I woke up in the morning and happily saw my friend Helen in the homestay whom I met at Kashker, China. She is car-sharing with two other Chinese travelers, and they got in TJ without crossing Kyrgyzstan吉爾吉斯. We had a group picture with two Germany cyclists who started from Germany 6 months ago aling the dunbe river - turkey - Iran - Uzbekistan - Turkmenistan - TJ and will end at Osh, Kyrgyzstan to fly back to German after 7000 mile ride. I tried distanced cycling for 10 days on TransAmerica trail and realized it was not my thing but admire people who have the strength and passion for it.
Three of us had a 2 mile short hike along the gorge near Daishai. Then we headed towards Ishkashim which I s the Wakhan’s regional centre and largest village yet nothing to do, since the Saturday transborder market bustled with Afghan traders in turbans and pakol (flat caps) was disappointedly closed for political reason. We had non-soup lunch (rice and dumplings) at a restaurant in Ishkashim, met a Finnish traveler, and then headed to Khorugh.
We stopped by a museum About 15km from Ishkashim, near the village of Namadguti, with an interesting old keeper and the Kushan- era Khaakha fortress nearby dating from the 3rd century BC and rising from a platform of natural rock.
We tried to located the Koh-i-Lal ruby mine On the way, which is region’s gem mines were mentioned by Marco Polo (who called the region Mt Shugnon) and Badakhshani rubies for views of Afghanistan. However, we were not sure whether a side road was it and if it is open to the public, so we gave up.
We took a side trip along a beautiful stream to another hot springs Of Garam Chashma, but did not soak there. We ended the 8-day tour one day earlier at the Pamir Lodge at Khorugh, where was full of cyclists as well as backpackers who tried to find people for car-sharing at $100 per car a day towards Murgab or Osh (opposite to my traveling directions). My car-sharing group was not quite a fit for me but was what was available from Osh when I needed to travel on Pamir Highway.
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