Murghab to Osh

Lisa had arranged the entire journey from Murghab to Osh and had got a great price of $100 each for a very long day's journey. We left at 7am and arrived maybe about 10pm. The bit that stood out in memory for me is the border crossing. From the exit of Tajikistan to the entry to Kyrgyzstan was about 30km in no man's land. And it was very high (4500m). And it was the end of summer. There was a blizzard - horizontal snow - and the roads were very snowy as well as having a very poor surface - I guess no man is responsible for maintaining them. At both ends the customs guys were in military uniform and we had to swap 4wd's in the snow somewhere in the middle because the cars didn't have permission to cross. In fact we had to do so twice. All in all it felt incredibly soviet and we were spies being exchanged.

Having said that everything went smoothly. No hold ups at the exit or entrance. And they were friendly to me - "you're coming back to Kyrgyzstan? Welcome, welcome!".

From there an uneventful journey to Osh. We picked up a couple of hitch hikers ourselves this time - how could we not? An english couple - mid 20s called Finton and Sophia. If you meet him, remind him about the guy on the internet shouting Fenton at his dog - apparently he can't get enough of that.

I say uneventful. Sophia saw her first yak and yelled "YAK!" at the top of her voice. It broke the ice.Read more