Osh to Irkeshtam Pass, Kyrgyzstan
Krygyzstan is still a poor country,
A typical house in the village
there aren’t any big industry in the country. On the road, I saw just animals husbandary but people here loves Mercedes and Audis, those cars were everywhere.
The taxi dropped some people off at Jalal Abad and the driver put me in another taxi to Osh.
View on the way from Jalal Abad
Arrived at Osh around 12pm and altogether, the ride from Bishkek to Osh took 13 hours.
There are a few options going from Osh to Kashgar. To Irkeshtam pass it’s around 240 km from Osh and another 250 kms from the border to Kashgar. Asked around for buses from Osh to Kashgar but no one seems to know about it. Later, I found out that there is another new bus station at the north part of town.
New Long Distance bus station in Osh
Took a cab there since I am rushing for time, paid the driver slightly more since he seemed like a good guy. Found out that the bus from Osh to Kashgar
runs only twice a week, Sunday and Thursday 8pm. The bus ticket cost USD$70+100Som.
There are also travel agencies that will arrange transporation from Osh till Irkeshtam pass for USD$180 per car. Usually they will leave in the day, stay overnight at Sary Tash then head to the border the next day. The road to Irkeshtam is very bad so I guess that’s why it’s so expensive.
Finally, decided to take a shared taxi to Sary Tash at 2.30pm,
managed to get a price of 400 Som~USD$9 after some haggling.
Along the way up the mountains, there were all kinds of animals on the road
Lambs
Cows
Horses
Scenary
Got to a cafe in the mountain
at 6.30pm for dinner, had lamp soup (100 Som~USD$2), this is my first meal for the day.
There were some truck drivers and the taxi driver helped me communicate to them that I need to get to the border. One driver allowed me to get on his truck.
Krygyz’s truck drivers
Tajiks and Krygyz drivers rest stop.
Tajiks look like people from Iran and Krygyzs look a little like Mongol and they sat separately from each other.
The road up the mountain is very bad and bumpy. Normal cars will have problem getting to the pass. Finally, got to Irkeshtam pass at 11.30pm. The driver slept in a guesthouse and I paid him my leftover Krygyz money to sleep in the truck.
It was so cold sleeping in the truck up in the mountain and I almost froze.
