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...

Southeast Kyrgyzstan

This area of Kyrgyzstan is a little more off the beaten track, but like the rest of the country it has yurt camps, mountains, and alpine lakes. There were three places I wanted to see, Tash Rabat (another yurt camp), lake Chartyr Kol, and lake Kol Suu. The latter of which you need a special permit for, which I’m not exactly sure why, but something about it being a Chinese border region. The permit costs around $15 and the yurt camp at Tash Rabat was able to get it for me a week ahead of time. Although I found out you can now get it in a few hours in the nearest town of Naryn.

In Naryn I was practically mauled by cab drivers pulling both my arms towards their taxis. I told both these guys I was not interested (those were not the words I used) and found a taxi that didn’t try to pull my arms out of their sockets. It was a few hours to get the yurt camp which located in lush green valley at the foot of the mountains. It also has an interesting old stone building nearby, called a caravanisaii, which was basically a hotel for caravans passing through on the silk road many many years ago. It’s surprisingly well preserved.

I ended up running into a British guy who I had met in Karakul and we decided to do the hike to Lake Chartyr Kol the next day. It was a solid four hours of uphill hiking to get up to the pass that overlooks the lake. Like most of these lakes it’s surrounded by raw, rugged looking mountains. A few tiny looking yurts could be spotted off in the distance. It’s amazing how much spectacular scenery can be in one small country, and I’m sure I’m just scratching the surface. The walk back down was a bit more exciting as we got some rain and even a bit of hail before ending up back in camp. It turns out the Japanese couple that I met earlier in the trip were there now too! Because there’s not so many tourists and a pretty well defined tourist trail, it’s very easy to run into the same people at different points along the trip.

wild horses going up and over the pass

lake chartyr kol

The next day I had hired a driver and 4x4 to take me to lake Kol Suu. Apparently the southern road, which is the short way, was flooded (as some Russians found out as they spent 6 hours getting their jeep unstuck) so we had to take the long way around. 7 hours of dirt/gravel track and potholes! We were about two hours away when the car broke down. The gearstick was locked up and the driver knew right away it was something serious. Cars break down all the time in Kyrgyzstan, but everyone seems to be a car expert here, and they can usually come up with some sort of fix to get it up and running again. Not this time though.

We waited for maybe 3 hours just to see another car drive by, and then another hour to find one heading to the same spot as us, who the driver seemed to know.  We just left the car on the side of the road, put our stuff in this little 4x4 hatchback and continued onward. We made it to the camp just before dark. It was a permanent residence plus a few yurts. There are always yurts!

getting the poop ready for the furnace

That night I ended up waking up at 4:30 am to pee and the moon was shining brightly, and I thought to myself, might as well start hiking now! The lake was 2 hours away, so this way I could get there right around sunrise. And it was a great decision. The mountains were lit up by the moonlight, the weather was cool, but not cold, the trail was easy to follow, and it was some of the most enjoyable walking you could possibly imagine. I made it to the lake at 6:30 and the sun was well up at this point, but it would take a while to actually shine on the lake due to the mountains surrounding it. Kol Suu really is one the prettiest lakes I have ever seen. It’s not everyday you see a lake that has sheer rock walls rising up from the water on all sides. I was now regretting not shelling out the cash to take a boat out on the lake, as I was only seeing just a small portion of it, but still, it was amazing.

the moon was out and bright

Kol Suu

I spent the rest of the day hiking around and then we headed back towards civilization. We ended up towing the broken down car with nothing but a nylon rope, over rough sections of road, potholes, you name it. I can’t believe the cord didn’t snap, or that this little white hatchback had the power to tow it to begin with. It was pretty wild.

And that was about all for Kyrgyzstan! I just had to figure out how to get back to Osh and hopefully find some people to rent a 4x4 to do the Pamir highway with in Tajikistan. All in all I had great time in this country! It’s really is a hidden gem in the Stans. It’s cheap, has friendly people, has absolutely gorgeous scenery, some amazing hikes, isn’t too touristy, and being a part of the former USSR adds some weird quirks to it as well. Highly recommended by Nomad Adam!

