I had to hand wash my own laundry a few times on this trip and I HATE it. 

Internet: pretty crappy

And that's all I can think of right now! But overall I would say the Pros vastly outweigh the Cons!

Georgia

So when I was looking at flights it turned out that flying from the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi was the cheapest option, and I could get a pretty cheap flight there from Shymkent (Kazakhstan), so that was the route I chose. Plus that would give me a few days to scratch the surface of this Caucasus country that I heard so many good things about. I'd have a 3 nights and two full days to jam in as much stuff as I could. 

I arrived around midnight and while driving towards downtown Tbilisi it's impressive to see all the churches lighted up on their hillside perches. My taxi driver was playing a mix of classic rock and soul music and quizzing me to see if I knew who sang each song. Being that I'm American he was a bit incredulous regarding my lack of knowledge in the soul music department, heh. It wasn't my generation! 

 

not so great photo, but you can see the churches and fort lit up in the background

He dropped me off at the main square and I walked the block to my guesthouse. Lots of people were still out and about at 1am, drinking on various outdoor patios and terraces. I stopped in at one of the hookah places for a bit and called it a night. I was going to have a busy day tomorrow. 

When researching Georgia, the one church that stuck out to me (among the many spectacular Georgian churches) was the Gergeti Trinity church, built high up in the mountains a few hours north of Tbilisi. So I decided to cram it into the itinerary. I woke up early that morning and took a taxi to the bus station. After lots of searching and asking around (the letters on the buses are all Georgian script) I finally found the one I was searching for. There were people waiting inside so I hopped in and grabbed a seat. Oddly the lady next me shooed me out of it. Ok, I went to a different open seat, and got told no, no, no. Then the bus driver started yelling at me and pointed for me to get off the bus. I was so confused! Apparently people had already reserved these seats and were just mingling around outside in the bus station. Hmm. When he finally started the bus everyone came wandering in from the woodwork. It turned out there was an open seat, so I was able to take it and we were on our way. 

After three hours we all piled off the bus in a touristy little mountain village. This was the base of the hike up to the church. You could see it overlooking the village up in the clouds. The hike itself was pretty steep uphill, but only took an hour to get up to the top. The church itself was extremely well preserved offered great views of the jagged terrain all around. If you had hiking gear, this would be the start of a hike much higher into the mountains. But it really was a hell of a place to have a church!

I spent some time to have a snack and admire the aesthetics of the whole scene, and then cruised back down to the village. I wanted to get back to Tbilisi to get some sightseeing in before it got dark. It took maybe 30 minutes to wait for a bus to fill up and we were rumbling back down towards Tbilisi in no time. I was hoping to stake out a sunset spot, but the skies were mostly a dull gray, so no-go on that front. But I will say that the city certainly has charm. Lots of old buildings, a ridiculous amount ofeastern orthodox churches, and every time you look up you can see the cable cars heading up and back from the fort. 

the sulfur baths

The next day was my chance to get around to all the touristy sites in town. Tbilisi is really a nice place for just walking around. It's very hilly so all the houses are built up almost on top of each other in some places. Most of it is vaguely defined as the Old Town, which lives does live up it's name, as many of the buildings and houses are pretty dilapidated and in various states of disrepair, which is endearing in it's own way. 

what many of the old town homes look like

those beams look like they lend a lot of support...

Next up was the big daddy of the churches in Tbilisi, the St. Trinity Cathedral. I'm pretty sure this is the largest church I've ever been in. It's actually a very new church, finished in the early 2000's, hence it's immaculate condition.

The rest of the afternoon was just more wandering, exploring the sulfur baths, the treelined parkways, some tourist walking streets, vine covered buildings, open air patios, etc. And stopping in for an occasional glass of Georgian wine, which was a nice change of pace after the Stans. 

long exposure at the sulfur baths

vines give the buildings some character

At night I took the funicular (tram that goes straight up big hill) to the top where they have a carnival as well as a nice restaurant that overlooks the city. From this vantage point you can really see how much the Trinity Cathedral dominates the skyline around it. I treated myself to a fancy pants dinner, took the tram back down, packed up my stuff and headed off to the airport. 3 hours to Doha, and then another 14 hours to Chicago, and I was back home! The conclusion to another successful trip! 

the view in the funicular going down

Tashkent

After Bukhara I took the night train to the capital city of Uzbekistan: Tashkent. Unfortunately when I arrived at 7am, I encountered one of the biggest problems in the digital age: No phone battery and no laptop battery! (I'm getting a powerbank for next trip!). Without my maps I didn't know where in the city I was at and I had no clue where my hostel was located, noooo! I did feel like I had a pretty good idea of where the downtown was, so I just hopped on a bus in that general direction. We passed the prominent Hotel Uzbekistan, which I had read about, so I knew at least I was going in the right general direction. I got off on a street that looked nice and had lots of retail, assuming there had to be a coffeeshop with wifi around. Well there were, but none of them were open yet. Crap. What kind of coffeeshops don't open until 9?!

