Kyrgyzstan

Thursday, July 9th


At around 1:30 PM, together with Brigitte and Fred (www.polops.blogspot.com)  and Pierre, we got out of Tajikistan. The landscape changed radically: it was a relaxing pleasure for the eyes to finally see some green. After 20km of no man's land, a stiff dangerous descent in quite bad shape, we officially set foot into  Kyrgyzstan. It had been a while that we didn't have such easy custom service. Kyrgyzstan is visa free for most of citizenships, no luggage check, no formula, and when it came to financial proof, we just drew our credit card and it was OK.


After weeks of beautiful but dried and bare mountains and fields of the Pamir, we were enthusiastic to find green grass, green trees again. Then we noticed big black loaded clouds behind us: the rain was pouring hard at Tajik side and was coming toward us. Oh oh!!!!

We put the turbo on and peddled with all our strength. The road was flat and comfortable but as usual, the wind blow fiercely against us. Brigitte and I took refuge behind Fred and Alessio and we arrived to Sary Tash completely exhausted while Pierre preferred to stop on the way. Mirbeak, the guesthouse recommended was full so we just stopped at the one next door - the owner seemed to be surprised to see us, as there was no sign anywhere!!!! 10 dollar/pers for a bed, dinner and breakfast, it seemed quite reasonable. Moreover, we had two big connecting rooms for us!!!! On the other hand, there was no shower but a bucket of hot water in the yurt in the garden. Well, we were not too demanding to complain about that but were happy enough to have a dry, warm place when finally the pouring rain caught up with us.

Our first impression about Kyrgyz people was that they were not very warm. It was almost mission impossible to turn on a smile. Shopkeepers were rude, people on the streets seemed cold and mistrustful. Our Polish friends, staying in other guesthouse even reported a weird ambience "we were her guests but she treated us like enemies" (!!!!)
The nicest person we know in Sary Tash was Aigul, our host, even though she stayed very distant for the first day. The next day, she was a bit more open and smiling, maybe because we helped her to carry the water from the river home.... She was astonished to see Fred and Alessio doing the laundry and I added an another layer, saying that they also cook (What perfect men we have, Brigitte and me :-) :-) )

(Aigul's little son, so proud of wearing his father's cap)



Saturday, July 11th


The way out of Sary Tash started with 2 passes, stiff and incredibly long! I, as usual on uphill roads, turned into turtle while the other speeded up like rabbits. They would have quite a time chatting on the top, waiting for me!!!!
We tasted the horse milk for the first time, offered by a young girl speaking quite good English. In fact, she was a Mathematics/Programation student in Bishkek, back home during summer vacation. Taking care of horses seemed slightly different from working for Bill Gates and we wished her to fulfill her dream soon.


After the efforts, came the comfort: we had a downhill of 600m of difference in height. From 3500m to 2900m in one short! Wouahhh!!!!

The scenery varied a lot: from mountains with green grass and free horses running around to red cliffs, so rich of mineral.

In some places, without the yurts and the kids waving and shouting "goodbye" (instead of "hello" in other countries) at us , with all those pines forest, we could have thought to be in Austria....

We were also surrounded by the nature's perfume: the grass, the herbs, the flowers... all offered us their best scent with which we gladly  filled up our lungs.

We crossed, on the opposite direction, a Korean guy who intended to be the first Korean cyclist over the Pamir with a Bromton (you know, this little folding bike!!!!). We don't really know what pleasure he could feel out of this but are sure that he would struggle a great deal. He seemed to be animated by some weird sens of competition: as we talked, two other cyclists appeared, the closer they got, the more nervous he became - he didn't want to be caught up by this couple of Slovenian who, on the other side, willingly spent some time chatting with us. We asked them to send our greetings and warm thoughts to Jeff and Xaviere, our friends from www.yeuxdenfants.com, as we knew they were somewhere behind.