Issyk Kul

This lake is probably the most iconic place in Kyrgyzstan and I believe it’s the second largest alpine lake in the world (behind lake Titicaca). The nice thing is that it doesn’t get too cold due to some sort of geothermal activity. On the north shore of the lake is where the Kazak and Russian tourists like to hang out, while the south shore is much more remote and quiet. I was on the bus and decided to hop out at a place in the north called Tamga, which is supposed to have a nice section of beach to rest my old bones.

watch out for the sheep

tamchy

When you walk down the main street almost every single house has a sign saying комната, which means 'bedroom' in Russian. So I just chose one that looked good and made my way to the beach. It was mostly families and kids, but it was nice to get some sun and go for a swim. As far as I could tell I was the only western tourist, so there wasn't exactly a lot for me to do. I was back on the bus the next day towards the town of Karakul.

Karakul is the biggest city in the region, located on the far eastern edge of the lake, and it's the main jumping off point for tourist activities, mainly hiking. There’s plenty of good routes for some backcountry camping, but by far the most popular is a 3 or 4 day hike to Lake Alakul. At the hostel I stayed at there are lot of people either starting or finishing the hike, so it’s easy to find a group to hike with and good information on the trail. Although I decided not to go with the group because I kind of hate hiking with large groups of varying fitness (ie fat people). I already had all my equipment in backpack, so I just had to pick up some food and I was all good to go. The hiking trail even showed up on the app maps.me (similar to google maps), which made life real simple. If you download one app when you’re traveling, make it maps.me. It rules.

cool church in Karakol

I started at 9 am and got to campsite around 3pm. It wasn’t particularly scenic and I’d having nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon, so I decided to plow onwards (well mostly upwards) to the lake. This was not the best decision! It was very steep uphill and the altitude was now starting to kick my ass. Gaining 2,000 meters (6,000 feet) in one day is not recommended. Despite having to rest every few minutes and feeling a bit lightheaded I finally got to the lake and set up camp around 7pm. And I was glad I did! The view over the lake as the sun sets is splendid. I ate my noodles and promptly passed out from exhaustion for the next 12 hours.

Alakul around sunset. The people in the foreground stole the best campsite though

The next day you hike along the lake and then have to trudge over a fairly steep pass to get back down. But then after that it’s all smooth sailing downhill towards Altyn Arachan, which has an actual shop and restaurant, and most importantly: hot springs! Nothing like a relaxing dip after a good day of hiking. I camped out there and then hiked out the next morning. So it was a grueling day, followed by a pretty easy day, followed by a really easy day. But it’s the only way to do it if you want to do it in 3 days and be able to camp at the lake and the springs…

How the Russians travel to Altyn Arashan

Then it was one more day in Karakul, one day on the south shore of Issyk Kul in a yurt camp. There are no shortages of yurts in Krygyzstan!

yurts, forever and always

I'm not sure what's going on here, but I like it

Arslanbob and Songkul

So at this point I guess I should mention who I was traveling with. It was a Scottish couple named Annie and Steve, as well as two Kiwi guys, Henry and David, five us total. Our next destination was a few hours away, a little village at the foot of the mountains named Arslanbob. As well as having a name that sounds like its from a cartoon show, it also has the world’s largest walnut forest.

