Kyrgyzstan

Entering China

11-12 June – Kyrgyzstan-China – ~220 miles

After an early start from Naryn, to arrive at the Kyrgyz border by about 8:30am yesterday morning, and then getting to the start of the Chinese border about 10am…
technically, I guess the border crossing is actually still in progress.

Tuesday 9:30 – leave Kyrgz border
Tuesday 9:40 – arrive at first Chinese military post, wait at 3,765m altitude, -2.5°C at times, top of the Torugart Pass, for our Chinese “guide” to arrive
Tuesday 1pm-ish – ride the 4 miles down to Chinese checkpoint/customs… wait several hours while they have lunch, then get bikes X-rayed, and then take one item of luggage (of our choosing) into the shed for further X-ray, and for all photos on our phones/cameras to be perused
~ Clocks jump forward 2 hours to Beijing-Standard-Time ~
Tuesday 6pm-ish – ride another 50 miles or so through some sort of weird semi-militarised-zone, to a “local police checkpoint” – where they again x-ray one item of our choosing, and take iPhone-photos of passports
Tuesday 8pm-ish – ride another 15 miles to the “formal” Chinese Border Control. Park bikes, go through immigration, take any luggage we want for the evening through X-ray
Tuesday 10pm-ish – take a bus into Kashgar, where we’re staying for the next few days. Apparently the normal speed limit for a bus is 80km/h… but after 10pm, it drops to 70km/h. (Of course, in Kashgar, at 10pm Beijing-Standard-Time – there is still a couple of hours of sunlight left) And it has some GPS-linked unit monitoring and restricting the speed.
Wednesday 1am-ish – reach the hotel, try to find some dinner/etc – after spending the entire day living on chocolate and nuts
Wednesday 9am – I discover that it’s not just a 9am team meeting to discuss what’s happening next – we’re getting back on the bus. No breakfast. Two nights running with very little sleep, 1 day of too much sun, and no breakfast… not in a fit state to cope with Chinese “procedures”, and/or english riders complaining about same “procedures”.
Wednesday 10:30 – arrive back at the Border Control Complex, where the bikes are. Get Chassis numbers checked against paperwork. Wait around to see what happens next.
Wednesday 12:00 – ride the bikes through a lane one-by-one, I believe having photos taken of each one as it passes through. Park up, wait around to see what happens next.
Wednesday 14:00 – get told by “Guide” to “hurry up, hurry up” – to get on bikes, and ride around the corner to another Customs complex. Park up bikes, get on bus, go find somewhere for lunch.
Eat lunch – sit around to see if/when/what happens next. At this point, people are going a little stir-crazy.
Wednesday 16:30 – back to Customs complex, where the staff arrive back from their own lunch – and then proceed to… check Chassis numbers against paperwork. Sit around while presumably that is entered into computers, before being told to “hurry up” to get out of the complex.
Wednesday 19:00-ish – finally start riding back into Kashgar… but with 3 more checkpoints to pass through. The 40 mile journey, with some excessive speeding (as a tightly bunched group, and through speed cameras every couple of miles) – took 2 hours.
Wednesday 21:00-ish, arrive back at hotel, with bikes this time, in the middle of some festival and/or wedding… with the laowai bikes immediately grabbing all attention.

Tomorrow – more to do… with Chinese driver’s licences and registration plates to be acquired.
And – very slow/monitored internet – not sure if/when I’m going to be able to post updates and/or photos.

Also, thinking back… some great landscapes during that border crossing, as usual. Riding at high altitude, still surrounded by towering ranges… then get even higher – where the plains to each side are covered in snow… with mountain peaks to each side. Rather cool (pun not initially intended) – but not too many photos, as much of the best stuff was in the zone where the Chinese military would have had rather strong objections to any sort of photography.

Not-Bike in-front-of-landscape

Farewell to “the ‘Stans”

10 June – Kyrgyzstan – ~228 miles

A relatively long day today, getting the miles out of the way – setting up for tomorrow’s attempt at the China border. Some typically cool scenery on the way though, including skirting the south side of Issyk Kul – which seemed like a fairly large affair, but now that I look it up – not much chop. 7th deepest in the world, 10th largest by volume, and only makes 2nd largest even throwing in the “saline lake” qualifier (Although – considering the first is the Caspian Sea – I guess that’s not too bad), or the “mountain lake qualifier”.

Also the first properly cold day’s riding today… although the bike thermometer never got as low as the 4.0°C I’ve seen on several of the passes, it felt much colder than we’ve seen before. Enough for me to unpack the heated vest, charge the battery, in case tomorrow’s potentially hours’ long wait(s) at high altitude Chinese borders/checkpoints are equally cold.

