DAY 9 THURSDAY OCT 8 2015, STILL IN KHOROG – TWO NIGHTS SAME PLACE!
It was so lovely to get up this morning and realize we don't have to have our bags packed and ready to go right after breakfast. We are tired of traveling! A nice hot shower and then I walk out to the reception area to see who’s up already.
The guesthouse will do laundry for us. While I think I came with enough clothes to last, I could stand to do a few things so I put my stuff into one of their pillowcases. He is gathering the laundry on the ironing board that is sitting in reception. The walking group is heading out around 7:30 and wait for me to join them. By then, the ironing board is almost full of little sacks and bags of laundry to be done.
The walking group this morning is Walking Aussie, Wales, London, Canada, and me. London walks beside me and before 10 minutes, the others are so far ahead of us that we can barely identify their clothing from the back. They never look back. We have walked maybe 1 km or maybe 1 mile but we can’t see them at all so we turn around to go back and get back to the guesthouse in time for breakfast.
There was a bridge across the river so we walked out onto it to take photos and were in the way of everyone trying to cross. It was a two way bridge, barely, but we sort of created a bottleneck with our photography. Plus the bridge bounced up and down a lot with everyone walking on it. We also ducked down an alley where we saw a market and saw meat being sold and some clothing articles and such.. It was a part of the larger market we visited later but we didn’t know that at the time and wanted to get back so we didn’t spend much time there.
So this day belongs to Khorog as we have two nights here. What a luxury to not get up and hop into the car and drive all day again. Don’t want to do a trip like this again. Plus the mountain roads are so very high, and bumpy, and cliffs on one side and nothing else but death basically . Driving along the Afghanistan border has been great and promises to be great tomorrow too. Slava and Anatoly drive so fast though, we are holding onto our seats most of the time. "If we fall off the mountain to a certain death in the river below, have we died on the Afghanistan side or the Tajikistan side?" Everyone seems to think this is hilarious but I think it could be a concern. Also, Slava has taken to parking on the outside when there is a large truck that needs to pass us going the opposite direction. I’d rather he park next to the inside edge so the truck goes over the side, not us.
Anyway, we are all happy go lucky this morning so we head off to the market and agree to meet after a certain amount of time. I am looking for socks like I got in Uzbekistan before but can only find huge socks that are hand knit and might be good for a cold winter’s night so I get three pairs. Also got some apricot nuts and mulberry seeds but when I opened them, they were well past the expiration date. We enjoyed wandering the market and people for the most part were happy to have their photos taken with a few exceptions.
We then walk further up the street to the Pamari shop which has been listed in the guide book as the best handicraft shops and free trade shop around . We stop first at the stone shop because Jamshed wanted my opinion on whether the stones were real or not as they sell a lot of “rubies” and such. I do think they are real but they aren’t gem quality and certainly not gem cut so I try to explain the difference. He seems happy with that. I get a couple of small bags of rocks that are nice and some traditional hankies and also some glasses cases which are a big hit with several of the ladies.
Next we walk to the museum which has a lot of really good stuff in it for a small town museum. We have already seen a good deal of the implements and such though as they are still in use in the villages. There is a bunch of WWII items in there and also some things honoring their poets and writers. Apparently poetry is a big thing here.
We stopped at the only souvenir shop on the street but she only had one t shirt that said I “heart” Pamir and she said it wasn’t for sale. She said they were out because the tourist season is over. Dang. Did get a magnet.
My feet and legs were tired so when Jamshed asked me if I wanted to walk to the restaurant for lunch or wait for the cars, I said wait for the cars. He called the cars and they were busy doing some service on them. Everyone was getting impatient but Jams refused to let the group split up and after 45 minutes the cars arrived. I thought it was time well spent because it was a promenade of people walking by, lots of students, lots of moms with kids. Just thoroughly enjoyable and we took lots of photos.
After the cars arrived, we all piled into them, they did a U turn in the street, went one block to turn left onto another street, went another block and parked! Are you kidding me??? Guess I should have asked how far away the restaurant was and then we would have just all walked and been her ½ hour ago. It was a delightful spot though sitting just over the river.
I hit the toilet and by the time I got to the table, everyone was piled into one of the large table/platform things to eat sitting on the floor so I sat at the table next to them with New York and female Aussie couple and the two drivers. Our table was not near as boisterous as the other table. But I got “multi-fruit” juice which reminded me of the “fifth element” movie where she gets a “multi-pass”. I did my best imitation of the movie but nobody got it.
The afternoon program was to go to the botanical gardens which were up the hill somewhere. I didn’t feel like going and neither did Mauritius so we walked back to the market looking for t shirts – after we each got an ice cream for one somoni each. She was also looking for scarves that were made in Afghanistan but while they kept directing us to different sections, nobody had any or the one person having them had already packed up and gone for the day.
It was a long walk back to our hotel. We asked the owner if we could have some apples so we went and picked our own which were incredibly dusty but once washed, were really good. My laundry was done and back in the pillow case but not all my underwear was there so I started searching through other bags for my knickers . I finally found most of my underwear. Luckily the missing pairs did not go to our lone male companion on this trip – Wales.
Did not feel like dinner so I stayed behind while everyone else went to the Indian restaurant. When Canada returns, I hear all about dinner and we continue to talk about past trips, future trips, people on this trip, and plenty of stuff. We are rather noisy again until Mauritius and London both come in to see what we are doing. So we have a short “girl’s party” until everyone gets tired and goes to bed. Another day of driving tomorrow and it will be our last day of driving along the Afghanistan border.
