After the most incredible month, it was time to leave China. Like, really time to leave China. It was day 30 of our 30 days visa free so if we didn’t get out today we risked some serious legal trouble or jeopardising re-entry in the future. I always tend to get a bit nervous on border crossing days and this one felt especially high stakes as we really needed to get out today.
We had read it could be quite a long journey from Kashgar across the border, so we made an early start. This was a bit laughable as the first leg is a shared taxi, so if you arrive nice and early like we did, you’re left waiting for the taxi to fill up anyway. We got lucky, and after only 30 minutes some other travellers turned up. This was our first time meeting the gorgeous Tommy and Orshi, and it didn’t take long until we were all yapping away in the van making plans for the future in Central Asia, Italy, New Zealand and beyond. Once Tommy and I realized we had both worked in sustainable agriculture, we were unstoppable. The four hour drive to the border was defined by a number of passport checks, about every 30 minutes it seemed. Although frequent, everything was very easy and the security checks, customs and immigration all held no problems for anyone in our group. Although we did get told a few times to be quiet, it turns out chatting and laughing isn’t encouraged in Chinese immigration lines.
Once all stamped out we had about 3KM to walk before we reached Kyrgyzstan immigration. Walking along this road by ourselves admiring the landscape felt very different to anywhere we had been in China (especially around borders!), where your every move is monitored. We met a lone soldier along the way who gave us a very friendly “Welcome to Kyrgyzstan” with that classic back of the throat Soviet influenced accent. Again, formalities were easy on this side and I’m starting to realize I don’t need to get nervous for every immigration desk. A lot of the countries in Central Asia are visa free for us which is such a dream. You just show up and they let you in with no payment and no pre-paperwork. We found a restaurant near the office for lunch, and enjoyed our first Plov (for me) and meat and chips (for Josh). Tommy and Orshi had booked a home stay in a small town called Sary Tash halfway to Osh, and we decided to spend the night there too, but in our tent. From the border to Sary Tash was a couple of hours, and we managed to very conveniently get a ride with the owner's brother.
The drive was gorgeous, and immediately exceeded our expectations. Literal fields of wild horses, glistening mountain peaks, green pastures, nomadic families… it looked like something out of a movie. Once we arrived in Sary Tash we had beautiful views of Lenin Peak, which is known as the “easiest” 7,000m peak in the world to climb. We pitched our tent and enjoyed our first night in the country going to sleep under the Milky Way and waking up to mountain views.
The next day we enjoyed a very nice breakfast at the home stay, a real spread of cheese, meat, eggs, bread, fruits and more, before getting on our way to Osh. We decided to hitchhike and both couples got rides with trucks that took us nearly all the way in less than 15 minutes! A very promising start to transport in Kyrgyzstan. It was actually my first time being in a big truck like that, and although speaking no English, our driver was really lovely and friendly. It was good fun being up so high watching the Kyrgz countryside go past and Josh and I both took naps along the way in his sleeping area. There was lots of slowing down to let horses or mobs of sheep across the road, nomadic families packing up their yurts and caravans, small towns designed to withhold winter snow and mountain views that seemed to go on forever.
Kyrgyzstan made a great first impression, and we were excited to get to Osh, buy a car and then get back out on the road.