All too quickly the trip with Saidali and Ismail of the Pamir guides winds down to the inevitable conclusion. After Murghab its a night at the azure blue Karakul Lake, followed the last day with the Kyzlart border crossing into Kyrgyzstan and the dizzying descent down to the heat of Osh at a positively oppressive 1000metres above sea level. There is just time for a day sightseeing around this attractive green modern central Asian city.
Karakul Lake
Pamir Alay Range from Kyrgyzstan
I bid my travelling companion Anthony goodbye as I fly out in the evening to Bishkek, the capitol of Kyrgyzstan ad that same night at 2 am to my final Stan, Kazakhstan. It is an exhauting night with snatches of broken sleep caught on hard airport benches before a 4 am arrival to Astana, the capitol of Kazakhstan. Just as Anthony before me I wait before an empty “Visa on arrival” window. When I gently ask one of the female customs people she berates me for arriving without a visa. She maintains there is no such thing as visa on arrival despite the fact that there is a counter for just that. After about 20 minutes a grumpy consular official arrives and I have my visa within 10 minutes. I then have to make myself understood at the lost luggage counter as my pack has already been removed as everyone else has cleared off. Finally emerge into the arrivals hall for another couple of hours of hard sleep on airport benches.