The drive from Lake Karakul took us up over the Ak Baital (White Horse) Pass at 4655m. We continued to follow the military fence and saw several herders with their yaks. Passed many derelict pre-Soviet and Soviet military ruins along the way.
Murgab has a huge military base. The houses are square with flat roofs and very few trees. We visited the bazaar which is a clutter of old shabby containers. We topped up the sim card we were given by a German couple and it took so long as he gave us a gigabyte and had to register each 100 megabyte voucher individually my phone.
Murgab, population 6500, is the hometown for our driver Turat. He works everyday he can driving tourists about in the summer and sits at home smoking and sleeping all winter as the temperatures drop to minus 45 C. Many of the Pamir Highway drivers come from Murgab. Usually he would homestay his guests at his house but his wife is in Bishkek visiting their first grandchild so he could not host us.
We walked around the town and watched the kids gathering up their goats, sheep, and cows to lock them back up in the house courtyards overnight. There is a large modern hotel with a yurt out front in town. There were several motorbikes and bicycles parked outside belonging to the fit and adventurous travellers.
There was a large depot for Chinese long haul trucks bringing in supplies from China. Sadly the trucks return empty to China. Turat told us that the eggs in the Osh bazaar come from China.
The homestay ladies took three hours to light the fire to heat the water for a shower and it was like a Russian banya. The room was tiled and steamy hot. One tap had boiling hot water and the other cold so we would mix the two and bucket it over ourselves. There were no birch leaves to lash us though.
Water was stored in the big blue drums at the homestay.
We slept in a huge room with enormous couches that must have been put into the room before the windows as they were so huge. John slept on one and I took a hard lumpy mattress on the floor. Mark was in another room across from us and the space in between had a table and chairs and this was where we ate our dinner. We had a watery soup followed by a plate of fried yak meat and nothing else - we were told this was the national dish.
The ladies had trouble getting the generator going at night to give us lights. A large group of travellers arrived in the dark and were housed in the main building away from us so we never got to chat with them.
Turat came by in the morning and was not impressed with how unfriendly the ladies were and gave them a lecture about smiling for their guests. He can't wait for his wife to come back and host his clients.
Murgab has a huge military base. The houses are square with flat roofs and very few trees. We visited the bazaar which is a clutter of old shabby containers. We topped up the sim card we were given by a German couple and it took so long as he gave us a gigabyte and had to register each 100 megabyte voucher individually my phone.
Murgab, population 6500, is the hometown for our driver Turat. He works everyday he can driving tourists about in the summer and sits at home smoking and sleeping all winter as the temperatures drop to minus 45 C. Many of the Pamir Highway drivers come from Murgab. Usually he would homestay his guests at his house but his wife is in Bishkek visiting their first grandchild so he could not host us.
We walked around the town and watched the kids gathering up their goats, sheep, and cows to lock them back up in the house courtyards overnight. There is a large modern hotel with a yurt out front in town. There were several motorbikes and bicycles parked outside belonging to the fit and adventurous travellers.
There was a large depot for Chinese long haul trucks bringing in supplies from China. Sadly the trucks return empty to China. Turat told us that the eggs in the Osh bazaar come from China.
The homestay ladies took three hours to light the fire to heat the water for a shower and it was like a Russian banya. The room was tiled and steamy hot. One tap had boiling hot water and the other cold so we would mix the two and bucket it over ourselves. There were no birch leaves to lash us though.
Water was stored in the big blue drums at the homestay.
We slept in a huge room with enormous couches that must have been put into the room before the windows as they were so huge. John slept on one and I took a hard lumpy mattress on the floor. Mark was in another room across from us and the space in between had a table and chairs and this was where we ate our dinner. We had a watery soup followed by a plate of fried yak meat and nothing else - we were told this was the national dish.
The ladies had trouble getting the generator going at night to give us lights. A large group of travellers arrived in the dark and were housed in the main building away from us so we never got to chat with them.
Turat came by in the morning and was not impressed with how unfriendly the ladies were and gave them a lecture about smiling for their guests. He can't wait for his wife to come back and host his clients.
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