So our day began at the Chinibagh Hotel – the tile garden.  Al and I, if you can believe it, skipped breakfast and hopped right onto the bus.  Abdul, our Kashgar man, met us with Khakis, a plaid shirt rolled up to the elbows, sideburns and moustache.  Our 14-hour trip west into the Pamir mountains began.  The Pamirs form the central portion of the horseshoe of mountains that that enclose the Taklamakan Desert. The sides of the horseshoe are formed by the Tienshan range to the north and the Karakoram to the south.  The first section of our journey took us out of Kashgar across the remaining flatland to the west– a mix of desert, riverbed, and irrigated land.  Our first shop was Opal, the hometown of Mahmud Kashgar, a fellow who wrote the first guide to the Turkish language in the 11^th century.  Libby & Phil wandered off into the market to find a house of necessity, and I bought two knives from a white bearded old man with the help of 15 or so villagers.  They evidently had a good eye for a high quality knife - Abdul and Ilham (our driver – his name might actually been Ilhamja or something like that, but I never got it straight) approved of the purchase.  Meli was itching for a home visit and within the half hour we were walking into a carpenter’s home situated along the poplar lined road – open water channels and long lines of trees make these desert towns hospitable.  The carpenter and his crew were at work while the wife was away and were happy to split open a couple of watermelons to welcome us.  Meli was happy to be back in the world of Turkish hospitality.  She bought a mirror frame right off the wall while Laura picked up a 5 foot pitch fork.  The adobe houses and walled courtyards were far more beautiful than any of the newer brick buildings, not to mention the city apartments of Urumchi or Kashgar.  We arranged to stop later in the evening to actually carry the things away.  A good call considering the road above.  The climb took us up between jagged cliffs along the Gez River, past the tiger’s mouth (a violent confluence of two waterways) and across countless washouts and repairs.  We found that it’s certainly easier to pass through a sheep herd against the tide rather than with it.  A good deal of dust, jarring, heat. Very nice.  Up past the sand mountain and the shallow lake in front of it.  We make a stop with a Kyrgyz family living in yurts at the edge of the lake.  Laura picked up a hopping goat toy that was hard to beat.  Our lunch we had on the shore of Karakol – a name which had originally meant snow lake.  On a clear day one can evidently see Mustagata, one of the great peaks in the area, but the clouds were a bit thick for that.  The region we had reached is majority Kyrgyz, as opposed to mainly Uyghur Kashgar. On the ride back, we had our most thorough lecture on Uyghur history from Abdul and great views of the wild river.  Beautiful geology.  The group began to drag by nightfall and I actually don’t remember any dinner.  Wait. Mom reminds me that this was the night we ate over behind the hotel at the old British Consulate building – Al and I gave our regards to Mrs. Macartney and hit the sack.

 Back to Melitour home page    next page