The road to Osh

Day 67 - Tuesday 16th August - Toktogul - 290kms

Finally  we were able to leave Bishkek. Riding out of town on the main highway was slow going as it was town after town after town. The main road go right across each town, bazar, market, and the crazy traffic that goes with it.

We then stopped to pay 5$ each to use the highway. I use highway very loosely here!

We finally started to climb for our first mountain pass of the day. The road was twisty and steep. Up and up it went, hair pin bend after another... It was beautiful, if only the drivers had not been that crazy. It certainly kept us on edge as we tried to stay alive on that road.

We finally reached the highest point, over 2500m altitude. Our bikes were behaving fine. 

We then crossed a very long dark tunnel for several miles. The headlights on our bikes are pitiful! The tunnel was narrow, busy, with drivers all over the place. Although the highway is only a dual carriage way, they have no concept of lanes so they keep swerving all over the place. 

As Patrick told us, they drive like they ride horses! When you know that here you buy your driving licence, they have no idea how to drive! 

On the other side, we started descending, then crossing a stunning high valley. There were many yurts along the road, selling Kimiz (horse, well... mare, fermented milk) and balls of hard dried cheese, probably from horse milk too. 

There were many horses and some livestock roaming free for miles on end. There are no fences in Kyrgyzstan. It's a bit like Mongolia: wide open spaces. 

Population near the road meant aggressive dogs attacking the bikes. We tried our best to avoid running one over as they jumped toward our front wheels. 

The weather was very cold and then it started raining heavily. 

We climbed another pass and went slightly down. 

With so much traffic and trucks on the road, our progress was slow. We were planning to stop midway to Osh, in Kara-Kul, a non-descript town. However, we were so cold and rather tired, by mid afternoon, so we decided to stop for the night in Toktogul. 

We knew Toktogul well. About 30kms from there, 2 years ago, Alistair's bike decided to die and we had to hide it in a ditch ( it was very late) and  spend the night at an empty half built hotel in town! 

Riding around town for a guesthouse, I managed to find where the hotel was. It was now quite busy. Funny enough, we had the same room than two years ago. This time we had to share the bathroom  and toilet with lots of other people. The place was full at night! 

We had time to have  a walk in town but there was not much to it. We went to get some food at the same ( and only !) restaurant than two years ago. They had now a big garden and with the warm evening it was nice to get a small meal outdoor. 

Day 68 - Wednesday 17th August - Osh - 410kms

After a quick breakfast we were back on the road by 9:30.

Once again, the mountain road was very beautiful but slow going.

After crossing one town, we got stopped by the police. They are everywhere these days! Apparently, Alistair was speeding, going at 72km/h on a 60 zone. As there are rarely speed limit signs, we could not argue. Apparently, I was not speeding despite being just behind Alistair! 

They started taking the driving licence and bike's V5. The chief, fat ( police cops Chiefs are always fat and always sitting in the car while barking orders to his minions, we found!) ... Anyway, the chief told us it was 100 dollars and we would have to go to pay at the bank in Toktogul. I knew what was coming. 

We did not react much, waiting to be asked for cash. 

Then he said if we paid 1000 Soms with our credit card ( about 15 dollars) we could leave. 

Obviously, as you can imagine, none of our cards would work. What a surprise!  So he wanted cash.

Meanwhile, I had removed discreetly most of my cash from my dummy purse, leaving about 650 Soms. 

I showed him my purse with the cash. I gave him the purse... Maybe he felt embarrassed, but after a bit of a huff, he took 500 Soms (about 8 dollars) and we were able to go. We made sure to ride at 60km/h every time it looked like there was a house or anything that may be like a village! 

Funny enough, very late in the evening, in the parking of the Hotel Osh Nuru, we met a group of bikers from Poland, on brand new shiny BMWs, ( obviously transported there by Chris's company!) loaded with tons of luggage, plus a support vehicle, and all the unecessary kit you can imagine... Anyway, 3 of them got stopped also for speeding... They were asked 200 dollars each, to start with... They ended up paying 50 dollars each! Ouch! 

