Dushanbe to Mazar-i-Sharif, the travel details

Dushanbe to border: From the Green House Hostel (highly recommended), I took Mashrukta/City cab number 8 all the way to the end (8 somani ). Here, I hopped off and asked for a cab to the border, which cost me about 40 somani, shared. That cab goes right up to the border, which is pretty isolated. Here I exchanged Somani into Uzbek Som in order to get on my feet. Beware: they’ll try to change at the bank rate, but make sure yo haggle for the black market rate if you can. The truth is, the majority of Uzbekistan operates on the back market rate, so you really ought to just go with it. When I went, bank rate was about 3000 Som:1 USD. Black market averages about 6400 Som: 1 USD. So you’ll have to do some math coming from Somani, but get a good rate. Worse case scenario, you’ll need about 150K Som to make it to Termez the local way, so get at least that much.

Border is easy to walk through. On the other side, an army of taxis will be waiting to take you into Denau, you can haggle prices a bit, but supply and demand will kinda stick it to you. I paid 15K Som to Denau, shared, and it took about 20 minutes.

In Denau, you’ll be dropped off at the taxi/bus station. From there I hopped onto a shared taxi going to Termez, which was pretty easy to find. I paid 20K Som if I remember correctly, and the ride took a few hours. This a good time to mention that distance and prices NEVER match up in Uzbekistan, and it’s honestly just kinda confusing. Just argue for the best price you can.

I got to Termez about 4pm, and decided I’d make to jaunt to Afghanistan same day and avoid paying for a (what I heard was pricey) hotel there and then Afghanistan next day. Termez is a bit confusing, with a very small taxi stand going longer distances, an assortment of marshuktas, and painfully minimal taxis on the street. Most cabs wanted to charge me about 50K to the border (called “Hiraton”). Mashrukta #255 will take you there directly, and cost almost nothing. I ended up having tea with a really random guy, and then paid a cab 15K to take me there. I’d rather have done the masrukta.

Border was relatively easy. Got there around 5:30 (tea time got in the way of things), and it was basically dead. It still took a while to go through all my bags on the Uzbek side, but was painless. After that, there was a long walk across the friendship bridge and into Afghanistan. Border on Afghan side was very easy, asked me where I was going, stamped, and didn’t go through my bags.

Once through customs, walk through the gate and sandbags (yup…), and walk straight until you find a cab. It’s a pretty hardline $20 USD or 1000 Afghani to Mazar-i-sharif. I didn’t even ask questions, since it was getting dark and kinda just wanted to get there with no issues. There was nowhere to change money at this border by the way, but the USD is accepted and preferred anyhow.

Took about an hour to get to Mazar, with no traffic (NOT the 20-30 minutes LP states). I stayed at the Barat hotel, which is right downtown next to the Blue Mosque, safe, clean enough, running water, but limping wifi. It was $50 with my own bathroom.

Next day I walked around the mosque, which was gorgeous. People were very friendly, and I never felt like I was in danger personally. It should be noted, however, that this isn’t a place to be flippant with your tourist status. This is still one of the most dangerous countries (Cheak World Peace Index) on the planet, and news about a tourist in town will get around faster than you think). So after one night in the hotel, and a great time walking around the Mosque, Bazaar, and downtown a bit, I did all of the above in reverse.

The hotel arranged a cab to pick me up there and bring me to the border for the $20 again. Then it was across the border, and hopped a cab into Termex proper.

I hope these details help other travelers with this border. It’s very straight forward, and without the thought of it being Afghanistan, is a really simple/painless border. I would say Mazar is your only safe spot to travel too right now (or Ishkashim in the Pamirs), and I wouldn’t try to be cocky about it. The mosque was gorgeous, the people so, so nice, and I had some great conversations. It was worth it, and if you’re willing to pay the money for the visa, I think this is a nice little end to any official Pamir highway end/beginning. Hope it helps!

-BK

Dushanbe to Mazar-i-Sharif, the story

I ended up covering a significant amount of ground on this leg of the journey. My original intent was to try to make it to Termez, Uzbekistan, the last stop on the border. But things moved along at a decent pace, and fueled by the fact that Termez hotels are few and expensive, I’d save time and money heading straight to Afghanistan. But we’ll back up…

In Dushanbe, I had a small breakfast of onions, egg, bread, and tea, then packed up my things to head out. It was a bit difficult mentally to leave this hostel. As I’ve mentioned before, it was one of the best I’ve been in, and to know that the next few days ahead may be a bit challenging make it difficult to leave a place of solace and rest.