A taxi driver stopped and asked where I was going. I told him I just needed to find a place with wifi. He said to hop in. He stopped at a western style breakfast place. It wasn't actually open yet (15 minutes early) but the taxi driver explained my dilemma and they let me in. A few minutes later I was back in business with the address and directions. I of course stayed for breakfast and was all set to go, but the owner made me give him the hostel phone number so he could call them, figure out exactly where it was at, and relay that to my taxi driver. They look after foreigners pretty well in these central asian countries.

Passing by a fruit market

The rest of the day was a whirlwind, I rode around on the metro to a bunch of different places, the central park, the main market, a history museum, and some different mosques. The downtown definitely has a very Soviet feel to it, lots of all white, blocky, and imposing government buildings. My favorite part of the day was actually riding the metro. Each station was a unique piece of Soviet styled art. I loved it. In fact I rode around to stations out of my way just to see what they looked like. I have never been so impressed by a metro system! Of course it's Uzbekistan and for whatever reason they have decided taking photos of the metro stations is not allowed, so I would have to dodge all the guards walking around to get any photos off. I did get caught once and obviously played the dumb foreigner card, but they still made me delete the photos from that station, which was a bummer. 

I also met up for coffee with the travel agent who I got my LOI from, as I still had to pay her the $50 for the LOI. In the eyes of the Uzbekistan law, her tour company was personally responsible for me, so she'd email me every other day to make sure that everything was okay and make sure I was okay with navigating the trains and shared taxis, not getting ripped off, etc. I think she mostly deals with older people who aren't very good at that kinda stuff. We had a lot of correspondence over the last month, so it was interesting finally meeting her in person. Her English was perfect and she liked talking about Uzbek politics, which is something most Uzbek's won't bring up. So it was an interesting conversation. She wasn't particularly thrilled about me photographing the metro station, though. 

Some photos from the afternoon:

So this was my last day in Uzbekistan! Although I was actually flying out of a city called Shymkent, which isn't too far across the border in Kazakhstan. Time for more fun with border crossings! The nice thing was that I was able to take a bus directly to the border and that Kazakhstan is visa on arrival. The not so nice thing was it was the most insanely packed border I've ever witnessed. Just a massive horde of people smashed in between iron railings. Fortunately the women had their own line, but the mens section was just a complete zoo. You're just wedged in there, and kind of sway back forth as people jostle and push their way around. It feels like you're in the crowd of a packed concert, but not...

The most interesting part to me was that they have these guys who you can pay, you give them your luggage, and then get behind them in the line. They move up along the railing and basically shove people out of the way to get their clients through the line faster. Then when they are close to the front of the line someone tosses you your luggage over the railing. It was mostly older men paying for this, which makes sense, as dealing with the line is a real workout. But some younger guys were doing it as well. They asked if I wanted to do it, but I didn't want to be a cheater; I was gonna stand the line just everyone else damn it! It sucked of course. All in all the whole ordeal took about three hours, then I was on a bus towards Shymkent. 

I had one day to hang out in this town before flying to Georgia. Nothing really interesting for tourists to do, but the shish kebab place I went to for dinner had chunks of meat the size of your fist (ok not that big) and it was damn good, possibly the best I'd had all trip. The next day I found a trendy looking coffeeshop and did some people watching. The women here are pretty attractive! Lots of high heels and nice looking outfits. I was pleasantly surprised. I also learned how much Kazakhs hate Borat! Which is fair enough. Considering Kazakhstan has the best economy of all the Stans and is probably the most modern, but they're the country that get singled out as the incestuous backwater by Borat. I would have liked to spend a bit more time in Kazakhstan, but time was running short. I flew out that evening to Tbilisi and would have two full days there before heading home. 

Bukhara

From Samarkand I hopped on an express train westwards to Bukhara. For how poor most of the country is, Uzbekistan has an excellent train system. The fact that most of the region is completely flat doesn’t hurt. So after hurtling along past the desert scrub and some small villages we arrived in Bukhara in no time, once again in the middle of some blazing heat. I found my way to the hostel most popular with foreigners and settled in. I ended up running into some people that I had met earlier on the trip, which was cool. In central asia the tourist trails are pretty well defined and there’s not that many western oriented hostels, so it’s a pretty regular occurrence to run into different people a few times along the way.

