Yaks, Freezing Outside, Warm Kyrgyz Jurt at 4000 m close to Afghanistan

22th of September:

 

We leave Murgab in the morning wanting to reach the lake Zor Kul at the border to Afghanistan. We leave the Pamir High way and follow some dirt road to the south through wide valley seeing 6000 m high peaks located in Afghanistan. Dark clouds approaching, it is getting freezing cold and not snow more like very fine ice falls. Not much but I am worried a little it will get more. Going over a little pass, driving in a side valley with better weather let me feel a little bit more relaxed. The white street in the map is impossible to find. Again, only with the Russian military maps I can find the way. We are almost alone, after 50 km Off-road I ask a woman for the direction. She is collecting grass with her daughter. She looks scared maybe not seeing foreigners so often in this remote region. Anyway, I hope that I can trust my GPS and go on over 4300 m high pass. Again it is starting to snow a little. On the "Way" are two other lakes and since Kotomi got motion sick and we both feel the height of over 4000 m we decide to stop at a lonely Jurt. We get invited and stay there overnight. The evening is approaching and the Jurt fills up with all family members. The mother her sons, one daughter with her husband and kids. They all come back with their Yaks and goats from fare away meadows. In this height they use donkeys instead of horse.

 

We get to see how they make their bred and noodles. Everything is self-made only ones a week a Kamaz truck comes and brings some flour or necessary things. They appreciate that I speak some Russian and I am because it is very interesting in that way. They tell me that they stay here only 2 months. It is not much compared to the Song Koel Nomads in Kyrgyzstan with only 1000 m difference but 6 month summer! The wide plateau is half Tajik and half Afghanistan with no fence. I guess they even cross the border during day time with their herds since it is just some hundreds of meters away at least as seen in my GPS map.

 

In the light of the oil lamp we eat all together, the oven gets filled with a lot of Yak shit and we all go to sleep side by side in this windy freezing height.

 

 

Hot SPRINGs and Pamiri Hospitality

20^th – 21th of September:

 

On the “street” from Kyrgyzstan to the first “big” village Murgab we did not see any car. We are driving mostly on asphalt not the newest but still quite good. Left of us is a long fence to China in the middle of nowhere. I wonder who would cross the border in this height, but I guess if you have something to hide you would try to cross here. But we just see mountains small rivers and even no sign of Jacks. There is not that much food in this desert like landscape. In the map Murgab looks like something big. But it is just a small village at the end of a green valley, a little bit less cold than at the Karakul. We change some money on the market where we still can feel a strong influence of the Kyrgyz culture. More than 50% are still Kyrgyz in this part of Tajikistan. The people are friendly and describe us the way to the hot springs we want to go. We just drive on some kilometres in the green valley. Here we decide to make a camp at the river. The mountains around us look like desert. Only at the bottom of the valley you find strong and hard grass. The soil is covered with salt again since water evaporates faster in this height.

 

Next day we go on and stop at a farmer’s house. He is Kyrgyz and drunken, but at least he can explain me the way. “Cross the bridge to left, go straight and left up the valley. After that come back and have a tea.“ Just 5 more kilometres a bad stony way and we are there. The valley narrows here and in the end is a small house in which two pools are. In front there is a Jurt and a green house with tomato and paprika. Even in this height but thanks to the hot springs. We meet our first Pamiri people. They are students and are born in Murgab. Now they just came back to their home town to celebrate the end of Ramadan. The pool I just filled with fresh water. The water is really stimulating and helps to heal the muscle pain of Kotomi. She was writing Blog the days before in the tent with her back in the cold.

 

In the bath I met Ismael. He invite us for Tajik Шорпо and tea. After this we go back with him to Murgab. On the way back his “Taxi” an old UAZ bus almost loses his wheel since it is just fixed with 3 instead of five screws and the car is heavily overloaded with people.

 

In his home or better in the home of his sister’s husband in Murgab we get to here his story. He is was married with Russian woman and also has two kids. He stayed in Moscow 8 years but he could not stand the heavy drinking of the people and also the drinking of his wife. He got divorced and now some kind of searching Single working from time to time in Russia. 3 month legally and after that illegally just paying some bribes to the police if they catch him. Later we recognise that Tajikistan is heavily dependent on the family members which working in Russia and sending a lot of this money back to Tajikistan to support there families.