I had to piece meal it to the border. I walked to the main street and took a city marshrukta to a taxi terminal, where I was bombarded with offers to take me to the border, all over priced and tough to negotiate. After settling on just one of my arms, we made the 45 minute jaunt to the border, where I was dropped off in well, kinda the middle of nowhere. When you’re crossing these border sans car, it always feels a bit awkward- just standing there, in front of a bunch of gates and fences and thinking “Guess I’ll just walk across this thing”.

The first officer asked me (well, gestured) for my immigration card. That’s funny, cause when I crossed into Tajikistan over the Pamir mountains, I didn’t get one. Well this is awkward. He informed me I can’t leave the country. Awkwardness intensifies. After letting about 6 other people (with their cards..) through, we had a heart to heart. $40 hallelujah handshake and I was through.

Upon entering Uzbekistan, I had my first taste of the :horribly inefficient: customs bureaucracy that entangles this nation. I had to empty everything out of my bag, go through all the files on my laptop (especially pictures), camera, SD cards, external hard drive and cell phone. After this (which…takes forever), I could come on in.

From there I took shared taxi to Denau, and on to Termez, with plentiful police stops on the way, where I had to get out and have my passport number and itinerary taken down into a notebook. Once in Termez (about 3 o’clock), I figured I was this close to making the run for Afghanistan, I may as well do it. So I took a taxi to the border, and had to leave Uzbekistan under the exact same customs nightmare as before, even though I’d been here for a few hours.

Afghanistan was remarkably easy to enter. Passport, itinerary questions, stamp, and done. Once past the last gate (and rows of military sandbags), I was in. The internets informed me it’s about half an hour to Mazar, so I found a taxi and off we went.

Desert driving vibes. Also shameless selfie

After an hour (I swear the travel information is the worst for this region), of driving through sand dunes and past HUMVEEs and turrets, I was in Mazar. Naturally, the taxi driver had no idea where my hotel was, and neither did other cabbies, or even other hotels. Oh, and the phone number was one digit short of being an actually functioning Afghani number. Well thank you Wikitravel (almost the only source on where to stay here) for the complete fail. It was off to another hotel, which was actualy very central to the Blue Mosque (shrine), and fairly westernized. I had running water, “wifi” (didn’t work at all), and a secure location to explore tomorrow.

Getting trafficky!!

Shoemaster

My first impressions of Afghanistan were a stark reminder that it is less developed than anywhere in this journey so far. Aside form the dust (which has only to do with the geography), I was reminded again the smell of sewage, dirt and grime from other countries like this. I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, and was even more grateful for the hotel. Apart form that, there were a TON more people out and about, Street vendors, juice stations, friends, people chatting, it was actually very lively and nice to see. I only went out the hotel to grab some dinner (chicke pea soup with goat meat and Non), then it was a shower and to bed for me. Tomorrow will prove interesting. I’ll have a good note to look forward to!

-BK

The Road to Dushanbe: Me and The Ladies

Khorog to Dushanbe

I’ve covered a lot of ground over the years. I’ve had some amazing opportunities, and always had a thing for getting out onto remote raids and seeing epic scenery. I perhaps was on one of the more scenic roads I’ve covered in my travels (at least top 5, we’ll say). Maybe it was the ‘off-the-beaten-path’ aspect, perhaps it was the fact I was bordering Afghanistan by maybe 100 meters most of the time, or maybe it was the energetic crowd I was with for the 15 hours journey. Sometimes you have days that just go really, really well. I had a great travel day.

The start:

Getting up at the crack of dawn in Khorog, I went outside to meet :whoever: was suppose to meet me at 6am to bring me to Dushanbe. This was via the driver I had from Murghab ro Khorog, who said his friend would meet me. When 6:15 rolled by (and given my previous lesson in Murghab), I placed out and started heading toward the little bus station. En route, parked in a more residential area was a short, stocky, pleasant faced guy packing up his LandCruiser. “Dushanbe?”- he asked. “Da, Dushanbe!”. We bonded. We loaded up my things a top the car, and waited for the next 6 passengers.

The people:

First was a pleasant lady who came with her mother to see her off. Next, came two ladies, each with a kid (about 4 and 6), but who seemed to kinda all come together. And a couple minutes later, fashionably late, came an ancient woman who, as she stepped into the courtyard, exclaimed something to which everybody erupted into laughter. You see, this matriarch was the mother of the two women, and obviously, those were her grandkids.