Later that afternoon we set off to do some exploring. Right off the bat I really liked Bukhara, it really does have that old town feel to it. While Samarkand is more like a modern city with lots of interesting, well preserved buildings interspersed throughout, Bukhara feels like it’s taking you back in time. It’s a cobweb of dusty alleyways snaking in various directions. The houses are very spartan, mostly made of clay, with bright clothes hanging out to dry, flapping in the breeze. While the place is a dead zone during the day, all the kids come out to play in the late afternoon. You see a lot of the same type of stuff that you would see in Samarkand, but the two cities have a much different vibe.

Kalon Minaret

back alleyway soccer

One of the madrassas

matching

We ended up finding a rooftop place to eat a fancy dinner ($10 p/p) with some awful Uzbek red wine. I didn’t have enough cash, so I just paid with card, so when the bill came back at almost $20 I realized I had totally forgot that by paying with card they give you the government exchange rate! Fortunately they let me run downstairs and find one of the guys on the street to exchange some dollars to Som at the black market rate. Silly Uzbekistan.

The next day was mostly the same thing, hanging out during the day and then wandering around in the late afternoon. As much as I liked the old cities, they really need more things to do during the day to beat the heat, like a water park or something, maybe a nice air conditioned movie theater, anything! Oh well, what can you do. These Uzbek cities aren't places you'd want to stay around for too long, but they're definitely something different and very enjoyable for two days or so. More shots around town...

Samarkand

Uzbekistan is known for it's ancient cities and Islamic architecture and Samarkand is probably the best example of it! The city does really have some stunning sights. It's one of the oldest inhabited cities in Central Asia and was a major destination on the silk road. Most of it's buildings were constructed in the late 1300's and early 1400's when Timur was expanding his empire and building anything he felt like. It was also a center for Islamic learning, hence the amount of elaborate madrassas (islamic schools). 

I arrived into the city around midday and the first thing you notice upon arriving in the city isn't the buildings, it's the stifling heat. Most of Uzbekistan is desert and Samarkand is no exception. It was well over 100 degrees. I spent most of the afternoon laying next to the fan before finally venturing out. The nice thing is that everything is pretty walkable. You could see all the sites in one action packed day if you really wanted to, but it would be pretty miserable in that heat. Here's some of the sights:

Bibi Khanym Madrassa

Gur i Emir Mausoleum

Shar i Zinda Necropolis

Another Madrassa

So I had a good ole time wandering around and seeing this beautiful style of architecture that I had never really seen too much of in person. Although I was hoping to see the Registan at sunset (the top photo) it turns out it was closed during those hours so they could set up for a music festival. But I learned that if you woke up at 5am you could pay the guard $10 and get up to the roof to watch the sunrise. Deal!

They had the colored lights on in the courtyard at 5am

Sunrise! Too bad there were no interesting building in the foreground though

The scene on the roof. Stepping on it was loud as hell!

I wandered around a bit while it was still nice and cool and then retired back to my room to escape the heat for the rest of the day. It's difficult to really enjoy a place when you feel like you're baking walking down the street for 5 hours out of the day. That day I got a text from the guy I had met earlier wondering if I'd like to have another tour guide. I wasn't sure, but then I found out his friend was a mid 20's Uzbek girl who lives in Samarkand and also likes to meet foreigners and practice her English. Sounds good! But he said we couldn't stay out long because she had to get home at a reasonable time. We met up at an ice cream place and walked around to some of the places I hadn't seen yet. Like almost all unmarried Uzbeks she lived with her parents, but liked any chance she could get to get out of the house.

So after wandering around she suggested we go to this restaurant she thought I would like. It was a huge place! The main seating area was more like a banquet hall with a stage in the front where they would have performers come out and perform dances and skits and play different instruments. Everyone there was dressed up nicely in bright dresses and heels/slacks, dress shoes, collared shirts. It was certainly the place where big groups of people got together for parties and celebrations. In between the performances the music came on and the stage would be filled with people dancing. It was an eclectic mix of Uzbek, Iranian, Turkish, and Russian pop music. She wanted to dance, so I reluctantly agreed to go up there with her. I mean I suck at dancing as it is, but then having everyone watching the white guy dance, Ugghgghgh. I didn't stay up there long...

Then at the table I started getting texts from Jasurbek saying that she had to be home soon or her Mom would kill him. So apparently since he was the one who set up this meeting it was his responsibility to have her home in a timely fashion, even though he was in an entirely different city. Interesting. Anyway, she dismissed this notion, and we stayed out a bit longer, but I got the feeling she was going to be in trouble with her parents later. It was like the things we westerners battle with our parents about in high school, she was doing at 26! But Jasurbek kept texting me and eventually we split ways and she got me a taxi home for much cheaper than I ever would have gotten by myself. But it was an interesting night!

