The Plan B Adventure

Our last day in Kyrgyzstan started at 3AM. Have you (minus Jenni and Russ) ever had to set your alarm for 2:45AM? Not fun….ugh! But we were excited and off to conquer the newly-opened (2 years) Irkeshtam Pass. Through the mountains and across the plains we ventured in the pitch dark travelling in the back of our private minibus. Once the sun arrived Jeff (fearing heights) was stuck by the window for a harrowing ride up 18 serpentine-like turns to 12,000 feet and then down which in his eyes is even more frightening.

This journey is really like no other we’ve experienced. The ride from Osh to the Kyrgyz-Chinese border at Irkeshtam is only 260 KMs (162 miles) yet takes 8 hours. You must start at 3AM in order to leave the Kyrgyz highway (if you can call it that) by noon as they close THE WHOLE ROAD!! for repairs. In addition to this minor inconvienence you also must buckle in for the bumpiest ride of your life. This trip wasn’t as bad as the southern Chinese bus experience of Jan 2006 because we were smarter this time and hired our own transportation. This is the only way to do it…trust us!! Even though you’ve got six seats between the two of you get ready to use them all. The twists and turns….the bumps and bottoming out….the offroading into pastures and streams were all taken in unexpected comfort due to our great driver, entertaining guide, and luxurious minibus. We’ve been trying to find a way to describe the road condition but it seems impossible to articulate. As a reference to only a few of you…remember the road under the powerlines off 70th by LWHS that all the jeeps (and Findlay’s Fiesta) offroaded on?? Try that road for 8 hours!!! It was an adventure…..but that’s not the half of it!!

Arriving at the Kyrgyz side of the Irkeshtam border you can see that things aren’t going to be simple. From the requested bribe by the gate guard to the insanely, novice international commerce that is taking place you can’t possibly imagine moving through Customs and Immigration to China in under a few hours. Well..more like 7 hours! Get ready for this one….story for a lifetime. The border at Irkeshtam has three sections as far as tourists are concerned. The first is the Kyrgyz military or trade commerce only side. The second is a 2km Kyrgyz-Chinese neutral zone, which only one military can occupy at a time. And the last is a 5km stretch for Chinese military or trade commerce only use. The reason we explain this is your guide just can’t escort you to the border and introduce you to your next guide. In reality you need to patch onto a trade truck through both country zones and hopefully the receiving military will give you a lift in the neutral zone. Of course…with the Chinese you have no such luck. After Elnura tried adamantly to arrange for a smooth crossing the best we could get was a Kyrgyz military escort to the neutral border sight. From there we waited for the Chinese to finish lunch and then an hour later they arrived. Oh good..this looks positive especially as the Kyrgyz received beer and liquor from the Chinese in an apparent trade for us, some valuable American tourists.

Guess again…as we went to load our bags into the Chinese military truck they drove off laughing without us. Oh well, we should just have to hike our bags a few minutes to Chinese Customs and that will be that, right? Of course not! Nothing is that easy with the Chinese. As we attempted to walk into Chinese territory we were rudely pushed back into neutral territory and told to wait three hours. Apparently, people at Chinese Customs don’t work for lunch or the three hours after it. They had plenty of time to practice guitar, and stare into nothingness with their binoculars as we watched them….but apparently not enough time to give us a stupid little stamp to get into their god-forsaken country. Just us out there in the middle of the desert between giant mountains with no idea if we would be allowed in China….? As our nerves were beginning to fray and faces beginning to burn (literally) Becca looked skyward and witnessed a glorious (Old School reference) sight….the great American bald eagle was gently soaring overhead. Of course it was there as a sign for us (right?) and not searching for the multiple rodents that had been scurrying amidst our feet. At this point we will take anything…any sign! After “the sighting” it was only a short 3 minute wait and the gates were up. We got our entry stamp, passed along some friendly obscenities (you know, swearing with a smile), and looked for a trade truck to deliver us to Customs, only 5KM away. Oops, wrong again. No trade trucks were running into China due to some unexplainable upcoming 9-day holiday but needless to say after some comedic banter we had smiles on our faces and were off….

PG Version

Becca: I’m never coming to this country again.

Jeff: But what about the Olympics?

Becca: Jeff! I’m never coming back!

Jeff: What about our next Great Wall adventure?

Becca: Looks like it will be YOUR next Great Wall adventure!

Both of us: (Laughing at the absurdity of the situation and relishing the opportunity to relate it on the blog)

After a short 3k jaunt with full gear we arrived at Chinese Customs and into the arms of Abdul Rehman, our guide for the next few days through western China. Just a short 260km drive (this time 4 not 8 hours) later we arrived in Kashgar and settled into bed after our 20 hour (3AM…remember) adventure. Isn’t travelling the world fun?!! Most of the time, YES….sometimes, not so much. Well at least we know others on the Silk Road have endured much worse to experience its grandeur.