We arrived and checked in with the CBT (community based tourism) office to find a homestay. Kyrgyzstan is surprisingly well set up for travelers with these offices in any remotely touristy area. The people working there speak English and can arrange homestays, guides, transport, whatever you need. So we picked a homestay and they drove us up the rocky road to find it. It was surprisingly nice; comfortable beds and a pretty outdoor seating area for tea and meals. Our host greeted us and brought out a spread of bread, jams, nuts, chocolates, and tea. Not bad!

loading up the 'taxi'

not so good cell phone pic

For the afternoon we checked out the infamous walnut forest. Sadly it is really not that interesting. It looks, well, like a normal forest. Walnut season doesn’t happen until October. And you can’t go off the road because all the trees are on private property. We know this because we tried and we were yelled at. We were told in a heavy accent “owner will punch you in face!” Fair enough. There is also a waterfall in town to take a look at where some lady was trying to get us to dance with her. And that was about all for Arslanbob. It’s a very pleasant place, but there really isn’t that much to do! I guess there are some multi-day hikes, but were saving our hiking towards later on in the trip. We decided to leave the next day and head to the alpine lake of Song-Kul.

wandering around Arslanbob

hilarious dancing lady

love the hats!

We organized another shared taxi to leave at 8am the following morning. As the crow flies, Song Kul isn’t particularly far away, but due to the mountainous terrain and lack of good roads, it would be a very long day of driving. We actually ended up sleeping in a small village a few hours short of the lake and got there the day after. The Kiwi’s and I decided to take horses to the lake (you just organize the horses and the guide in the village outside the lake) and the Scots decided that they would hike in, which is a good 7 or 8 hour, mostly uphill affair.

three caballeros

We arrived on horseback in the later afternoon, and I could not believe how sore I was after 6 hours on the damn horse. Long horseback rides are just not for me. An hour or two, fine, but anything longer than that, no thanks! There is just way too much up and down movement when they trot, with your butt (among other things for guys) just banging on that rock hard saddle. It felt like by ass was bruised down to the bone. Not fun.

Yurt kids make the horses look so simple

But back to the lake! It’s gorgeous. Not just the lake, but the whole area. Rolling green hills, meandering streams, nomads and yurt camps, cows and goats grazing, kids riding around on horses, white capped mountains in the background. It really is a beautiful place. Idyllic Kyrgyzstan. We settled in our yurt, which just had some thick mattress pads, blankets, and pillows, and that was about it. Oh and light bulb powered by a car battery. As it got dark there was still no sign of Annie and Steve, uh oh!

sunset colors

The next day the Kiwi’s were heading out, so I just had them take my horse, that way I could hike out the next day. There was no way I was riding another 6 hours on horseback, not happening. That afternoon Annie and Steve finally came bumbling into the camp. They ended up getting a bit lost on the unmarked trails and stayed the night in one the few homes in the hills outside of the lake. They said the family was super nice and it turned out being a great night, so things worked out pretty well! Then we had all afternoon to hang around the camp, play with the kids, hike around the hills, go for a swim in the freezing water, and max out some meat and potatoes for dinner.  

Our host family

yurt kids

The following day I hiked out to the village, glad to be on foot once again. The Scots were sticking around for one more night, so we said our goodbyes that morning. From the small village it was two hours to the next big town and there was no public transportation, so I decided to give hitchhiking a try. And I was picked up by the first car that passed! It was two guys about my age. They spoke very little English, but we got on well enough, and they dropped me off in Kochkor. Too easy! Next I would try and catch up with the Greg and David at the biggest tourist destination in Kyrgyzstan: Lake Issyk Kul.

One more stream photo. I can't get enough of the S-curves!

Osh

The city of Osh is known as the Southern Capital. It’s the second biggest city in Kyrgyzstan and quite cut off from the capital of Bishkek in the north by lots of mountains. It has a strong Uzbek presence considering their proximity, but at this point I don’t even really know what that means. But anyway, it’s a nice, green, fairly relaxing city. In fact it’s more like one big suburb, but still has the things you’d need from a big city.

On our first day we set off in search of two things, SIM cards and the hikable mountain. First we had to cross the park, which was pretty entertaining in itself as it’s got kiddie rides and carnival games everywhere. Ball toss, darts, bb gun shooting, punchable force-reading mannequin, etc. AND ice cream for about 20 cents! We probably passed 6 or 7 soft serve machines in the span of a few minutes. Suffice to say that Kyrgyz people really like their ice cream! We tried our hand at a few of the games and a few dinky keychains were won. Not bad.