Shortly before 3PM, Fred and Brigitte decided to stop, after 65km - the wind, faithful to our faces, was too exasperating to continue. But we wanted to be in Osh as soon as possible, so we said goodbye and continued confronting Eole for another 30 km. We had to peddle hard even on downhill!

In a random village along the road, a young boy gave us a middle finger (!!!) It was simply too much. Alessio braked sharp and made a U turn: what's your problem? The boy, as brave as smart, ran away and continue giggling as he found the (not a) joke funny. It put Alessio of course in not a nice mood and in an even less nicer mood when two boys came to our camp spot, wandered around without a word then left...


The next day, it was an another everlasting pass. The turtle that I was kept on going slowly, patiently but I had to admit that it became annoying at some point. It reminded me of those never-ending passes of Armenia: I got so bored and decided that the top should be at the next bend, then I looked up and realized that this next bend would be only in one hour or so...

But, even a turtle could climb a mountain, we finally arrived to the top around 1PM and met up there with the Polish/Slovak group who, despite all the efforts, stayed so joyful and punchy. The next 60 km to Osh would be downhill and flat, we decided to wait for Fred and Brigitte who finally caught up with us shortly before 3PM, after a long tea pause 500m away.

After having a big watermelon, we decided to give the peel to a cow nearby. She was so fond of it, followed Alessio like a big dog and even ate it from his hands. Fred tried to experiment a cow feeding and they both seemed to enjoy it



Monday, July 13th


We arrived to Osh around 9 AM. Suddenly, there were too many cars, too much noise, too many people.... For the first time, we enjoyed arriving to a city. In fact, after Pamir where we hardly crossed 5 cars a day, we'd been even craving for some noise!!!! We decided to go to Baiana, recommended by some other cyclists. The receptionist greeted us with a broad smile, which made us feel comfortable right away. She hardly spoke English so I, once more, had to use my broken Russian.
My Russian is more than basic but did help a lot. I sometimes wonder how I could be perceived and treated in Europe, let's say, in France with a level of French as low as my Russian. Is there any chance that people might think I am a bloody ignorant immigrant or, at best, a rude ignorant tourist???? Here, as everywhere in Central Asia and in Caucasus, people are very much tolerant and rather excuse themselves from not speaking French or English than to look down on me and my poor Russian.


So, in Baiana, we had a super deluxe room with perfect shower, huge bed, enormous living room (!!!) where we could store all our luggage, and jumbo breakfast for 1500 Som (around 24$, a fortune but worth every cent of it). Almost all guests were cyclists and we were happy to find Pierre and Maxime (www.maxlecyclochard.org). Jeff and Xaviere on the other side, stayed at an another guesthouse not far.


At the bazaar, we found the famous "Master of bicycles" who fortunately, had the piece we needed for my bike. He could be a master but definitely not a tender man: the way he hammered my fork made me almost cry of pain. Alessio had to stop him and found himself a smoother way to open it.


We also took advantage of bazaar to have fresh food. We had tremendous salads - our bodies were craved for veggies and fruits after almost a month of "starvation". What a pleasure to engorge all those fresh, delicious vitamins :-) :-). We also enjoyed real meat: 2,5kg of veal for 6 were just enough, not talking about puree, cheese.... :-) :-)

Thursday, July 16th, we finally left the hostel at 7:30 PM, just to roll a few km to set the tent in a harvested field.
Goodbye Osh, here are Potatoes on the road again!!!!


As we both were not in perfect shape, even though the road was smooth, we stopped after 68km, by a lake, under a big tree. It was the last day of Ramadan so people were quite over excited and we crossed some drunken since morning.
After a long nap, we opened the eyes at 4:23PM, just to have a glimpse of an yellow helmet disappearing behind the trees on the street: we knew one cyclist with this armor: Xaviere. Alessio immediately took my bike, ran after the helmet :-) and got back later, indeed, with Xaviere and  Jeff. We spent the evening together before splitting again the next morning, as we took two different ways to Bishkek.


