Osh
Osh’s street markets, the colourful dresses of the women, the tall Kyrgyz felt hats of the men and sizeable populations of Uzbeks and Tajiks give it a much more exotic feel than many Kyrgyz towns.
Women at a street market in Osh
If you are traveling between Kyrgyzswtan and Tajikistan, you will pass through Osh. A road (the so-called Pamir Highway) leads directly south from here to the last town before the Tajik border, Sary Tash. From Sary Tash a road continues south into Tajikistan or west through Sary Moghul and into Uzbekistan.
Shared transport runs every day from Osh to Sary Tash and Sary Moghul. In 2010 it cost US$10 for a seat and took five hours to Sary Moghul. The place that these taxis go from in Osh is a hundred metres or so from the main bus / taxi area and you’ll need to ask locals to find it. If anyone tells you that no shared taxis go to Sary Moghul and tries to make you pay for an entire vehicle, don’t believe them!
Most tourists, for reasons I can’t quite understand, shell out vast amounts of cash on hiring private vehicles to get from Osh or Sary Tash to Tajikistan. Although there is no public transport on this route, at least one car goes every day to Murghab in Tajikistan from Sary Tash or Sary Moghul. Ask around town in the shops, the guest houses, etc. If this doesn’t work then, hitch hiking is fairly easy if you stand just outside Sary Tash on the road to Tajikistan.
Clich here for my blog about Osh and the Pamir Highway with 740 words and 8 photos.
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