Exhausting ride along the border of AfghanistansteemCreated with Sketch.

in travel •  7 years ago  (edited)
Khorog - Dushanbe by Pamir Highway!

DSC01419.jpg

18/11/17
The consul refused my visa to Afghanistan, told me to acquire it in the capital. But at least I got the refund for my money which is rare in these cases.
But I wasn't inclined to be stranded in Dushanbe while they're issuing the visa, so I just bought a plane ticket to Tehran, as I considered wasting any more of my time in Tajikistan to be a crime when I could be in Iran tomorrow. I've heard a lot of good things about this country and I wanted to go there for a long time.
So, on November the 19th I'm flying to Tehran and the visit to Afghanistan is postponed. Maybe next time I'll make the visa in Moscow, along with the visa to Pakistan.

DSC01373.jpg
Pyandj river and the Afghan coast

And about the road Khorog-Dushanbe... well, that was something. It goes along Pyandj that separates Tajikistan from Afghanistan and at some places it is so narrow, you could spit on the other coast.

DSC01287.jpg

And I've never seen mountains like those before, the terrain is absolutely extraterrestrial, but the photos will not relay the titanic scale of those rocks bursting out of the ground to cloud the sun and immerse the valley in the shade.

DSC01404.jpg

It was also interesting to observe the Afghan side, even from outside. The rough settlements with patches of green grass (absent on the right coast), trees, caves...

DSC01435.jpg

There is also a road on the other side of the river, but it's even worse than the road on Tajik side.

DSC01360.jpg

There are practically no cars, just rare motorcycles and numerous caravans of laden donkeys.

DSC01454.jpg
A caravan with donkeys

DSC01362.jpg
If you look closely, you can see people carrying bundles of wood

So the distance of 600km between Khorog and Dushanbe was passed in 16.5 hours and the only patch of decent pavement was like 50km long. We were also slowed down by policemen that always stopped our car to get some bakshish from the driver and check my documents (if they saw me).

DSC01452.jpg

I heard it's much worse in Uzbekistan, so I decided to not go there yet.
Most part of the way we passed in the darkness again and it was only memorable by some thick fog at one point, we couldn't see farther than 2 meters ahead, making us effectively blind.
There also was a tunnel 4.5km long.
So, after this exhausting ride I finally arrived to Dushanbe.

More pics:
DSC01313.jpg

DSC01408.jpg

DSC01394.jpg

DSC01328.jpg

DSC01431.jpg

DSC01355.jpg
Bonus hamster

To be continued...

Check out my other posts:
Tajikistan: 1, 2, 3
Kyrgyzstan: 1, 2, 3
Kazakhstan: 1, 2, 3

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

In Algeria we have mountains Iike this "tikjda"

Amazing photographs, being a mountain lover I totally can feel each and every snap. These mountains and terrains are extraterrestrial, very well written by you. Keep travelling and keep up the good work, best wishes.

Thanks for the feedback!

Impresionantes imagenes de tierras lejanas, me encantaria visitar dichos lugares. Pronto compartire una aventura desde mi pais.

Really nice trip !

Yeah, it was cool

people loved to travel, keep sharing..if u want please check my post related to about traveling.

Afghanistan has some very nice places to discover hope one day i will visit this beautiful country, great work my homie love your posts im following u

this is amazing :)

lovely place :)

wow, these are impressive pictures!

(tip: don't use 100% Power-Up at the moment, you get more SP if you chose the 50/50 payout option and convert the SBD rewards to STEEM after payout - see here for details)

Thank you for the advice, I really appreciate it!

Wow, 16,5 hours sounds like quite a hell of a ride. I have only been to Kyrgyzstan so far - but it seems like the other -stans are way more challenging to travel?

Kazakhstan is pretty easy as well, Tajikistan is way harder. Can't say anything about others, unfortunately.

Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=nameless-berk
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=exhausting-ride-along-the-border-of-afghanistan


Want to have your post on the map too?

  • Go to Steemitworldmap
  • Click the code slider at the bottom
  • Click on the map where your post should be (zoom in if needed)
  • Copy and paste the generated code in your post
  • Congrats, your post is now on the map!

Your Post Has Been Featured on @Resteemable!
Feature any Steemit post using resteemit.com!
How It Works:
1. Take Any Steemit URL
2. Erase https://
3. Type re
Get Featured Instantly – Featured Posts are voted every 2.4hrs
Join the Curation Team Here

Congratulations @nameless-berk, this post is the third most rewarded post (based on pending payouts) in the last 12 hours written by a Dust account holder (accounts that hold between 0 and 0.01 Mega Vests). The total number of posts by Dust account holders during this period was 14896 and the total pending payments to posts in this category was $4836.35. To see the full list of highest paid posts across all accounts categories, click here.

If you do not wish to receive these messages in future, please reply stop to this comment.

The @OriginalWorks bot has checked the text of this post and it appears original!

ezgif.com-resize.gif

To call @OriginalWorks, simply reply to any post with @originalworks or !originalworks in your message!

Please note that this is a BETA version. Feel free to leave a reply if you feel this is an error to help improve accuracy. Please note, it only checks the text component!