But then, we caught up again with Fred and Brigitte. They saw us on top of a pass when they started from the bottom and stopped a car to send us a message. The car's driver was very much happy when he delivered the missive, with big gesture and big smile "two cyclists friends of you are behind!!!!".


That day, we stopped around 3PM, in a site that looked like an abandoned school.

It was not abandoned in fact but it was simply not very well maintained and closed during summer vacation. A young boy came, strutting a bit because it was his turn to keep the school's keys. Later in the evening, he came back with a gift from his parents: bread, kefir and cream. Kyrgyz could be colder and more distant than other Central Asian people, the mythical hospitality is still there somehow.


Sunday, July 19th, the suffering began!!!! We knew it: 100 km before Kazarman are shit, permanent bad roads with no asphalt but only gravels, rocks, bumps, uphill.... everything that make cycling painfully annoying or annoyingly painful.



Monday, July 20th. Fortunately, the weather was not too hot and Eole was elsewhere, otherwise, our battle against the road would have been even more difficult. Laboriously we gained meter by meter of those 1400m of difference in height, silently cursed the road, and some stupid guys who threw stones at us - I personally was too tired to show any reaction and just ignored their whistling and stones throwing....

3 PM, exhausted, I started being VERY grumpy. Fortunately, we arrived to the top, after 30km of uphill. Well, the downhill was not a piece of cake but a tough moment for our bikes, our arms and bums.... Then the wind rose, blew like crazy. We spent around 1h30 to find a place to set our tent.
After some unsuccessful attempts, we asked some nomads to set our tents near to them, their position and tents would protect us a bit from the wind.
The first family was very kind and showed us a small parcel behind their tents, between two families.

The woman from the second family didn't seem happy to see us there and almost asked us to leave "there is a good place to camp over there! If you are afraid of the wind, here you got the wind too". So I looked right into her eyes and said " We stay for only one night, tomorrow morning, we will go. The wind is so strong that our tents alone won't stand. But of course, if we bother you, we will leave. So, please, tell me, do we bother you? Do you want us to leave?". Then the two families argue for 10 mn before the woman, somehow despite herself, let us stay!

The wind was terribly strong and changing all the time, which made the tent setting a big proof of organization and coordination!!! Our "host" kindly offered us some cream, cheese and fresh kirmiz - the famous fermented horse milk, the national Kyrgyz beverage!

By the time we went to bed, the wind also stopped, we had almost a quiet night!!!!

The next day, we finally arrived to Kazarman around 12:30 and gave ourselves a long rest at a restaurant. We wanted to buy some fruits, while Alessio was choosing the apricots, the seller composed a big bag of different fruits, gave it to Alessio but pointing at me "this is for her" (!!!!!) In fact, we didn't realize right away but we already met him two days ago on the road. He offered us one big water melon, then another big melon but refused categorically our money - I had to "corrupt" his little son "give it to papa, OK?!"



The next 200km seem to be as bad, if not even worse, as what we had with relevant passes. Fred and Brigitte decided then to take a bus to cross the first pass.
Despite being food poisoned (Alessio) and having a horrible back pain (me) we decided to ride. It didn't last long. After 2h and several stops, Alessio, as white as he'd never seen the sun, asked for a pause and lied down, like a veggie, on the road's side while I watched out for a car big enough for the four of us (Alessio, me and our two bikes).

The first van didn't stop so I decided to stand in the middle of the road for the next time. The second one went only to the next village. After almost 1h30, we finally found someone willing to take us all with them. From the car's windows, we stared at the road (the driver drove like crazy, like all Kyrgyz drivers...) and knew that it was not worth cycling. In our state, we would have suffered too much!!!! The driver, very kind, was ready to bring us as far as he could but after 100km or so, we got off.

