September 2018: Land Rovers, Laghman, and the World Nomad Games
This Month
September was a month of immersion in Central Asia: an absolutely insane conglomeration of hospitality and Russkiĭ chaos. Many eyes pop with angst when we refer to the area as “The Stans.”
Indeed, these countries’ names do end with -stan (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in our case) as they were all united under the Soviet Union at one period in time. However, we were only assaulted with suspiciously similar platters of dried nuts, fruits, and copious amounts of tea. In fact, the US State Department ranks these beauts as safer to travel than many intrepid destinations like Belgium and France. Gasp!
So many horses so many yurts
Anyway, just a little rant to start the morning off fresh.
Most of our time this month was spent in the mountains, as it ought. The landscapes in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in particular are spectacular with some of the best mountains we’ve seen and little to no tourists. Nomadic families live in the hills with their herds of horses during the summer so the hiking doesn’t feel remote, though. And the horses really are everywhere. We rode a couple across a glacial river at one family’s insistence, ate quite a few in a dish called Beshbarmak, and saw even more play Kok Boru (the extremely impressive dead-goat polo).
From spectating at the World Nomad Games to an bumpy road trip on the Pamir Highway to ogling at the ancient city of Samarkand, September really was something else.
Potatoes and Tomatoes
We didn’t plan to visit Tajikistan, mostly because of an expensive visa. But, on a whim, we hitch hiked down to the border and promptly ran into two Polish angels: Michal and Evelina. In fact, we told them we were hitch hiking with them too, but didn’t get out of their 2000 Land Rover Discovery TD5 for two weeks and two border crossings. As the title would suggest, many potatoes and tomatoes were consumed with the lovely Tajik families in and around the Pamir Highway.
an open letter of thanks
These two were the big hitters on the kindness front in September, but really we were shown unending hospitality in Central Asia. From all our Couchsurfing hosts to the guest house owner that fixed us Laghman (some dank hand-pulled noodles) to the truck driver that picked us up despite the police check points: wow.
what’s next
October will bring a new kind of Asia: south. Nepal it is, with a few big hikes that will take us out of commission for awhile and maybe even a detour into tiger country. You can’t get Delhi Belly anywhere but India, right?
♡ Stef and Tor