As there is neither a train nor a bus connection (and given my self-imposed "no flights between Istanbul and Beijing" rule), I again had to take a shared taxi, which takes 9 to 10 hours and costs about the same (yes!!) than a flight, which takes 1 hour. I wanted to leave Osh at 9.30 and for once I left the guesthouse in time. When I arrived at the parking lot, I was offered a seat on a small minibus, in the last row (= no view and no photos and no space for the long drive...!) I declined the seat, explaining that I wanted to have the front seat, next to the driver, which nobody understood... Some people were angry because I was the last one needed to leave and others made remarks which made the others laugh... Fair enough ;-) they had to wait another 15 minutes for the car to fill and off they went at around 10. I was now the first in a large van-like car with 5 more passengers needed and nothing much happened, despite the eager advertising of the driver to each person walking by "Bishkek, Bishkek!" At least a hundred times I heard it... ;-) from time to time, people indeed wanted to go to Bishkek and at some point, we were only missing two more, but then, when the two more people had showed up, I realised that some others had left to another car (that was full earlier or for which they got a better price...).. Only stupid "loyal-to-the-concluded-oral-contract" Jürgen was waiting there like an idiot... At least that is how I felt at some point, after having waited fore than an hour and at that moment, I really regretted that I did not accept that seat in the last row... But not everything was bad: in the little "tea house" of the parking, a traditional singer with his "string instrument" of which I have forgotten the name (there are so many different ones here...) was eating there and was finally convinced by the other waiting passengers to give us a concert. Really nice! While I could not understand anything, everybody was laughing quite a lot and it was quickly clear to me that he was actually inventing on the spot the lyrics and was actually singing and making fun about each one of us in that tea house. And the two times the people looked in my direction, it was also clear what that meant. I tried to make a friendly face and was laughing as well, while making signs that I do not understand... The whole thing lasted at least 20 minutes and even the grumpy older lady working at he tea house, who at the beginning did not really like the whole thing and kind of complained, started to enjoy and her facial expression turned from grumpy to friendly. The power of music at its best!!! ;-)
It was 11.30 when we finally left, which meant that I would probably only arrive in Bishkek when it is already dark, which i wanted to avoid initially... But well, what can you do? The driver still had to collect some stuff that he was supposed to transport to Bishkek (people in Central Asia actually use taxi drivers as "courier service" - a quite effective and comparatively cheap way of getting important documents or urgent pieces ended for a repair to another place within the same day...) at the pump station, we also got some further delay, as the driver had left the pump in the tank and drove off, which catapulted the pump against another driver standing nearby... There was a lot of fuzz and negotiations as the guy claimed injury, pointing to his left hand. His wife was also shouting at our driver. After about 10 minuted, everybody had calmed down and drove off... When we actually exited Osh, it was already after 12... It was at that moment, when the driver started his first (in my view) daring (but for locals probably very normal and "safe") overtaking manoeuvres, that I realised that my front-row seat was actually on the wrong (=dangerous) side. A lot of cars here in Kyrgyzstan are second-hand and imported from Japan, where they drive on the left side and the steer is therefore on the right, which does not really increase road safety.. I was actually half of our drive directly facing the cars coming towards us until - at the very last moment - the driver pulled back on our own lane... It took quite a while to get used to that... and more than once I just closed my eyes and started kind of praying... ;-) (imagine, me!!!). We also saw three quite bad accidents during our drive, no surprise...
After a bit more than 1 hour driving, we stopped at a roadside restaurant - for lunch!!!! Not only a quick bite (which was also welcome to me as I only had my "emergency cookies" ...) but until the car was ready to leave, it took in total more than an hour ... After 5 hours, we only had made a bit more than one third of the 650km, despite the driver's excessive speeding (the tyres were constantly squeaking in the many curves of the mountain road. Now when I write this (I have survived!!!! ;-)), I have to say that despite all the stress, the front seat was still worth while having as it was the only was to take some pictures of the fabulous mountain panorama, that got more and more spectacular as we moved along. Unfortunately, when it was most spectacular, it was already quite dark and the light conditions did not allow to take any photos anymore... To get to Bishkek, you have to cross two passes, the highest at almost 3.700m, and an almost 3km long - quite old and scary - tunnel, in which there was a major carbon monoxide accident some years back, in which several people got killed... Between the two passes, the landscape was he most beautiful... It is kind of a high plateau, with shepherds / nomads and their animals (mainly sheep but also horses and cows) everywhere., which from the distance looked like if the mountains and the green grass had lots of white, brown and black little dots on them. There were Yurts (traditional round nomad tents) everywhere, most of them with smoking chimneys (as it was quite cold with about 8 degrees). And along the road, little tables with nomad products, mainly cheese and fresh sheep milk. We stopped several times more as the driver was tired and needed coffee and close to the many yurts again as everyone except myself wanted to drink the fresh sheep milk and buy some milk and cheese. Until all that business was concluded, that took another half an hour.... While the others were busy drinking and shopping, I played with the family's (maybe 2 year old) little kid, that was running around outside. While he enjoyed it a lot at first, he then fell and started crying and could not be calmed down and from then on, he avoided me as if I had done anything bad to him... The parents did not care much about it and I guess the kids up here are left pretty much alone the entire day when the rest of the family is working... The final part of the drive was in complete darkness, but there was no panorama anymore anyway.. I finally arrived at my guesthouse at 23.00 only, thanks to Begaiym, a foreign language student who was one of the passengers in the car and spoke very good English, and took me there by taxi (as the guesthouse was quite difficult to find). She actually stayed "loyal" to our car even if her parents went to another one, just to be able to practice her English. During the drive that was however difficult, as I was in the front and she was in the third row only. But we talked quite extensively during our lunch break. She wants to work in tourism once she finishes her studies.