After 30 min, we arrived to a village and decided to we had rolled enough for the day (!!!!). When we asked a family with a "grassful" garden to set the tent, they simply declined with this unbeatable argument "Why do you want to sleep in the tent when you can sleep inside? We have a big room for you" (!!!) Indeed, the room was big enough for at least 8 cyclists :-) :-)

Aitolkun  normally lived in Bishkek but was back to her village for holidays. Very sweet, she offered us dinner, we declined several times - we could not bother her that much - but it was an error because it was delicious. To our thanks and compliments, she responded "and you didn't want it at first...." hahaha.




Friday, July 24th

We got ready to attack a new pass when Marko arrived - we already met up in Osh with this charming Slovenian lonely cowboy.

He kindly waited for us, well, rather for me because as you know, when it comes to stiff bad road, I am not a cyclist anymore but a turtle.... It took us more than 3 hours to arrive to the top, including chatting time with some mountain bikers, going downhill, followed by two 4x4 carrying tents, luggage, cooks, what a luxury (!!!!).

Around 3PM, we arrived to the famous Song Kul lake but it was so foggy that we didn't see anything. "It doesn't look at all like what I saw from internet" was our common statement :-) :-)

We set the tent quite far from the road and from any yurt. Anyway, a young boy, probably intrigued by our presence, came and observed calmly our bikes, our tents, our bags, us having diner.... We offered him a dish, which he accepted and gave back after two spoons: even a Michelin star's chef could not satisfy this exigent customer :-) :-). And he kept staring at us, almost absorbed, fascinated. We have to confess that we felt rather uneasy.

He kept asking how much our tent costed and when Alessio returned the question about this donkey, his eyes brightened like to say "What? Are you going to buy my donkey????". Poor little donkey, so cute, was beaten to blood. A moment later, his little brother came, on an another donkey. He answered to our greetings by a blank, cold gaze. When they finally left, with a defiant look, the little boy hit his donkey, right on his blooding head, the brother giggled. It drove Alessio out of him: he tok the bike, followed the boys, took their sticks and threw them away. Decidedly, we have very mix feelings about Kyrgyz!


The next day was an another exhausting one. Needless to say how bad was the road, how tired were we, how Alessio had to push my bike.... Moreover, it rained like cats and dogs, and all the kids we met were rude.... Fortunately, at the end of the day, we had a perfect spot with wonderful view of the sun getting out of the dark clouds, of the double rainbow

everything looked so fresh, no renewed after the rain that our tiredness and disappointment seemed to be washed away.

After a good night, our suffering also ended: we finally got to the paved road!!!! What a paradise :-)
:-)

(we cyclists, worship the God of Asphalt!!!!)

We caught up with Fred and Brigitte for lunch: they were staying in Kochkor. It would be our last encounter before long: maybe we would meet up again somewhere in Taiwan or Japan in winter...


Saturday, July 25th
We took the train to make the last 200km to Bishkek: the road is known to be boring and dangerous (for cyclists). It was very comfortable and cheap (2$ each, bike included).

We arrived to Bishkek at 10PM - too late to look for a guesthouse. The "Chief" of the station didn't want us to put the tent but kindly let us sleep in the waiting room. We were a bit scared of mosquitoes but finally had a good quiet night.



The next morning,  6AM, we enjoyed an unique moment when Bishkek was empty and noiseless :-). We decided to have a long rest here: our bodies, our bikes all need some maintenance :-) :-)


See you later!!!!



Tajikistan and the Pamir - the Roof of the World

Wednesday June 17th, we got up at 5:30, rolled the last km to the border. Goodbye Uzbekistan, Tajikistan here we are!!! The custom services at both sides were very smooth, we even had to wait to the guy who was in charge of our exit stamp, to get back from his breakfast break (!!!!) and he didn't seem to give a ... about our missing stamps (you know, theoretically, one has to "register" at a hotel/guesthouse every 3 days, which is very difficult (and costly) when one is by bicycle).

We could feel the difference quite quickly: in Tajikistan, we had relief :-) :-). Together with Pierre and Simon, met at the border, we rolled to Dushanbe and headed directly to the famous OVIR to ask for the GBAO permit. To visit this mountainous autonomous region, the Pamir highland, the Roof of the World, the number one attraction of Tajikistan, you need a special permit, which could be obtained very easily and quickly at Dushanbe.

