The storm left the roads in bad shape…. mudslides and landslides everywhere. We got through the border crossing (after at least 6 passport checks by the Chinese) They hold your passports if you need to use the facilities—as if you’d try to escape? Then we got to navigate the road to Kyrgystan. At the crossing, we ran into a seismologist who told us of the earthquake in Kashgar 1 ½ days ago, a magnitude 6. Most of the quakes are on the northern and southern flanks of the Tien Chien Mountains.
At the Kyrgyz border, we were picked up in a converted Russian army truck.
When we finally made it to the official border check, the border folks had gone to lunch and would be back at 3:00. We sat in the bus with a group of Aussies for 3 hours---drinking wine and eating sandwiches and trading stories. One of the women had to wrestle a goat out of her hotel. We finally got our passports stamped (you have to buy your declaration forms). We have to fill them in- in duplicate- then wait in line to go through document checks. After all that, we walked outside to a snow/hail storm.
It was 2 more hours of driving and we finally got to Bob’s yurts (and tent). The scenery was spectacular- miles of open green fields with huge snow-capped mountains. But there was very little wild life- only a few prairie dogs and, the hundreds of heavenly horses.
Bob’s yurt was next to a small local family house complete with cows, a crazed dog and an open-air “outhouse/pit”. We opted for the tent vs. the communal yurt.
Dinner was with the local family, a feast of vodka, potatoes, bread, great food, and toasts.
Fred, an independent Brit joined us and became the adopted mascot. He got a free ride, dinner and board.
Sergei pitched a two-man pup tent next to the yurt for us complete with sleeping bags on the ground and no pillows. We used our dirty laundry as pillows. A beer and flashlight wrapped up this day.
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