Eventually, by 6:30 we arrived in Osh. We went straight to hotel Osh Nuru. We had been staying there two years ago, after Alistair's bike blew up in Uzbekistan, and we replaced the engine by a Chinese copy, thanks to Kolia, Patrick's very talented mechanic.

Back in London, we had met few times with a young couple, Anna and Howard, who were planning to ride to Mongolia. They left in July and had a different itinerary than us, but they were in Osh for few days. They had just rode the Pamir. We arranged to meet that night at the California Cafe for a pizza and exchange some tips! 

Day 69 - Thursday 18th August - Osh - few miles

In the morning we rode to Patrick's house. Patrick is the business owner of Muztoo and runs motorcycle tours in Central Asia. He also provides services and occasionally spare parts, to travellers. He has a good workshop so you can also use the place to do repairs on your own vehicle. 

As we arrived, there was a massive custom made bike with an enormous sidecar attached to it! A German was working on it. Then his friends turned up, on two bikes and another "trike".

Kolia was busy in another job. So Alistair took out the carburettor. 

Long story short, 195 dollars laters, the TTR was fitted with a new more narrow jet and the needle dropped to its lowest setting to ensure the bike runs as lean as possible. 

My XT250 was fitted with a new back tyre, as the existing one was pretty much at the end of its life. I got the same tyre than two years ago, a Korean Shinko. They last forever.

We also bough another jet even more narrow, just in case! 

The TTR also was fitted a roller above the chain, to avoid the chain to flap and destroy the frame. In rough tracks, the chain was flapping a lot. 

Anyway, all that took most of the day as we also had to go back and forth to pick up some stuff from the hotel. 

In the evening we met with Anna and Howard for dinner. They were leaving the next morning. 

We also managed to do a lot of laundry. The hotel washing machine was broken so we had to do all in the bathroom's sink! Fortunately, the weather in Osh is super hot, so all was drying quickly in our small balcony! 

Day 70 - Friday 19th August - Osh - 

After some more laundry done, we walked to the main bazar. We bought a large bag. We had decided to leave all our camping gear in Osh, with Patrick, while we rode around Tajikistan, and pick it up on our way back. 

The bazar:

Traditional hat than local men wear:

The bazar was as enormous as before! We found  quickly what we needed and came back to the hotel. We filled the bag with all we could do without for a couple of weeks! Mainly the camping gear  and cooking pot, stove etc.... It was  a lot! 

Then, after a quick lunch of Plov at a  local cafe, Alistair took the bag to Patrick's house. 

We were planning to buy some food ( high energy bars, dried fruits, nuts etc...). We knew what to expect in term of food ( and food poisoning!) in Tajikistan, and I am determined to avoid any meal that may be of the " food poisoning " type! Hard to tell I know! 

Most places in the Pamir and the Wakhan corridor are home stay, and include usually all meals... 

Home stays are Just in people houses, in tiny villages, that have no running water, no toilets other that the hole in the ground type, no showers, no fridges, rarely electricity and probably not the same sense of hygiene, when preparing food, as we may expect in Europe! 

The principle to follow is the same than in Africa: if you can't peel it, cook it or boil it, forget it!

So departure tomorrow. We will be most certainly offline until we are back in Osh. Maybe 10 or 15 days.... I will report back when I can! Wish us good luck! :) 

Few days in Bishkek...

 We did not plan to go to Bishkek , the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, until the end of our trip.... But in the end we had to!

Some stuff came up that we had to sort out and go to Bishkek for that. Nothing major.

So on Thursday 11th August - day 61 - 320 kms

We arrived in town relatively early and found a hotel that had good ratings online. 

I hope we can leave Tuesday morning (16th August) . Small delay but we still have a full 4 weeks so should be plenty enough.

So my itinerary had changed slightly.

From Bishkek we will go to Osh. Then from there, after getting ready for Tajikistan and riding the Pamir (I.e. Buying some food!) we will ride to Sary Mogul ( sounds like a name out of Lord Of The Rings! ) to adapt to altitude.

