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.

Took bus 120 back to Balaholka

to ask about buses to Urumqi. The bus to Urumqi will only leave Sunday night and not many seats left. Decided to take the route to Kashgar intead of going to Urumqi first. Mainly because I am curious about crossing the Irkeshtam pass from Kyrgyzstan to China. Irkeshtam border crossing is up in the mountains and it’s more challenging to cross the pass than to take an overnight bus to Urumqi. If I do that, I can probably get to both Kashgar and Urumqi a day earlier and don’t have to fly from Urumqi to Kashgar.

Took bus 141 back to Ulitsa Dostyk. As a reminder for me, bus 120 and 141 go to Balkaholka.

Visited KIMEP University. I was planning to visit the finance faculty and asked about teaching opportunities but the university was closed for holiday.

Why Teach at KIMEP?

Started my long journey to Kashgar at 4pm. Took bus 65 to Sayram bus station and waited an hour for the minibus to Bishkek to be full before heading out. It’s a 4 hours bus ride to Bishkek and got there at 10pm. (1200 Tenge~$USD8)

????
Took a taxi to the shared taxi stand for Osh (100 Som). I only take the cab because it’s late and I am rushing for time. Again, a taxi driver tried to scam me by wanting more money. I have been in Bishkek just last week so I know how much does a short ride cost. It’s kind of funny that I had to hold tight to my 200 Som, grabbed his 100 Som before letting go my money.

Got on a shared taxi to Osh around 11pm (1200 Som ~USD$25). It’s a little more than I paid from Osh to Bishkek the last time. The driver drove so slow and he looked so sleepy. I wanted to shake him so bad since I wanted to get to Osh before 10am in the morning.