Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgystan in one

  Osh, Kyrgyzstan
Saturday, June 14, 2008

Osh Bazzar (market)

From Bishkek after getting my Indian visa I had a number of options of how to get there, I could head down to Kashgar in China but this involved crossing the Torugart Pass which is a class 2 border and means you can not cross it unless you are from China or Kyrgyzstan, however there is a loophole whereby you can cross it if you have transport organized both sides and get this 'special piece of paper' which you have to pay alot for. It turns out that this will be alot of hassle and money so I am heading South the whole way across this mountainous country, which Im told can be done in one long 15 hour day....on a good run? From here I would of like to head down through Uzbekistan to Northern Afghanistan (which is safe) then looped back up into Tajikistan to travel the famous high altitude Pamir highway. Unfortunately this cause more than one probem for me as when I got to Osh I discovered that they had unofficially

Osh Bazzar (market)

closed the border to Afghanistan, the Pamir mountain region requires a special permit (costing $200) and I did not have enough pages in my passport for all of the visas requires so for now its just to Osh!
The road across the country from Bishkek has just recently re-opened (as for all of the winter its closed because all of the mountain passes are unpassable due to the amount of snow)but was still notoriously known for landslides and avalanches. The scenery was great and we crossed a number of 3000 meter plus mountain passes, with some people even getting altitude sick, although nothing serious, mainly just headaches! We pass a number of alpine lakes, around the immense Toktogul reservoir and through the Fergana Valley. We also passed through a number of small towns and Jalal-abad, Kyrgyzstan third largest city.

As soon as I arrived at Osh late in the evening it had a good feel about it and a nice

Osh Bazzar (market)

vibe. It felt much more like central Asia than anywhere else I had been and I straight away noticed that it was alot more Muslim, with the prayers being called out from the mosque, all the men wearing the skull caps and the women dressing alot more conservatively, alot covering all of there faces. The next day I explored the bazzar (market and it was straight away noticeable of all of the different nationalities that were present. 40% of Osh's population is actually Uzbek and there also seemed to be alot of Tajik's.
Interestingly Osh claims to be the oldest city in the world, (even older than Rome) and I believe recently it has just celebrated the year 3000 (even naming a beer Osh 3000), one thing is for sure, it certainly was one of the major hubs on the ancient Silk Road.
I found out some useful information in Osh that it is now possible to cross over the 3800meter mountain Irkeshtam Pass and international border into China and its suppose to be beautiful, so this is what I did!
I met some others interested in going the same way so instead of taking the local bus which was about 40 hours and pass alot of the amazing scenery in the middle of the night, we arranged with a local guy to drive us to Sary Tash (small town not far from the border, well known as a major stopover for drug smugglers trafficking opium and hashish from Afghanistan via Tajikistan) spend the night there and then make it to the border when it opens at 9am and try and hitch hike over the border and the rest of the way with one of the trucks going to China.

The car that turned up!

Our driver turned up in the tiny 4x4 so we all wedged in and the bags and set off, the road vanished as soon as we left the city but the small 4x4 seemed to handle it quite well. We crossed over a number of passes, some where snow was still present and the highest being 3615meters. All through the valleys the we saw nothing but lush green plains, occasionally passing a ger, horse or nomadic family. The hitch hiking at the border turned out easier than expected with the army actually bribing a truck to let us on until the Chinese customs post where we were held up for quite a while with the zealot border guards searching every one of our bags, then even made us show them all of the pictures on out camera and check the CD's that we had of backed up photos. Luckily I half predicted this from my previous entry from Mongolia

Krygystan - China, 3800m Irkeshtan Pass

where they ripped the train to pieces so I managed to hide my memory cards with any pictures of China and also any maps or literature with anything about China on it!