Well you can because it opened for the first time since 1949 in May 2002. The first three people to go through were right at the end of May. They were pretty special as they had some Kyrgyz official meet them at the Kyrgyz border and got their Kyrgyz visa there (apparently). My wife and I didn’t and were the first independent travellers to go through (and foreigners numbers 4&5) on the 18^th of June 2002.

The Irkeshtam Pass is rated as a foreigner border crossing. The Torugart isn’t (it is supposed to be Kyrgyz/Chinese only), and that’s why you need all the expensive paperwork and transport for the Torugart. For the Irkestam you don’t need anything except for a good Visa. YOU CAN”T GET THE VISAS AT THE BORDER!

The Chinese border post is the newest and flashest you will see in the region. It is obviously has been designed for high amounts of traffic that they expect will go through there. The Kyrgyz one on the other hand, is practically non-existent, and they had to search for a stamp and their customs dept. was a happy little beagle dog.

We got a taxi from Kashgar to the Chinese border crossing. It cost 600RMB (about $75) for the two of us and takes 4 hours. We just found it by asking around. As of July 2002 however, there is a public bus so you can go (I think) the whole way from Kashgar to Osh by bus for about $25.

One of the Chinese guards speaks English, and he was very eager to help. At first he told us that the border was closed due to flooding on the Kyrgyz side, but we hung around for an hour and looked really distressed (wasn’t hard, as our Chinese visa expired that day!) and then some people came through and we were told that the Kyrgyz have finally fixed their road after a week of blockage!

We were given a free lift by the Chinese customs guys from the Immigration/Customs post along the 3km of sealed road to the border. Here we got out and walked the 100m to the barbed wire fence that marked the border. The border guard phoned someone and after 15min a vehicle arrived and the fence was opened for us to go through. It was about 2km along a dirt track to the very sorry-looking Kyrgyz Immigration hut. Someone found a stamp and stamped us. We didn’t get a customs declaration form because we forgot to ask. It wasn’t a problem when we left but it may have been so ask for one! The arrival of non Chinese/Russian speaking foreigners caused a bit of a fuss because at first no-one could talk to us (and everything is in Russian). But a border guard and another guy were fetched who spoke a few words of English and that was enough.

It was 7pm by this time. The other “English speaking” guy turned out to be the manager of the local hotel/restaurant (with imagination!). He was really friendly and gave us a good meal and our own room for about $5 total. It is really basic and the toilets are just pits but it was clean and the food was good. It is the only building in the area apart from immigration and is only about 100m past the immigration shack. 

That night the manager (who’s name is Uran) told us that the next day the Customs jeep was going to Osh and we could go with them. It cost us 500Sum each (about $12), and took 9hours to get to Osh.

Stunning. Check out the Kyrgystan travel log (http://www.oocities.org/asia/7th.html) on our main page for photos. Immediately after leaving China, the land changed from barren, dry, dusty desert to beautiful jailoo (high altitude grassland). We passed lots of nomadic yurts and called in at 3 of them (don’t really know why) for a free and very enjoyable first try of bread, cream, and kymis (fermented horse milk). We were invited to stay with the nomads for a few days (one of the young girls spoke English and was on her school holidays) but we didn’t and in the end stayed with Uran in his house in Osh. To the south of the road is a mountain range that forms the border with Tajikistan, and to the north are other mountains. It was a real silk road experience and one of the highlights of the trip. I wish we had stayed with the nomads here.

I’ve heard a few bad reports about the Chinese customs guys at the Torugart and have had a question about what the Irkeshtam was like. At the Irkeshtam we had a digital camera, digital video camera, and lots of DV tapes and CD’s with the photos on them. They didn’t find the tapes, but they took away the CD’s with the photos on them for an hour or two and apparently looked through the lot!!! They were very polite about it and asked before they took them away (don’t know what they would have done if w had said no!). They gave them all back OK without damage.

BELOW ARE OTHER QUESTIONS WE HAVE BEEN ASKED.

I was very interested by your Lonely Planet post about the Irkeshtam Pass being open and I would like to get the phone number of the taxi who brought you from Kashgar.

 How long did it take you from Kashgar to Osh?