With our Western Uzbekistan education complete the next leg of our scheduled journey took us through the interesting Eastern section of Uzbekistan…….over the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border……into the city of Osh, Kyrgyzstan for a few days……then over the Irkeshtam Pass bordering Kyrgyz and China and onto Kashgar, China the center point of the Great Silk Road. Due to our ambition plans covering three countries and two under-utilized border crossings would be completed in under a week….Stressful, not really, but tiring, definitely. Whew…..we are tired!!!

So after a great time with our guide, Bobur for over eight days, we parted ways and picked up Tehir, a veteran guide whom would take us through the culturally and artisan rich countryside of Eastern Uzbekistan. It’s amazing to leave Tashkent, UZ’s biggest city and after just minutes find yourself amidst glowing red fields of poppies; giant, brown tracts of cotton fields; and moving down the highway alongside a guy asleep on a donkey cart. This is Eastern Uzbekistan in all it’s glory. Very rich in agriculture and as we moved further into the mountain villages of the Fergana Valley we come to find extremely rich in natural resources (iron, gold, silicon, coal) and livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, horses) as well. Fergana Valley has made it’s name through the ages as the home of the “Heavenly Horses”, which enticed the Chinese to advance their path along the Silk Road as a means for obtaining these powerful horses instead of the wimpy, (cheap shot, but later you’ll understand) little traditional ones that they had. The Fergana Valley is home to many towns and actually stretches all the way into and across parts of neighboring Krygyzstan. Being that many of the towns have many different crafts and customs, Tehir recommended we visit Margilon (home of handmade silk products for hundreds of years), Rishdon (home of handmade ceramics for thousands of years) as well as Andijon and Kokand for a look at the final frontier of the evil Khans in far-reaching Eastern Uzbekistan.

After such an intense look at history, religion, and architecture over the past few weeks, we loved getting a first hand look at some of the local crafts that made the Fergana Valley famous throughout time along the Silk Road. These crafts and unique features are really what attracted all types along the famous Road. First, we stopped at Rishdon and the home of a ceramic master whose family has been creating beautifully, handcrafted ceramics of all kinds for 15 (yeah, that’s a long time) generations. We hadn’t seen Westerners in so long it was a shock when we ran into Clausens from Fort Wayne, Indiana in the same little small ceramicist’s house. Actually, they aren’t located in Fort Wayne currently they are living in a far-reaching village of Uzbekistan working for an NGO and training local nurses on caring for the community at large. Quite admirable work and we really enjoyed sharing some tea with them and their two daughters before heading off to Margilon.

This city (Margilon) has been making handwoven silk products since the early days of the Silk Road. We were allowed an inside look at the process from the creation of the dyes through all-natural products to the rooms of young women painstakingly constructing rugs, scarfs, and local Suzanes. Seeing the step-by-step process is fascinating especially since they are still using tools and products that have been successfully making silk products for hundreds of years. However, the best part was the silk worms. Each April the government breeds a set number of silk worms and distributes to businesses as well as locals that wish to make a few extra bucks. These worms are no bigger than a centimeter at the beginning of their lives and through 30 straight days of eating mulberry trees, branches and all, they grow to be the size of your pinky. Shockingly, individual families monopolize up to 80% of their living space in order to breed these worms. Once bred the families deliver (for a modest fee) the worms to the local businesses whom take care of the harvesting process on a large scale. Great tour if you are ever in Margilon, just don’t go crazy on an end-of-tour shopping spree like yours truly!!

After a few more sights (palaces, museums, etc) we hopped in the car and headed off for the last few kilometers of open road in Uzbekistan. Our Uzbek guide Tehir and our new guide, Elnura, made a perfect hand-off at the border and we were very excited things went so smoothly. Just a few KMs down the road and we had arrived in Country #7 and its cultural capital of Osh.

Kyrgyzstan has a rich history yet since the country is essentially scissored between two giant mountain ranges (90% of country is mountainous) it often goes unexplored. Due to the lack of tourists the sights are quite underdeveloped yet still offer some amazingly rich historical documentations. For instance Mount Suleiman (named for Prophet Solomon) contains 3000 year old petroglyphs on the original rocks!! We won’t go into many more of the sights as Elnura, our guide, provided much more excitement and information than museums could ever provide. We received a local’s perspective on politics, female rights, the Islamic faith, feeling towards America, and being a woman entrepeneuer!! That’s right at the ripe age of 27, Elnura is starting her own travel agency (Kyrgyz Nur Traveling Co.) in a male-dominated society and we are so excited for her future success. Our discussions and conversations with Elnura were the highlight of our short 3-day trip through Kyrgyzstan….well that is until the last day!!!