Murghab to Osh in Kyrgystan

Considering the altitude and my body does not like altitude and the narrow uncomfortable bed, I actually managed to get some sleep, probably tired. So far for the last 3 days I have had just the one car and driver but I was told that I would get a different car and driver from Murghab to Osh in Kyrgyzstan because we were going to enter another country. Instead of just the driver and myself another guy got in the back seat uninvited. He said he was the manager and between him and the driver they carried on a loud conversation the whole drive in a language I could not understand. I was annoyed because I was paying a premium (US$225 per day) to have the car to myself, otherwise I could have used a Shared taxi.

When Khudoguy sent me a message asking me about the trip, I told him about this passenger and he was shocked because he knew nothing about it and he immediately said he would give me a refund of US$200. By this time I was in Bishkek and he had someone bring the cash to my hotel. All I can say is if you are going to do a tour in Tajikistan talk to Khudoguy, you can be sure he will do the right thing by you.

We left at 0815 with the two guys jabbering loudly and incessantly, initially roads not bad but after the high 4,665m pass it got worse with sections of corrugations. We arrived at the Tajikistan border customs checkpoint at 1130, only the driver had to get out of the car and show them his documents finished at 1145. The whole area is a rundown mess, the road rutted and muddy, no one outside because it was freezing at 4,168m, this is definitely the highest border I have ever crossed. Drove 100m to Immigration, another shack, here we all got out and went in and waited while the officer recorded all the infomation from our passports and visa’s manually in a register and he kept the eVisa form, stamped my passport and we were off at 1155. Lots of the little brown creatures today, one lying on the road looked like road kill, very bad muddy road crawled along and arrived at the Kyrgyzstan border control a few kilometers down the road at 1235. Had to get out and get my passport stamped, no visa required here, then Customs, they looked in the boot, altitude 3430m, finally on our way at 1300, Short drive to our lunch stop at Sarytash arrived at 1335. Small cafe where all the tourist traffic stops, altitude 3,108m, had Plov and a Snickers, paid in Somoni and got change in Kyrgyz Som, the girl spoke quite good English. Left at 1420, straight into the mountains and a 3500m pass, good road. Started to rain at 1530 got heavier, dark clouds, continuously mountainous winding roads, first heavy rain on this trip, rain stopped as we approached Osh, arrived at 1700 or 1800 local time. First thing I did was get a Beeline SIM card with the help of the Hotel owner from a shop across the road, no ID required. Paid 100 Som or US$1.50 for calls, sms and 4GB data for one week, very cheap.

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