Jeremy had set the alarm for 6am... no bloody need, I think the frostbite woke me way before then...
The Yurts are heated with a small stove, that burns dried Yak dung .... seriously ! The hosts light it 20 mins before bed, and hope you fall asleep before it goes out. I think Jeremy smuggled some more dung in and kept it stoked most of the night. Thanks Mate, much appreciated ... but hope no offence, because I would not eat that bit of bread you passed me at breakfast time!
Got on our way about 8am, and after the gravel track back to the main road, it was back to amazing tarmac, and quality scenery. The most surprising thing was that considering this was one of the few entrances to China, there was no traffic... so why build such a good road ?
After an hour, got to the first of several check-points. As with all police, army & immigration checks, cameras are strictly prohibited, so excuse the distant shots...
Then more beautiful backdrops as we drive many more km to the actual border.
Get to the Kyrgyzstan final c/p after a couple of hours, and strangely, no queue to speak of. Got ushered into the building, and had the various documents checked, paid a $30 (I think) "environmental" fee which none of knew anything about, and then rode the final 8km up to the actual spot on the map where the border is (the Tourgart pass itself).
There is a gate there, and we are lucky because the border closes for lunch ... this takes from 11am, to whenever the lazy buggers have finished stuffing their faces and slept it off .... 3 hours are usually quoted. Guess thanks are in order, because Max's BMW refused to start, making us about 10 mins late, but they graciously waited for us, where our Kyrgyzstan guide, handed us over to the Chinese guide.
Passports were checked and checked again, then once in China, we made our way past the queuing lorries to the Customs post, roughly 5 km from the border gate.
Last pic before I hid the camera...
The check itself was strange ... they selected a few bags at random from the bikes, passed them through an X-ray machine mounted in a scrapped Transit van, then handed them back. They did not seem to worry whose bag was whose, or to check the bikes with "fixed" panniers, so presumably lip service is good enough.
And once through, we rode one of the worst potholed roads ever...
But after 50 km it steadily improved and the mountainous scenery soon made us forget the dust and potholes of the previous hour.
And then another customs check, but this was probably more like a "disease prevention point" ... there was a bit of a hold up as all cars and lorries pass through a mechanised water spray, which wheels itself out on a track, then emits a mist as they drive through.
Evidently they had never done motorbikes before !! So visors down, the first of us rode through ... but then some of the group decided it could not just be water and hesitated. In the mean time, the officials had decided that the mist clearly wasn't even touching the small bikes, so just waved the remainder of us through....
Next was the "proper" immigration check (now 100km from the border), which resulted in some delays as despite having our documents & route submitted it to Beijing 3 months prior, it had not been sent back the nominated entry point. So we waited in the baking sun for 2 hours while the paperwork slowly worked its way down the chain...
And then with the sun setting, we completed the last 50km onto our first night in China ... Kashgar.
 |
| Yes, that's snow on the bike. |
Got on our way about 8am, and after the gravel track back to the main road, it was back to amazing tarmac, and quality scenery. The most surprising thing was that considering this was one of the few entrances to China, there was no traffic... so why build such a good road ?
After an hour, got to the first of several check-points. As with all police, army & immigration checks, cameras are strictly prohibited, so excuse the distant shots...
Then more beautiful backdrops as we drive many more km to the actual border.
Get to the Kyrgyzstan final c/p after a couple of hours, and strangely, no queue to speak of. Got ushered into the building, and had the various documents checked, paid a $30 (I think) "environmental" fee which none of knew anything about, and then rode the final 8km up to the actual spot on the map where the border is (the Tourgart pass itself).
There is a gate there, and we are lucky because the border closes for lunch ... this takes from 11am, to whenever the lazy buggers have finished stuffing their faces and slept it off .... 3 hours are usually quoted. Guess thanks are in order, because Max's BMW refused to start, making us about 10 mins late, but they graciously waited for us, where our Kyrgyzstan guide, handed us over to the Chinese guide.
 |
| The tourist group were doing a similar transfer, which included a change of bus. |
 |
| The truckers were so pleased to see us, they kept suggesting we rode two by two (at least that what I think they meant) |
The check itself was strange ... they selected a few bags at random from the bikes, passed them through an X-ray machine mounted in a scrapped Transit van, then handed them back. They did not seem to worry whose bag was whose, or to check the bikes with "fixed" panniers, so presumably lip service is good enough.
And once through, we rode one of the worst potholed roads ever...
But after 50 km it steadily improved and the mountainous scenery soon made us forget the dust and potholes of the previous hour.
And then another customs check, but this was probably more like a "disease prevention point" ... there was a bit of a hold up as all cars and lorries pass through a mechanised water spray, which wheels itself out on a track, then emits a mist as they drive through.
Evidently they had never done motorbikes before !! So visors down, the first of us rode through ... but then some of the group decided it could not just be water and hesitated. In the mean time, the officials had decided that the mist clearly wasn't even touching the small bikes, so just waved the remainder of us through....
Next was the "proper" immigration check (now 100km from the border), which resulted in some delays as despite having our documents & route submitted it to Beijing 3 months prior, it had not been sent back the nominated entry point. So we waited in the baking sun for 2 hours while the paperwork slowly worked its way down the chain...
 |
| Had to smile at this ... comfortable indeed ! You should have seen inside ! |
 |
| Stayed at this rather posh hotel... |
 |
| ... and eat in their rather post restaurant. |
And as I forgot the introductions earlier, (L to R) we now have "Big John" from Canada, Jeremy from the UK who I have been riding with since Turkey, and Alan ... a Brit who last year, actually rode from Thai to the UK.
There are also 3 lads from Switzerland with us now, but I think their tolerance level for strange food was not as high as ours, as the empty "pot noodle" containers in their room would suggest !