Trust on the Karakurom Highway

The next morning, after that starry night, we hiked around the lake filming lambs and goats. We figured we had time to play around; the redneck Chinese truck driver had told us that he would probably be coming back sometime in the afternoon, so we cleaned our stuff out of the yurt and climbed back …

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Karakul Lake – Volleyball at the Edge of the World

Volleyball at the Edge of the World We were far off the beaten path now. Where we were, Karakul Lake, we were as close to Beirut as we were to Beijing. We were fifteen miles from Tajikistan, fifty from Afghanistan. Our driver dropped us off at the lakeside and told us that he would probably …

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Getting to Karakul Lake

In the farthest West of China After we found a driver, we milled around for half an hour, eating pilaf for lunch while we waited for the pick-up truck’s other passengers to gather. It was around eleven o’clock, Xinjiang Time, by the time we left. The redneck Chinese guy driving our pickup gathered several other …

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Negotiating a Ride to Tashkurgan

We were trying to leave Kashgar for a lake on the Karakorum Highway, the world’s highest international highway, where we would camp out at Karakul Lake, just sixty miles from the town of Tashkurgan. Not sure where we could hitchhike from, we had originally wanted to take a bus there and hitchhike back. I went …

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