 Going straight from an elevation of 600m ( in Osh) to a border pass of 4,300 metres, and towns at 4000m, we need a couple of days acclimatisation... Altitude sickness is very bad and dangerous! Sary Mogul, above 3000m, is not a village, merely  few yurts near a  lake. One or two night there should do the trick.

Then we will cross into Tajikistan. Once we leave Osh it will be wilderness! Hardly any electricity, no running water, toilets, showers or anything for the duration of the trip in the Pamir, with the exception, I hope, of a couple of bigger villages. 

I expect to spend up to two weeks in Tajikistan. 

Then back to Osh as this is the only way. From there, I will take few mountain trails across Kyrgyzstan to few nice places and lakes. 

We have to be back in Bishkek on the 13th of September latest, as we need to repack and take our bikes to the compound where they will be crated and trucked back to England on the 15th.  

By luck, Chris, our friend from Warsaw, if you follow my blog ( the same whose shipping company is transporting our bikes back to the UK) was in Bishkek. He does guided tours and had finished one that same day. So, as he was staying in a guesthouse near our hotel, we walked over to say hello. The next day he was off to India to guide another motorcycle tour around the Himalayas. His flight had been cancelled and he would face a very windy way to get to India in time! 

He gave me some advice and tips for some trails and places to visit. He showed us pictures of his latest tour. It looked awesome. I am quite tempted to do the Himalayas with him or with his partner Ola next year! 

I leave you with few pictures of Bishkek.

This might be the Opera house?

Cows and dogs are a dangerous combination!

Issyk Kul lake. 

Day 59 - Tuesday 9th August - Naryn - 120kms

The road to Naryn was fairly good, with the exception of many road works. 

We arrived at Naryn rather early and rode to the hotel recommended by Chris, the Khan Tengri. Unfortunately, despite huge grounds and probably lots of rooms, it was full! 

So we looked into the GPS and rode to the Celestial Mountains hotel and yurt camp. We managed to get a room with bathroom . The place was simple but  clean. 

It was a very hot day. We had a walk into town to change some money and buy some food for a late lunch. There were not many palcd to eat at all. We arranged with the hotel to have dinner there.

Naryn had nothing of interest other than as a stop over. 

Day 60 - weds. 10th August - Naryn - about 40kms

The idea for the day was to ride first to the a beautiful valley, east of Naryn, then ride back and go toTash  Rabat, a very ancient caravanserai, about 120 kms West of Naryn, going toward the border with China. 

Unfortunately, the combination of cows grazing on the road, as they alway do, and a dog coming out of nowhere barking like mad and scaring the cows, sent the cows charging toward me. With nowhere to go, I hit one and fell off the bike in the Tarmac. 

No damage to the bike, but I fell on my right shoulder, the same than  got injured lasted December, while off-road riding. Nothing major, but I am in too much pain to ride today. So we rode back to the Celestial Mountains. I took an anti-inflammatory and some paracetamol/codeine mix.

I should be able to ride tomorrow. I really don't want to be stuck in Naryn any more! 

However, riding dirt roads, requiring standing on the foot pegs, might be tricky for me, few days. 

I won't let that change my plans though.

Tomorrow we will still be going to Tash Rabat and staying in a yurt locally.

Then ride up to lake Song Kul. Not sure about the itinerary. My initial itinerary was the most straight road but all in rough surface. I shall see how I feel in a couple of days. 

Still within my schedule! So no worries, all is fine! 

Bloody Dogs though, I narrowly ran few down in the last few days, are they go crazy when they hear the motorbikes, and run after Alistair, ahead of me, then turn to my front wheel! We will seriously slow down near yurt camps etc... From now on.

Fixes, visas and chores in Karakol

The rest of Friday was spent, for Alistair,  looking for a solution to the high altitude problems of his bike, and for me to catch up with the blog and photos. 

The problem with a carburretor at altitude, is that the air is too thin, so the mix of air and fuel becomes too rich in fuel. The bike splutter and choke, eventually it would stop. So we need to reduce the intake of fuel. That means opening the carb and is complex. 

So the idea was to find a fix, or that failing, go to Bishkek, the capital city, where he would be able to acces a workshop and find all he needs. 

