The weather cleared in the morning as we all had breakfast together. The Swiss lady told us how they had driven through Iran and enjoyed it so much they spent two months there. They met a lot of friendly people and enjoyed the food and parties they go invited too. All women in Iran must wear a headscarf in public, including tourists. But once they are behind closed doors they can do what they like. As they were crossing the border into Turkmenistan she found that she could enter but her Belgian partner was refused entry. He had to fly to Kyrgyzstan to wait for her to drive their Landrover through. It is very difficult to get visas for Turkmenistan, and you have to either get a five day transit visa which does not require a guide or you have to join a tour with a guide.
After a breakfast of 'kasha' or porridge, and in this case semolina which is a bit like baby food, the rain stopped and we set off in the Sprinter with guides Vasil and Amelia, driver, Sam and Tony. It was interesting to hear about Sam's life working in Delhi, Nepal, and Thailand. Once Sam's contract finishes in Thailand she thinks she will work in Sri Lanka. Tony took early retirement from the travel industry and tags along when he can on Sam's excursions.
The roads are really bad and in the Sprinter we were tossed around quite a bit. It was more comfortable in Kustam's Audi on the potholes and gravel. The poor people who would have to sit in the back seat of the Sprinter would certainly want to move seats each day.
The weather cleared as we climbed over a 3016m pass. There was a wall of snow on one side of the road where the sun had not managed to melt.
We climbed out of the Sprinter to look down the valley at the zigzag road and met an Audi full of locals. A man called everyone over and chopped up a cantelope for us to eat. He grew them and had brought his family up to visit some relatives in the valley who were living in their yurts and grazing their animals.
Further down the valley there were crops of sunflowers, corn and potatoes. We saw lots of beehives beside the fields as well.
We stopped near a stream and the guides set up a table and folding chairs under a tree. Vasil had included some Kyrgyz bubbles in the shopping and we had a glass with our lunch of cucumber and tomato salad, canned mackeral, cheese, and bread, biscuits and chocolate, fresh plums, grapes and apples. Quite a treat.
When we arrived near Jalalabad we saw lots of recently built houses with corrugated iron roofs and baked brick walls. Many had bricks in the windows and were not finished. Amelia said they were built by Kyrgyz people working overseas. They would send the money home and build such places. She said they were letting everyone know that they had made money overseas and they were to show off their wealth.
Once in Jalalabad the driver and guides flagged down a motorist and negotiated a rate for him to take us to the CBT office in the town centre. They all continued on for another four hours or so.
At the CBT office were several young men sitting in front of computers. The office doubled as a media and print office and they phoned the coordinator for us to find a home stay. Before too long a young man arrived and we followed him a few streets away to his family home. No one spoke English. We were taken upstairs to a large room with about four beds in it overlooking a hard earth courtyard. Grapes weaved their way up a trellis to the second floor and had the longest bunches of grapes I have ever seen.
The toilet was at one end of the courtyard while the shower was at the other end through the family's living area. The husband organised tea, bread and jam for us. Some chickens lived under a wall to one side of the courtyard and would cluck away whenever we went past.
After cleaning up we walked into the main street to find somewhere to eat. We found a place that was set back off the street with little wooden booths along one wall and wooden tables in the middle. Lots of families with their children were eating and business men with their cellphones sprawled out on the booth benches drinking tea after work. We ordered a couple of handles of draught beer before our sizzling chicken and vegetable dish arrived on a hot cast iron plate on a board. A nice change from plov and mutton!
In the morning the husband organised our breakfast of fried eggs and bread and lead us to a back street where we could catch a small bus to the shared taxi depot for our ride to Arslanbob.
After a breakfast of 'kasha' or porridge, and in this case semolina which is a bit like baby food, the rain stopped and we set off in the Sprinter with guides Vasil and Amelia, driver, Sam and Tony. It was interesting to hear about Sam's life working in Delhi, Nepal, and Thailand. Once Sam's contract finishes in Thailand she thinks she will work in Sri Lanka. Tony took early retirement from the travel industry and tags along when he can on Sam's excursions.
The roads are really bad and in the Sprinter we were tossed around quite a bit. It was more comfortable in Kustam's Audi on the potholes and gravel. The poor people who would have to sit in the back seat of the Sprinter would certainly want to move seats each day.
The weather cleared as we climbed over a 3016m pass. There was a wall of snow on one side of the road where the sun had not managed to melt.
We climbed out of the Sprinter to look down the valley at the zigzag road and met an Audi full of locals. A man called everyone over and chopped up a cantelope for us to eat. He grew them and had brought his family up to visit some relatives in the valley who were living in their yurts and grazing their animals.
Further down the valley there were crops of sunflowers, corn and potatoes. We saw lots of beehives beside the fields as well.
We stopped near a stream and the guides set up a table and folding chairs under a tree. Vasil had included some Kyrgyz bubbles in the shopping and we had a glass with our lunch of cucumber and tomato salad, canned mackeral, cheese, and bread, biscuits and chocolate, fresh plums, grapes and apples. Quite a treat.
Once in Jalalabad the driver and guides flagged down a motorist and negotiated a rate for him to take us to the CBT office in the town centre. They all continued on for another four hours or so.
At the CBT office were several young men sitting in front of computers. The office doubled as a media and print office and they phoned the coordinator for us to find a home stay. Before too long a young man arrived and we followed him a few streets away to his family home. No one spoke English. We were taken upstairs to a large room with about four beds in it overlooking a hard earth courtyard. Grapes weaved their way up a trellis to the second floor and had the longest bunches of grapes I have ever seen.
The toilet was at one end of the courtyard while the shower was at the other end through the family's living area. The husband organised tea, bread and jam for us. Some chickens lived under a wall to one side of the courtyard and would cluck away whenever we went past.
After cleaning up we walked into the main street to find somewhere to eat. We found a place that was set back off the street with little wooden booths along one wall and wooden tables in the middle. Lots of families with their children were eating and business men with their cellphones sprawled out on the booth benches drinking tea after work. We ordered a couple of handles of draught beer before our sizzling chicken and vegetable dish arrived on a hot cast iron plate on a board. A nice change from plov and mutton!
In the morning the husband organised our breakfast of fried eggs and bread and lead us to a back street where we could catch a small bus to the shared taxi depot for our ride to Arslanbob.
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