Day 6:  Karakul, Tajikistan to Tulparkul, Kyrgyzstan

Border crossing

Today, we cross the border from Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan at a crossing that’s closed to both nationalities but open to us foreigners, presumably to facilitate tourism.  In fact, it was closed to all parties until more recent times.

After breakfast at 0700, I settled my homestay bill and then proceeded to exchange my remaining TJS and UZS with a French couple travelling in the opposite direction.

We had been given no departure time last night but eventually left at 0930.  It was less than an hour to the Tajik border check and a little bit more than an hour to the official immigration post where we stamped out at 1040.

It was a short drive to meet up with the 4WD coming from the opposite direction where we would exchange passengers.  There was a bit of a wait for all parties to arrive and be exchanged before we would continue.  We passed the hat around and gave Altynbek a tip for his services.

I had been afraid of a hot sweaty walk but there was no walk at all and it was cold!  I met a group of four Malaysians and a young Japanese couple heading in the opposite direction.  The Japanese had arrived by public transport and was left with no option but to walk to Tajikistan and try get some transport.  Good luck!

Around 1115, we commenced our drive along the 18km neutral zone in our second vehicle, a Lexus 4WD driven by our new driver Karat.  About 15 mins later, we stopped at a Kyrgyz checkpoint where they ensured that we had left Tajikistan formally with exit stamps.

It was a further 30 mins drive through red earth, descending into green pastures, before we reached the formal Kyrgyz immigration post which was gated up.  It was a 15 min wait before they opened the gate for us, then a further wait at the office.

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The officer then collected our passports into a pile for processing, which meant that he had to read out our names to the queue, some of which was outside the building and couldn’t hear him.

All went smoothly until he kinda stopped dead in his tracks for a long while.  We eventually got our passports back and headed out for a very superficial baggage inspection by the customs staff.  Overall, the process at this checkpoint took about an hour.

Visa problems

Then came some bad news for one person.  The lady Hong Kong passport holder, was required to have an onward ticket.  While she wasn’t in our car, she was our company’s passenger and our driver was roped in to solve this.

He had to drive somewhere to collect a printout of an air ticket which the company had bought on the lady’s behalf.  The immigration staff were strict and did not accept a ticket departing from a neighbouring country.  Most of us were quick shocked and also did not have onward tickets from Kyrgyzstan.

To keep us going, we were shifted into a big van.  The landscape had turned from brown to green soon after the border crossing and remained beautiful through the drive to Sary Tash.

It was around 1500 Kyrgyz time (of 1400 Tajik time) when we reached our lunch stop in Sary Tash.  At this time, the very full diner only had chicken drumsticks available but that was good.

Internet was much better here than in Tajikistan and I checked on the TIMATIC database during lunch for the Kyrgyz visa conditions.

Sure enough, Malaysians and the Europeans around me all qualified for visa exemption but Hong Kong citizens needed an onward ticket as well.  The Iranian passenger didn’t qualify for visa exemption and held an e-visa, so he was good.

Heading to Tulparkul

We left the diner around 1620, headed towards Sary Moghul and beyond to Tulparkul lake.

After more than an hour’s drive, we stopped at a farmer’s cottage to get some horse milk before continuing to our camp at Tulparkul lake at an elevation of 3500m.

All four of us shared a yurt and for the first time, we had no power to charge our phones, even after the generators started.

The shower barely had water, let alone hot water but we noticed neighbouring camp sites had solar-heated tanks.  All the warnings that had been given in the information sheet finally came true.  I cleaned myself with a small scoop of water and some wet wipes before dinner in the big neighbouring yurt and then bed.