The highest mountains passes in Kyrgyz, until we reach Osh, will be about 3500m.

So if the bike does this it is enough, then in Osh there is a very good mechanic! 

We also had a good walk in town. Lots of tourists around! We had not seen any tourists until then. We were surprised by the numbers! On the plus side it meant menus in English in cafes and restaurants, albeit at western prices! 

Views from our hotel window: 

And typical non English menu! 

Day 56 - Saturday 6th August - Karakol - 0kms

After some research, Alistair decided against opening the carburretor, and try a small fix. That was to remove the plastic cover of the air filter, to allow more air, and to put a sieve, with lots of duct tape, to ensure no debris get in. Much more air should get in. 

He found what he needed in the local bazar.

Here is how it looks: 

Views of Karakol and the bazar:

You must attention when  walking around or else! 

We visited some interesting sites: the ancient cathedral, built entirely in wood and without the use of any nails, and the local mosque.

The mosque looks very Chinese, the architect was Chinese. 

Despite the fact we could not go inside, and despite wearing long sleeve shirt and long trousers and boots, I was still made to wear this horror! 

We then discovered the tourist cafe popular with the tourist and went for a pizza! 

Day 57 - Sunday 7th August - Karakol - 150kms.

With Alistair fix in place, we decided to test his bike at altitude. There was a road east of Karakol that went up to a mountain pass. We rode it up to 3400m high. The TTR climbed! It was great. Mine, which is fuel injected, had no problem, as the FI system can sense the amount of air and regulate the flow of fuel. 

We did not want to waste several days in Bishkek as we were running out of time to explore the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan. So that was great news! 

Few photos of our ride: 

Still snow up there! 

Talking of Tajikistan. Our other reason to go to Bishkek was to get the visas and GBAO permits ( permits to ride the GB autonomous oblast which covers part of the Pamir Highway). 

However, Chris Sambor, in Warsaw , had told me that the Tajik government had now an online eVisa system. I tried with the iPad but did not work. 

We decided to walk to an Internet cafe and put our applications using a real computer. Our applications were done. We just had to wait for a decision.

That done it was time for a Lagman! We did not need to go to Bishkek, more days to ride in the mountains and hopefully the Pamir! 

 

So we decided instead to ride the next day west and south, toward Kochkor, then Naryn, high in the mountains. 

Day 58 - Monday 8th August - Kochkor - 250kms

Nice ride along the lake Issyk Kul.

On arrival at the village of Kochkor, we found a nice little hotel. They only had rooms with shared facilities but all clean. 

The most important stuff was that the wifi worked well and we had news of our Tajik visa application! It was accepted! It was just a  piece of paper to print. We hope the border guards know about this new eVisas system! 

I will publish photos of our ride later when I transfer them. 

I leave you with horses. So many horses around! 

Within few miles of China....

The evening in Taldykorgan, we found the Moroccan style restaurant where we ate, two years ago. 

They did not have couscous on the menu anymore and the tagines meals were very expensive. More than the price of our hotel for one night! 

We had some cheaper stuff and it's was really nice! 

The weather was still stormy and as we left the restaurant, it was, once again, lashing down with rain! We ran back to the hotel. 

Views from the hotel room:

Day 53 - Wednesday 3rd August - Zarkhent  - 350kms

The plan was to ride south on the main highway for about 100kms, then take a turn off east and try to find the entrance of the Altyn-Emel national park. The only info I found about it was in a small thread, out of the Lonely Planet forum, which mentioned a village called Baschie, as the entrance to the park and where the Rangers were located. Tourists must be with a ranger to go into the park. 

Out of a travel agency website, from Almaty, I found the same information. My problem was that this village, set in the park, does not appear in any map, paper or online! I knew it was a long shot,  but we decided to give it a try! 

The weather was , once again, cloudy, so our waterproofs were within reach! 

At the junction, we stopped for some fuel, and took the road that goes straight to the border with China. 

My plan, if successful, was to spend two days in the park, and then ride south to Kyrgyzstan. 

Off the turn off, we knew, from my map, that a small road was going right inside the north side of the park. It seemed like the main road into the park! We followed it. It was single track but mainly paved, so that was a good sign. 