Two days in Samarkand turned out to be enough time to see everything, so I hopped on a train to another ancient desert city named Bukhara. Here's some more things around town:

wandering the streets

the sun coming up on the market

knife sharpener guy

Into Uzbekistan

The visa for Uzbekistan is notoriously a pain in the ass, but it is made much easier my getting a letter of invitation, which a document you can get from Uzbek travel agencies, but you have to given them all your documentation about two weeks in advance. Once the letter of invitation is obtained (LOI) you can show up at the Uzbek embassy and get your tourist visa on the same day, which is exactly what I did. Although it did come at a hefty price: $150 for Americans. Plus $50 for the LOI. Ouch. 

From Dushanbe I took a shared taxi to the border and then began the fun process that is Uzbekistan border crossings. Basically they go through all your stuff, the photos on your phone and camera, AND they take a look at the stuff on your laptop hard drive and possibly your external hard drive. It's pretty ridiculous. Ok, really ridiculous. They say they're doing it to protect their country, looking for things like terrorist propaganda (plausible I guess) and pornography (come on). So if you have any nudes on your phone or porn on your computer you're supposed to delete it ahead it of time!

The woman looking at my stuff looked through my camera and was dismayed that there were almost no photos on my card, as I had already put them on my computer and deleted them off the card. I explained that, so she made sure to have a go through my computer. It was out of battery at the time (purposely) but she still had me plug it in and boot it up anyway. I showed her where all my photos were and my movies and she clicked through a few albums and then opened up a movie to make sure it was clean. After she couldn't find anything, I was able to pack my stuff back up and go. What a pain in the ass. 

Once in Uzbekistan I took a taxi into a smallish town, found a hotel that accepts foreigners, and had a chance to wander around. In Uzbekistan you have to get these hotel slips to show to the border guys when you leave, so you have every night you were in Uzbekistan accounted for. Another pain in the ass.

Another interesting thing about the country is that foreigners can't use the ATMs. You have to bring in dollars and then exchange them. But you don't want to do that at any official place, such as a bank, because the government set exchange rate is awful compared to what you can get by exchanging your dollars on the 'black market'. When I say black market, it just means you go to any market and exchange your dollars for Uzbek Som at about double the rate you would get at the bank. The official rate was something like 4,000 Som for one dollar and the unofficial rate was 7,500 Som for one dollar. 

So back to this small town, apparently they don't get a lot foreigners, so I was quite the attraction. I wanted to take some photos at the market, but it was basically impossible when every single person in the whole place is looking at you! I ended up posing for photos with a bunch of guys and one guy even gave me a whole melon as a gift! It's not the most practical gift for a solo traveler, but I appreciated the sentiment nonetheless! 

Apparently Uzbek's really like their fast food and there were burger/hot dog/shwarma places every block, so that's what I ended up having for dinner. And ice cream, because those soft serve machines are located about every 50 feet. And the guy gave it to me for free! The next day I took a taxi to a town called Sharisabz, which is a medium sized, non touristy city, that has a nice town square and some good examples of islamist architecture. I ended up meeting a guy who liked meeting foreigners and really wanted to show me around, so sure why not? 

We walked through the city gates, the fountains, the mosque, and the Amir Temur statue. I got to learn all about the guy. Like me, you probably haven't heard of him, but he amassed an empire encompassing the whole region in the 1300's. It's said he was also partially responsible for about 17 million deaths, a good 5% of the world population at the time. Not the nicest guy. He was ruthless to his enemies, but he treated his subjects well at least.

After the history lesson, we went out to eat at this guy's (his name is Jasurbek) favorite shashlik (shish kebab) place, and he told me all about how hard he is trying to get a temporary work permit in America. He's college aged and already spent $1,000 in a program to obtain one and he got denied and now is planning on trying one more time. I think he was kind of hoping there was something I could do to help, but I really didn't know what to tell him, except agreeing that it's a huge bummer. But anyway the food was good and it was nice to have a local explain Uzbek culture, traditions, and stuff like that. 

The next day he helped me exchange dollars at the market AND made sure I got a local price on my shared taxi to Samarkand. Really nice guy! 

The Fann Mountains

So now we were down to three, Joe, Stas, and I. We took a shared taxi a few hours up north to get to a lake named Iskanderkul. The first few hours were all highway winding through the mountains, while the last hour was rough dirt track carved out into the rock. Our taxi kept stalling out going uphill, and then he'd do this thing where he'd put it in neutral, let it roll backwards a little bit, and then while it was rolling backwards he'd get it started. I'm not actually sure how it worked, but I do know that you do not want to be rolling backwards on a gravel road near the edge of a cliff! After some sphincter tightening restarts we finally made it to the downhill part and cruised down towards the lake. We found some old cabin style accommodation reminiscent of a summer camp. 

