Pamir Tour Day 2 - 4: Kalaikhum - Khorog

When we woke up Wednesday morning in Kalaikhum the weather wasn't that nice anymore, the sky was cloudy and grey. We left early as usual. Today the tour should lead us into the Bartang Valley where we wanted to go for a hike. But the road got worse as we advanced into the valley. The river had flooded part of the road and finally we had to turn around because the road was blocked by a landslide. But as the weather was still not very nice we were not too sad to not be able to hike. So finally we stayed in a homestay in Yemts. This was our first night in a typical Pamiri house, which consists mainly of one big all-purpose room, with carpets all over, even at the walls. In the middle of the room in the ceiling there is a hole to let in some light. We went with the locals to the shrine of the village - called Mazor - a pre-islamic tradition, decorated with Marco-Polo-sheep horns. Afterwards we had dinner and the English teacher of the village came and was sitting with us for the whole evening. This was nice as it was a chance for us to ask many questions and find out about life of the people in the village. He had been to the US and Canada and told us how hard life was in comparison to the small village there. However, if you imagine the village like a European village some hundred years ago that's not completely right either. They have computers, TV, DVD players etc. At the beginning we thought this to be strange priorities, considering that they shared an outside toilet with the neighbourhood, because - as they said - they didn't have enough money to build an inside toilet. But then we thought about how winter would be in such a village, being isolated from the rest of the world for more than half a year, just sitting in your house with your family all day long. Suddenly we could understand why they had invested the little money they have in a TV instead of a new toilet.

The next day was Peter's 30th birthday! We had planned another hike, but the weather hadn't improved over night and so we just continued directly to Khorog, one of the biggest villages in the Pamirs. After making ourselves at home at the homestay we went to the city center, where Peter and me went to the OVIR office to get registered. As mentioned earlier this was necessary because our visa had a different type than those of all other tourists. Even at the OVIR the officers had never seen such a visa and didn't really know what to do. So he was on the phone for some time and finally told us, that - of course - we had to register and the first step - of course - was to pay 250 Somoni, which is about 50 Euros, at the bank next door. Then he told us to come back later to pick up our registration paper. We used the time to go to the regional museum, which was a strange collection of mainly photos of important people, with the description in Russian only. It seemed we were the only visitors and only after we had walked for something like half an hour in the dark, trying to see the exhibition, a lady came to switch on the light, the switches of course hidden behind some huge pictures, so we couldn't have found them ourselves. We went back to the OVIR and got our paper quite quickly. Peter had stomach problems and so we didn't eat much that day, just some soup with pasta at the homestay at night.

The next day we made a trip to Rushtkala where we finally wanted to go for a hike after sitting in the car for so long. But first of all we had to pass the checkpoint. This wasn't easy - of course. For the whole GBAO region (basically the Pamirs) you need a special GBAO permit, which lists all districts that you are allowed to visit and that you get with your visa application. We had the permit and on the application we had marked all districts, but apparently Rushtkala was missing in the list. Great! In the end, Roger - one of the Swiss guys traveling with us - asked the officer for his registration number and said he would complain. Suddenly we got a 'special permission' to go. Peter felt still weak from his stomach problems and so Roger, Ueli and I set off for the hike to Drum Kul (Lake Drum). The path however crossed a river, but the bridge was broken and it was impossible to cross the river without bridge. So we tried to reach the lake without crossing the river, but as there was no path, we finally had to turn around after 2 hours walking without even seeing the lake. When we came back to the car, our driver told us that the locals which lived in the house next to which we parked, had prepared food for us. So of course we could not refuse and actually we were quite hungry after walking for so long. It was quite yummy: macaroni, potatoes and onions all fried together. In any case the best food you can get here in Tajikistan. Afterwards we went back to Khorog where we had dinner in an Indian restaurant before going back to the homestay.