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thebusmansholiday · 8 years ago

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Almaty - Bishkek - Osh

29/04/2017 K9595 Train from Urumqi South to Almaty 2 at 23.14 Duration 33 hours Hard Sleeper - £150

The train started screeching to a halt as we approached the Kazakh border only a few hours after leaving Urumqi. Before we could get out of bed and look half decent, Chinese border guards were on board, wanting to rummage around in our luggage and scrolling through photos on our camera. I think they just want to make sure you have not taken any photos that could harm the stability of the peoples republic. It was all quite friendly in the end, our guard started sharing with us similar tourist snaps from his phone from his weekend in Xi'an with the mrs.

Mohammed, our Chechen friend on his way back to Grozny from a business trip in Urumqi, explained the Kazakh side would be much smoother, which turned out to be the case. The guard assigned to our cabin was eager to practice his English and hear about our trip and then spoke at length in Russian with Mohammed. After 6 hours spent travelling about 2 miles we pulled into the ghost town border station where we got off to stretch our legs as the train had it’s wheels changed to match the different Russian gauge width. Mo knows this station cafe and the staff well, and insists on buying us lunch. He is a big fan of UFC fighting and with great pride he plays us youtube videos from his phone of several Chechen fighters in action whilst we tuck into our beef noodles.

Some Kazak border guards approach our little private section of the cafe, shocked to see some tourists at ‘their table’. They suddenly see Mo, give him a nod of the head, and we continue to sip on tea as we are shown more videos, this time of Chechen rebel leader, Akhmed Zakayev, being interviewed at his excilled home in London. This then begins to make me wonder, why is Mo travelling this route? 33 hours on a train to Almaty, 4 hour drive to Bishkek airport in Kyrgyzstan, before a 4 hour flight to Grozny? Is a photo with this guy a wise move? Is it gonna land me in serious trouble with the russian border police in a few weeks time?

Almaty is very quiet on the May day bank holiday. After the crowds and noise of Urumqi we are pleased to have the city to ourselves as we get a big goodbye hug from Mo, and make our way to our hostel at sunrise. The view from the hostel rooftop has to be one of the best city backdrops in the world, with the snow covered Tien Shan mountain range surrounding the entire south side of the city.

The air feels so much cleaner here as we head towards the mountains and take the bus up to 'kok tobe’ a favourite weekend hang out for local families wanting snaps with the city view behind them and next to the only Beatles statue in the world with all the fab 4 together (apparently)?

Back down in the city, we visit the Grand central mosque. We are not certain if Lo could come in so I Left her outside went in and had a look around briefly. It seems a nice quiet space, but not much praying going on. Lots of men just sitting in corner texting on their phones.

Food is getting welcomingly less soup and noodles and more cornish pasty like sincle leaving China. The staple Kazakh snack food is a fried bread filled with potato and is sold on stalls every few meters it seems. Some have mutton in if you get lucky. The fast food soviet era cafeterias dotted all over town provide cheap school dinner like meals, you take a tray, point at what you want and a dinner lady shovels a load on your plate. Sausage and mash, mutton stew and rice, bit of cake for afters… just good simple stodge that fills you up and doesn’t cause problems the next day.

Which is important when you have a long day of hiking planned. Determined not to spend any money on cable cars and ski resort entrance fees, we took the bus up to the impressive looking Medeu outdoor ice rink and followed a hiking trail up into the mountains. We passed an old stripped out soviet tank which was fun to play around in for a bit, pretending we were en route to Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban. The fun and games were all over when we realised the snow was getting seriously deep along the trail we were following, which was no longer really visible. We were the only people up there and couldn’t work out a way back down till we spotted a big Russian geezer trekking in just speedos and boots with walking poles. Happy looking chap, and a lovely tan he had on him, but we were worried we would be disturbing his peaceful time alone up in the mountains, but he was very helpful and pointed us to a safe way down. 'Plov’ (rice with chopped up mutton and veg in it) for dinner was just reward for our hiking efforts.

4/5/2017 Almaty to Bishkek Marshrutka (minibus) 5 hours

Credence clearwater revival, 'put a spell on you’ played us out of Almaty, our 'marshrutka’ (public minibus) driver obviously had great taste in Music. Dylan, Cohen, Eagles, all made for a great head bobbing, palm tapping on thigh, journey along the dusty A2 highway to the Kyrgyzstan border. It felt good to be on the road, the Tien Shan mountains, a natural border zone, were always in view outside the left hand windows. No more railway journeys now till we depart from Tashkent for Moscow on 3rd June, just long hours in less comfortable 'Marshrutkas’ but with some amazing scenery along the way.

The border crossing into Kyrgyzstan is smooth and without too much delay. No bag searches, no questions asked. This was expected to be the easiest of the 3 central asian border crossings we were to encounter, the former soviet state border police having a pretty bad reputation for hassling foreigners for bribes, we were relieved with the friendly Kyrgyz welcome.