We were lucky enough to be hosted by Vero, the mythical Vero on Warmshowers even when she wasn't there. Her place was a green paradise, a peaceful oasis in the center of the busy capital. We enjoyed it so much! Thank you Vero!!!

The first part of the road from Dushanbe was very comfortable: nicely asphalted, not too stiff, beautiful view....  

We reached here our highest speed ever: 80,63km/h, a brake free descent on smoothy 8% with generous curves. It was simply amazing!

Saturday June 20th, we spent the night in a fruits garden, the owner told us we could pick up some fruits but as we just bowed, thanked and stayed still, he did the job himself and brought us so many plumbs and apricots... He was so glad to practice English with us.

Once the sun set, the wind rose, so strong, that during one hour or so, we were worried, not knowing what to do: the tent wouldn't stand for long and there didn't seem to have a better shelter nearby.... Finally, around 20:00, the calm was back and we had a quiet night.

The next day, outside the Kulob's bazaar, I met this young boy speaking quite good English " I would like to go to the USA. The United States are rich, Tajikistan is so poor, I don't like it here!!!". I tried to tell him that life in the USA wouldn't be as easy as he may think but he was too overwhelmed by his dream/project to ever hear me. Finally, I just said "If you really intend to leave, I'd suggest you to enjoy every moment you are still here, enjoy your country because you will miss it very much".

The same day, we reached the highly symbolic barrier of 10.000 km. Yes!!!! We made it! Ten thousands kilometers!!!!

We were so proud of us but unfortunately, there was no beer to celebrate but hot water from our water-can, heated by the sun at some 40 C!!!

We also had the first check-point to the GBAO (Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region). The guys there told us that the road was going down in 4 5 km.  But he forgot to mention that the road was stiff, full of gravel. Going down was then a painful exercise for us and our bikes.

It was so hot and dry that the ground was almost "torn apart" 

But we had a wonderful spot anyway for our night. We had almost the feeling of setting the tent not by the road side but somewhere in a natural park. We even had access, quite difficult, to the river to take a bath and to wash our clothes. Almost a 5 stars spot, I would say :-)

The next morning, just before we left, a car passed. Stopped. The driver got out. Gave us a big melon. Smiled then drove away. That's a kind gesture to start a day :-) Thank you guy (we actually crossed him later during the day on his way back)

We started to long the Panj river, the natural border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. It was a bit odd to see that on the other side of the river was kind of a forbidden country for us: everything looked so peaceful. We waved to some Afghan hanging around on the other side. Oddly, for the next days, we saw more of Afghan landscape than Tajik. 

For the night, we set the tent on the little hill by the road side, with stunning view over Afghanistan side. People went washing their clothes by the river, waving at us. Everything seemed so peaceful and we just wished harder than ever to be able to visit this beautiful country one day. We met some people who went there and spent wonderful time but at this state, it still seemed too risky for us. And our hearts pinched a bit, thinking about those kind and generous people who have been suffering too much :-(

The next day, we even set the tent right on the river side: we never got so close to Afghanistan. We heard that normally, police wouldn't let us to that if they saw us but we didn't find any "campable" spot on the way and it was getting dark. The water was muddy and the current was strong.  Pierre, a cyclist friend of us told us later that he was very tempted to swim through, just to reach Afghan land and back, and we were glad he didn't realize this foolish idea.

The road was narrow and bad.  In some part, the mountain just fell off, blocked the road completely, a small "emergency" path was created, hardly large enough for a car to pass. I started the path, trying to paddle hard because it was quite stiff when I heard on the other side, a truck's horn "beep beep", I beeped beeped back. So the 40 tons truck just waited patiently for me and my 40kg bike. Normally, 4 wheels don't pay that much attention about us, especially 4x4. They just drove like crazy, took over trucks, cars or whatever on the road to come right on our face or to push us closer and closer to the dangerous road side. Remember, there was nothing between the road and the steep ravine.

