[B] Just wandered about in Kazarman. It is a town close to an open-cast goldmine. None of the wealth has trickeled down into this town. It even has a stadium, but it seems that no olympic sport will be hold here for a long time.
The finish line - Snow patrol
[B] Arrived in Kazarman. What a death defying trip. Scenery is beautiful, but do not look down. Some places i was only half a meter from falling several hundreds down. The summit was at 3.1 km and we could see it from far. Stretches of snow were every now and then blocking an easy way of driving the road. And i choose the russian jeep, that does not seem to have a second gear any more. If the driver keeps driving like this we soon will not have a third as well. He is pulling and pushing the shift sticks to find the right gear. I am lucky these are not my theeth grinding and making this aweful noise ...
Just returned from Arslanbob. Will use Jalalabad as a hub for Kazarman. Difficult to find transport to Kazarman, since it is a small town where nobody wants to go. Found myself a jeep with the help of Tolkun. He studied for a year in Germany and knows his 'Deutsch'. Nobody seemed to know where the taxis to Kazarman were leaving, so he asked around for me. We found a remote place with a russian jeep an a real maschrutka. I bought myself a place in the russian jeep. They will be driving together to Kazarman. I wonder if it will be possible to get from Kazarman to Naryn. Sailmaaluu Tash could be reached from Kazarman, but it is still covered in snow. So i do not have a real reason to go to Kazarman, other then that it is on the way to Naryn and i can not reach Naryn in one go.
[B] In Jalalabad met two dutch girls who happen to be going to Arslanbob as well. They are already half way on their taxi ride, but for the rest of the trip the guy wants another 200 som. I need to go to Arslanbob, so that is an easy one. I try to negotiate a lower than 200 som price, but the guy does not want to bulge. 200 som is not that bad [approx. 45 som in a dollar]. I turns out he does not even know the way to Arslanbob and keeps asking for the road ...
I intended to go slow in Arslanbob, but the girls are heading out tomorrow. We hire a guide to get us to the small waterfalls, a panorama viewpoint and the big waterfall [80m]. Along the walk we pass the walnut forrest, the biggest in the world : 11.000 hectares !! Walnuts are going to be expensive this year, since the harvest here in autumn is going to be bad.
