Gosh, It's Nice to See Osh!
Osh, Kyrgyzstan, June 5
If getting there is half the fun, Osh won't be a very fun place at all. I hope getting here was a lot less than half the fun.
I have discovered it is possible to travel from Tajikistan to Osh without either a Uzbek transit visa or the GBAO permit granting access to the eastern half of Tajikistan. But it's not at all easy. Although no good roads go from the northeastern Tajik border (near Isfara) to Osh without entering Uzbek enclaves, there are alternative routes which bypass these areas. However, they tend to resemble rock-strewn streambeds, and taxi drivers are understandably not eager to use them. So the trick is to go to Isfara (in Tajikistan), find a driver with a Kyrgyz license plate who is allowed to cross the border, and convince him to take you to Osh by the long, annoying route.
Lacking the language skills to do this, I hired someone from a travel agency in Dushanbe to come along with me and make the arrangements.
It was not the best of partnerships, since all the expenses along the way were more than I had been told, and we did not part on the best of terms. However, I did finally get a driver who agreed to take me to Osh, avoiding Uzbek territory (I wrote this down in Cyrillic). As
soon as we were in Kyrgyzstan, which was an easy border crossing on both sides, he headed straight down the main road to the Uzbek checkpoint for the enclave of Sokh. The guards refused us entry since (as I had told the driver about 30 times) I had no valid visa for Uzbekistan. I believe this is the first time I have been turned back at a border.
At this point, the Kyrgyz driver pointed out that he would have to drive a long way on a bad road (and it would be dark soon), and asked for more money.
My Russian phrasebook is not very good, and has a lot of uselessly detailed phrases that you have no business using if you're depending on a phrasebook in the first place (e.g. "Will payments by foreign personnel for their residental accommodations be effected in roubles?"). But it does have some useful stuff too, including how to say "we have an agreement." I pointed to the paper and said about a dozen times that we had an agreement, that I would pay only the sum agreed to, and that I would not pay anything or leave the car until we were in Osh. It worked eventually, and we set off on a five-hour drive along some of the worst roads I have driven a non-4WD car on. Or they may not have been quite that bad; roads tend to look worse by headlights.
We also stopped at about six more Kyrgyz checkpoints, none of which gave any trouble. A couple of the guards practiced their English a bit, and I tried to use some of my Kyrgyz phrases, but I was too groggy for much actual communication.
After all that, arrival in Osh this morning ended up being one of the happier moments in my recent existence. I'll probably always have a warm spot in my heart for this town. Osh is an ancient city, and is supposed to have some good ruins. It also marks my return to the Silk Route after my detour south. I should have more to report on it soon.
If getting there is half the fun, Osh won't be a very fun place at all. I hope getting here was a lot less than half the fun.
I have discovered it is possible to travel from Tajikistan to Osh without either a Uzbek transit visa or the GBAO permit granting access to the eastern half of Tajikistan. But it's not at all easy. Although no good roads go from the northeastern Tajik border (near Isfara) to Osh without entering Uzbek enclaves, there are alternative routes which bypass these areas. However, they tend to resemble rock-strewn streambeds, and taxi drivers are understandably not eager to use them. So the trick is to go to Isfara (in Tajikistan), find a driver with a Kyrgyz license plate who is allowed to cross the border, and convince him to take you to Osh by the long, annoying route.
Lacking the language skills to do this, I hired someone from a travel agency in Dushanbe to come along with me and make the arrangements.
It was not the best of partnerships, since all the expenses along the way were more than I had been told, and we did not part on the best of terms. However, I did finally get a driver who agreed to take me to Osh, avoiding Uzbek territory (I wrote this down in Cyrillic). As
soon as we were in Kyrgyzstan, which was an easy border crossing on both sides, he headed straight down the main road to the Uzbek checkpoint for the enclave of Sokh. The guards refused us entry since (as I had told the driver about 30 times) I had no valid visa for Uzbekistan. I believe this is the first time I have been turned back at a border.
At this point, the Kyrgyz driver pointed out that he would have to drive a long way on a bad road (and it would be dark soon), and asked for more money.
My Russian phrasebook is not very good, and has a lot of uselessly detailed phrases that you have no business using if you're depending on a phrasebook in the first place (e.g. "Will payments by foreign personnel for their residental accommodations be effected in roubles?"). But it does have some useful stuff too, including how to say "we have an agreement." I pointed to the paper and said about a dozen times that we had an agreement, that I would pay only the sum agreed to, and that I would not pay anything or leave the car until we were in Osh. It worked eventually, and we set off on a five-hour drive along some of the worst roads I have driven a non-4WD car on. Or they may not have been quite that bad; roads tend to look worse by headlights.
We also stopped at about six more Kyrgyz checkpoints, none of which gave any trouble. A couple of the guards practiced their English a bit, and I tried to use some of my Kyrgyz phrases, but I was too groggy for much actual communication.
After all that, arrival in Osh this morning ended up being one of the happier moments in my recent existence. I'll probably always have a warm spot in my heart for this town. Osh is an ancient city, and is supposed to have some good ruins. It also marks my return to the Silk Route after my detour south. I should have more to report on it soon.
posted by jeros | 12:33 PM
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