We headed down to the lake but mannn was it cold. It was kind of cloudy so no of us made it further in than knee deep. Extremely nice scenery though. After that we headed towards the waterfall, which was half an hour away. They have this iron gating built into the rock and overhanging the ledge, which gives you a nice view of the falls, but it also feels sketchy as hell! Joe refused to even step foot on it. 

 

The next day we had some sun and went back down to the lake. It has a magnificent green hue when it's in full sunlight. Don't ask me what causes this. We had our fun diving off the pier and staying in the water for a few minutes at a time, before the extremities when numb. It almost feels like you have to take a swim to fully enjoy this kind of nature. 

 

As midday rolled around we had lunch and then it was time to day goodbye. Stas and Joe would be heading back out and going up north, where as I wanted to get some hiking in, so I had planned a multiday trip into the mountains, starting from Lake Iskanderkul. I had left the rest of my luggage in Dushanbe and had only the hiking essentials with me. This is why I like carrying all my camping gear. I don't do it often, but I can just wing a multi-day trip whenever I feel like it. And Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are perfect for that kinda thing. So we said our goodbyes and I started down the road around the lake, which would eventually turn into the trail. 

The road finished at a small village and then turned into a narrow footpath, leading up into the mountains. I didn't have a good paper map, but I did have an app called maps.me which is by the most useful app when traveling. Bar none. You can download the map of your location to use offline and use the gps, so you know exactly where you're at all times, even without wifi. The maps are so friggen good that they even include hiking trails in the mountains. I'm hiking on an off the beaten track trail in northern Tajikistan, and maps.me still has the hiking route info! It's honestly amazing. It had all the major hikes in Kyrgyzstan too. 

After hiking for a while the trail ended at a river and picked up on the other side. The only problem was this river was moving fast! This wasn't your ordinary, take off your shoes and wade your way across type river. Now the rule of thumb for fast moving water is not get any deeper than your kneecaps. Wherever I tried to cross the water was up to my knees after only a few feet and I had to turn back. Getting in up to my thighs would be really really dumb, especially being solo.
 

I wandered up and down this river for probably two hours looking for a good spot. At one point I had made it 90% across the river, only to find the channel getting deepest and swiftest right next to the opposing shoreline Agh! Finally I found a low overhanging tree that was on the other side of the river, spreading over the deepest part of the channel. And it was split into 2 large branches so I was able to wade halfway through the river and the pull myself up in between the two branches and then shimmy my way across, which is kind of tricky with a big backpack on. But I made it nonetheless! Not the smartest thing I've ever done, but It would have really sucked to turn around. I ended up hiking another hour or two and setting up camp in a valley near the river. 

ice cave along the way

The next it was time to get up and over the pass. I walked a few more hours in the valley and then finally the trail veered off straight up into a crevice in the mountains. No more easy hiking! The trail was more or less a pile of medium sized rocks, with many of the rocks them loose, so finding a secure foothold was never guaranteed. It was steep enough in some spots that it became a scramble at times. Eventually the big rocks faded into small ones, and the hike became a very steep scree hill. So many times I'd take a step, the rocks would slide out from underneath me, and I'd slide down back down, sometimes behind where I started. It was so steep that I was on all fours, basically just trying to bear crawl up the slope without being washed back down again. It was honestly some of the most exhausting 'hiking' I've ever done. Never before had I moved up at such a slow pace, while exerting that much effort. This made hiking up a sand dune look like a cakewalk! But after god knows how long I eventually made it to the top of the pass and was rewarded with some spectacular views. It was a lot snowier on the other side! 

Looking out over the other side of the pass

At this point I was praying for an easy journey down the other side, but as I surveyed the landscape, it became quite apparent that that was not gonna happen. The ground was more or less frozen, of course with loose gravelly rock sitting on top of it. Besides straight up ice, there is nothing easier to slip and slide on when you're going downhill as loose gravel on hardpan. Plus my hiking boots got torn up scree running on previous hikes, so I was now using my crappy Nike gym shoes that had very little good rubber left. Yikes. 

I proceeded extremely cautiously, basically on my butt and on all fours, making sure to find good footing, lest I start a rockslide. It was pretty scary. It was steep and if I did start a rockslide I'd most likely get scraped up really good at best, with a sprained ankle or broken ankle not out of the question. Finally I took a lazy step, with the rock I stepped on sliding out from under me, and I slid probably 10 feet down the hardpan before coming to a stop. Fortunately I just had a few cuts and scrapes on my wrists, elbow, and thigh. Could have been worse!

