Picking up where we left off..
We’re at the end of our time in the beautiful Pakistan. With a deadline to get to the Khunjerab Pass (Pakistan-China border crossing) we checked out of Pakistan in the village Sost and continued another 80km through the Khunjerab National Park up to the pass. The Khunjerab Pass which is the highest-paved international border crossing in the world and the highest point on the Karakoram Highway at 4700m.
The reason for having a deadline is because to cross China you are required to be escorted with a guide from entry to exit of the country. These guides aren’t cheap though unfortunately that’s the only option if you’re wanting to get to Central Asia from Pakistan. We shared the cost with another couple, which ended up costing US$1800 per vehicle.
Checking in and out of China, from our experience, was rather arduous; hours were spent with the border officials searching our car and our electronics. We might share some videos from our China crossing later on, but for now we’re going to skip over it and fast forward to Kyrgyzstan.
Ahhhh.. how good it felt to enter this beautiful country! We crossed the Torugart Port border late and drove in the dark for about 40 minute. When we woke the following morning we were greeted with the the most epic landscape; a big wide open plain valley, mountains, herds of sheep and horses, Larders and no one around. AND to top off our dramatic introduction to Kyrgyzstan, some local shepherds on their horses wandered over to say hi to us and offered for me to take his horse for a ride. Heaven!
From here we drove a little further north to check out an old caravanserai, Tash Rabat. Tash Rabat was used during the 15th century as a roadside inn where travellers (caravaners) could rest and recover from the day's journey on the Silk Road. Inside we discovered 31 rooms completely made of stacked stone. We didn’t intend to spend the night here though it was just so picturesque. The caretaker had a lovely little guesthouse and offered for us to camp outside and to cook us dinner.
Moving on we drove to Naryn, the first town you come across after entering from Torugart Port. Here we found a great little supermarket for us to replenish the Troopy and get ourselves set up with local sim cards. Just a few kilometres out of Naryn we found a beautiful spot to set up camp in the hills.
The landscape in Kyrgyzstan has been so beautiful, and with the local culture being nomadic finding places to camp was the easiest we’d experienced since leaving Australia.
Our next stop is Issyk-Kul Lake, the second-largest mountain lake in the world and seventh deepest. Looking at photos which paint beautiful beachy scenes with mountains over the horizon, we were so excited to get there. Although we arrived a couple of months early to be feeling those summer vibes, we couldn’t of been more happy to be arrive.
That's it for this episode, thanks for watching! Join us in the next one as we continue exploring the beautiful Kyrgyzstan.
Special thanks to everything for their support over the last few years and particularly in the last few months. We’re so happy to be sharing these experiences with you all again.
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