I’ve been covering a LOT of distance the last few days, and in a sense, that’s very gratifying after my Bishkek vacay. I’m not entirely sure how to break it all up, wince I have stories form each day, so I’ll put it into smaller chunks, highlighting things worth mentioning, and maybe in a few days say something about the Pamir Highway in general.
From Bishkek to Osh with Meret.
Ever have one of those moments of complete silence with somebody you don’t know that well? Like your mutual friend leaves to go to the bathroom and the two of you are left just kinda..sitting there. You speak up…exchange an obligatory chuckle, then go silent till said mutual friend comes back. This was that…for 12 hours. But more on that in a quick sec… back to Bishkek…
So Tuesday I received my Uzbek visa from the consulate around 11am, which meant I was ready to head to Osh ASAP! This was the famed decision between flying (on hour) or mashrukta/shared taxi. It turns out the flight was actually kinda difficult to book, and they didn’t have a ticket for that day (or next morning) in my luggage weight class anyway (Pegasus air is kinda like Ryan air, so ya know, shoes cost extra, etc). Since it was the afternoon anyway, I figured I would go for the wheels route. The price difference between a shared taxi and marshrukta was small, so I went with the shared taxi for the comfort of a regular car seat (marshrukta seats are technically padded regular van seats, but they mostly remind me of those metal fold up chairs at school concerts). As my luck would have it again, not a lot of people were heading that way, so I ended up the only passenger in a VW station wagon FULL of stuff to be dropped off at various points a long the way. Passenger seat=winning.
As expected, my driver, Meret, didn’t speak any english, and my Russian/Kyrgyz only got us past pleasantries. We then communicated our ages, the fact that I’m single (big problem at my age in Kyrgyzstan), and he is married with 3 children. That was about 10 minutes into the drive. That’s when the “where’s our mutual friend” silence began. We made stops every 2 hours or so for food, tea, toilet, or to drop some random package off to somebody. Needless to say, I didn’t get a terrible amount of sleep. The good part, however, was that we arrived in Osh about 9 in the morning, which is a lot better than like…3am or something. Meret dropped me off at the hostel I booked for no extra charge, and we said our goodbyes. So glad to be at a hostel where I can refresh, right?
Not quite. This particular hostel (booked on hostel world, too!) was a bit rough around the edges…also on the insides. Unfortunately due to the rain the previous night, they had no running water. I was bummed out since it had actually been a while since I showered (we’re talking before Altyn Arashan and the van-tank…). Looks like I would have to hold off a bit more. So I rested for a couple hours, then hit up the city of Osh.
I’m not sure what I was expecting from Osh, but this was slightly below whatever that was. Perhaps the hype of the city’s history and it’s relatively large size works it up to be about what Bishkek is. But it’s certainly a less developed city, and much more drab. Regardless, there were some neat things to see. I walked down to the Osh Bazaar, considered one of the oldest bazaars in the entire region, which, is fair to say one of the oldest in the world. Osh was an important stop over on the ancient silk road route, trading goods from what was to become China and the western world. So to think of the fact that I was bartering (ok not really cause their prices were really good actually) and buying goods in the same city as they were thousands of years ago. That’s a neat thought. After the bazaar, I walked up Sulaiman Too, essentially the rock of gibraltar of Osh. I spent a while relaxing up there and just enjoying the city view and the fresh air.
A Bowl Of Soup
Back to the hostel, where uneasy going Australian (is there any other kind?) named Callum was making some vegetable soup. Since I wasn’t able to talk to Meret very much, Callum got hit with all the conversation I stored up. He was kind enough to let me help myself too, and over the soup we sat for a long time and had a long talk.
You see, he’s been traveling for 18 months from Sidney and targeting Istanbul. I’ve met a lot of long-term travelers, people kinda floating through different nations, etc. But this guys is doing it all on his bicycle, and factually started in Sidney…crossed Australia through the outback to Darwin, up Indonesia, SE Asia, China…across China and Tibet…and is now here. Hats off to you mate, you win. But back to the soup- we talked about a great many things, but two things stick out as particularly relevant.
Firstly, was the idea of taking your time to look around. You can imagine you don’t have many other options when crossing half the globe on your bike. He mentioned how he’s had the chance to really stop and ponder the world around him. In a physical sense, there’s a chance to observe nature and things you’d otherwise miss, say a birds nest, or a tree (don’t laugh, Peter and I ended up doing a fair bit of bird watching in South Africa). And in another sense, perhaps this is just an important mindset he’s developed. Sure, every traveler has places they just need to move through quickly, but what an opportunity to see the world like he is seeing it. It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway), let’s not move too quickly through everything. Take time to appreciate where you live, the people in your life, and when traveling, the people around you in those places.
We then talked about some of the famous Anatrctica expeditions. Namely, the Robert Falcon Scott expedition- the one that failed miserably and everybody died ( I brought that up…), and that of Ernest Shackleton, where all his men lived..surviving imperceptibly small odds, existing on blubber and whatever else (he brought that one up…). Concerning men like Shackleton, we discussed the exceptional leadership quality he had. Namely, because he refused to show himself as disheartened. Anytime a problem arose, he immediately went to finding a solution instead of harping on the issue. His positivity, without a doubt, saved lives.
Without being too dramatic, this was one of the best vegetable soups I have had. Perhaps it was the fact I hadn’t eaten in a while, maybe it was something nostalgic, or maybe it was the company, as we sat slurping, dipping bread, and having a laugh over a whole range of subjects. Sometimes we meet people we just click with, and it’s a lot of fun, and honestly, meeting other travelers is one of the best part of traveling.
You see, when on the road, it is so easy to get down. It gets lonely, it gets difficult. I mean, I can barely order food since I can’t read the menu or speak enough of the language to differentiate between subtle words with drastic differences. It is simply difficult. But I find those who enjoy problem solving tend to have an easier time of traveling. I LOVE solving problems and figuring things out, and maybe that’s why travel is enjoyable to me. But I very often can feel down or frustrated, and I’ll have to remind myself that positivity goes a long, long way.
Thanks again mate for the bowl of soup, it fed more than just my stomach.
-BK