July 11, 2012

I had another sleepless night as the room was too warm and the fan provided little relief. I got up at some point and opened the window risking getting mosquitoes into the room, but hoping for some cool breeze to allow me to sleep. I was up before five and busied myself with making coffee in the adjacent kitchen, repacking my bags and finishing “Sister of my Heart” so I could take it to the American Corner as a donation.

I exchanged money to buy my airline ticket, 440.00 somoni or $93.00, and headed to the American Corner to use their Internet service where a very young woman greeted instead of the coordinator who had something personal to do in the morning. I notified her that the Internet access was not connected and to please do so for me, but she had no idea what to do and called somebody else to help her, a guy, and still there was no service. Madina came in at this point, since she led a group of small children in some kind of lesson there, and recommended I go to Logos to use their service in the meantime. The staff allowed me use of their computer and even ordered tea for me seeing that I was eating a chunk of bread with the last of my Nutella spread.

Tamriz called to say he was at the airport securing my ticket, but the flight was going to be delayed since there was a military parade scheduled for the day and the airport runway was the only flat place in town where they could hold it. He couldn’t give me a specific time and recommended that I go to a museum or some other place to kill time for a while. Logos lost its Internet connection and I decided to pay for my hotel room, bring my bags to Logos and return to the American Corner in the hope that their Internet connection was now working.

Tamriz picked me up at 12:00pm and took me to the airport, but the plane hadn’t arrived yet, so he took me to visit the Serena Inn nearby where dignitaries and famous personalities get to stay when they visit Khorog. The place was built by the Agha Khan Foundation and represents the traditional Pamiri-style house. The grounds were meticulously kept and the area facing the Panj River was an oasis. I wondered how much it’d cost to stay there for just one night, but Tamriz didn’t know. We saw my plane approaching and it looked like one of those toy planes kids manipulate with a remote control. I had to pay another 56.00 somoni or $12.00 for excess baggage as only 10 kilos were allowed per passenger.

The flight constituted one hour and fifteen minutes of bottled up terror as the tin can we were in, a 17-passenger plane probably 40-50 years old, appeared to be buffeted by the clouds as it flew over the awesome Pamir range, or what the locals like to call “The roof of the World”. Some people fell asleep shortly after takeoff while other, myself included, shut their eyes most of the time. A European couple had sat on opposite sides of the plane to be able to get good photos and I handed them my camera to have a couple of shots since I didn’t have a window seat. The views were spectacular even when I couldn’t wait to start seeing villages and cars to indicate the plane was initiating its descend.

                                       Awesome view of the Pamirs Mountains.

                                              Another one

                                               One last one.

                          The tiny plane I flew in with my stomach tied in a knot the entire time.

I got into a taxi right away and got the key to Ryan’s flat from his neighbor as he was currently in Moscow. It was a relief to come to a cool place and have some privacy for once as he’ll be gone until Friday. I tried to get Farrukh to go with me to the offices of Somon Air to obtain my ticket as the website informed me I was too late to purchase a ticket online using a credit card. He was scheduled to see his math tutor at that time and couldn’t do it, so I braved the situation and went on my own. The young woman at the Somon Air counter told me she was closed even though it was exactly 4:45pm when I got there. She sent me next door to the first of the five different travel agencies, little hole-in-wall spaces selling tickets for a small commission for people who don’t know how to use the web or wait for too long like me. I finally got a guy who spoke some English and understood I didn’t need a visa to travel to Germany and sold me a ticket for $367.00 dollars.

I then went to visit the seamstress to find that despite having had an additional ten days to finish my outfits, she wasn’t done. I called Sanifa to help me understand and to tell the seamstress I was leaving for the States and needed my clothing ready right then and there. She agreed to have them done in 2.5 hours and I had to make another trip there. I bought some bread and cheese and had that for dinner as I didn’t feel like cooking.

It was quite pleasant to walk around after eight when the weather cooled off a bit and I could see lots of young men and women walking around gaily talking to each other and laughing in a carefree manner. I knew I’d miss this place and had started to do so already.