The Kyrgyz visa was the very first one that I got in Delhi. At the time, the Ambassador's wife spent significant time and effort telling me how similar to Switzerland it was. Having never been to either country I nodded and smiled. But now that we're here, I can confirm that Kyrgyzstan is very green and drizzly, full of sheep, the men are all on horseback and the people live in yurts. The only thing missing is some smoked cheese.
Tuesday started early with us leaving the Kashgar hotel at 7.30am local time in a jeep to the border. Customs opened at 11.30am Beijing time (everything in Xnijiang is given as Beijng time, but locals set their watches 2 hours later, with the effect that standard opening hours are 11am-8pm Beinjing time, i.e. 9-6 local). We were first through customs and needless to say the Chinese officials were much less rigourous with their checks on the way out that they had been on the way in.
It was then a 3 hour, 100km drive to the Kyrgyz border across no-man's-land. We were under strict instructions to "not stop or take photos but toilet break behind rock is OK". We arrived at the border just in time to see it closing for lunch, so sat in the jeep for 90 minutes waiting for them to get their fill of noodles.
The Torougart pass is one of Asia's most notorious and unpredictable border posts and we'd heard and read plenty of horror stories about travellers having made careful arrangements only to be thwarted by logistical gridlock or unpredictable closures. We had hired a jeep in both China and Kyrgyzstan and an agent just for us, and we got lucky... after the lunch break nd then a further delay while they ransacked a couple of trucks, we were through and nto Kyrgyztan.
After we had crossed the pass the scenery changed pretty quickly to green rolling hills, replacing the more jagged mountains of China. There were lots of marmots on both sides, but no Marco Polo sheep.
As soon as we had entered no-man's-land the road had changed from the excellent tarmac of China to a gravelly track, reminiscent of the Pakistan roads. This continued into Kyrgyzstan, except for a wide smooth 4-lane superhighway for about 3km just over the border: a military airstip, apparently never used. It was another 3 hours of driving to Naryn, which we reached just before 8pm.
Naryn is derived from the Mongolian for 'sunny' - a rare moment of Mongol irony accordnig to the guidebook. In reality it is a cluster of soviet era concrete blocks in some of the prettiest scenery we've seen so far. Finding a room was easy through CBT (Community Based Tourism - an NGO that essentially connects tourists with a network of guides, drivers and families willing to take in guests across teh country). We were placed with the high school history teacher's family in an apartment in one of the aformentioned concrete blocks. It was actually pretty pleasant; much like a B&B in the UK.
Wednesday we donned our backpacks again and caught a lift to Kochkor, where we arranged to take horses for the 2 day ride to an alpine lake, staying in yurts on route.
And then we just kept our fingers crossed that the Swiss drizzle would abait for 48 hours!
Gemma
0 comments:
Post a Comment