We arrive to Osh around 5 am. The famous question is: what to doooo? It's Thursday, the border closes the weekend and my visa expires next Tuesday. Either I explore the zone here and miss the Sunday market in Kashgar (China) or try to pass the border tomorrow. For this, I would need to do all the way to Irkeshtam now!
The taxi driver is very considerate (he saves somehow the image I have of them) and wanders around the whole parking to find a bus going to Sary Tash (75 Km from the border). We finally find one for 300 soms (6 euros). Days later, talking with other tourists, I find out that this bus leaves very occasionally, depending on the demand and the weather. It was pure luck, huge luck apparently, to find it immediately after my arrival to Osh!
If the bus leaves now, I can even make it through the border today. But it has to fill first... we're about 4 people for 13 places. Suddenly the whole market floods the vehicle! We're about 20 and huge bags as bonus! I can hardly move and my legs are completely stuck. The bus takes an eternity to leave though. There is always someone wanting to get through the dense mass of people and luggage. Luckily a German tourist is among the passengers, he sits above one bag just besides me. He's the kind of traveler that makes me feel like a backpacker in pampers. He always with a tent in his backpack and is ready to do some wild camping. "Wild" in this case includes the "howling wolves at the full moon" and the "bears wandering around" packages. He tells his amazing stories with an amazing simplicity and is an excellent travel companion for the next 2 hours.
We get out at Sary Tash. A passenger proposes to stay at his place over the night, 100 soms each. I try to get a truck straight to Irkeshtam, at the border. Israfale and his young assistant Husan pick me up. They don't ask for any money, they just tell me to take a seat between them... mmm, looks suspicious. They are from Turkey, born in Kyrgyzstan and look like crazy afghans to me. Israfale is very curious about me. He asks me my nationality: "Peru". He feels free to criticize USA and Europe in a relatively aggressive way, he scares me a little bit. Especially when we pass by what he thinks to be the border with Afghanistan. (there is no common border actually). At some point we're stop by a police control... ups, he'll find out that my passport is other than Peruvian! I get off the car to show it, but Israfale is back to the truck by then, he never sees my pass... ufff.
The landscape? Absolutely magnificent. A wide valley with a prompt eruption of the Pamir range in the south!
Almost at night, we arrive to this big "alternative" parking place, in the middle of nowhere, perfect decor for a Max-Max movie.
The people leaving there (I assume not more than 50), leave in trailers. All the bus drivers spend the night there, waiting for the next day to pick up the merchandise coming from China: the silk road continues!
I get a bed in the only "hotel" of the place. A long 25 m long corridor with bedrooms on one side. I spend the night in a 3 beds dorm, with Nurik. He tells me about his business: To fly to Germany, to buy a good German car from 85 for 300$ and sell it here for 4000$.
I get something to eat at the restaurant besides the hotel, when I come back, Nurik introduces me to one of his friends. He starts asking me questions about my stay here, my plans and my political opinion about the country. I'm very neutral in my answers. I find out later, he's a high ranked officer working in the customs.
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