One of the daughters spoke a little english, but we quickly left english anyway and just preceded in Russian and hand motions. We covered all the basics: where I’m from, why I’m not married and where are my children?, what I do, etc. The Queen mother was highly pleased when she learned I was a medical student. It turns out she has quite the story. This lady is a traidiontal Tajik (well, Pamiri) dancer/singer, whose career over the years has taken her to England, all over mainland Europe, Moscow (where she owns a home- and her granddaughter studies medicine there), Afghanistan, and the whole region here. She was, in fact, just performing in Khorog. Cue the music and the dancing. She was hilarious, and a ball of energy.

An honorable mention to the kids, who were naturally adorable, but also a lot of fun to play with. When we were stopped to fix our flat tire, we entered into a fierce sequence of word-less games, which won over not just them, but the mothers and Queen Royal as well.

Now, I won’t pretend to know much about the inner workings of a woman’s mind, but I can make some geernal observations, and I an at least say that there are some incredible similarities between women everywhere. Examples: approximately every 10-15 minutes, they would erupt into scolding the driver for :something:, and then we’d all algae about it. At one point he stopped for lunch, and they ordered him to go inside and see what’s on the menu first (this was a first in all my vehicle rides). He reported, to which the Queen B exclaimed “NE!! something something”…and off we went to find a better place, about 2 hours later (and it was much, much better with outside seating, etc).

The Route:

It’s no secret that I’m traversing the Pamir Highway, the famed M41 through the Pamir mountains, starting (the most inclusive list) from Mazar-i-Sharif to Osh. Obviously doing it backwards, but last I checked, the road is two ways. It’s a winding, sometimes paved, sometimes mud, and everything in between road that crosses gorges, rivers, and climbs into the top of the mountains (in my case, starts from the latter and goes into the gorges and valleys). We in fact took a detour off the M41 itself, and stayed on the border of Afghanistan for basically as long as possible. It was stunning to watch as the Afghan peaks met the Tajik peaks with this turquoise river in between. What started in Khorog as a simple river bed evolved into a massive gorge and canyon complex that we were driving along one side of. I got to see it slowly pour into the valley that is central Tajikistan, and it was simply beautiful.

The journey include paved sections that we cruised along on, narrow dirt/rocky ledges, construction vehicles, cattle, to that-dump-truck-is-stuck-in-the-mud-and-we-can’t-go-until-he’s-out. The driver acted as DJ and we had a constant supply of mostly Russian/Pamiri/Tajik/Kyrgyz/Arabic songs , with the occasional American pop. The driver would stop at road-side stalls to buy treats for the car. The ladies brought snacks. I had a seemingly endless supply of dried apricots, some dried berry item, and an unidentified plant, with a delightedly tangy flavor. We ate, we sang, danced, talked, and mostly laughed for essentially the whole journey.

Occasionally we have days that are simply…great. There’s no great lesson to be learned or one things that made it so. It’s just a combination of “just right” that puts a smile on your face, and in our case, made 15 hours seem not that bad. I guess when seeking out the rare and out-there, what makes us the most happy is the comfortable and right-here.

Will relax in Dushanbe tomorrow to have a look around and recoup before continuing South West. Until next time!

-BK

Bishkek and the Visa Trail

I’ve spent about 1 week in the capital city of Bishkek. A sleepy city with soviet-esque architecture, but an entirely independent attitude and vibe, this is generally a haven for travelers to pick up visas that are more difficult to obtain elsewhere. That being said, there is no shortage of visa-difficulty in this down. The following note will focus on my visa-obtaining adventures, and I’ll make another post talking about my impressions of Bishkek itself. But we left off in Almaty, so let’s wind it back a bit, and catch everybody up to what I’ve been doing.

Leaving Almaty was pretty easy; I took public bus to the regional bus station, where I was expecting to find transport to the border, with the need to do the same once in Kyrgyzstan. However, was able to find a mini-bus with service straight through to Bishkek. It was only 1300 tengi (about 4 dollars). The road was in pristine condition, and it was a beautiful day! We scooted along to the border, hopped off of our mini-bus and went through the appropriate Kazakh border procedures. No issues (make sure to have your departure card you received coming in- obviously-although one traveler got stuck in the queue next to me). Then we walked on foot into Kyrgyzstan (87 for me), whereI very anticlimactically received a stamp and I was in! The bus was waiting not he other side, and off we went to downtown Bishkek. Took about 4.5 hours all in all.

Once in Bishkek I took a taxi to my hostel (Interpose Hostel on Toktugal St.). It was pretty empty, but run by a fleet of college age girls, who are pretty helpful making any phone calls you need around town (cough embassies cough). I hit the hay (alone in a 6 bed dorm...), and began my visa adventure the next morning.