Bike-in-front-of-landscape (Issy-Kul)
Bike-in-front-of-landscape (with Kruse)
Bike-in-front-of-monument-triptych-in-front-of-landscape

Kyrgyzstan – Round#2

08-09 June – Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan – ~270 miles

Out of Almaty (with my mobile phone, safely recovered) – a relatively short ride, to visit Charyn Canyon, and then spend the night camping at nearby Temirlik Canyon. The ride to the campsite was several miles over steppe type landscape – totally flat in all directions, allowing one to get up to 50mph or so on packed dirt/gravel tracks… and then sudden very steep dips into ravines. And when we got to the track down to the bottom of the Canyon – where the campsite was located – it was decided by the riding tour guide that it wasn’t worth riding down… he wasn’t particularly keen on riding down/up it again (had gone down to rescue one of the first two riders who’d tried)… and although I was initially keen to give it a go, his actual reluctance was a major clue that maybe it was a heap harder than it looked. Then – going down in a 4-wheel drive vehicle, creeping along – yeah, pretty happy I didn’t ruin my current pristine record.
(I’m currently only one of 2 riders to not have dropped their bikes yet, although most of those “drops” were carpark drops, or in sand… which are very forgivable).

From the campsite – a quick dash back to Kyrgyzstan – with about 20 miles of that being on a temporary gravel/mud road alongside the highway they’re apparently (slowly) rebuilding – to the border. Quickest/easiest border yet – the customs guy gave my panniers a cursory glance/search – then asked to wear my helmet, and took a couple of photos with me.
Into the town of Karakol – preparing for tomorrow – our last day before China, and what promises to be the longest/hardest border crossing yet.

A small part of Charyn Canyon
Campsite in Temirlik Canyon
Bike-in-front-of-landscape (with flowers)
A church

Into Kazakhstan

05 June – Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan – ~152 miles

A short day, and the first border crossing where we were trusted to do it ourselves. No big group gathering, constant reminders of “keep all the bits of paper they give you” and “right, you’ll need your passport, motorcycle registration, and the bit of paper with the blue stamp from the last time”.
And – it all went smoothly. Buying insurance was rather slow – due to the people involved typing a lot of the requisite information into their system with a single finger. Still – I believe Kyrgyzstan & Kazakhstan are the first places since the Caspian Sea where such paperwork has not been actual “paperwork”… with computers involved. I remember thinking “we’re joking and complaining about all this hand-written bollocks… but I reckon once they are actually doing it into computers, it will take even longer”… and sure enough – yes.

A little bit of paranoia while first riding in Kazakhstan, after being told that if being caught speeding/etc here – the bike could get impounded for a couple of days… and therefore following the locals’ examples when coming across ridiculous speed limits for nothing more than “here’s a bit of downhill road, with some corners – so you should all slow down to 50km/h for 5 kilometres”… but eventually, one gets bored of that.

Arrived safely into Almaty, albeit with a bit of an unscheduled city-tour, as I took a couple of wrong turns… and now checked into our hotel where we stay for an unprecedented 3 nights… while the 3 people who are leaving us here organise bikes-on-planes paperwork, etc. Leaving the rest of us to sample the delights of Almaty, change some air filters, give the bikes a more-than-usual checkover, and probably a massage or two.

K-stans’ border
Bike-in-front-of-landscape – Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan – Round#1

03-04 June – Kyrgyzstan – ~414 miles

Kyrgyzstan has a lot to live up to after the near-constant-awesome of Tajikistan… but it’s giving that challenge “a red-hot go”.
It’s a very different landscape/scenery – but still very cool. Tajikistan – was a lot of LARGE but barren surroundings. Kyrgyzstan, so far, is much more green, and without the sheer scale – but still some cool ranges, rivers, ravines/gorges, etc.

From Osh – it was a full day riding to the middle of nowhere (a beautiful scenic nowhere) – to stay the night in Oson – not sure if that’s even a place name, or just the name of the hotel/motel. The riding was a mixed bag… initially just getting used to having actual traffic to contend with (and dodge, with any modern car being driven by a crazed lunatic – sometimes overtaking cars which themselves are overtaking… with oncoming traffic. Great fun).
Then – as we got further into “nowhere” – the traffic dwindled, and the scenery, terrain, and therefore riding – became much more enjoyable. The last couple of hours were pretty much just riding lovely twisty roads, around a lake, alongside a river, through ravines… to arrive at our accommodation on the very bank of a river. Drinks were had, celebrating the first night in some time where the altitude wasn’t too high for significant libations.

