Day 78 to 79 Kashgar to Kyrgyzstan 14th to 15th Sep 09

Time to leave, we had our sahur and went down to meet the driver at 0500hrs (Xinjiang Local Time). Checked out of the hotel and got our deposit of Cny100 and was in the taxi and on our way to the border. The taxi ride went thru the mountain ranges and 2 police stops and after about 4hrs we arrived at the border at 0845hrs (Xinjiang Local Time). We took our bags and wanted to enter the immigration building but were stopped by the young army guards saying it is not opened yet we have to wait another 15mins.

We went and look for a toilet while waiting for the immigration to open. About 0905hrs we were ushered in to have the officers manually check our bags. And as per normal one of them asked about Singapore and if they were to visit will they be able to get around easily speaking Chinese.. They checked my bag very fast but Ramli’s took a while cause they wanted to check the photos that we have taken during our stay in China on our lap top and we were there about 30mins before we could get thru the x-ray scan and finally the immigration to have our passport chopped.

The nice officer told me that we could wait outside for any truck that is going to the border which is 4km away and hitch a ride with them. So we sat there waiting with a few Kyrgyz also waiting for a ride. While waiting we saw a few cyclists coming from the Kyrgyz border and was surprised to see a couple cycling on a double mountain bike.. Seems cool even the Chinese officers are fascinated.

We waited and waited but no truck in sight and only saw a big crane waiting for clearance so I approached the Chinese driver and asked if we could hitch a ride. He told me it is too dangerous and we are tourists if anything happen to us he can’t be able to answer, I tried persuading him but to no avail so we continued to wait. Then we saw a few more back packers coming towards us. An American couple Eric and Eliza and 2 Dutch guys and later 4 Czech Republic Biologists. By the time they all got there waiting for the truck it was already about 1100hrs (Beijing Time 0100hrs) and the officer told me that they are already closing for lunch and will only open again at 1630hrs.. I was like WOW this is such a long lunch break. So the officer said he can arranged their own mini bus to shuttle us all over to the border but we need to pay Cny10 per pax. Since we have no choice and no other trucks in sight we all agreed and were on the mini bus across to the border.

Arrived at the end of the Chinese border and still had to walk down hill about another 2km before we reach the Kyrgyz side. First impression of the Kyrgyz border is that this place seems so run down and the buildings are so old and dilapidated.. We had to stop at a custom check and later were ushered to walk towards to the immigration office. It is a zinc roofed run down building with a small immigration window. We waited for our turn to have our passports chopped and we headed towards to no mans land and were told by the American couple that we should wait for the trucks to hitch a ride to Osh (about 6hrs ride) for about USD10/pax cause the Taxi would costs us about USD45 to Sarytosh a village just 2 hrs from the border which is very expensive.

The caravan village at Kygyrzstan

So all of us waited at the small “village” made up of run down caravans with nothing much to offer around. Since the Chinese side is close for lunch we had to wait for another 3hrs or so before the trucks could pass thru to Kyrgyz side. We all sat around and we chatted with the American couple when the Czech’s decided that they will try their luck walking downwards and later the Dutch decided the same. We continued waiting while trying to chat with the non speaking local whom keep persuading us to change our Cny with him.

About 2.5hrs later finally our ride was here with the help of the “money changer”.. The driver is Adili a Muslim Uyghur from Kashgar whom is able to speak a little Chinese. I asked him if he could bring us to Osh and he said no problem and we will only arrive the next day morning. I asked him his charge but he kept asking us to quote him a rate. We didn’t know how much to pay him at that time so decided to take the ride first and discuss again later. As Adili could only take 2 pax on his truck the Americans couldn’t join us, we felt bad and parted our ways.

We hoped in the big truck which seems still new with the plastic covers on the bed behind the driver seat. There is 2 berth sleeping beds which is really spacious, I sat behind while Ramli sat in the passenger seat and we were on our way. Our ride pass thru the valleys and when you can see rivers there are yurts around and herds of sheep wondering around. The ride was smooth but a little too slow… He was driving 30km/hr and at times 40km/hr max…. I guess the rocky road condition did not allow him to drive any faster due to the load he has in the container…

Finally it was time for Buka and Adili was also fasting. He stopped the truck about mahgrib time and offered us a bottle of mineral water. Luckily we had some tidbit supplies with us so we had some food for buka. He had the local Uyghur hard bread with water and after he went down the truck to speak with his friend on the truck behind us. We sat in the truck all the time as the temperature outside is way tooo cold for us.. We are almost at the same level with the snow capped mountains peak.. About 5mins later a Kyrgyz guy from the other truck came into the truck and asked us to pay him 1000som = SGD33 for our ride. He couldn’t speak any English but he wrote on the paper and gestured to us to pay him cause he is the boss of Adili. We were curious and told him we wanted to wait for Adili to check with him. But of course he couldn’t understand any English so me and Ramli just looked at each other not knowing whether we should pay him.