 

We met his sister and husband who are working in the mountains for 4 months. He is working in the hunting business. In the area around here they hunt the wild and white Marco polo sheep. After four months mountain they just come back and have to prepare the house for the soon approaching winter in this freezing height of 3600 m. Self-made bread Нан, marmalade and Конфекты again. Some tapes of Tajik music with Queen in between. We go to sleep again thankful about the hospitality in Central Asia, this time at the end of the world in Tajikistan.

Welcome to Tajikistan and Tooooooootal SILENCE

19^th of September:

 

We are in the Pamir Valley and approaching the Kyrgyz check point, which is located in a great landscape. There are no problems at the Kyrgyz side. There are still some kilometres to the Tajik check point. We are driving in a wide valley where in front of us a wall of ice builds up. I see my first Jacks which look like a mix of goat and cow. They are the only animals domesticated in this height by humans, same as in Nepal. We go up to our first pass with more than 4000 m, the Kyzyl Art pass with 4280 m. We are drinking a lot to avoid altitude sickness, but still we can feel the height in our head. Also the car “feels” the height; it seems he got like a cough, less power and black clouds behind us. Just some meters after the pass we are welcomed to Tajikistan from a soldier. The usual procedure starts. Passport check, custom ....  The custom declaration is made inside a dark container on the bed of the custom officer. After custom we go to the next container and some people custom, police, private people .... no idea fill out some documents. They say we need to have them when driving in Tajikistan and we should never pay again somewhere else. Again different money. This time Someni. Some 80+50 Someni to pay and we go on to the Karakul lake. One more pass with 4000 plus and we are at the lake at around 4000 m. Clear Sky, the lake is surrounded by high mountains and the grass at its shores is covered with the salt of the lake. If I said that we experienced a total silence in Kazakhstan in the mountains, then I was wrong. Here at the Karakul there was really no sound. Even the sound due to a soft wind; Noooooooothing ..... the head feels like numb, actually all the body and just the gravitation let me feel not to be on the moon. There is no sign of life around; just us and surreal impressing scenery.

    

The Chinese Empire

18th of September:

 

The road we are driving is quite good. The street is financed by a Chinese import/export Bank. Some parts are still under construction and of course a Chinese and not a Kyrgyz company is building here. The Chinese build the street for "free". That means they get the right to dig for natural resources in Kyrgyzstan and at the same time they can use this street to bring a lot of their products in the country. Dozens of Chinese trucks are on this road. Apart from this we get to see a landscape which looks like in a theatre. Sometimes it looks like a collage of three different landscapes. And each landscape is printed on a big paper wall and set one behind the other on the stage. In front green canyon, behind some small mountains of 3000 m height and behind some rough/sharp mountains made of rock without vegetation but some snow with more than 3000m. We are coming closer to the Pamir. I was really looking forward to come here, which is like one high light of this journey.

 

We arrive in Sary Tash fill up again all tanks with Diesel. In Tajikistan the Diesel price will be 5 times higher than here, at least in the Pamir. In Sary Tash it is already quite cold 3000 plus meter high. Out of the village on the Pamir valley we find a nice sleeping place with a view on Peak Lenin which is almost 7000 m. In this landscape we still have 3G Internet connection, sending our last messages from this amazing place in Kyrgyzstan. Tomorrow we will start to Tajikistan which is from here only a few kilometres. 

 

(N 39.64032°, E 73.23988 °)

 

Fu** Police Part II

16th of September:

 

Again I want to take a mountain road to the South which is plotted in my map. But the people explain me that this road does not exist. That means I have to choose the next bigger one but also this one is quite a dirt road going over a pass which is 3000 plus meters high. Most probably this road can not be used in winter time. This means that this part in the middle between North and South is almost disconnected. We mostly drive through narrow valleys along Jurts, gaining height in hours by winding up the serpentines. One time we come to a bigger village where I am asking a drunken Mercedes driver for the direction. Here it seems not to matter what they do. As long as there is no asphalt there is also no police.  He can not tell me the way since he is too drunk but he is still driving. I guessing my way and in the next village I get at least the main direction from a girl which is washing the carpet on the short piece of asphalt they have here in this village. From now on I just ask for the direction to Ош since the small villages in my map have all other names and especially the young people do not know these names. The older still remember the Russian names. We are coming down in the wide Fergana valley which reaches until Uzbekistan which is actually already very close now. Coming closer to the city Jalal-Abad, the third biggest city after Bichkek and Osh, we get again stopped by the police. I see him taking money in his pocket from another driver. So I am thinking ok what they want this time. Anyway he just asking where we come from and he gets friendly when he recognises that I come from East-Germany. He is one of the many we met who has also done his military service in the Sowjet Union times in the former GDR. For this time we are again released without a problem. We stay just before Jalal-Abad in a corn field.