Today – riding from Oson to the capital city of Kyrgyzstan (which, as everybody knows, is Bishkek) – was another day of two halves, but much shorter.
The morning – continued in the vein of the previous afternoon – lovely twisty roads, great landscapes, through a tunnel we’d been warned was a local version of “the Tunnel of DEATH!!!” – but turned out to be “the Tunnel of Mild Discomfort”… with much better lighting than expected, over a couple of reasonably high-altitude passes, passing by lots of yurt-clusters;
before joining the main highway into the capital, which quickly became a solid stream of traffic, with occasional chances to “filter” past other vehicles.

Assorted other points:

  • Today I drank some fermented horse milk offered by the service station crew (with a smirk on their face, daring the foreigners to try it). It wasn’t bad… although after the first couple of sips – I spent quite some time trying to insist that they promise me it didn’t have any whisky in it, and that there was no alcohol involved.
  • Met a group of 4 kiwis riding the other way, on dirt bikes – just doing a bit of Central Asia on rentals
  • It turns out that if you want to reduce speeding – a great combination is a slightly corrupt police force, and speed radars. At least 4 riders got pulled over for speeding yesterday, and paid “fines” which went straight into the officers’ pockets – no paperwork involved. Another talked his way out of it pretending not to understand anything. I got pulled over, and was super polite… shaking hands, immediately got in that I was from New Zealand – not some dirty English or American yobbo – and somehow got away with just a warning that I shouldn’t have been overtaking where I did. I rather suspect they had a photo of me speeding – but with other vehicles in the same photo, so wouldn’t be able to prove it was me if pushed.
  • After a little too-boisterous play with a large German-Shepherd about a week ago – I (ie: the dog) may have hurt something in my hand. It feels fine most of the time, but after a few hours of riding-vibration, it’s feeling rather sore. I’m hoping some ice-packs in the evening, and 2 days’ rest in Almaty should see it right
  • And – got given a gift by some locals… a car I was following for some time, slowed down, signalled for me to overtake – then tried to pass me a little rolled up Kyrzyg flag as we were both moving… after a couple of rather dangerous attempts at this – success.
First Kyrgyz Giant-Flag
Bike-in-front-of-landscape
Bike-in-front-of-landscape
View from Oson accommodation
Spot the 3 new stickers on sign
Bike-in-front-of-landscape (with flowers)
The way up to “the Tunnel of Mild Discomfort”
The road down from “the Tunnel of Mild Discomfort”
Flag + Statue combo

Farewell Tajikistan, my new favourite “‘stan”

30 May – 02 June – Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan – ~538 miles
HALFWAY!

So – after 3 days of no internet access (having stayed in rather simple accommodations in such places as Langar, Murghab, Sary Tash) – a LOT to catch up on, now we’re in Osh.
And I already know I’m not going to bother even trying to do any of it justice.

A lot of gravel roads, dirt roads, patches of sand, extended patches of deep/loose gravel, extended patches of painful corrugated road, a little bit of mud, and pretty everything else. Most of it fun. Sand – not so much. Deep/loose gravel – pretty much like sand. Corrugations… just painful, and not at all fun.

Yamchun Fortress… an awesome wee ride up to it, and an absolutely stunning view from it. An old Chinese fortress, with the best landscape/panoramic views I’ve ever seen. The single best single viewpoint over several days of nothing but stunning landscapes.

The Wukhan corridor/valley – in general – just amazing riding along the edge of the river, looking up at huge mountains and hills on every side, constantly. Turn a bend – more. Another bend – more. Awesome.
And then – we went UP. Up to the Pamir Highway “proper”… and then got a view of all that landscape from above. Just… Awesome from a different viewpoint.
Highest point was 4,655m… didn’t get off the bike to do too much hiking around.
Oh – and got a puncture. About to leave a small village where I’d stopped for lunch, and discovered a wee nail in the rear tyre. That’s the only issue so far… and according to a poll done by some others last night – I’m only one of two to not have “dropped” the bike yet. (Although – the vast majority of those “drops” were in sand, or just literally dropping the bike at a standstill).

All in all – Pamir/Wukhan – I’m seriously considering inserting into my “Top 3” of places in the world, alongside the Great Wall and Iguazu Falls. Just sheer scale, constantly. Words do not suffice.

[NB: More photos should be uploaded, but internet is still not great, and I’m too tired to deal with that, and the ones that aren’t rotated right.]

Bike-in-front-of-landscape
Fix my bike, please
View of Yum-Cha
View from Yum-Cha
Poseur
Panorama
Bike-in-front-of-landscape
A bulldozer-in-front-of-landscape, to mix up the bike-in-front-of-landscape shots
Tagging the road-signs
Baby Yaks, Frozen Lake, Landscape
About to ride down into the fog/rain
A sweet bridge, which I did not need to ride over