The further down I got, the more big rocks there were, which made it easier to get better footing. So after maybe two hours of this slow process I finally made it down the steep part of the pass. I crossed a snowfield and then from there terrain was mix of small rocks, gently running water, and slushy ice. The fun never ends on this hike. After navigating the ice it was another rock field, with massive rocks piled up on one another, some of them secure some of them loose, the perfect recipe for a sprained ankle. At this point I could see the lakebed where I wanted to camp, which was good news because the sun was going down fast. After another half hour of rock hopping I was down the lakebed to set up my tent, completing one of the most strenuous hiking days in my life. 

After crashing hard that night, the following day I was up bright and early and looking forward to some moderately downhill hiking, on an actual dirt footpath. And I was not disappointed! It took a while for the sun to come up over the mountains, so I had some very comfortable, easy, downhill hiking, with nice views of the sheer rock faces from within the valley. About time! It only took me a few hours to get down to another beautiful greenish looking lake, this one containing a bunch of tents of mainly Russian tourists. I hopped in the lake for a quick dip in the freezing water. It was worth it! From here you could continue on the trail to some more alpine lakes or go to the campground that is connected by road back to civilization. I opted for the latter.

the view on the way down

aww yeah

Of course there was no way to get a ride out of the campground and no phone service of any way to contact a taxi. So after a few hours I ended up just going on foot down the road. It was actually very pleasant scenery with a small village here and there. Eventually a 4x4 passed and I was able to hitch ride down the mountain. Although I almost which I hadn't because we passed through some of the most beautiful mountain villages on the way down and my desire to be able to get out and take photos was almost overwhelming. Ahh, you can't have everything I guess. Back on the highway I found a shared taxi back to Dushanbe and was back in town by dark. Mission accomplished!

The Pamir Highway part 4: Khorog, Bauteng Valley, and on to Dushanbe

We had been recommended by a few other travellers to check out a place called the Bauteng Valley, which is a few hours north of Khorog. We still had one more day with our car and driver, so this is where we decided to go. I guess you can spend a few days hiking around this place, but we figured we had enough time for a day trip. It was hard to get much information on the place online, but we mostly knew where we were supposed to go, so we hit the road. After three hours of driving, mostly on a dirt track running along a river, we arrived at a cable bridge crossing the river. Apparently this was our stop!

We got all our gear ready and apprehensively crossed the river. The hiking was gently uphill and after about 2 hours we found the first village, if you can even call it a village. It was a collection of about 10 homes, with two tables and sitting areas for tourists to grab a meal. And that is exactly what we did. We had the usual tea and bread as well as a nice noodle and potato soup. One of the men spoke some English, so it was pretty easy to order.

This village is also next to a picturesque lake, so we attempted to take a dip. Of course the water was insanely cold, so about 30 seconds was plenty. Sadly we didn’t have enough time to explore the area more, because there is supposed to be another village and a waterfall further on, plus much more good hiking. But we had our driver waiting, so we decided it was best to head back before it got dark. We scrambled down, crossed the bridge, and our driver Bobish was waiting patiently for us. Later that night we took him out to the Indian restaurant in town (as it was our last night of him being our driver) and dined on something other than Pamir food, thank god.

The next day we organized a shared taxi to get to the capital city of Dushanbe, which was going to be another long day on the road. There are just such few good transportation options in Tajikistan! The roads basically just follow wherever the major rivers are, following along their meandering paths. There were two possible roads to get to Dushanbe, but we had learned the one we wanted to take was closed, so it would be the long way for us. We didn’t get into Dushanbe until 11pm, a solid 17 hours after we had left Khorog. Yikes.

Our route

After so many straight days in the car and on the road it was finally time for some rest! Besides picking up my Uzbekistan visa, I had absolutely no plans. We ended up going to a rooftop hotel pool one afternoon and then just wandered around the downtown area at dusk when it cooled down. Dushanbe is nice for walking, it’s got lots of parks and tree lined avenues. It’s a surprisingly green city, given the rest aridness of the rest of the country.

It was here where our group started to break up. Caitlin, the American girl was flying to Kyrgyzstan, and Shaz wasn’t feeling well and would stick around here for a bit. The rest of us (Joe and Stas, both Brits) would travel north to the last place on our list for Tajikistan: The Fann Mountains.

The Pamir Highway part 3: The Wakhan Corridor

At this point in the journey it was time for some craggy peaks, potholes, and lakes. There are handful of gorgeous, shimmering blue, alpine lakes that are absolutely untouched. It’s weird seeing such nice places with nobody around. Although a drink stand or café somewhere would have been ok.