 

(N 41.02636°, E 72.98614 °)

 

17th of September:

 

Ош is our destination for today. In our map it seems that we are actually driving through Uzbekistan. Along the streets we see a lot of Chaihana. It looks like a bed with a carpet, in the middle there is a table and above you have something like a roof. Here the people drink their tea or eating something. We read that this Chaihana is very typical for Uzbekistan. But anyway the South of Kyrgyzstan is anyway a melting pot of Central Asia.

 

We go on and some kilometres before Ош a car in the opposite direction gives a light signal, which normally mean that there is police. Anyway I am driving all the time very slow. As usual the police stop us and want to have all documents. When he has all documents he gets suddenly serious. He tells us we were driving to fast. I tell him that it can not be true. We go to the guy whos is the officer here. He shows me his radar and the display shows 66 km/h. He does not wear police clothing; he is fat and tries to look as angry as he can.  He wants to tell me that I was driving 66 km/h. He want to have my driving license and also the papers for the car and always telling something about deportation of the car and the documents. The other one is smiling and tells us we could enjoy our holiday here also without the car. Then the good cop bad cop game is starting. The “good” one tells me that the other one is bad but it is his boss. His boss would forget everything if he gets 100 USD. I tell him that our speed was not 66 km/h. But how can I prove it. It is impossible. Well than he says maybe it was 40 km/h and because there is some blue Village sign we can only go 30 km/h. Hmmmmmmmm what should we do?! I ask for his name, to make him afraid, Kotomi asks to contact the embassy. Suddenly he just wants to have 1000 Som, around 20 EUR. I want to have receipt and then he tells me it would be 3000 Som ???!?!?!? Well finally I gave him 20 USD. But anyway I am still angry on me that I did! I should have just waited there and finally I could have proven my speed with the GPS data. But these two guys were a fu*** perfect and criminal team of Police mans. They know how to rape their own people and also foreigners. The way to Ош I really drive slowly and these guys still make me mad. I knew it before we started this journey, but it is really ridicules. Anyway in Ош we get the food for the next 2 weeks since we are not sure how easy we can get anything in Tajikistan on the Pamir highway. We eat some Лагман in a Chaihana and drive out of the city. Almost exactly one week after our last Баня we find here again one, but this time really nice and hot. After the Баня it is already dark and we are driving in direction of Sary Tash, finding after 100 km a place in a valley at a river. 

 

(N 40.25673°, E 73.41695 °)

 

6030 and Time Travel

14th of September:

 

In the morning Kotomi has a short ride on the horse and we go on in the direction of Osh. Between Song Koel and Osh the streets are more off-road like and it will take us some more days. Again we go down through a green valley and almost in the end of the valley we decide to make a stop under the tree beside a very clean river. Two cowboys’ Жыргалбек and Шайлоо come and we are starting a chat. They are very gentle and help us to make a fire where we cook some tee and our noodle soup. Шайлоо is really interested in our kitchen and the spices we have. Most spices are to strong for him but the curry he would like to try. We give him some and he tell us he will try it with potatoes the night which they will stay up there in Song Koel. With the horses they will need around 2-3 hours. Anyway they are not in a hurry. Жыргалбек is around 50 and tells me that his kids studying in Bischkek but he like this life here with his horses, sheep and some cows he has. From time to time he sell a sheep and that’s all he need. I ask him how it is working with the land he needs for his animals and if he has to rent it or if it is his own land. He tell me that he need to pay around 600 Som for one hektar per year For his 10 cows and 50 sheep he has 10 hectare that are spread over this mountain area. This day they want to go up to Song Koel and bring their animals down to the village before the winter.

