It was a 220km drive and a 3600m pass separating Osh and Sary-Mogol. Nina handled the road well with only a small hiccup near the top of the pass. Our petrol gauge was broken so with the help of a Chinese truck driver and Google Translate we diagnosed the problem as running out of fuel.. Tommi hitched a ride with our petrol canister to the nearest petrol station and we tried to find help in the meantime. Not long after he left a petrol tanker came past and I flagged it down. The helpful Kygyrz man jumped up on his tanker, lowered a canister in and sold us 10L of fuel directly from his truck, all while on a high mountain pass. It got Nina going again and taught us to be extra careful with her small fuel tank and broken fuel gauge.

Sary-Mogol is a small village nestled between the majestic peaks of the Alay range and the towering 7000m+ Lenin Peak on the other side of the valley. It feels like a real Kyrygz village with mud buildings, basic agriculture, and simple living. It also serves as a major hub for the up and coming tourism industry in southern Kyrgyzstan. With a variety of incredible hiking nearby and the allure of climbing a 7000m mountain with Lenin Peak close by, it makes sense that this little rural mountain village is becoming a tourist town.

We took Nina on her first offroad adventure to Lenin Peak base camp. She handled the road really well even powering through some river crossings, however she lost power when we were nearly at the top. Oddly reminiscing of the other day when we stopped near the top of the pass. Not knowing what else to do, we had our first tow experience back down to a mechanic who helped us start Nina again. At this point we thought we had an issue with driving at high altitude but didn’t know the exact problem, a little bit worrying for our upcoming Pamir Highway adventure..

We are visiting Kyrgyzstan at an interesting time, the tourism industry seems to be in its infancy. Travel influencers have been coming here in the last year or so, a sign that it will become a very popular destination in the next few years. The scenery is extremely beautiful and much of the country still feels untouched. We even noticed it in the way the local children interacted with us. They would come up and ask for chocolate, as they must think that adventurous foreigners coming to Kyrgyzstan to hike must have some. However, the begging from children here is very innocent and unlike the more touristy places we have visited where it is an organised activity and the children are after money.

We spent our time here preparing for the Alay Mountains hike, a 4-5 day hike through the mountains, enjoying the scenery, and checking some things with Nina at a local mechanic referred to not as a "master"' but as a “wizard”. 

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.