Stop .... Pamirtime!!
Pamir Mountains, Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture, China (yes, I'm really typing this from Kashgar but I wrote this at the former location and am a little sick of Kashgar at this point)
So today I finally got off the beaten path and took an expensive (1200Y) driving trip out to something either called Auyitagh or Oytak, depending on who you ask and when. I'm kind of sitting on top of a melting glacier at the moment and ice balls keep rolling past so I should probably make this quick. I'm about 200 something K southwest of Kashgar in the Pamirs somewhere along either the Tajikistan border I think, but I'm not exactly sure where I am yet and I can't find it on any map.
About the Pamirs, briefly speaking, there's several major mountain ranges that are a result of the crash with the Indian subcontinent: the Himalayas, the Karakorum, the Kunlun, the Tian Shan, the Pamirs, and maybe some more that I forgot. Anyway all these mountains are gigantic, I think nearly all of the world's 7000 m peaks are in one of those ranges, so they're just massive. THe Pamirs themselves separate the various Stans of the world, as in Afghan- Pak- Tajik- Kirghiz- etc, and were locally called "The Roof of the World", and allegedly Alexander the Great and Marco Polo passed through somewhere in the vicinity
Right now, I'm guessing, but i think I'm on the glacier, would guess about 14k feet up or so, of this massive pile of rock called Konger Shan or maybe it's Auyitagh Shan or something like that, or maybe one of the ones next to it. Anyway, let me read you what it says on the admission ticket, which basically says all one needs to know:
OK, maybe not. So I'll describe it - I've seen some beautiful spots and some high mountains in my day, I've been to Everest base camp, and the Altaics & seen the Alps, but Jesus H. Christ in a chicken basket, if the scenery up here in the Pamirs isn't the most hyper-perfect, drop dead postcard beautiful shit I have ever seen, then I'll eat a donkey for dinner. I'm talking thousand foot waterfalls, massive glaciers, huge snowcapped peaks and blue skies, green pastures & valleys, huge red-clay canyons, dense fir tree forests, little Kirghiz farming & herding settlements along the way -- it's like scenic crack and I am overdosing.
The best part about it is that there is not a soul up here except for me, some other goats, and a couple of marmots, and a few Kirghiz (they're like the Uighurs mountain cousins, hard to tell them apart though). Which I guess is understandable, this place doesn't appear on any major brand English maps or guidebooks and is an expensive pain to get too, but damn if it isn't worth it. Best of all, the assorted incompetents and thieves who run the China domestic tourist biz appear not to have caught on yet, and hence there is a present lack of tacky karaoke spots, borderline autistic Chinese tour guides, and overpriced hotels with mediocre buffets. Simply awesome.
epilogue: so actually I ended up driving back later that day because it enables me to get out of here an day earlier - Xinjiang is great and all but I think I'm beginning to smell like a roasted goat myself. I'm headed Southeast towards Chengdu & Sichuan province, which will unfortunately take two days so I won't report in for a while. In another shitty development, I left my Ohio State hat in the car, which will no doubt now become the precious new possession of the driver (as well as the food he stole from me)which means I now have to rely on this awful green floppy hat that makes me look like a jungle warrior village person or buy some shitty Chinese hat that says "Rocck In the Fry WOrld!!!" or something.
So today I finally got off the beaten path and took an expensive (1200Y) driving trip out to something either called Auyitagh or Oytak, depending on who you ask and when. I'm kind of sitting on top of a melting glacier at the moment and ice balls keep rolling past so I should probably make this quick. I'm about 200 something K southwest of Kashgar in the Pamirs somewhere along either the Tajikistan border I think, but I'm not exactly sure where I am yet and I can't find it on any map.
About the Pamirs, briefly speaking, there's several major mountain ranges that are a result of the crash with the Indian subcontinent: the Himalayas, the Karakorum, the Kunlun, the Tian Shan, the Pamirs, and maybe some more that I forgot. Anyway all these mountains are gigantic, I think nearly all of the world's 7000 m peaks are in one of those ranges, so they're just massive. THe Pamirs themselves separate the various Stans of the world, as in Afghan- Pak- Tajik- Kirghiz- etc, and were locally called "The Roof of the World", and allegedly Alexander the Great and Marco Polo passed through somewhere in the vicinity
Right now, I'm guessing, but i think I'm on the glacier, would guess about 14k feet up or so, of this massive pile of rock called Konger Shan or maybe it's Auyitagh Shan or something like that, or maybe one of the ones next to it. Anyway, let me read you what it says on the admission ticket, which basically says all one needs to know:
"Within one mountain, try millenium primitive ecology of view best, between one day, is it catch gem scene originally four seasons to award to the limit praised as 'The Western Regions one all one's life attitude view' goological expert"
OK, maybe not. So I'll describe it - I've seen some beautiful spots and some high mountains in my day, I've been to Everest base camp, and the Altaics & seen the Alps, but Jesus H. Christ in a chicken basket, if the scenery up here in the Pamirs isn't the most hyper-perfect, drop dead postcard beautiful shit I have ever seen, then I'll eat a donkey for dinner. I'm talking thousand foot waterfalls, massive glaciers, huge snowcapped peaks and blue skies, green pastures & valleys, huge red-clay canyons, dense fir tree forests, little Kirghiz farming & herding settlements along the way -- it's like scenic crack and I am overdosing.
The best part about it is that there is not a soul up here except for me, some other goats, and a couple of marmots, and a few Kirghiz (they're like the Uighurs mountain cousins, hard to tell them apart though). Which I guess is understandable, this place doesn't appear on any major brand English maps or guidebooks and is an expensive pain to get too, but damn if it isn't worth it. Best of all, the assorted incompetents and thieves who run the China domestic tourist biz appear not to have caught on yet, and hence there is a present lack of tacky karaoke spots, borderline autistic Chinese tour guides, and overpriced hotels with mediocre buffets. Simply awesome.
epilogue: so actually I ended up driving back later that day because it enables me to get out of here an day earlier - Xinjiang is great and all but I think I'm beginning to smell like a roasted goat myself. I'm headed Southeast towards Chengdu & Sichuan province, which will unfortunately take two days so I won't report in for a while. In another shitty development, I left my Ohio State hat in the car, which will no doubt now become the precious new possession of the driver (as well as the food he stole from me)which means I now have to rely on this awful green floppy hat that makes me look like a jungle warrior village person or buy some shitty Chinese hat that says "Rocck In the Fry WOrld!!!" or something.
posted by Miguel V | 6:35 PM
3 Comments:
Hope U took pictures!!
Oh my own dear wandering goat,
Remember, we love you even if you DO smell--and right now I'm very sure you do! But what a glorious picture of the Pamirs I now have in my head. It is going on the list of "Places I want to visit before I die". Thanks for my high of the week.
L. Mom
Oh Great! now mom's gonna die. I'm sure the Pamirs are tight and all that but our Cascades, Olympics, and sweet Mt.Tahoma('Rainier' in the colonizer's language) have got to come pretty stinking close in terms of natural beauty. We'll see your thousand foot waterfall, your glacier and your fir thicket and raise you convenient mountainside espresso stands. Yeah WASHINGTON STATE!!!!!!!! love kate
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