Category Archives: Central Asia

Lost in the Long Stretches

We trudge forward. Hours drag on.

Each step brings us to another curve leading to a long stretch of alpine nothingness. It’s just us alone in the world, heads down and walking different paces alongside the Panj River that sometimes meanders a few meters below or rages through narrow gorges.

There’s comfort in solitude. There’s unity between the human spirit and the natural world. There’s also a simultaneous sense of bigness and smallness, being a speck in the shadow of mountainous greatness while having a heart large enough to notice the smallest rock sparkling in the sunshine.

It’s easy to get lost in these long stretches in between Pamir towns. The monotony invites a meditative calm, a peace that comes with moving at about three kilometers an hour. It often, too, stirs restlessness and a string of unconnected thoughts anxious for answers or impatience from feeling like we are going nowhere fast.

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Langar – Khorog

TORNEM A CAMINAR !

FINALMENT REPRENEM LA NOSTRA RUTA A PEU !!!!

Molt breument per qui no hagi llegit les nostres entrades anteriors, direm que caminades Tailàndia i Birmània, reprenem la nostra ruta a peu a Langar, una petita població a la vall de Wakhan, a la punta sud-est de Tadjikistan i davant d’ Afganistan, que es troba a l’ altre costat del riu.

Després de Birmània, no hem seguit per Bangladesh i l’ Índia per evitar el monsó i fem ara el centre d’ Àsia per evitar el seu duríssim hivern.

Per què Langar? Per que és possiblement el primer poble que ens trobarem / trobaríem seguint la nostra ruta des de l’ Índia i continuant per Pakistan. Anant cap al nord de Pakistan i suposadament creuant un trocet d’ Afganistan, entrarem / entraríem a Tadjikistan arribant a la vall de Wakhan. Fent la nostra ruta entrarem / entraríem per Langar, així que és des d’ aquí Langar que reprenem la nostra ruta a peu.

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Walking the Wakhan Valley

 

We round a bend on the bumpy road, and I am immediately spellbound. I want to ask the driver to stop the car so I can fall to my knees and bow in honor the beauty before me. My jaw keeps slipping towards my chest with each rock we roll over. My eyes tear up.

“My god. It’s beautiful.” I whisper over the lump in my throat. I can’t make my mouth spit out the words, “Stop, please, stop. We must see this greatness at a standstill.”

I have never before truly understood what compels climbers to summit the world’s biggest mountains, but now I catch a glimmer into their psyche. Staring at the Hindu Kush from the road snaking through Tajikistan’s southern corner, all I want to do is touch these faraway jagged, snowy peaks. Touching them with my eyes is not enough. I want to touch them with my soul.

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Anem a Tadjikistan

 

Un cop visitat un xic de Kirgizistan i obtinguts els visats de Tadjikistan i Uzbekistan, ara deixem Kirgizistan per endinsar-nos a Tadjikistan.

Aquesta breu entrada i ara que durant les properes setmanes ens endinsarem per Tadjikistan i Uzbekistan, és per ’informar’ que no tenim ni idea de quina serà la connectivitat, accés a internet, a electricitat per carregar el mòbil… de que disposarem, pel que consegüentment, no tenim ni idea de si podrem mantenir la freqüència de publicacions a la web i a les xarxes socials.

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Heading To Tajikistan

Having spent a few weeks enjoying off-route parts of  Burma and Kyrgyzstan and getting our visas and logistics sorted,  it’s time to start walking again… And, man, do we have  itchy feet! We are definitely getting antsy to begin our “whatever comes next” phase in Central Asia. Rest is a good thing, but restlessness is an impatient beastie.

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Myawaddy-Bangkok-Bixkek

 

Tal i com comentem en les nostres dues entrades, la continuïtat de la ruta o Bangkok.Bagan.Bishkek?!? aquests dies hem deixat el sud-est asiàtic per saltar al cor de l’Àsia central.

Acabades Tailàndia i Birmània hem tornat a Bangkok per volar fins a Bixkek, la capital de Kirgizistan on a part de visitar i conèixer un xic més aquesta part del món totalment desconeguda per nosaltres, ens hem atansat aquí per obtenir els visats dels següents 2 estats/països que tenim a la nostra ruta. Tadjikistan i Uzbekistan.

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