Sary Tash to Murgak (Murghab)

SUNDAY OCT 4, 2015 DAY 5  SARY TASH TO MURGAK (Murghab)

I am in the fun bus again today.  We're in the smaller van so just four of us.  There were originally 10 on the tour but one man broke his leg shortly before the trip so he had to cancel.  We’re all so glad he did because it would have been pretty crowded in the vans with another person and all the luggage.  In the smaller van, one person sits in front, two sit on the middle seat, and one is in the back seat where there are two seats available but one is put away because of all the luggage.  On the bench seat in the middle, only one of the seat belts work.  When I sit there, I use it and we drape it over both of us – whoever is sitting there as well, but again, I think I was the only one who consistently used a seat belt.  

It’s the fun bus today because it is Canada, London, Mauritius and me and we always laugh and joke and have "tea" during the trip with sweets and water and such

clouds over the mountains

.  But today I am sitting in the rear and I am having a bit of a headache which turns out to be caused by the gas cans that are also riding in the back with me.  For certain places on the trip, they are carrying diesel fuel because they cannot guarantee the “purity” of the fuel from the service stations they will pass or that they will even pass fuel stations when needed.  And because it was a new plastic gas tank, it had expanded a bit and the seams were leaking so the back seat smelled faintly of diesel all day and made me a bit nauseous.  Every stop, Anatoly would come to the back and take out the gas tanks and wipe down the back.  This wasn’t a problem next time I rode back there as they had indeed put all the fuel into the car.

Today is the day we leave Kyrgyzstan.  We get to the border and it’s a short process to get stamped out of the country.  Then there is a 15 km “no man’s land” before we hit the border to Tajikistan.  This was a long drive between twisty hills and up and down with absolutely nothing to see on either side.

When we finally arrive at the Tajikistan border, there is a wait as there are several trucks ahead of us.  As we pull up to the guards, there is also the matter of a bribe to let us into the country

our road through the mountains

.  There is some arguing back and forth but we are finally let in and without a bribe and away we go to Karakul Lake and guest house for a lovely lunch.   

It was beautiful there beside the lake.  The guesthouse was great and we had a lovely meal.  The meal included the ubiquitous bread and also some very good yoghurt.  It also had what we called condensed milk from a can for dipping the bread.  They told us they made the condensed milk themselves but it was way too much like Carnation for us to believe that.  We did have yak butter though.

To get here, we had to go through the Kyzyl Art Pass at a height of 4280 meters or a bit over 14,000 feet.  Everyone was scoffing about needing Diamox which is a lifesaver to me as I had used it in the Himalayas to help combat altitude sickness.  I was willing to give it a miss but already I was getting that headache that I recognized as being a bit too high and so I took a pill at lunch and felt better already.

Karakul Lake is very high so it does not support aquatic life.  This was in our briefing/trip notes.  But Wikipedia says there is a Stone Loach in the lake.  That’s a fish.  It is an important stop for birds though and part of it is a birding zone

lake Karakul

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After lunch, we continued on our way to Murgab and to get there we are going through the Ak-Baital \pass, the highest pass on the Pamir Highway and was in the former Soviet Union (ah, this all was in the former Soviet Union) at 4655 meters (15361.5 feet).  Definitely high and others are feeling the stress of being that high.  Supposedly we can see Muztag Ata peak, highest mountain in the Pamirs of 7546 meters but while we probably took photos of it, I would not be able to identify it now.  Though it is usually snowcapped so maybe I’ll find it in my photos.   We never saw a sign at the highest pass as we wanted to stop for photos so that was a bit of a letdown.

Most of the people in the area are Kyrgyzstanis even though we are now in Tajikistan.  In Murgab though, they are Tajiks and Pamiris.  As we are driving, there is a long fence along one side of the road.  China is on the other side of the fence.  We also pass a few friendly goat herds but no people or cars ever on this part of the drive.

This was a day of relatively short driving so when we got to our guesthouse they were not quite ready for  us so we drove down to the lake behind the town

folks at the homestay

.  It is lovely to look at but it is a “fishless” lake being rather sulfur like.  We spent a bit of time here before heading back to our guesthouse, the Erali Homestay which at one time had a yurt in the  yard where  you could stay but it was gone so we’re all sleeping in the house.   Aussie couple had so looked forward to staying in a yurt but I was happy with being in the house.  There is no running water but there is a sauna!  HaCha!  AND they have enough water to heat it up with yak patties (yak dung).  They are busy heating it up and before too long tell us it is ready.

Canada, Walking Aussie, Mauritius and I head out for a go.  It is crowded with all four of us but manageable.  A very small room to undress and then the room with the sauna which really hadn’t heated up quite enough but the water was hot so we were able to pour it over ourselves and have a good wash.  Wasn’t really warm enough to stay and sit though so not the ideal sauna experience but clean, clean, clean.

Back into the house and dinner is ready but there is no chair.  As I’ve still got my altitude headache, not really caring that I don’t eat but they find a chair for me and I join the group.   Mostly dinner was rice and tomatoes.  Mauritius brought out some Turkish Delight for dessert

more folks at the homestay

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This is one guesthouse that had some cots in one room so I commandeered this room for the ladies.  It was Walking Aussie, New York, me, Canada, London, and Mauritius.  I had warm clothes for sleeping and changed into them.  Thanks to the Girl Scouts, I know that you need to put on clean clothes before going to bed in a cold climate because any sweat you have left over from the day will not warm you and the clothes will not keep you warm.  Apparently only Walking Aussie and I knew this because we were the only ones who were warm all night long.  When we discussed it with the others later, they were surprised to know this and all of them had hopped into bed with the same clothes they had warn during the day.  Glad I knew this because I had to get up 3 times to go outside to the pit toilet.  And the doors were squeaky.  The drivers were sleeping on a platform in the room next to us.  So it was a squeaky door to open and shut our room, then a squeaky door to open and shut their room and a squeaky door to get outside.

The first time I went out, the front door was open and I thought OMG, WTF.  But as I am negotiating my shoes, the male Aussie couple comes back from the toilet.  Why he left the door wide open, I figured out because unless you latch it from the inside, it just springs open on its own.  Must be a real problem for the family in the deepest part of winter except they stay in the much small part of the building attached next .

My purchases to date have been 2 pillowcases from the Osh bazaar where we also exchanged money.  I got apples there as well and while I only wanted two, she didn’t have change so I ended up with apples as my change and had 6.  In Bishkek, I got this small man and women doll who I hope are wearing typical Kyrgyzstani clothing and the slippers in the Osh bazaar as well which I am using to go to the toilet rather than mess with putting on my shoes in the middle of the night.   We did hit the House of Yak also which supposedly had Yak herds and also some rugs and goods made from Yak fur but they only had a very small rug from yak and the rest was made from sheep wool but I did find a couple of small yaks as Christmas ornaments.  In Murgab, I only bought candy to share in the car and cookies which somehow “went bad” and were thrown away.  I had left them overnight in the car and they disappeared and that was the reason.  No matter.  Mauritius was always buying sweets to share.