Romanianflyer

What a fantastic trip report. Beautifully written and gorgeous pictures which want to make me go back to Central Asia when this whole corona virus has disappeared.

Immensely jealous as well about Kashgar and the Irkeshtam Pass crossing despite the fact that it sounded like a PITA to get across. Always wanted to travel over the Irkeshtam or Torugart into China.

13901

Hi Romanianflyer, thanks for the kind words! To be honest with you, Irkeshtam wasn't too bad. Yes, it's a drag and, yes, it takes ages but it was an experience in itself. Would I return to Xinjiang? To be honest with you, no. I have a half-arsed idea of doing Hunza and the Karakoram highway, but would probably get to the border and no further.

mad_atta

Thanks for the fascinating report. I loved my brief visit to Kygyzstan in 2012 (as part of a much longer overland trip from the UK to Mongolia) and have been pining to return to the area ever since. I thoroughly enjoyed all of Central Asia but Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan particularly stood out to me. And your comment about the Pamirs being 'god's country' reopened an old wound, as the GBAO region was summarily closed a couple of weeks before we were due to travel there, due to a localised drug war breaking out. The Pamir Highway was the single part of the entire 20,000km trip that I was most looking forward to... hopefully one day I'll get back there.

Instead of the Pamirs we travelled through the Rasht valley of Tajikistan and into Kyrgyzstan that way, so I remember that high altitude plain with the magnificent views of Lenin's Peak. I'm amused by your fondness for Sary-Tash, which your photos manage to depict as almost charming - I remember it as fleabitten and charmless, with a bitingly cold wind blowing across from the snowy peaks despite it being the height of summer. We rapidly decided we had no desire to overnight there and raced the sunset over the pass towards Osh and found a charming wild camping site several thousand feet lower and many degrees warmer. Such a spectacular part of the world. I do remember thinking how close we were to the Chinese border and wondering what it would be like to take an unscheduled side trip in that direction.

I look forward to having a forage around your website for some of your tales of travel through the region. Your Kyrgyz/China border crossing sounds extremely tedious - I thought our experience of crossing from Iran to Turkmenistan on that same trip, with our own UK-registered vehicle, was pretty much unbeatable but I think you've managed it! As I recall our border crossing only took about six hours but still involved approximately 20 separate steps.

13901

Hi Mad_Atta, thanks for reading! sorry to hear about you missing out on the Highway. I wish I can say you haven't missed much but... I can't.

I've often toyed with the idea of going to Turkmenistan but in the end decided against it... what did I miss?

By the way, this is another view of Sary Tash... still, I liked it! (must say, Pamirextreme is a great place. The rest of accommodations.. not so much!). This was at the end of May by the way!

Madone59

Wow, what an awesome trip and great photos! Thank you for sharing

13901

Thanks Madone59!

NotSoFrequentColorado

Fascinating trip. OP, I wonder if you've read a recent book called "Around the World in 80 Trains". Among many worldwide destinations, the author visited some of the same places as on your trip.

13901

Hi NotSoFrequentColorado, thanks for reading and for commenting! I've read the prequel from Monisha Rajesh and, in all honesty, I found it a tad bit disappointing, sometimes even shallow. Couldn't bring myself to look at a repeat. Of Central Asia, I've really loved "Out of Steppe" by Daniel Metcalfe, while for sheer badassery and general trip envy (although I'd never attempt anything like it, ever) I often find myself reading and re-reading Tim Butcher's "Blood River". It's basically a trek along the Congo.

fransknorge

This was one of the best TR I read in a long time. Great writing and pictures, very interesting.
Is your book in the same vein, or is it text only ?

13901

Hi fransknorge, that means a lot to me! thanks you.

I don't want to make too much publicity to the book directly over here, since I do get a (however modest) financial gain from it, but since you're asking... no, it's not a photographic book. There are photos, sure, but as a paperback they're not super high quality. I do plan to write more trip reports here in the future, both from Central Asia and elsewhere. And I'm hoping we can get to travel again sometimes in 2021.

Duck1981

Great TR - thanks!

My greatest adventure was so far was a Business trip to Bangalore and Hyderabad where I flew Qatar and stayed in the Ritz Carlton

13901

You're welcome, Duck1981! Hey, everyone can have an adventure, it's out there! (covid permitting).

fransknorge

I like Central Asia, I have never been and will probably never go (as a disabled traveller with chronic disease this would be risky) but love to read travel story about it. I will order your book.

13901

Thank you! Looking forward to hear if you liked it. Unfortunately the region has very little in the sense of sensibility for people with disabilities. Even things like ramps for wheelchairs are either non-existent or, if available, have some impossible gradients (like for overpasses/metro entrances).

mad_atta

Turkmenistan was a *very* strange place indeed. After 10 days in Iran prior to that (and during Ramadan no less) we were looking forward to being able to have a drink and not wear long sleeves and pants (and a headscarf for our female teammate) in the intense heat. But interestingly enough, although there were lots of worldly and material trappings in Turkmenistan and we did indeed get our long-awaited drink, it felt like a MUCH more repressive place than Iran. Surveillance was everywhere. And the glittering facades of Ashgabat's palatial looking buildings were just that - effectively just facades, since almost all the buildings were empty. It was like being on a huge movie soundstage before all the crew and extras arrived.

As if that wasn't enough weirdness, we then spent a night in the desert by the blazing gas crater of Dervaza, trying to find the perfect camp spot that was not so close to the flames that you were in danger of asphyxiation from the toxic gasses, but not so far away that you were in range of the terrifying camel spiders!

You can read my teammate Ayesha's account of travelling through Turkmenistan here and here, and see photos on our team facebook page here (if the site will allow that link). The photos almost all had to be taken covertly from a moving vehicle, so they're not the best, but interesting nonetheless.

It was pretty painful to get a visa for Turkmenistan, and getting over the border was an ordeal, but I'm glad we went. And yet despite all the endless weirdness, the people seemed very normal and down to earth and just trying to live their lives despite the crazy regime.