As in every country, we found some abandoned dogs. Alessio gave them some bread, a liter of our precious liquid and the two dogs ate and drank it within a minute :-( It was painful to let them there, knowing that they had little chance to survive in such a hostile environment, so dry, so little human presence. We don't really understand why people abandoned them: they were cute and friendly, and it wouldn't cost too much to feed a dog here.

A word about Tajik people: they seem to be a bit colder than Uzbek but finally very nice. People along the Panj river and on the Pamir highland are quite used with tourists, to whom they charged sometimes a hard price for bread and stuff but in general, they were still very kind, generous and helpful. They liked to talk with us, even when our conversation was quite limited, not only because of my broken Russian but also because they had very little idea of the outside world.

As in other Central Asian countries, Tajik women love thick eyebrows, mono eyebrows is the best !!! They try to make them grow thicker while applying a green liquid made of some local plants.

I tried once but it was too short to have any effect :-) 

Also as we stated in Uzbekistan, they don't seem to care about waxing: they can proudly walk around in skirt with fairly hairy legs!!!!

In villages, people are still dressed in more or less traditional way and in cities, you can see bare shoulders, skinny jeans, skirts.... they seem to be quite open-minded about the subject.

Once, in the middle of nowhere, at at least 15km from any living sign, we just crossed this bunch of young women, walking around on high heels, looking so fresh and relax under the heat while we sweated the hell out of us!!!

Wednesday, June 24th

Another check-point, usual question "do you have kids?". In response to our "no", the guys took Alessio apart and gave him some tips about "the best places in Pamir to make babies" :-) :-)

That night, we had to unset the tent when it was already dark because the wind was too strong and shifty. We found refuge in a hotel/restaurant not far where they allowed us to stay in the corridor. We didn't set the tent again because the corridor was not large enough but slept directly on the floor with our sleeping bag. It was not a cool night firstly because the wind sent quite a lot of sand on us, on the other hand, people kept eating the whole night, because of ramadan!!!

Friday, June 26th, finally, we reached Khorog. Getting through the bazaar, we saw a cyclist. Alessio came to meet and she called out for her partner "Fred!!!". We were amazed: indeed, they were Fred and Brigitte, a Swiss couple with whom we stayed in touch since Istanbul, we kept following their tracks, it was such a nice surprise to finally bump into them in such an unexpected way. They didn't seem surprised for a penny  " we heard that you would come today". Wouah!!! In fact, they also stayed at Pamir Lodge, along with Dan and Alexia, Jean-Francois and Xaviere, our cyclist fellows on Uzbek roads :-). We had a fun time all together there.

We left Khorog the next afternoon, shortly after the arrival of another bunch of cyclists: Pierre, Simon and Nikos - the famous Austrian who kept the smile despite all the misadventures he had the previous weeks. We were tempted to spend more time with them but at the same time, we knew for sure that the evening would last very long with lots of beer (and more) (which was confirmed later!!!) and we couldn't be fit for the next day, so we regretfully left them and hoped to see them again soon on the road.

And the road was beautiful, uphill but comfortably asphalted, the river along the road was crystal clear, mountains were fascinatingly amazing, I couldn't take my eyes off them.

Monday, June 29th, we  caught up quickly with the group of 6 Polish/Slovak cyclists, met at Pamir Lodge, on vacation on the Pamir at the entrance of a hot spring. Knowing that Fred and Brigitte were there too, we decided to stop there, as we would like to have a longer chat with them and eventually, to share a part of route with them.
The hot spring's hotel was such in a dilapidated state that, beside Fred and Brigitte's room, we could not find an another worth to stay in, so we set the tent in the garden and left altogether the next morning: it would be a challenging day: we had to conquer a more than 4300m pass!!!!