 

I also ask him about the grey eyes of most man and ask if it is because of the water or missing vitamins. He explains it is because of the Wodka. After helping us to fill up the water we have to try some kind of self-made beer БОЗО.First we can not remember the name and than he says just remember sixty thirty 6030.

 

We go on to the village Куртка and cross the river Нарын. We choose a white road in our map which seems to be shortest to go on to Ош (Osh). Along the Нарын you have a wide canyon, where the "walls" of the canyon are from sand formations which are created by the water which is running down from the Snow Mountains in spring. Sometimes it looks like huge elephant feet which are shaped in the sand. The road gets a dirt road, we go down to the river and make our camp in total silence just the wind and the river. We are sitting there at our fire and we both have the feeling that we travelled back to ancient times. In each moment we expect that Jesus comes around the corner followed by a Shepard with his sheep herd.

 

(N 41.43488°, E 74.74663 °)

 

 

Grey Eyes and The First Jurt Stay

13th of September:

 

We are driving through the valley and pass several small villages. We try to get a Нан (Indian bread) but everybody is baking own bread. The only thing you can get is Wodka or Конфекты. In a bigger village we can get what we need. Although there is a lot of water in the river, the valley itself is just covered by grass and you can find some trees along te river. It is very dry which means that we also can get only a view vegetables. The valley gets wider and more desert like. Thanks to the Russian military maps and the few local people we met on the way we find the dirt road which will lead us to the 1500 m higher located Song Koel. We driving through the steppe and in front of us a mountain chain builds up. The entry to the valley which will lead us to the pass of the Song Koel looks like someone used a sword to cut it in the rocks. At the entry of the steep valley a guy from a farming house waves to come in. There we find two young families with there kids. We get the obligatory tea, marmalade, butter, Нан and finally Шорпо (Sheep Meat Soupe with potato and some spices). Some other guys join and they all have like grey eyes. I recognised this already with a lot of mans I met when I was asking for the way. Later I found out that the grey eyes come from heavy Vodka drinking. Anyway one of the young fathers Касен ask us if we can bring him, his wife and his small daughter to his house which is just a few kilometres more up the valley. Since we have not enough space we put the baby car and Касен at the roof of the car and his wife and daughter share the seat together with Kotomi. Before we leave I buy a Кумыз  from him and we climb up with the car to around 3000 m. It is getting cold and quite windy on top, the valley was still warm and green. After the highest point we drive through hilly grass covered landscape, from time to time a Jurt, a lot of horses and sheep. We can see the Song Koel (Koel stand for lake) already some while before we arrive there. We look for a place at the lake, it is windy and cold. A drunken man, again with grey eyes, comes to us and explains we better not stay here. We decide to go on and find a tourist Jurt camp for the night. The woman who runs the place is very nice and we decide to stay there. Compared to our tent which would e very cold at this windy place the Jurt is like heaven. It is filled with warm carpets, and since there are not many people we have one Jurt for us alone. On the carpets there are 4 colorfull samt mats, the same which are used when sitting around the table. The brother of the lovely woman heats up the oven with cow shit and it gets cozy and warm inside the Jurt. Kotomi is really happy and now she want to have a Banja and a Jurt when we are in Germany. It is really nice in such a Jurt, it feels very cozy and comfortable. The night cost per person 250 Som (60 Som is around 1 EUR). 

 

We decide to have a meal together with some other tourists from Germany, Swiss and Austria. Today’s meal is fried fish. Since long time we did not eat the fish and we are happy that meal is not only meat. After the meal everybody has to sing something. For the lovely woman and her mother it is not difficult to find a song. The Austrian guy sings a funny drinking song, the German some folklore song and Kotomi and I really can not remember a song completely what a shame. The translator of the tourist group explains us that such a Jurt cost around 1000 USD. From the money they make in the 6 month summer up here they bought last year a Jurt, since renting the Jurts from other people also cost them a lot of money. To bring all the things back to their village Куртка before the winter is approaching they have to hire a truck which cost them 10000 Som. Basically they combine the nomadic life with tourism. They still have their cows, sheep and horses. The horses you can rent for 100 Som/hour. (N 41.75747°, E 75.12183 °)