He kept demanding that we pay him and after about 10mins Ramli gave in and decided to pay him and check with Adili later. When Adili came back later I asked him and he told that that guy isn’t his boss and we shouldn’t have paid him cause he wont give Adili the money. We were furious and Ramli got down and walk to the truck and demanded that he return the money to us. He walked over and spoke Uyghur with him and Adili said everything is fine..We weren’t convince but since he said is alright we were on our way..

At about 1000hrs we stopped at a small food stall to have dinner. The place is really homey looking with platform dining area with long colorful cushions lining the sides. We sat down and ordered beef dish according to the other driver. The food came serve with tea and the local bread. The soup smells really muttony, I tried a little and could not swallow at all. Ramli asked me to close one eye and just eat but I just couldn’t cause the smell is too strong for me to accept.. I offered the meat to the other driver and Adili but they didn’t want but later gave it to the “boss”.. When we finished our dinner that other driver said to us that we should sleep here at we will leave tomorrow at 0500hrs. Hmmm we thought they didn’t make any stops but since they are the drivers we just agreed.

We took our sleeping bags and when we were about to get to sleep we saw 1 of the Czech couples. They had just arrived in another truck and wasn’t sure where their friends are… We chatted with them a bit and tried to go to sleep in the smoke and voice filled room at about 0100hrs..

We didn’t really get any sleep as the temp dipped in the night and our sleeping bags aren’t sufficient. Finally it was 0430hrs we awoke and saw Adili walking in ordering tea for us. We had the local bread with tea and boiled egg for sahur and manage to wuduk in the cold cold place and did out solat before we continue on our long and slooooow journey..

We continued driving thru the mountains and rocky roads for about another 10hrs before we arrived in Osh at about 1600hrs.. We knew that the “boss” or Mafia didn’t pay Adili any money so Ramli decided to pay him Cny200 = SGD40 for the ride as we felt bad not paying this nice guy.. Adili didn’t want to take the money but we insisted so he took it and told us that he had to pay the Mafia 500som also….Sigh so I guess he is a mafia trying to collect some protection money or something… Furious as we were but there isn’t anything we could do… Just our bad luck I guess.. We parted our ways and took a taxi into Osh town to find Osh Guesthouse to stay for the night.

The taxi driver didn’t speak any English so we showed him the map we had on our book and told him our destination. He seems to know but seems not to know drove on and stopped a few times to asked the police and some locals. He drove to and fro from town about 3 times and finally stopped us somewhere near the guesthouse when I told him it is near Taj Mahal hotel. We got down and he demanded 500som = SGD17 for a 15mins ride!! Ramli was very reluctant to pay him but still gave him the money and cursed…

We walked around but couldn’t locate the Osh guesthouse and decided to put up at the Taj Mahal hotel as we aren’t in the mood anymore to stay in this country of cheats!! The dorm room costs 600som = SGD20 for 2 pax with communal toilet. The room was clean and the non speaking hotel owner was quite nice. We settled in and finally got our long awaited shower after 2 days and left to look for internet and dinner for buka..

Walked around and couldn’t find any internet available and it was really difficult when the locals couldn’t speak any English. We gave up after awhile and decided to go look for dinner. We saw a pizza place so we went and asked if their food is Halal, too bad it isn’t so we walked to another stall selling local food. They had menu but in Russian with no pictures so we had to use our sign language and picture dictionary that Felix left behind when we were in Karimabad. We told the waitress that we wanted chicken and she pointed to the Laghman (la mein/noodle) and said it is chicken. We ordered one of that and also another dish which looks like lasagna. The food was served but it wasn’t time yet so we couldn’t eat and the waitress was very curious and asked us to eat, we told her we were fasting “Roza” and she understood. When mahgrib came she came over to tell us so we could start eating. We dig in and only to find out that the Laghman is with mutton… Wahahaha how come their chicken taste like mutton.. Ramli tried his bests and finished it. Mine was tasty, a vegetable lasagna with no cheese.. Simple but nice.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to watch “Heroes” and rested for the night looking forward to leave this place the next day to the border to get to Uzbekistan.