Further Wanderings

We approached the Uzbekistan border crossing with some trepidation. The Uzbek border guards (and police generally) have a reputation as being some of the most corrupt and difficult to deal with anywhere. Add to this the large amount of bureaucracy associated with entering the country and the slight irregularity in our visas (the Uzbek embassy in Bishkek made a mistake in the dates and corrected them by hand) and we were ready for the worst.

Happily, it didn’t materialize. In fact the whole process was very pleasant and smooth! There was a friendly English speaking lady who helped us fill out our customs declaration forms (the Uzbek government is extremely nervous about the flight of wealth from their nation and are very strict about ensuring that visitors leave with no more hard currency than they enter the country with.) And while the immigration guards raised their eyebrows when they saw our visas, when we pointed out that the changes had been stamped and signed by the embassy officials, they said it was A-Okay and welcomed us to the country.

On the far side of the border gate was, well, nothing. There were a few soldiers sitting around chatting and one guy with a minivan waiting to take passengers somewhere. We were passengers of just the sort he was looking for. With no alternative and only a vague idea of how much the ride ought to cost. We knew the $30 we paid for the trip to the city of Kokand was clearly too much, but after the smooth border crossing we were feeling happy enough not to be too too worried about it.

A weaver at work turning silk fibres into fabric by hand in the Fergana Valley town of Margilon

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Northern Tajikistan, like the Eastern Pamirs, is almost another world from the rest of the country.
The north is wide, dry, rolling, fertile land, but is separated from Dushanbe by yet another range of mountains, the Fans.

While not the equals of the Pamirs or Hindu Kush in size, the Fan Mountains are more worn and rugged, presenting towering rock spires and jagged snow capped summits right next to the road. I’d hoped to spend some time trekking in the Fans, but the length of time it took to get our visas meant that we just had to admire them from the car as we wound our way though them. There were two mountain passes that must be negotiated in order to reach the plains of the north. The first was negotiated by a tunnel beneath it. And quite a tunnel it was. 8km in length, and positively Hadean in character. Bare rock walls and ceiling, and a road surface little better than dirt. Water sometimes dripping and occasionally pouring from the roof. No ventilation. And the only illumination provided by incandescent bulbs that lit the (many) locations where some poor souls were doing repair work in the middle of all this.

All in all it wasn’t a bad thing that the other tunnel was closed for maintenance. This meant that the journey took a bit longer, but that we got to enjoy the long, twisting climb up and the view from the top of Ayni pass. As it was only a temporary measure, this part of the road wasn’t paved, which left the car covered in a thick layer of dust that the driver stopped to wash off at an improvised car wash station near a chaikhana (tea house) on the far side.

Beyond these two sections, the road was actually the best in the country, as it connected Dushanbe with Tajikistan’s second city, Khujand. We were heading there ourselves, but on that day we turned off a bit early, making our first acquaintance with northern Tajikistan in the city of Istaravshan.

The Fan Mountains from near the top of 3378m Ayni Pass on our way north

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As with our time in Bishkek, it's really unfair to characterize our visit to Dushanbe as being "purgatorial." Both capital cities were actually very pleasant places, where we had many great experiences. But I suppose I used the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Leaving the Wakhan Valley, we headed north, still paralleling the Afghan border, but now in the western parts of the Pamir Range. The western Pamirs are much more like the Wakhan than was the eastern part of the range. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Crossing the Khargush pass was the last time we'd see the high side of 4000m during our trip to the Pamirs, but there were still plenty of mountains left. Indeed, the Wakhan Valley contains some of the biggest peaks ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Pamirs are a vast, remote and wild region of a fairly wild and remote country. Bordered by Kyrgyzstan, China and Afghanistan, the mountains and plateaus of the region contain 45% of Tajikistan's land area, but only 3% of ... [Continue reading this entry]

Our time in Osh began inauspiciously. We climbed out of the mashrutka with little idea of where we were in town. We went to try and phone the hostel we hoped to stay at and I realized our phone was ... [Continue reading this entry]

Finding a ride south towards our destination, Arslanbob, at Osh bazaar was straightforward enough. We wandered up to the crowd of people near the parking lot, mentioned where we were headed and were immediately ushered towards a waiting minivan. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Our second week in Bishkek was just as pleasant as the first one. And we actually got up to much the same sorts of things as well. So effectively this entry is going to be me discussing stuff ... [Continue reading this entry]