Marie

Day 3 Pamir Highway & entering the Wakhan Valley – Khorog to Ishkashim (Vlog)

August 10, 2017

The Wakhan Valley is split between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, the border marked by the Pyanj River. It’s narrow, finger-like shape provides a geographical reminder of the border battles during the Great Game as the Russian and British Empires strived for dominance. Originally Indian territory, it was given to Afghanistan to create a buffer zone between … More Day 3 Pamir Highway & entering the Wakhan Valley – Khorog to Ishkashim (Vlog)

Day 2 Pamir Highway – Kalai Khum to Khorog (Vlog)

August 9, 2017

Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through Note: Afghanistan is on the right side of the river in the photos, and the villages are Afghan

Hitting the high way (Vlog)

August 8, 2017

The are two options to head east from Dushanbe: “North” via the actual Pamir Highway is the more direct route though the road condition is worse and it crosses a very high pass, or “South” via Kulob (splitting from the Pamir Highway at Vahdat and rejoining at Kailaikhum), which picks up following the Afghanistan border earlier and while 200km … More Hitting the high way (Vlog)

Delightful Dushanbe

August 8, 2017

Tajikistan celebrates 26 years of independence from the Soviet Union on 9th September. Perhaps best known for its civil war and economic collapse of the early 90s, it has come a long way since then, however it remains one of the poorest countries in the world There is a large population of Tajiks in northern Afghanistan and also … More Delightful Dushanbe

Why the Pamirs?

August 7, 2017

A key driver for this trip is our desire to traverse the Pamir mountains. With public transport infrequent hired drivers with 4WDs are the usual mode of travel. We depart Dushanbe with the driver we’ve found tomorrow for a 10 day Pamir adventure that will take us to Osh in Kyrgyzstan, via the Pamir Highway, with … More Why the Pamirs?

The long way to Dushanbe

August 5, 2017

You could safely conclude that the author of this blog entry is not the one who booked the flights. Despite the flights costing an arm, a leg and a kidney, it turned out our 4 flight journey to get from Wellington, NZ to Dushanbe, Tajikistan – via Auckland, Singapore and Dubai – also had a total … More The long way to Dushanbe

Farewell Iran

November 22, 2016

Our flight to Tehran was delayed by nearly 2 hours which meant we didn’t arrive at the hotel until nearly 10pm. It was cold and raining and as we drove it turned to light snow. An hour after we arrived everywhere was blanketed. The last day in Tehran was taken up by Marie doing some … More Farewell Iran

In the cradle of civilisation – Shiraz

November 20, 2016

We had Sadj drop us in an area of Shiraz where the guidebook showed there were a bunch of hotels to choose from. Being our last destination before returning to Tehran we wanted a reasonably decent room so we’d determined to take our time in assessing our options. Marie got left with the bags while … More In the cradle of civilisation – Shiraz

Mountains, canyons and kebabs

November 18, 2016

Our driver was 10 mins late but given he lives in a different town we let him have that. We found this out when after our breakfast stop at a very nice café in Shahr-E Kurd 90 minutes after we’d been collected when Sadj (our driver) took us to his house 200m down the road … More Mountains, canyons and kebabs

Living with the locals

November 16, 2016

Our ride to Yazd bus station arrived promptly. Iranians are very punctual, if not 5-10 mins early. We enjoyed the cool of the early morning once we’d found our bus. Passengers started to get grumpy when 9am came and we still hadn’t left (it was supposed to be an 8:30). A young woman who was … More Living with the locals

Marie & Emma's Travel Journal

Adventure begins when you leave the familiar behind

Author: Marie