Close to Pakistan

Thursday 16 October 2025

We headed for the Khunjirap Pass first today.  At 09:30, the rising sun was reflecting beautifully off the mountains. 

At 4850 m above MSL this was a key Silk Road pass and the crossing point into Pakistan.

We got to within 2.5 km of the border, beyond which you have to board a shuttle bus to view the scenic area.  Sadly non-Chinese were not allowed to buy tickets, which we'd been forewarned may happen, so we took some shots of the mountain pass and headed down.  

There were always mountains to photograph.

And wild bactrian camels.  These uber hardy beasts can survive on semi-saline water and are, apparently, tougher than the domestic bactrian camels we saw roaming the plains of Kazakhstan. 

Traffic cameras are everywhere and there was a sign alerting us they existed for next 1194 km.  The roads also have statues of police officers dotted along the way as a gentle reminder.  Additionally, we saw cut-out police cars which look kind of realistic from a distance (you'll have to wait for a photo of that).

We had a pit stop at the freezing Waham corridor which had bronze statues dotted around but limited explanation.

More excitingly, there was a barrister selling Americanos which came in a glass bottle.  Coffee is a similar price here to the UK (it cost more than our meals!) but it was a little treat when we found it.

I realised today that the drone ‘idiot’ at Oytagh bridge was not unique.  It seems that they are used as the new selfie-stick (see spot-the-drone picture below).  This explains why so many fly them 3 m above their family’s heads at a distance of a few metres.  At attractions you’d see photographers offering drone pictures, with the customer in the foreground and the drone hovering a few metres in front/above them.  Occasionally we’d see drones being used in what we’d call the classic sense, flying across a beautiful landscape to capture a view.

We ascended the Panlong Ancient Road.  This ancient pass has a total length of 75 km, over 600 bends and rises to 4100 m.  It was very exciting to drive up and admire the views. 

And the way down was even more spectacular! 

As we admired the views, there was another drone photo shoot (promise, I stopped photographing them after a while).

We drove along the valley bottom.

Then stopped at Bandihr Lake, which is actually one of the largest reservoirs in the region, built in 2009.  We enjoyed the beautiful reflections of the mountain in the water's surface. 

Look, a baby trig!  Well, it was more like a permanent survey marker installed when they created this reservoir in 2007.  And I found a road sign indicating the start of the road.

We stopped for more photos at the Tashkurgan River. It was lovely in the sun and we dodged (nearly literally) the drone capturing some kind of photo shoot.

We awarded a Darwin Award to a collection of tourists who posed for photos in the middle of the road of incoming traffic.

That evening we were meant to be having supper with a local Tajik family.  We turned up at what was obviously very much a tourist attraction and sat in a Tajik styled room with sweet snacks and milky tea. We were invited to watch a Tajik dance and singing (thanks, but no) then were told that was it.  We were very bemused as that obviously wasn’t supper.  It transpired that our driver had booked the wrong place for us.  He’d booked us a classic Chinese tourist Tajik experience but, not being Chinese, we didn’t enjoy the faux environment.  The long and the short was we offered just to have supper in town and so we did.