It was so lovely to get up this morning and realize we don't have to have our bags packed and ready to go right after breakfast. We are tired of traveling! A nice hot shower and then I walk out to the reception area to see who’s up already.
The guesthouse will do laundry for us. While I think I came with enough clothes to last, I could stand to do a few things so I put my stuff into one of their pillowcases. He is gathering the laundry on the ironing board that is sitting in reception. The walking group is heading out around 7:30 and wait for me to join them. By then, the ironing board is almost full of little sacks and bags of laundry to be done.
The walking group this morning is Walking Aussie, Wales, London, Canada, and me. London walks beside me and before 10 minutes, the others are so far ahead of us that we can barely identify their clothing from the back. They never look back. We have walked maybe 1 km or maybe 1 mile but we can’t see them at all so we turn around to go back and get back to the guesthouse in time for breakfast.
There was a bridge across the river so we walked out onto it to take photos and were in the way of everyone trying to cross. It was a two way bridge, barely, but we sort of created a bottleneck with our photography. Plus the bridge bounced up and down a lot with everyone walking on it. We also ducked down an alley where we saw a market and saw meat being sold and some clothing articles and such.. It was a part of the larger market we visited later but we didn’t know that at the time and wanted to get back so we didn’t spend much time there.
So this day belongs to Khorog as we have two nights here. What a luxury to not get up and hop into the car and drive all day again. Don’t want to do a trip like this again. Plus the mountain roads are so very high, and bumpy, and cliffs on one side and nothing else but death basically . Driving along the Afghanistan border has been great and promises to be great tomorrow too. Slava and Anatoly drive so fast though, we are holding onto our seats most of the time. "If we fall off the mountain to a certain death in the river below, have we died on the Afghanistan side or the Tajikistan side?" Everyone seems to think this is hilarious but I think it could be a concern. Also, Slava has taken to parking on the outside when there is a large truck that needs to pass us going the opposite direction. I’d rather he park next to the inside edge so the truck goes over the side, not us.
Anyway, we are all happy go lucky this morning so we head off to the market and agree to meet after a certain amount of time. I am looking for socks like I got in Uzbekistan before but can only find huge socks that are hand knit and might be good for a cold winter’s night so I get three pairs. Also got some apricot nuts and mulberry seeds but when I opened them, they were well past the expiration date. We enjoyed wandering the market and people for the most part were happy to have their photos taken with a few exceptions.
We then walk further up the street to the Pamari shop which has been listed in the guide book as the best handicraft shops and free trade shop around . We stop first at the stone shop because Jamshed wanted my opinion on whether the stones were real or not as they sell a lot of “rubies” and such. I do think they are real but they aren’t gem quality and certainly not gem cut so I try to explain the difference. He seems happy with that. I get a couple of small bags of rocks that are nice and some traditional hankies and also some glasses cases which are a big hit with several of the ladies.
Next we walk to the museum which has a lot of really good stuff in it for a small town museum. We have already seen a good deal of the implements and such though as they are still in use in the villages. There is a bunch of WWII items in there and also some things honoring their poets and writers. Apparently poetry is a big thing here.
We stopped at the only souvenir shop on the street but she only had one t shirt that said I “heart” Pamir and she said it wasn’t for sale. She said they were out because the tourist season is over. Dang. Did get a magnet.
My feet and legs were tired so when Jamshed asked me if I wanted to walk to the restaurant for lunch or wait for the cars, I said wait for the cars. He called the cars and they were busy doing some service on them. Everyone was getting impatient but Jams refused to let the group split up and after 45 minutes the cars arrived. I thought it was time well spent because it was a promenade of people walking by, lots of students, lots of moms with kids. Just thoroughly enjoyable and we took lots of photos.
After the cars arrived, we all piled into them, they did a U turn in the street, went one block to turn left onto another street, went another block and parked! Are you kidding me??? Guess I should have asked how far away the restaurant was and then we would have just all walked and been her ½ hour ago. It was a delightful spot though sitting just over the river.
I hit the toilet and by the time I got to the table, everyone was piled into one of the large table/platform things to eat sitting on the floor so I sat at the table next to them with New York and female Aussie couple and the two drivers. Our table was not near as boisterous as the other table. But I got “multi-fruit” juice which reminded me of the “fifth element” movie where she gets a “multi-pass”. I did my best imitation of the movie but nobody got it.
The afternoon program was to go to the botanical gardens which were up the hill somewhere. I didn’t feel like going and neither did Mauritius so we walked back to the market looking for t shirts – after we each got an ice cream for one somoni each. She was also looking for scarves that were made in Afghanistan but while they kept directing us to different sections, nobody had any or the one person having them had already packed up and gone for the day.
It was a long walk back to our hotel. We asked the owner if we could have some apples so we went and picked our own which were incredibly dusty but once washed, were really good. My laundry was done and back in the pillow case but not all my underwear was there so I started searching through other bags for my knickers . I finally found most of my underwear. Luckily the missing pairs did not go to our lone male companion on this trip – Wales.
Did not feel like dinner so I stayed behind while everyone else went to the Indian restaurant. When Canada returns, I hear all about dinner and we continue to talk about past trips, future trips, people on this trip, and plenty of stuff. We are rather noisy again until Mauritius and London both come in to see what we are doing. So we have a short “girl’s party” until everyone gets tired and goes to bed. Another day of driving tomorrow and it will be our last day of driving along the Afghanistan border.
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