It was still very windy this morning but we had no choice but get on the road and hope that we can reach the border before nightfall. The wind was howling and after three hours we had only covered 16 km. We had gained some elevation and more snow started collecting on the road so that we would soon have to start pushing the bikes on foot. No chance of reaching the border at this rate but we could not go back either. My face was hurting from the cold. I tried wrapping my face to protect it from the wind but then I could not get enough air. I saw two more trucks behind us and in a moment of desperation where my cyclist pride had shrunk to nothing I just stuck my arm out...HELP...STOP! Thank God the first truck stopped! The driver hopped out, helped us heave the bikes in the empty trailer and shortly after we were sat in the cozy heated truck cabin thanking the guy over and over again. The scenery on the way to the border was gorgeous and we were so grateful to get to enjoy it from a comfy truck cabin because shortly after we got picked up the road was really snowed in and would have been impassable by bike. Our driver was an amiable fellow who seemed to be pleased to help. When we inquired what we owed him for his service he just waved his hand. What a relief because we had absolutely no more cash on us except for a few $100 US bills.
Exited Kyrgyzstan with no problem but the Chinese side was a different story. Probably due to the ongoing conflicts with the Uigur people in western China (Xinjiang province) they tranferred the immigration checkpoint about 150km east of the actual border and the only way for foreigners to get there was by bus, taxi or some other registered vehicle. No cycling or hitch hiking. When we arrived at the Chinese border the guards made some arrangement with a guy in a pickup truck to drive us and the bikes for $60 each. WHAT A RIP OFF! No way we were paying this sly looking rat faced dude $120 to drive us just because the Chinese government decided to move their immigration office to a very inconvenient location 150 km down the road (probably to keep foreigners from exploring this area on their own). I was not really sure what to do but James openly refused and made quite the scene. I admire him for how he puts his foot down when necessary. The guard who spoke some English was very patient and tried to bargain with the driver but eventually he lost his patience, took our passenger permits from the driver, tore them up and walked off into his office. Shoot, what now!? The driver left and the guard was too mad at us to talk. Will they invalidate our visa now and send us back to Kyrgyzstan? We got scared. We should have just paid that guy. But at the same time we were glad we had stood our ground. What rip off! And we really did not like the driver.
We were made to wait for a while. Then the English speaking guard had obviously overcome his frustration (we felt bad for having made it so hard for him because he was such a nice guy) and very professionally explained that there will be a bus tomorrow but we will have to stay here tonight and they will keep our passports because we were still in no-mans-land. His superior then walked us to a little "hotel". We were so tired of fighting but it was so grungy looking that we had to object again. Bed bugs? Eventually the hotel-restaurant owner let us sleep in the storage room where we could at least set up our own sleeping gear. They must have thought we were totally crazy.
What we did not know was that this "storage room" was actally his store, sort of. Until way past midnight people came in to get stuff, mostly vodka. Just customer traffic would not have bothered us but the door could only be locked either from the inside or outside so since we were sleeping in there, we were put in charge of locking the door after us. But that meant whenever a customer wanted something we had to get up and open the door. Then we also noticed an open chimney hole in the roof right above our heads. We had to plug it up in case it snowed that night. Not our best night.
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