We carried on for a good 40 kms. Some turns off looked like farm tracks. And with crops everywhere, it was a big hint! The area was beautiful, like all this region to be fair. 

We finally arrived at a large village, not Baschie. The road ended there. 

We parked the bikes near a small shop, bought some iced tea and tried to ask the woman if she knew about Baschie. Blank stares! Hmmm.....

Decision time. What to do? With no way to find out the right trail, and the park being massive, we turned back. By then it was mid afternoon, we had to move on. 

We decided to ride to the Altyn-Emel pass and beyond, and take a short cut toward Kegen, the town near the east side border with Kyrgyzstan. Before that, we had to find a place on the road for the night.

 

I was not sure if our shortcut would be passable, as, like all ex soviet countries, border permits are requested to get close to border zones! Unless you keep to the main road to the Chinese border! So the turn off into a secondary road that follows the Chinese border, may require a permit. 

As we climbed the pass, it became evident that Alistair's bike was struggling at altitude. It is already running too rich in fuel, and in the thin air, it cannot cope. This is going to be a problem. If it struggles at 1800 or 2000 m altitude, it won't make it to the Tajik border crossing set at.... 4300m! Or any pass in Kyrgyzstan, often beyond 3000m! 

Anyhow, something to fix! 

After the pass we came across two German bikers: Daniel and (I think) Wolf.

They told me they came by the shortcut I had in mind, no permit required, or asked! That was a big relief! They were on their way to Mongolia, so we exchanged few tips and emails. They had massive bikes with a huge amount of luggage! It won't be easy for them in Mongolia! 

So we decided to continue East. There were two towns on our map. The first, Koktal, was at the junction with the shortcut road. It had a hotel, according to the GPS. So we decided to spend the night there. 

After descending the mountains, we rode a very straight boring road along a semi desert flat region. 

It was only about 40kms from the border with China. 

As we arrived in town, sets in what appeared to be a forest, we found the hotel, down a very  nice little drive. It was set in beautiful gardens, had a swimming pool, and a nice outdoor cafe with beautiful lanterns.  It was pure indulgence.... I got inside to make enquiries. I doubted it would be full as there  were no cars around! 

The manager told me they had no rooms as they were closed. The scaffolding on one side of the property should have been a clue! I was gutted! It was magnificent! 

I asked where we could find a hotel and the lady said there were many in town, about 14kms away. 

So we rode to the next town, Zarkhent. 

We stopped at the first hotel we saw. The town looked a bit of a dump and, as all border towns, a bit lawless and on the edge. As we stopped the bikes, a lady took charge immediately and told me to put the bikes round by the entrance of the hotel. We did. 

I got inside, the place was big and the room she showed me was large and even had aircon! She spoke a tiny bit of English and told me her son was living in Canada, she was obviously a very proud mum. 

The hotel was nice, clean, and reasonably priced. So that was sorted. The lady, obviously the owner, then ordered us to put the bikes inside the hotel. The hotel had a security guard, we think because, like many hotels, they have shops inside, and one shop was selling gold. So the bikes would be super secured! 

It was getting late so we got changed out of our motorcycle gear, had a quick shower, and went to visit the town. 

We needed to buy water and have some food. Round the corner was a street market that was closing down, people everywhere packing stuff in cars and trucks, crap and garbage on the street, the smell of rotten food and sweat.

We found a small shop, the usual we see here, small with someone behind the counter, you ask what you want. We got few bits and I asked the lady where we could get some dinner. She gave me directions for a Stalovaya. We found it easily. The place was huge, and apart from two guys, was empty. 

Alistair hada salad   with French fries. The fries came with onions and meat. I had the Lagman, conservative choice, but it was the best I ever had! Lagman is a noodle soup, how much soup or dry it is, depends on who cooks it. That one had the noodles in one dish and the stew in another. The stew was superb! 

All that was washed down with a couple of beers! 

