The first day was relatively easy - nice roads, only five hours in the car. The second day I had read would be a slog with the deteriation in roads and more like a 6/7 hour journey.
We begin our day still following the River Panj, keeping Afghanistan in touching distance:
This is one of my favourite shots of Afghanistan, for me it shows the country as I imagined it:
As we drove on the views continued to be stunning, and the hours melted by. My fears of surviving 6/7 hour car journeys were put to ease with this amazing scenery on loop.
We came to our first GBAO checkpoint 0 the first of around 10 as we made our way through the Pamir Highway. I had read about bribes having to be paid at certain checkpoints, but we passed this one with ease. At each checkpoint we had to provide our passports, visas, GBAO permits and photocopies to hand over. There were no computers a the check points, instead our details were written down and our photocopies stored away. This creates a considerable amount of admin and paperwork to get prepared before setting off - 10 x passport, 10 x visa and 10 x GBAO permit photocopies!
No matter where in the world you are, you can always find a football pitch:
After a good 6/7 hours we finally arrived in Khorog. As we drove in we went past Khorog Airport which was being guarded by Chinese soldiers. In fact there were large makeshift barracks, full of Chinese soldiers - some playing frisbee, some giving sweets to Tajik children. It was a very odd site to see the Chinese army deployed in Tajikistan.
Our driver took us to a very nice, modern house (well above the standard of home stay expected) and we dropped our bags and went exploring the town. Khorog is fairly big and affluent for a mountainous town in Tajikistan. Khorog is heavily Ismaili and is home to the Ismaili Jamatkhana and Centre.
I bump into the Portuguese chap on my walk and we decide to take a bus out of town to the Tem - Demogan Bridge, the bridge connecting Tajikistan to Afghanistan. There is also an Afghan market that takes places near to the bridge, but unfortunately it was closed. We instead took some photos and got shouted at several times by the Tajik border guard for getting too close - must have provided some excite for what looked like an extremely quiet border.
Surprisingly, right at this point there is a luxury hotel. Perfect for a weekend getaway into Afghanistan.
We then hitchhike back into town. A Tajik man and his small child stop and drive us into Khorog whilst refusing to take any money. We go on the hunt for food and pass some Khorog classics:
On a recommendation we head to Delhi Darbar, an Indian restaurant, but to our dismay it is fully booked all evening. Me and the Belgian instead head to a nearby rooftop restaurant for a burger and a beer.
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