The photos (most taken through the front car window / windshield) are supposed to give you an impression of the changing landscapes:
https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A6GqkRUiukvi3
It was 11.30 when we finally left, which meant that I would probably only arrive in Bishkek when it is already dark, which i wanted to avoid initially... But well, what can you do? The driver still had to collect some stuff that he was supposed to transport to Bishkek (people in Central Asia actually use taxi drivers as "courier service" - a quite effective and comparatively cheap way of getting important documents or urgent pieces ended for a repair to another place within the same day...) at the pump station, we also got some further delay, as the driver had left the pump in the tank and drove off, which catapulted the pump against another driver standing nearby... There was a lot of fuzz and negotiations as the guy claimed injury, pointing to his left hand. His wife was also shouting at our driver. After about 10 minuted, everybody had calmed down and drove off... When we actually exited Osh, it was already after 12... It was at that moment, when the driver started his first (in my view) daring (but for locals probably very normal and "safe") overtaking manoeuvres, that I realised that my front-row seat was actually on the wrong (=dangerous) side. A lot of cars here in Kyrgyzstan are second-hand and imported from Japan, where they drive on the left side and the steer is therefore on the right, which does not really increase road safety.. I was actually half of our drive directly facing the cars coming towards us until - at the very last moment - the driver pulled back on our own lane... It took quite a while to get used to that... and more than once I just closed my eyes and started kind of praying... ;-) (imagine, me!!!). We also saw three quite bad accidents during our drive, no surprise...
After a bit more than 1 hour driving, we stopped at a roadside restaurant - for lunch!!!! Not only a quick bite (which was also welcome to me as I only had my "emergency cookies" ...) but until the car was ready to leave, it took in total more than an hour ... After 5 hours, we only had made a bit more than one third of the 650km, despite the driver's excessive speeding (the tyres were constantly squeaking in the many curves of the mountain road. Now when I write this (I have survived!!!! ;-)), I have to say that despite all the stress, the front seat was still worth while having as it was the only was to take some pictures of the fabulous mountain panorama, that got more and more spectacular as we moved along. Unfortunately, when it was most spectacular, it was already quite dark and the light conditions did not allow to take any photos anymore... To get to Bishkek, you have to cross two passes, the highest at almost 3.700m, and an almost 3km long - quite old and scary - tunnel, in which there was a major carbon monoxide accident some years back, in which several people got killed... Between the two passes, the landscape was he most beautiful... It is kind of a high plateau, with shepherds / nomads and their animals (mainly sheep but also horses and cows) everywhere., which from the distance looked like if the mountains and the green grass had lots of white, brown and black little dots on them. There were Yurts (traditional round nomad tents) everywhere, most of them with smoking chimneys (as it was quite cold with about 8 degrees). And along the road, little tables with nomad products, mainly cheese and fresh sheep milk. We stopped several times more as the driver was tired and needed coffee and close to the many yurts again as everyone except myself wanted to drink the fresh sheep milk and buy some milk and cheese. Until all that business was concluded, that took another half an hour.... While the others were busy drinking and shopping, I played with the family's (maybe 2 year old) little kid, that was running around outside. While he enjoyed it a lot at first, he then fell and started crying and could not be calmed down and from then on, he avoided me as if I had done anything bad to him... The parents did not care much about it and I guess the kids up here are left pretty much alone the entire day when the rest of the family is working... The final part of the drive was in complete darkness, but there was no panorama anymore anyway.. I finally arrived at my guesthouse at 23.00 only, thanks to Begaiym, a foreign language student who was one of the passengers in the car and spoke very good English, and took me there by taxi (as the guesthouse was quite difficult to find). She actually stayed "loyal" to our car even if her parents went to another one, just to be able to practice her English. During the drive that was however difficult, as I was in the front and she was in the third row only. But we talked quite extensively during our lunch break. She wants to work in tourism once she finishes her studies.
The photos (most taken through the front car window / windshield) are supposed to give you an impression of the changing landscapes:
https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A6GqkRUiukvi3
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