Not far from one of the lakes was a village of 100 people or so, and that’s where we’d end up staying for the night. We picked the guesthouse with the most comfortable looking floor mats, had some afternoon tea, and some time to explore. I really do enjoy walking around these villages and observing Tajik small town life. Their clothes are so eclectic! It's like they got hand me downs from Russia, China, and Afghanistan and put them all together. Also, I still don’t really understand how the people living in this completely isolated town make any money (apart from the guesthouses) or get through the winter without either running out of food, freezing, for dying of boredom, but apparently they manage somehow.

The woman running our guesthouse was very friendly and could speak some English. They made us some very nice vegetarian communal style spreads for both dinner and breakfast. But like everywhere else around here, once it got dark, there wasn’t much to do. We played some headlamp lit card games and then settled in under our monster sized blankets.

The next part of the trip would take us off the M41 (the main highway running through Tajikistan) and diverting south towards the road that runs along the Afghanistan border, known as the Wakhan region. We asked about the Taliban to one of the military guys and they said that some of them stayed about 15 miles over the Afghan border up in the mountains, but they were too scared to get near the Tajik border. Okay then!

The road here is all unpaved gravel and it cuts up high into the sides of the mountains. It can be a little intimidating, especially passing other cars! While our driver seemed very skilled, he did have a penchant for driving as close as possible to the edge of the road as possible, making sitting on the far left hand seat the most nerve wracking!

After a full day of driving along the bumpy, dusty, cliffside road we finally made it back down along the river bank, where the landscape had opened up into a fertile valley, where people actually lived in. This part of the country actually had a few things of interests to tourists, namely old forts and hot springs, and even a small museum highlighting the life of …, a Tajik scholar and poet who had been way ahead of his time, but largely forgotten by history due to his obscure location in eastern Tajikistan.

As for the hot springs, they are actually hugely popular with the local Tajiks, as they’re believed to have many health benefits. They’re gender segregated and all nude, and they’re oddly insistent about the all nude part. The Tajiks seem to have absolutely no social hang ups about public nudity, so it can be slightly awkward for a westerner! But of course, I’m not going to pass up on hot springs after being in the car for hours. We managed to make it to three different hot springs before finally making it to our final destination, the city of Khorog.

The Pamir Highway part 2: Murghab

So we settled into the fanciest hotel in town (the only hotel in town). We found out there was no electricity until 7pm when the generator starts going, which lasts for a few hours. Alrighty then. Some of decided to go for a little stroll around the place. All the houses are made out of the same white painted clay material and there certainly isn’t any running water in most homes, as the wells were pretty crowded. Used shipping containers and discarded oil drums and industrial parts added to gritty feel. It’s also weird being in a fairly big city that only has electricity via generators. It was easy to get electricity up in the mountain villages in Nepal than it was in this city!

Of course there’s not really a whole lot going in a place like this, but we did manage to find a restaurant to serve us some manti (beef and onion dumplings) and then we headed back. The next day was going to be a long hiking day. Our driver dumped us off at a yurt camp at the base of the mountains and pointed forward, then up and left. Those were the directions. Ok, got it! We milled around the camp for a little bit where they were making some sort of boiled yogurt concoction (which wasn’t bad!) and plenty of cute kids running around to take photos of. Then we were off.

Fortunately I had time to acclimatize by doing some treks in Kyrgyzstan, but some of the others hadn’t, so it was nice to be not getting my ass kicked by the altitude. Murghab sits at almost 12,000 feet, so we were already way up there to begin with. It was moderate uphill hiking for the first few hours, but the pass was pretty tough, as it was all loose scree, which was easy to slide back down on. But after numerous rest breaks we all finally made it up to the top of the pass and enjoyed the views over the mountain range.

And then it was back down on the loose scree and god knows how many hours that afternoon to get to the nearest road, where our driver was waiting for us. It wasn’t exactly the most enjoyable hike during the last part because the mosquitos were nuts. I mean the climate is arid and dry, which doesn’t seem like it would be breeding ground for a jillion mosquitos, but it was! We piled into the car, rolled up the windows, and swatted at anything that moved! And then back for one more night in Murghab. 

volleyball appears to be the most popular sport

outside the market

the hills are on fire

The next day we were about ready to roll when we found out that we would be switching cars and drivers, as our jeep was apparently having engine problems. Umm, what?! But the new car looked pretty similar to the original one and the new driver spoke more English than the first one, so it seemed fine to me. This did not fly with some of the girls, who made a big fuss over the whole thing, and wanted to call and complain/get money back from the guy we originally booked the tour with. But at the end of the day we already paid everything up front, and it this point there’s not really anything we could do about it. So it was on the road with our new driver, Bobish, and our black Toyota Landcruiser, and new playlist of Tajik and Russian music!

