Karakul Lake, Day 4

Day 4 of the trip: 10 hour drive from Kashgar to Khunjerab Pass in Pakistan and then back to Karakul Lake.

Khunjerab pass is at 4693 meters (15,397 feet) and is the highest paved border crossing in the world and is relatively close to K2 (2 hour drive).

The kid that I had met the day before, Jeremy, was hiring a car to take him up to Karakul lake since the bus only runs once a week during the low season and he let me come with him only paying a fraction of the cost since he knew I was unemployed (hey it gets you some pity perks!)

On the way up to Karakul lake and Khunjerab pass to Pakistan the scenery was probably the most awe inspiring and humbling I have ever seen. It made Tian Chi, which until then I had been pretty impressed with, look like Kansas. To add to this experience, we needed to make periodic stops to shoo wild Camels and Yak out of the road which was pretty novel.

One of the most impressive sights we passed was an otherworldly salt lake. It was so strange because it as so different than the mountain terrain around it - almost like a part of the Sahara / Mars had been transplanted to the middle of the alps, to give you a mental image.

there were weird tufts of brass growing out of the water too making it kind of look like the Dead Marshes in LOTR for all you fellow Tolkien nerds.

The drive was quite long to the pass but the scenery was so ridiculous I was entertained the entire time. Also, our drive blared Uigher music the and supplemented this with his own singing and as much dancing as he could do behind the wheel without killing us.

The scene at the border was completely in line with the excessive bureaucracy and rigidity that typifies china: about 15 chinese border guards all armed to the teeth on the chinese side and 1 pakistani guy on the other. Because we didn't have visas a chinese guy had to drive with us to the Pakistani side in case we tried to run off into the mountains or something.. who knows.. I don't think we would have gotten far had we tried, it looks pretty cold. We talked to the Pakistani border guard for a while, who spoke perfect english and was really cool. Then some guys from the Khunjerab National Park drove up and started telling us about the national park and snow leopards. Turns out they don't hate americans because we fund their Snow Leopard conservation effort - I was very relieved by this and figured I didn't have to pretend to be Canadian.

Chinese border marker..

Park Ranger from the Khunjerab National Park. He says he sees snow leopards all the time - maybe Planet Earth is lying that you have to lay in wait in a little snow cave for months before you can see one.

Pakistani side

Prettttttty scenery at the border

More pretttty scenery at the border. After about 45 mins of chatting and admiring the scenery we got back in the car and drove back to Karakul lake, stopping in Tahskurgan on the way for some lunch.

River valley in Tashkurgan

Old stone fort near Tahskurgan. In a time long ago and far away it was sieged by the Mongol Hordes when they got bored and everyone inside died from dehydration and other fun things.

We got to Karakul after dark, and I think that the house we stayed at had the one electric lightbulb in town since I saw no other light anywhere. The room we stayed in was really cool, the walls and floor were all covered in carpets, probably adding insulation to the house which itself was made out of mud, very similar to adobe houses in the south west. The family was Uigher and were very welcoming to us even though we couldn't communicate that well. Their daughter had a fever so I came to the rescue with my traveling pharmacy and gave her some ibuprofen and decongestants.

Room in the house we stayed at in Karakul

Staying with them was cool mainly because it seemed that they were not changing their behavior at all because of our presence. They spoke and gossiped in Uigher, invited neighbors over, made dinner, etc... so it was really just like being a fly on the wall. For dinner we had AMAZING Yak Nui Nai (milk) that was more like a cross between butter, cream cheese, and brie. Then a drink that was also derived from the noble Yak which tasted kind of like Chai but a little more salty. The wife made noodles which went into a Yak meat and potato stew..then for dessert we had salted yak meat.....just kidding.. it was very Yak-centric meal in general but no Yak dessert. Some of the neighbors came over after dinner to look at us and hear any news that our driver brought from Kashgar. We were treated to Uigher music videos on their tiny TV which was obviously a big treat for the family and our driver and the son got up and danced and forced me to join them.