It was finally not that hard even though the road was stiff and the last part was in bad shape: we just needed to go slowly, very slowly. Brigitte was a bit anxious about the barrier of 4000m but finally we all made it alright.  For sure, above 4000m, even a little effort costed us much more than usual but we had enough time to be acclimated before and we really handled carefully our efforts.

 

On the way, a 4x4 on the opposite direction stopped dead at 3 meters of us, and got out of the car Michel and Agnes, a French couple we already met in Jolfa (Iran) and Bukhara (Uzbekistan). It was a big pleasure to see them again as we didn't expect that our road would cross again. Together, they've explored the world for more than 40 years now

The next day, after passing the second pass of more than 4200m, we decided to make a detour to Bulun Kul. The lady at the Tourism Office told us that the scenery would be fantastic and the road rather flat so we would give it a try.

The first part was indeed quite flat, but sandy, which made rolling quite difficult. Bulun Kul was a tiny village where every single man seemed to be deadly drunk. The shopkeeper could hardly open the door and count the money. So we didn't want to stop but hit the road right away

The landscape outside the village was just stunning

Even though the road was tough 

Very tough sometime

We were happy because the scenery was worthy of all our efforts. It was an amazing to feel one with the nature, to realize how small we are in front of such magnificent and majestic mountains

We were lucky enough with the weather: lots of time, storms and rain seemed to charge directly at us but finally changed their target to poor their loaded clouds away.

Wednesday,  July 1st, we found a wonderful campsite by a river, a tiny "island", separated from the bank by 20cm, big enough for 3 tents

We started the next day with 2 flat tyres, but in such lovely spot, it didn't seem annoying :-)

  

Everywhere we go, the nature seemed to be so nice to us

At some point, the bad road ended, it was a big relief for our arms, bums and bikes to find the smooth asphalt again

(cyclists' happiness)

 Not far from Alichur, we made a little off road to set the tent in this beautiful spot

Next to a yourt

(Tajik woman and her son :-) )

They had a big troop of yaks, those massive beasts are in fact very quiet and kind, and protective over their babies

(But still, I don't want to mess up with any of them)

Friday, July 3rd, we met up with Fred, a Dutch cyclist, rolling around with a bunch of 3 young Korean (who kept staying behind him!!!!). Believe me or not, they do carry chopsticks along with them :-) :-)

The same day, around 5PM, we arrived to Murgav, which meant we could have a shower, sleep in a bed and have some proper food. Indeed, beside the high altitude and what it may cause to our physics, beside the bad bumpy sandy stiff road and what it may cost to our physics and mental, food or rather the lack of food was an another big issue in the Pamir: villages were sparse, so food scarce. Moreover, the altitude made the cooking difficult - remember, at 4000m, water boils at around 86C and not 100C which is not sufficient for rice or pasta to be cooked.... So we stayed stuck with bread, condensed milk, buckwheat and lentils... At some point, ours bodies crave for veggies and fruits but for that, we would still need a bit of time.

Here, in Pamir Hotel (where we highly recommend, not only because the rooms were nice but especially because the staff was so friendly and helpful, the nicest ever!!!!), we caught up again with Jean-Francois and Xaviere and decided to conquer the highest pass of 4655m together.

In fact, we should have left a day earlier, but then, after the breakfast, it became too hot to ride, so we postponed the departure at the evening, especially when Fred and Brigitte talked about order a big plov for dinner.... 

The plov was first planned for 6 of us. During the day, came one after another Peter, a German biker, Sandy, a cyclist from New-Zealand, Pierre, our French fellow, David and Julia, a French cyclist couple and "Photoshot" - a Korean cyclist, know through the whole Pamir for carrying his bottles and for zigzagging on the road, how much he drinks.... Finally, we ended up with a big table of 12, talking, laughing the whole evening.... 

After that, we didn't feel that much to leave and asked the very sweet and kind manager whether we could set the tent in the garden. Surprisingly, he offered 4 of us (as Jean-Francois and Xaviere also checked out but didn't feel to move) to sleep for free in the yourte. I told you, they are so kind and they know how to make you feel good. In other words, they know how to make good long-term business as cyclists always spread the words among cyclists.... and it's the best advertisement....