On arriving in Bishkek we were dropped off close to the huge Lenin statue that still stands tall here. Some flowers had even be laid below his feet, probably to mark 100 years since the revolution. Our host in Bishkek was Liza, a proud Kyrgyz lady of Russian heritage. She made us feel extremely welcome at our little homestay, an old 1960’s soviet era house, one entrance, 3 different little homes around a courtyard. We had our own little bedsit and an outside toilet and shower all for just $10 a night. Back in Dalston it would be rented out for £1700 a month, bills not included.

Liza seems to be a face around Bishkek. As she walks us to the bus station the next morning lots of people stop to talk, eager to see where her new guests are from. She tells us of the history of the different populations that have settled in the city over the last century and the glory days of the Soviet Union when life was much simpler, people were free to travel the whole of the central asian region without the ethnic tensions of more recent times. “Then people got greedy!” she bemoans.

Liza sees us safely on to our Marshrutka for a day trip to beautiful Lake Izzy Kol, the second largest alpine lake in the world. 30 mins in and the Marushkta has a tyre blow out. No safety triangle on a fast moving highway, I stand 50 metres up the road and act as a human safety triangle waving my arms at bemused drivers urging them to slow down as they pass our driver and some younger passengers helping to change the outside wheel. I think Louisa is really embarrassed to be associated with me at this point. “The safety of your passengers is the number one priority as a bus driver!” Steve Sparkle, at the arriva london training school, drummed it into me on my first day 7 years ago. We’re never off duty!

The place along the lake we are dropped of at is a little underwhelming. Stunning scenery overlooking the lake, but all the beachfront appears to be sectioned off for rich russian holiday homes, and being out of season the place is a bit dead. We managed to find a little bit of public beach, got our swimming costumes on and tried to go for a dip. 15 seconds in the water and your limbs start to go numb with the cold so we didn’t stick about for long, especially after being joined on our little beach by an angry looking herd of cows.

6/5/2017 Bishkek to Osh Marshrutka - 13 hours

Again Liza insists on walking us to the chaotic Bishkek bus station to make sure we get on the right Marshrutka, this time a 13 hour journey to Osh in the south of the country awaits us. The driver, Safiq, a cheeky chappy with the common Kyrgyz gold toothed smile, another good friend of Liza’s, is excited to hear that I’m a bus driver in London and insists me and 'your guest’ are allowed up front next to him. Result!

After Saffiq, stops off at a few mates houses on the road out of Bishkek, to pick up some parcels, we finally start to make some progress. The views out the window for the whole drive are pretty special, as the Marshrutka struggles up the several mountain passes en route. We start passing a few brave cyclists along the way, this route, all the way down to the Pamir highway, being a bit of a mecca for Eurasian crossing lycra warriors from around the world. I’m slightly envious of the challenge they are undertaking, then read in the guidebook that a 5km mountain pass tunnel we pass through “was the scene of a tragic carbon monoxide disaster” a few years ago.

Despite only brief toilet stops for 12 hours, just an hour from Osh, Driver Saffiq decides it’s time for a sit down meal at a shashlik (kebab) house he knows. It’s nearly midnight and we are struggling to keep our eyes open, but as the guests of honour at Saffiq’s table, we are treated to a pot of tea and after prayers some meat on a stick and bread. I show Saffiq a photo of me with a London bus, much to the amusement of his mates around the table who start mocking him about my bus being bigger than his bus. Great banter.

In coming to Osh we are now back on the route of the ancient silk road after a slight Northern detour. Only a 4 hour drive from the Chinese border, this city claims to be over 3000 years old, “older than Rome!” they say. There is not much in the way of historical ruins here, the old famous bazaar is a ram shackle mix of metal shipping containers stacked on top of each other with shop windows cut of the front. It’s a lively place though and lots of cheap fruit and veg is available, perfect for us, as we try and give our immune systems a boost before we head south to the remote Pamir Highway. Also plenty of scenic hikes about an hour drive out of town, into the Alay Valley. On Victory Day bank holiday we are joined along the rapid flowing river banks by lots of Kyrgyz families enjoying the day off work in the sun and celebrating the soviet unions most important holiday of course.

The Osh Guesthouse hostel is the place to stay for people looking for 4x4 ride shares into Tajikistan. A big whiteboard is updated every hour wth requests for people to help spilt the costs, of what can be an expensive drive at very high altitudes. We get lucky on our second day when Fergus, from County Westmeath, Ireland and Antonio from Barcelona arrive and are looking at a similar 10 day itinerary to us.

We will start with a stop close to the Tajik border at the town of Sary Mogul, famous for it’s views of towering Peak Lenin (7,100 meters). Then into Tajikistan, all the way down to the Wakhan Valley, hugging the Afghan border at Khorog before returning to civilisation in the Tajik capital Dushanbe. Not much electricity en route, let alone Wifi, so you won’t be hearing from us for a while.

County Westmeath, Antrim and Down all represented on this road trip! Should be plenty of GA football chat to help pass the time.

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driverpamirhighway-blog · 8 years ago

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