After a great time in Kashgar we quit the city to head South-West on the so called Karakorom Highway, up to Tashkurgan which lies very close to the borders with Pakistan and Tajikistan and is an autonomic enclave of the Tajiks in China. We have our Lonel Planet travel book on China. I remember the phrase from it about the Karakorum Highway: dramatic views on the north-Western Himalayas range and Pamir range outstanding scenery. Indeed, the book does not exagerrate on that. We take the ride in a small Chinese bus that make the route Kashgar- Tashkurgan in 5,5 hours. Obviously enough, we are the only Westerners in the bus which, as seen from the eyes of the fellow passengers looking at us curiously, is not thaat common (most travellers going to Tashkurgan arrange shared cars and jeeps to do the route). But the bus is even equipped with asmall TV which is set to show some Central Asian, probably Uzbek, music channel. Thus we are watching the dramatic mountainous scenery to the rhytms of some Uzbek and Central Asian pop. The videoclips are not different from the Western ones on that. Guys in them are singing surrounded by some pretty Central Asian beauties that they are trying to get by romantic lyrics in the songs. In this part of the world where we are at the moment you can feel it is more an atmosphere of Central Asia with its republics, than the actual China. Strange and extremely interesting at the same time. About the Karkaorom Highway itself. Well well, it is definitely not the highway we would call it back home. Actually the road has the wideness and quality of some village road in Eastern Europe, even worse, as sometimes the asphalt is not there (any more?, or never was?) and we are just riding on hardened gravel. The views are simply stunning. I can barely believe my eyes at the harsh mighty and beauty of nature in this little known, yet so much interesting, part of the world. I am having time of my life in this bus, contrary to Alex who is sitting next to me with quite severe stomach pain (he must have eaten sometihng bad last evening), indigestion and hence winding himself in pain. What a f..ing misfortune to have such condition on such a stunning road! (Dont worry, strong Alex made it and got better after some hours ;-). More or less in the middle of the distance to Tashkurgan lies the Karakol Lake, another splendid, desolated beauty of nature where local nomads sell and rent you anything they possess (meaning floor to sleep in the yourt, horse, camel, motorbike, stones) to make their living. They are mainly Kyrgyz people living there by this lake, which is also situated at the bottom of mighty dark knight of the area, the 7530 metres high Mustagh Ata peak. But read about this in the next post!
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 21:22:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015