The Pamir Highway, part 1

I was just about finished with Kyrgyzstan, but I still needed to find a group of people to do the Pamir Highway with in Tajikistan. It turned out to be pretty easy finding a group in Osh. We assembled a rag tag selection of all solo travellers, five of us in all; one British guy, a British girl, an American girl, an Aussie girl, and myself. Our car was a Toyota Landcruiser with a flip up seat in the back to accommodate six passengers and our driver was fearless 15 year old Tajik boy named Kushbai, who spoke limited English. Ok he wasn’t 15, but he looked like it. He said he was 23, but I was skeptical.

After loading up on cash, food, and water, we were finally off. We stopped for lunch in southern Kyrgyzstan at a town called Sary Tash. They had one dish, the national dish: plov! It’s just pilaf with spices and usually some veggies and meat. Plov was perfectly fine for the three of that were meat eaters, but Chaz (the Aussie) was vegetarian, and Stas (the Brit) was vegan, so they needed no meat. But they weren’t sure if the plov was cooked in just one large bowl with the meat and then the meat would just be taken out for their orders(that would be unacceptable), and turns out it was. So Plov is out. The server was a bit confused and ended up bring out eggs instead, which was fine for Chaz, but not fine for Stas, who had to send hers back. She ended up ordering hot water, to mix with a soup packet. So this was the first of many in the vegetarian/vegan food ordering song and dance.

Sary Tash

We then paid the bill with people debating whether or not they should pay for the communal bread if they didn’t eat any (comes to about 5c per person) and making sure they paid the EXACT amount they owed on this ~ $1.50 meal. Shockingly it was short and I just threw in extra 50 som (70c) to cover it, the generous guy I am. I could already tell this trip was going to include a few eye rolls and exasperated grimaces. 

After lunch we entered a gravel track leading up into the mountains. Our final destination was a yurt camp somewhere near the base of Lenin Peak, a 7,000m giant on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The scene was gorgeous, green rolling hills dotted with little lakes with mountain looming in the background (when it wasn’t behind the clouds). Kyrgyzstan never disappoints in the scenery department. They threw down some sleeping pads and impossibly thick blankets for us in the yurt and our accommodation was ready.

After some light hiking and vegetarian meal of potatoes and cabbage we were about ready to settle in. Early to bed, early to rise in this part of the world! I kind of like sleeping in the yurts. They’re surprisingly good at keeping the wind and the cold out. Plus many of them have stoves, which run on cowpies for fuel, to get the yurt really nice and toasty. Although its tricky, they load in too much and the place becomes a sauna real quick. They’re also really dark, which is nice. The only thing I don’t like is the blankets. They’re too thick! You always need to poke out and arm or a leg or something to get the equilibrium right. Plus the yurts are also fairly cheap and efficient to build, they can put one up in a day. Makes building log cabins seem a bit silly. Oh and fun fact: wood pattern at the very top of the yurts is what makes the Kyrgyzstan flag, which is pretty awesome!

ahhh Kyrgyzstan. never disappoints

sunrise reflection at the yurt camp, lenin peak in the background

The next day was the Tajikistan border crossing. It’s up in the mountains a bit, sitting on a high pass. We all had our Tajik e-visas printed out, with GBAO permits as well. GBAO stands for Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast, which is basically all of eastern Tajikistan, and it’s technically its own self governing region, so you need a special permit to go there, separate from the Tajikistan permit. But its all done easily online. And the border crossing was a breeze.

waiting for them to lift the gate for us at the border

You notice right when you get into Tajikistan how much the scenery changes. It goes from nice green valleys and white capped mountains to dry, red, rugged peaks with interesting striations. The ground is just desert-like gravel and rocks, not the most hospitable place. And not a soul on the road.  It really does feel like another planet at times. The place of interest we made it to was Karakul, a little village on a bright blue shimmering lake. Now villages in eastern Tajikistan are far romantic. Houses are made of clay bricks, and strewn about the streets are random broken down cars, rusty oil drums, and other forms of industrial waste. Walking around town you hardly see any people. It’s a got a creepy post-apocalyptic feel to it. I liked it. It would make a good set for a horror movie.

this weird kid kept following us around. I think that truck is somehow running. 

lake karakul

sup bitches, it's the Pamir Hwy

So we ate lunch there and then continued onwards for another few hours towards Murghab, the hub of Gorno-Bakhshan! It was a few hours before we even saw another car, which meant we were getting close. Eventually we could see lots of little white dots at the foot of the dusty red mountains, that was the town, Murghab. We made it! A real gem in the middle of nowhere. Eh, not exactly...