Next we made it to the cell phone store. To our surprise the girls behind the counter spoke very good English, which made our lives much easier than we anticipated. Attempting to buy SIM card is not one of those things you can just point and use hand gestures for! We ended up getting our cards and unlimited data for slightly over a dollar. A dollar! Unlimited data! That is the best phone deal I have ever seen in all my life traveling. I don’t know if was some sort of tourist promotion, but damnnn. Nice work Kyrgyzstan.

Next up was the mountain. It’s more like a big hill right in the middle of town, so it wasn’t exactly hard to find. We stopped in the 3 story yurt museum first, which is kind of cool to say you’ve been in a 3 story yurt. Then as we were about to head up the mountain we were approached by a TV crew from Bishkek, wondering if they could interview us about Osh and the mountain. Uhh sure. The head TV woman couldn’t speak English so there was a translator. And they actually didn’t want to interview all of us, just the one girl in the group, Annie. They told the rest of us (3 guys) to just hang out behind her and pretend like we were having a good time in the background, ha. I’m sure we’re all famous in Bishkek now…

TV interview

women sliding down the slick rocks on the mountain

some bad taxidermy in the 3 story yurt

The mountain was itself wasn’t anything spectacular, but you do get nice views over the city. I think the highest building we could find was only nine or 10 stories high. The people we met along the way were also super friendly and we got lots of hi’s and hello’s and made friends with a couple of students who spoke good English. All in all it was nice afternoon. After that we arranged our ride to the next destination and went back to the same restaurant we went to the first night to get those delicious lamb shish kebabs and a few beers. Kyrgyzstan was shaping up to be a very enjoyable country!

Border Crossing, Kashgar to Osh

We knew it was going to be a long day. Not particularly long in miles, but with checkpoints, baggage checks, having to change cars, etc, it would not be your usual border crossing. The strange thing about going from Kashgar to Osh is that there is a bus that costs around $100 but it costs about half of that if you just share taxis, which makes no sense, but that’s how things work in this part of China. So we got picked up by our minivan taxi driver and all piled in for the first leg of the journey, which was to the furthest city that regular taxis are allowed to go to. From that city you go through a security checkpoint and then you have to change cars to a different minivan taxi to take you to the actual border. I still can't figure out why they make you do this, it's like they think you're going to sneak in a person from the side of the road into your car, or something. Or they just like making dumb rules. 

From this point it was probably 100 miles to the border and we had to get stopped multiple times for Chinese police to check and write down information from our passports (please invest in a scanner!) and scan our luggage. In total we got stopped about 5 times before reaching the border. In the stop before the border we finally got stamped out of the country, and proceeded to the actual border. Of course the agents that man this gate go on lunch for 3 hours between 1pm and 4pm so we had to wait a while before they decided to open their gates again. What a great job! After finally passing through they let us off in no-man’s land, which is over a mile of nothingness in between the China and Kyrgyzstan border, which you have to walk with all your stuff. Fun!
 

Immigration building we finally got stamped out of

Finally you make it to the Kyrgyzstan side, which is much much easier. They look at your passport, stamp you in, and you’re good to go. From there we got shared taxis for the 4 hour ride to Osh. Our driver pulled into someone’s yard to get some gas, put on some Kyrz/Russian euro-pop sounding beats and we were off. Just one military checkpoint and we were free from the red tape.

It’s interesting to note how the scenery changes so quickly once you get into the Kyrgyzstan. The border town is kind of depressing with soviet looking concrete block houses, but once you get past that you’re in the mountains (still), but it’s much greener and full of life than the dry desert outcroppings on the Chinese side. There are several little yurt encampments with cows and goats and horses grazing around the countryside. The scenery on the drive is really nice. You can already tell you’re going to like the place. Although after the driver played his same CD four times in a row, you weren’t as sure.

green!