Day 54 - Thursday 4th August - Karakol, Kyrgyzstan - about 350kms

Our plan was for a short day, riding a nice shortcut road across the Sheryn National park, across beautiful mountains and canyons, and spend the night at the only hotel in Kegen, a border town near Kyrgyzstan.  We spent a  night there two years ago, during our Mongol odyssey. 

We left town by mid morning, feeling tired from the previous few days ride. 

The short cut took us for about 100kms across flat plains. 

In the distance, we could see the mountains, far away. 

It was hot and not particularly interesting... Although  we came across the local road hazards:

They stared at us, and grumbled if we got too close! 

After few pictures we managed to get passed those massive beasts! 

Then, out of the blue, a road sign signaled a steep 12% descent for 8000m! What the hell? I thought we were rather low, but in fact we were almost riding at 2000 m altitude, and now was the descent into the canyon! It was beautiful! The photos don't make it justice! 

We came across another flat section and strange looking burials. 

We arrived just before 2 pm into Kegen. It was early. We rode close to the hotel and out again to the main road, to have some lunch. 

After wasting some time finding a  place and parking the bikes nearbye, we sat and had a quick meal. 

By then it was 3 pm. Debating whether to stay or go to Karakol, we decided to stay. 

We went to buy some fuel  then  rode to the hotel. As chance has it, it was a building site and we had no choice. We could not stay. The nearest hotel was in Karakol, a good 150 kms and a border crossing away! 

We went first to the local bank to change our pack of Tenge into hard currency. We knew from past experience that it would be hard to get rid of our Tenges outside Kazakhstan. That done, we rode out of town. 

The road was pretty bad with non stop massive potholes. 

We got to the border and getting out of Kazakhstan took about 10 minutes. The custom guy just patted the panniers before waving us out. 

Then we got to the Kyrgyz side. There was a problem. They had no electricity, they had run out of fuel and the generator was out! We enquired what fuel they used as we had lots of petrol. Was it diesel or petrol? It was petrol. 

We offered to give them a couple of litres so we could get on our way. By the time a container was found  and Alistair started to get the fuel taps closed, they waved us to the passport control. 

After stamping the passports, we were waved out, no custom, no docs to fill, nothing else! That's how we remembered  Kyrgyzstan! Minimal red tape at the border!  The officials on both side were friendly and smiling. 

So it took less than 30 minutes to cross! 

The ride was then rather slow as we could not ride fast on the never ending massive potholes in the bad gravel road. It took a while but after a long ride we reached finally a brand new paved road. 

 The crooked cops, who tried to get money out of us two years ago, were gone and the police post looked now more official. No one tried to stop us. 

The road to Karakol was very beautiful, but my battery emptied so only couple of photos! 

We arrived in town rather late. The GPS took us to a guest house with small room  and shared bathroom. We wanted a private bathroom, we had to do some laundry as the road works  and gravel roadshad caked us in mud. We had to wash our riding gear and have few days rest.

After a lot of run around we found a nice hotel but rather expensive at 60$! 

But by then it was nearly 8pm and we had had enough. We could only stay one night as they had a group fro the weekend. No problem, I just needed wifi to find us a nice place for few days.

Once the bikes unloaded and we got washed and changed, I found a place in town that was much cheaper and very nice. I booked it online and that was that done! We needed a rest and do some stuff on the bikes. 

We then went out to find a shop. By Then it was dark and a bit intimidating walking on those sand tracks down empty dark streets. We found a street with shops and got a couple of Potatoes Pirojkies ( pastry ) and some snacks. 

Then we fell into bed exhausted ! It had been a very long day. A long few days. 

Day 55 - Friday 5th August - Karakol - 1km! 

By 11 am, checkout time, we left the overpriced hotel and moved to the cheaper nice one! The room was big, it had a big shower where we could wash out motorcycle trousers and do some laundry.

We walked to the tourist info to get a map and some Information. Few rides to do around Karakol.

We found an ATM machine, near a bank and got local currency with the card. We asked for 10,000 Soms (about 100 pounds). The machine gave us two notes of 5,000! Rule number one when travelling in these countries: nobody will have change for big notes. We walked into to bank and the nice friendly staff changed them immediately for smaller notes. That should get us going for a while! 

That's all for now!