16 Hour Drive to Dushanbe

After trying to catch what could have been one of the most exhilarting flights in the world from Khorug to Dushanbe - the planes do not fly if there is any sign of cloud on the route - we arranged for a Landcruiser journey in one bumpy day. The 16 hour journey took us along the Afghanistan border for miles, following a steep valley and river, with troops patrolling at regular intervals. We could see Afghan villages and people, horses and sheep being driven along a path that at times clung to the rock faces. Our route then turned northwards to cross an area of very unstable geology where the road was washed out in a number of places, climbed a mountain range, went through a 2.5 kms tunnel and emerged again onto unsurfaced roads. This was the longest road journey I have ever taken in one day and very tiring, but our driver was good and the total cost of $500 seemed worth it for the relatively comfortable 10 year old Toyota LandCruiser for the 4 of us and our luggage.

The journey really brought it home to us how isolated Khorug and the GBAO area in the east of Tajikistan is. If tourism is to develop further here I suspect that the old airport at Murghab will have to open again (there used to be flights from Dushanbe and Osh in the old Soviet days). Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan and where most of the investment seems to have been made. More to follow, but I must mention that we were stopped 14 times for police and army checks on the journey, most as we approached the capital and this ended by us having to go to a police station for a farsical registration process (which we subsequently learnt was not required). Dushanbe is awash with police stopping a fining people! Our driver passed over the necessary bribes as we went along.

It was difficult to take pictures on the journey but here are a few.

KHORUG, a valley town on the Afghanistan border

We drove from Murghab along the sensational Pamir Highway to Khorug, a journey of about 6 hours, if I remember correctly. The road surface is variable but the rough patches slow you down for more time to appreciate the scenery. Lunch was taken at a small village of Alichur - a meat and vegetable soup with bread.

Khorug seems like a metropolis after the high land of the Pamir mountains. Set in a valley bottom on the Afghanistan border it has a pleasant climate and the autumn colours were lovely. The town has a University which is being developed further with funding from the Agha Khan Foundation, there is a museum and shops and some of the toilets even have seats!

We visited the second highest botanic garden in the world and saw the huge new president's conference centre, recently built to celebrate the peace after the civil war. We were told that it was in some ways a demonstration from the president that the AK Foundation doesn't fund everything here!

Believe it or not I met someone in a restuarant that I knew from the UK and he handed over his apartment in Dushanbe for us to use, but more of that later.

Murghab - a tough place for anyone to live

Here are some images of Murghab in Tajikistan which must be amongst the toughest places to live in the world and is over 3,500 metres above sea level. The temperatures plummet to minus 40C in winter and can reach plus 35C or more in summer. Here are some pictures taken in the morning before we left, after our one night in a pleasant simple homestay. Electricity is a problem in this town and often goes off - we were told that only half the settlement could have power at any one time. The smoke you can see in some of the photos comes from the simple coal stoves that are used to heat the houses - and this is only late October!

Murghab is on the Pamir Highway between Osh and Khorug and the scenery around is stupendous.

The Kyzyl-Art Pass

Well this journey turned into the most adventurous part of our trip so far. The pass is some 4,250 metres high and marks the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The road is barely passable and our vehicle from Sary Tash to the Tajik border (about an hour's drive past the Kyrgyz border post across the pass) was an old Russian jeep which had to stop at least 4 times through overheating, with the driver using snow to cool down the radiator. We just made it and were met on the Tajik border by Tatik, our driver, who we had arranged to come up from Murghab to meet us (in a rather better vehicle). He had been at the border since before midday and we arrived well after 2.00pm, but he was pleasant and understanding about the whole matter. He had remarkably good English for someone who was self taught.

Sary Tash in Kyrgyzstan

I will let these pictures speak for themselves. We stayed one night in a simple homestay. Most of these pictures were taken early in the morning before we left for the border with Tajikistan.

The Road to Kyrgyzstan

We left Kashgar as planned to travel to the border with Kyrgyzstan where we were to be met on the other side by a driver who had come all the way from Osh (5 hours or so) to meet us and drive us to Sary Tash. It took us over 8 hours in all to cross the border at Irkeshtam. We arrived just as the border closed for lunch and then when it opened the computer system broke down and no vehicles were allowed through. We eventually passed the Chinese side of the border and then had to wait to be given a lift in the cabs of two large trucks. There were huge lines of trucks waiting to get through the border and chaos on the narrow road between the two posts. Some photos attached will show you something of this and scenery on the way to the pass. The Chinese side of Irkeshtam is a disgrace and the Chinese authorities really need to clean up there act!

We eventually reached Sary Tash in Kyrgystan in the dark. More of this high remote settlement in the next post.

LETTER FROM KHORUG

I have not been able to make a post for the past 4 days as we have been travelling through a remote part of Kyrgyzstan and along the fabulous Pamir Highway through easten Tajikistan. I am not able to attach any photos to this post from an internet booth in Khorug. The distances between settlements is vast in this mountainous area and we have had to travel between 6 and 8 hours each day to get between towns. Sary Tash in Kyrgystan and Murghab in Tajikistan were our two overnight stops in simple homestays. The high mountain passes and wide open desert mountain scenery is stunning. The altitude of always over 3000 metres (and up to 4,700 metres on one pass) takes your breath away.
Khorug here is the regional capital and seems quite sophisticated by comparison. It has a University funded by the Aga Khan Foundation (as just about everything else is here) and the second highest botanic garden in the world.
Tomorrow we leave at 5.00am for a 15 hour drive to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan and then have to grapple with the authorities at the Uzbekistan Embassy to get our Uzbek visas.
I hope to be able to attach some photos with the next post.

Kashgar Sunday Animal Market

Kashgar is famous for its bazaar and its Sunday animal market. We took a taxi to the edge of town and were able to wander around the outdoor market and take these photographs of both animals and their barganing owners. The men in small patterned hats are Uighurs and those in the black taller hats are Tajiks (well I think that is right and I must check that again). Most of the men seemed quite happy to know that their animals were being photographed and some even seemed to be proud that I had chosen to capture their beast. Others seemed to ignore us as if we were not there.

The Chelford Market in Cheshire will never seem the same again!

We are leaving Kashgar tomorrow (Monday) morning for Sary Tash in Kyrgyzstan. My posts on this blog could become less frequent when we enter the Stans, with their less reliable communications. So it's sweater, jackets, hat and even gloves for the next few days as we ascend to the mountains!

Kashgar - a city at the crossroads

Kashgar is very much a city at the crossroads, both in communication terms and in relation to its feel and ethnic mix. From Kashgar the roads and passes find their way across the snow-clad Pamir and Karakorum mountains to Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and even Afghanistan and onwards towards the Middle East. It is here that the ancient southern and northern Silk Routes around the Taklamakan desert meet again.

Since the new railway was built and roads were improved there has been a steady stream of Han Chinese coming in to dilute the traditional Uighur and other minority group's domination. The argument is the same as in Tibet - are the Chinese helping to develop a backward and deprived region or are they more concerned about preventing the breakaway of a remote area that looks more to central Asia than to Beijing?

Little is left of the old Kashgar but some hangs on in the bazaar area and in a small part of the old town that has belatedly been conserved and where visitors have to pay to enter the narrow streets.

The modern statue of Mao in the main square is a blunt reminder of who the Chinese consider is in control, although they have to post a guard at the base of it day and night!

Here are a few pictures that attempt to capture some of the old and the new.