We got into Osh around 8 in the evening, which was a solid 8 hours of travel. Our driver kept asking us where we wanted to go in Russian, but he didn’t know the guesthouse, or seem to recognize the map at all, so we kept trying to explain to him that we would point him in the right way when we got close, which was not a smooth process. Our guesthouse was in some sort of suburban maze, that we never would have found if it wasn’t for google maps. But we all got there in one piece, managed to find a working ATM, and went out to dinner at nice restaurant that ended up costing about 3 or 4 dollars a person, with drinks! Kyrgyzstan was going to be cheaper than anyone thought!  

Kashgar

I got off the train, hopped on the bus into the city and was able to walk to my hostel. It had a rooftop terrace that looked over the street and the mosque across the road. I was impressed. The location was in Old Town, which is a large area of winding cobblestone streets, alleyways, and Uygher style clay houses. I liked it immediately. I’m a fan of any city that is set up nicely for randomly wandering around, and for this purpose, Kashgar was great.

I noticed that a lot of the buildings looked kind of new and nice (unlike most Uygher neighborhoods I’ve walked through) and apparently the Chinese government did a large renovation project a few years ago, so I guess it’s not totally authentic, but it looks nice at least. Although I can just about guarantee that anyone whose house was getting demolished had no say in the matter. In China they just love to knock down actual historical areas and ancient cities and rebuild totally redo them. It’s pretty tacky, but it’s the Chinese way.

Next thing to do was find out if anyone was going to Kyrgyzstan in the next few days as it’s really helpful to travel in a group and split taxis. There’s only two or three hostels that backpackers stay at and they all have message boards where people post their plans and try to get a group together. I found a Scottish couple who posted on the board and were going the same way I was. I messaged the girl on facebook and waited for a response.

That night I ran into another hiccup. I walked around town to all the banks I could find and every single time the ATM was locked. Whaaaat?? Apparently the government shut down every single ATM in the city from the evening to mid-morning the next day, I have no idea why. I’ve never heard of anything like this before, anywhere. Well I had enough money to buy bread for dinner and get a taxi to the infamous Sunday animal market (which is a bit outside of town) the next morning, but not enough money to get back. I might be doing a bit of hitchhiking!

I woke up around 7:30 and found a taxi and showed him the photo of the animal market on my phone and off we went. The market was pretty damn cool. It’s only on Sundays and people from all over Xinjiang come to buy and sell livestock. There’s loads of goats, sheep, and cows. The buyers handle the livestock and feel all around the animals, their heads, ears, throats, etc. I don’t know exactly how they determine which ones are the best, but after a thorough groping eventually they’ll make their choice. The final deal ends with money changing hands and a very enthusiastic, over the top hand shake between the buyer and seller. It’s pretty entertaining!

After a solid two hours of wandering around I’d seen enough and began walking down the road back towards town, as I didn’t have enough money for a taxi and there were no buses. Eventually a middle aged woman picked me up and ended up dropping me off at different market closer to town, where I could catch a bus (as far as I could understand in broken Chinese).  This market was a fruit and vegetable market, and it contained more piles of watermelon than I have ever seen in my life. Just truckloads and truckloads of watermelon, among other things. So far I was really enjoying Kashgar’s markets. From here I was able to find the buses that went back into the town center, which I could afford, at 30 cents a ride.

Back in town I was finally able to find a working ATM, thank god. I also heard back from the Scottish girl and she and her boyfriend, plus two Kiwi guys were all looking to go overland into Kyrgyzstan. Perfect. I decided to switch hostels to where they were at to make the organizing easier. I also had more time to explore the old town, which I never got bored of. It really is a fascinating place. Kashgar certainly was one of the more unique cities I’ve ever been to.

I spent one more day in the city and then a group of six of us would be make the arduous, red-tape filled, pain in the ass border crossing from Kashgar to Osh, in southern Kyrgyzstan.