I wanted to go to Kyrgystan to see the out doors and stay in a yert, and go eagle hunting and drink fermented mares milk but now it looks like that wont happen. The Kyrgystan people are some of the last true nomadic people in the world but even they dont go up to the jailoos in this weather. We are facing a last icey blast of winter and record snow for this time of year. It looks like I might just be bus hopping to Bishkek.
I bought the ticket on the morning of departure,Monday, but the bus didnt go cos the border was closed due to snow on the pass. Tuesday when I came back for a second go it was the same story, no bus but will be definite tomorrow. The border is open just no bus today. I met up with the Japanese couple I met yesterday and they had a friend who spoke some of the languageand they said they were going to go by taxi. We cashed in our tickets and went out the back of the station to arrange a taxi to the border. Atsushi seemed to be doing OK and spoke the language so I sat back happy to follow. He negotiated a very good rate of 23y each to Topa at the border. It is lucky they are Japanese and I have lost some weight cos we were cramed into the back of a Hundai Lantra. ! hr later we were at Topa and negotiating for another ride. WOOPS. Maybe he didnt ask the right questions. We are at the wrong border. We are at Torugart Pass which is a class 2 border and only for local people. We can cross with the right permit but none of us has the right permit. I suggested we go and ask anyway and see if we can get up to Tash Rabat then we can get a bus to anywhere we want to go. The Chinese border guard would not even let us in to ask the question.
We were surrounded by a bunch of dodgy old men trying to change money and appearing to tell us Irkeshtam Pass closed we had to use this one. We are about 300 km from where we are supposed to be. I dont speak the language but I knew these blokes wanted to make a buck. I got out a map and said, "torugart...irkeshtam...taxi" They knew straight away there was money in it so we had to start negotiating again. We settled on 350y for all of us and it only took 3hr in a beat up old Toyota Crown. The trip was OK, the scenery was great and we passed through some villages of mud brick houses with no running water or electricity. This area is so far from chinese it is not funny. We had a checkpoint along the way where they checked all passports and visas then let us continue.
When we arrived at the border we got into trouble for going the wrong way. Eventually a Chinese guard came and tol us we could wait in the customs hall cos they were closed till 4pm.
First military check us over, photograph our passports and check in our bags. Then customs do the same thing. They went for me. I got sent to the naughty room while we had a free and frank interrogation til I saw things their way and finally imigration had a go. The other three sailed through. While I was standing there I got told off for leaning on the desk then the ***** called over a soldier and said something to him. I thought "what now" but it was the other three.. she had forgotten to check their Kyrgystan visa. Finally we were all through and they put us on trucks to travel through no mans land... all 15 km of it.
We had our passports checked twice along the way and finally got to the Kyrgystan border post, a beat up old tin shed with sheets of plastic for a window. We had 2 more passport checks to get to the window and the guy in there goes through the passport with a fine tooth comb. He has 4 computers and various scanners to put my passport and details through and eventually gave it back, just like that. No paperwork at all and no bag check. I suppose they trust the Chinese with the bag check.Everytime they check my passport they check every page, even the empty ones.
After the formalities we had to negotiate with the taxi drivers again but this time in Kyrgystan. They wanted 6500som. Just on the side..This is my 3rd time zone, 5th languageand 5th currency since I left home. Anyway the taxi drivers are thieves and we are not going to pay that much. Atsushi has negotiated us a great rate to stay here the night in a condemed gonga for next to nothing. Im concerned we are staying for nothing and tomorrow we will be negotiating with the same people after a freezing cold night in the middle of nowhere. He asures me we have a maybe chance of possibly getting a ride sometime tomorrow with a friend. Glad thats sorted. He has also negotiated for us to stay and be fed by Svetlana in her salubrious digs. (I have pics)
We had dinner and decided to go for a walk. We met up with some other people in the same boat as us but they wanted to go to Sary Tash we are going further to Osh. We chatted with them for a while and walked when one of the main cab drivers, Altun, came screaming up in a sweet ride ( i have pics) and said we are going to Osh. Beautiful!! We all jumped in then the negotiations started again. 6500som was the asking price again we said no. Altun phoned Atsushi's friend to talk some sence to him and all of a sudden Mustak from Jalalabad is paying for our taxi. Sweet, we are going to Osh tonight. Within 10 min we were packed and in the cab ready to go. We soon found out why they were keen for us to go. They had another passenger and some cargo to take up with them.
We set off at 10.10pm by my watch which is still on Beijing time.We had passed the border but not the Irkeshtam pass. For nearly 2hr we climbed up a steep dirt road covered in ice and snow. This is a major border crossing but they dont look after it. It is one of the roughest roads I have been on and our driver is flogging it up the hill to the pass. Twice before the pass we had to stop for more passport checks. The trucks also have to stop for passport checks so this creates bottlenecks. Most of the roar is one lane and we try to pass the trucks at the checkpoints. We topped the Irkeshtam pass (3600mtr) at about midnight and got out for a photo. Someone said it was 20 degrees below zero and I have no reason not to believe them. It is the coldest I have ever felt. I was only out of the cab for a couple of minutes and my jeans froze. After the pass the trouble really started. We were down hill for about half an hour then up again to the Taldyk pass (3615mtr)This is the area that was closed yesterday and they have a front end loader and snow plough working to keep it open. There are walls of snow and ice higher than the taxi. It is one lane only and there are hundreds of trucks coming at us. We have another 2 checkpoints, for passports along here and at one we have to wait for 2 hr to let the trucks pass. We were stationary for 2 hr while truck after truck passed us. The driver got a little impatient and tried to get through and got us bogged so we all had to get out and push in the snow.We finally got over the worst of it at Jiptik pass (4185mtr) and pushed on. It was still as cold as it had ever been and when we pulled in to a roadside dinner I was the first in and took offf my boots to put my feet on the fire to get some feeling into them. It was 3.30am and the woman there said it was indeed minus 20. From there it was a quite easy dirt road all the was to Osh where we arrived at 6.30 in the morning.
It was a true adventure and parts of it I was regretting at the time, especially in the freezing cab in the small hours but now looking back it was brilliant. Money cant buy that kinda stuff.