Understand: What is a visa you ask? Essentially a very-official permission slip to enter another country. Depending on your country’s relations with target country, you amy or may not need one, and if you do, the difficulty of obtaining one will vary. The standard procedure is send an application, passport, and supporting documents to that nation’s embassy in XX country, and get your visa. Bishkek has al of the embassies of the neighboring countries, with the additional advantage of visa issuance being fast and cheap. Hence, me being in Bishkek to get some visas.

Day 1: So I call the Uzbekistan Embassy in the morning. She gives me an appointment..for tomorrow. Alrighty then, I guess that’s that. So I decided to be all super-efficient and said, hey, lemme get my visa for Tajikistan today while I wait. So I headed over to the Tajik embassy (it’s in a very odd part of town, but a good taxi driver- like anybody from Jogul taxi company) will use their smartphone to find it). It was the easiest visa I’ve ever received. I paid $75 USD for a double entry visa, plus 100 som (about $1.46) for the GBAO permit (restricted area permit to visit the Pamir mountains). I waited two hours (they had a lunch break), and I had it. NICE! While I waited, I decided to get even mor efficient and called the embassy of Afghanistan in Bishkek. I discussed with he consular’s secretary the process for obtaining a visa for US citizen. He explained that it was relatively easy, given my meeting with them go well. I scheduled this meeting for the next day at 2pm. I went back to my hostel and spent the rest of the day talking with a long-term inhabitant “”Tony””, an expat teaching at the American University of Central Asia.

Day 2: I head to the Uzbek embassy for my 10am appt. Now, the lady at the embassy is infamous amongst travel blogs, books, and word of mouth as being, lets say, difficult. I was the first to be called upon my the wicked witch from the west, and I figured my actions were gonna affect everybody behind me. I played it smooth. Approaching the iron bars of her jail cell (or was I in the cell?), I first asked how her day was going. This proved to be what we call “a good move”. She shifted in her seat, smiled, and said she’s doing OK. Alright, going well. I handed in my paperwork, and had to request to keep my passport while they prices (fingers crossed), which surprisingly, wasn’t an issue at all. WHEW. I spent some time walking around the central part of the city and “hanging out”, then headed over to the Afghan embassy.

IT went like this: Knock, wait a long time. Then the Consular’s secretary comes down to interview you. There were general questions such as “why are you in Bishkek”, “what do you do”, etc. Depending on this interview (and apparently if he likes you?), they will decided to issue you the visa or not. After a quick compliment on his rings, I had a grand old time chatting with the secretary. He left to talk with the Consular, and returned saying “we will issue you the visa. Here is the application, fill it out and bring it back tomorrow at 9:30”. And that was that. I had to go to the Bank of Pakistan to pay the visa fee (?), and after that, meandered around town and back to the hostel.

Day 3 in Bishkek. I flutter my eyes awake, happy about my Tajik visa, and proud of the progress with Afghanistan. I headed over to the embassy, and handed the application to the secretary. The visa fee for US citizens is a whopping $160 for 9 day processing, or $200 for 24 hour processing. I chose the latter (and introduced myself to financial serfdom). I was instructed to pick it up tomorrow at noon.

Day 4: Since my visa is being processed sans passport with the Uzbek embassy, I was planning on heading to the hills after I picked it up from the Afghan embassy. SO I packed my things and headed to the embassy. Lo and behold, the visa was issued, no issues at all. Single entry, 30 days. Of note, the particular town I plan to head to is the town the secretary is from, and the hotel I chose is about 100m from his house. He was very excited about this, and it was encouraging to hear how excited he was that I was visiting such a nice place. He also gave me his personal cell phone and email, and the contact info of his brother, who lives there currently, should any issues arise.

I will call the Uzbek embassy Monday (as instructed), when I assume I will be told to “come tomorrow”. A lot of “tomorrow’s”...but that’s a lot better than “no”, or several weeks of processing elsewhere. No problem!

It should be stated that I never travel without doing an incredible amount of research. My travel strategy is to be flexible, without planning too far ahead, but knowing all of the options. When I arrive to a place, I know what is available, how longs it takes to get to different towns, etc, and I make my choices as I go along. Afghanistan is a well-researched destination, with careful phone calls made to the appropriate people.

And so I was able to head to the hills and beauty of Lake Issyk-Köl. I will post about my adventures/relaxation here soon, after my Bishkek piece. I hope some of the information above regarding visas comes as a great help to any travelers planning similar routes. Stay posted!

-BK