Monday, July 6th, the 6 of us hit the road together. It for sure, brought back some Uzbek memories. But this time, there was no place for leisure: the route was hard, 4655m was a big challenge, everybody was concentrated on the road, silently or openly cursed the strong headwind.

And we met up with the three handsome guys of Solidream, in Pamir to make out of their journey a movie. They had those cool fat bamboo bikes (such a jewelry, as said Alessio), perfectly dressed all in Vaude, looking effortlessly in shape (with backwind!!!!). We heard quite a lot about them so it was a pleasure to have met them. Moreover, very cool guys!!!!

As the road was empty, we just stayed, the 9 of us, in 3 rows all over the road. At some point, a sidecar approached but stayed a bit away from us, watching, then decided finally to go off road, as they were afraid of passing through us :-) :-)

The next morning, we had backwind (for once!!!!) and started to attack the big pass!!!! It was hard but less hard than what we thought. I just needed to do my turtle and go very slowly again.

So as planned, we crossed the pass all of us together!!! And we were proud of us!!!

Isn't the view worthy of all the efforts?

The descent was quite hard. The road looked rather like this

(from internet, and not from the Pamir :-))

We spent the night in an abandoned caravanserai. Knowing that Pierre would come shortly after us, Alessio and Fred went to the road to send him a sign (our yellow jacket with a branch). At the very moment they went to the road, Pierre just passed by!!! We spent the evening altogether: a caravan of cyclists in a caravanserai!!!

Next day, we reached Kara Kul but was quite disappointed: the lake was indeed beautiful but the village was simply empty. There were 5 homestays but not a single worthy magasin to buy food. Alessio and Jean-Francois almost made a hold-up in a family and bought all the bread they made for the day :-) :-)

We had a non stop headwind all day long. It was exhausting while we rolled and made it difficult to find a place to set the tent. Finally, we chose to bivouac under an empty dry bridge. J-F, Xavierre and Pierre decided to go to the lake while Fred, Brigitte and the two of us stayed and started to set the tent. Everything was ready when Brigitte, getting out of the tent, screamed "Water is coming!!!!". Indeed, water was heading toward us with a high speed. We were quicker than ever to bring the whole tent out. I had all the troubles trying to keep the tent still, facing the strong wind while Alessio moved the bikes and cleared out the rest. Then, both of us, struggling again to move to tent to a dry place, not far from the river.  We didn't really know whether the water came from melting ice or some Chinese hidden factories just open their gate of used water... Nevertheless, the water ran the whole night!!! What an over- adrenalized evening!!!

Thursday,  July 9th. Our last day on Tajik land. We would be 4 to hit the road together, JF, Xaviere and Pierre preferred to take their time to get ready in the morning. As the last few days, the wind kept blowing on our face and the roa d  kept being bad, very bad. What a exhausting day. The last pass to the border for us was even more challenging than the 4655m pass -because of the wind and the road condition. Fortunately, as usual, Fred and Alessio were there, to help Brigitte and me out. They always rolled up first, then ran down to push our bikes up, over and over again!!!!

We reached the top around midday, completely exhausted and in some way, happy to get out of the Pamir!!!

The guy at the "transportation bureau" tried to ask for some black money, because we didn't have "paper" for our bikes but we stayed firm and kept repeating "Niet, niet, velociped, no paper" :-) :-). Finally, he got bored and let us go.

Once we got out of Tajikistan, the landscape changed radically: we finally saw green!!! Believe me, after some times in the Pamir, despite its breathtaking views, seeing green mountains was such a relief for the eyes!!!

So Kyrgyzstan, here we are!!!! Green grass, big fat sheeps and proud freely running horses, here we come!!!!!


For more pictures of beautiful Tajikistan and Pamir, please, visit our facebook page: www.facebook.com/2rollingpotatoes

And stay tuned for more Potatoes' adventures!!!!