12 months, 11 countries, 0 flights 🌏

Osh felt like something out of a dystopian movie. Currently one big construction site, the Kyrgyzstan government has decided to improve infrastructure by widening roads all over the city. Many buildings are being destroyed to allow for the roads to be widened and much of the city feels like it is being rebuilt. We had come to Osh with one goal in mind. Buy a car and drive the famous Pamir Highway from Osh to Dushanbe in Tajikistan. In Kashgar we met a lovely American guy called Cole who had done this, and he had inspired us to give it a go ourselves. It can’t be that hard right?

The next couple of days were filled with visits to car bazaars and it didn’t take us long to find what we were looking for. That’s right, you guessed it, a 2003 Lada Niva pickup from Russia! After some confusing haggling with the Kygryz owner we settled on a price and shook hands. Introducing Nina the Niva, our companion-to-be on the roads of Central Asia for the next two months. So why did we choose an old Russian car? In Central Asia there is still a huge Russian influence as these countries were all under Soviet control until the early 90’s. As a result there are Ladas everywhere. Additionally the infamous Pamir Highway was actually built by the soviets, so it only seemed fitting to be driving a rundown Russian car. We had also heard that every mechanic in Central Asia knew how to fix the infamous Lada, so we thought that would be helpful in case we had any issues on the road. 

The next few days were spent seeing the incredible sights of Osh. Firstly the wonders of the dusty car bazaars looking for car parts. Next the oil and grease of a neverending stream of mechanics (known here as ‘masters’) who serviced and repaired Nina. We can’t forget the excitement of the “megapolis” (a large shopping complex) where we stocked up on food and supplies for the road. Lastly, the dreariness and bureaucracy of the power of attorney office where we had to sign some documents giving us ownership of the car and allowing us to drive through the borders into Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. 

By the time we were finally ready to get on the road with Orshi and Tommi we were extremely ready to leave Osh. The dust, dirt, and crazy drivers in this city had worn us thin, and we couldn’t wait to begin our next adventure. The amazing Pamir Highway. Our plan was to drive the first section of this back the way we had come to Sary-Tash and then take a small detour from here to go trekking in the Alay mountains.

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. 

After a 20 hour train ride from Ürümqi we arrived in Kashgar, a truly ancient place and one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. Located on the far western point of China close to the border with Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan, it has been a major trading hub of the Silk Road for millenia. It is a convergence point of widely varying cultures and empires, and has been under the rule of the Chinese, Turkic, Mongol and Tibetan empires.

In comparison to Ürümqi the population of Kashgar is mostly Muslim Uyghur people and other Central Asian demographics with only a small percentage of Chinese Han residents. As soon as we arrived we noticed how different it was to everywhere else we had been in China. It felt like we had already arrived in a new country in Central Asia. We also noticed a distinct increase in security, with surveillance everywhere and armed military vehicles patrolling the streets. We seemed to be a real novelty here and received a lot of stares. Some people on the street even tried taking sneaky pictures of us on their phones.

There is an “old town” in Kashgar which is supposedly how the city used to be. Sadly it feels like another case of China appropriating another culture and turning it into Disneyland. There are countless stores selling plastic knick-knacks, photography stores with Uyghur outfits, ice cream shops, and fancy cafés. Turns out a lot of this area was actually destroyed and rebuilt, so the majority of the buildings aren't even old!

We had a few things we wanted to do here. Firstly, we had a bunch of packages to collect with our new camping gear. We brought a cheap tent, sleeping bags, a cooker, and some other miscellaneous things from Taobao, a Chinese equivalent to Amazon. 

Secondly, there is a famous animal market in Kashgar on Sundays. This was an amazing experience seeing the local people selling their sheep, cows, goats, and horses. The sheep here have comically large butts and this was a highlight!

Lastly, we wanted to explore the Karakoram highway (the highway which crosses the Kunjerab pass into Pakistan). Unfortunately, we had some issues finding a driver and the timing didn't work out for us. We will have to come back one day and properly see this incredible part of the world along with Pakistan!

Ürümqi is an ancient city with roots stretching back thousands of years as a Silk Road trading hub. However, in recent years it has experienced rapid growth and modernisation due to large incentives and investment from the Chinese Communist Party. Cookie cutter apartment blocks now dominate the skyline and are largely filled with Chinese Han people incentivised to live there. Now it serves as a Chinese stronghold in this remote and isolated part of China once home to the Uyghur people.

Unfortunately there's not much to do here beyond visiting a Silk Road museum and some parks. The latter we did with our friends Tessa and Jannis from the Netherlands while enjoying some cheap beer and fruit. They were on their way to Kazakhstan overland and the border is not far from Ürümqi. This border would be our way back to China after we finished our time in Central Asia. 

We decided to leave a bunch of our belongings at the hostel in Ürümqi so we could travel lighter in Central Asia and make room for some new camping gear. This was our main reason for coming here, and we ended up leaving behind a decent sized box of stuff. Hopefully it will still be there waiting for us in a few months time!

Ürümqi felt quite empty for such a large city and seemed to lack a heart. With only a couple of days here we didn't have much time to explore and spent a lot of time sorting our things and mentally preparing ourselves for a long train ride to Kashgar where we would be ending this incredible leg of travel in China and crossing into Kyrgyzstan!

We finally arrived in the infamous Xinjiang province, home of the Turkic Uyghur people. Turpan has long been the heart of a fertile oasis and an important stop on the Silk Road. For centuries it has seen the rise and fall of religions and empires, with early Buddhism shaping much of the region before Islam became the dominant faith.

Our stay in Turpan turned out to be one of the most memorable of our time in Western China. We found a warm and welcoming hostel run by the kindest owner, who spoke flawless English and made us feel right at home. Just a few doors down was a bustling Uyghur restaurant, serving up the best meat skewers we’d had anywhere in China. At our hostel we befriended a young Chinese traveler from Beijing, who joined us in exploring the historic sites scattered around the desert fringes.

One highlight was a visit to the ancient Buddhist caves, once filled with vivid murals that told the stories of early Central Asian Buddhism. Sadly, much of the artwork has been defaced over the centuries, first by religious iconoclasm, then at the eager hands of foreign archaeologists. At the start of the 20th century, German scholars carried out the famous Turfan expeditions (1902–1914), removing countless artifacts and paintings with the justification that they would otherwise be lost in China’s political upheavals. Ironically, many of those treasures met their end in the chaos of World War II, destroyed in bombings or looted once again.