Caravanistan

We had planned to travel the silk road this summer - but my partner collapsed with HAPE (high altitude pulmonary odema) on the way to Xiahe (China) - so we had to come home. He's fine now - but obviously won't ever be travelling the Pamir Highway. I however still want to - I've been to 5000m before ...

I don't think the situation has changed in the last month - see the post above yours

Confirming that all hotels in Uzbek ask for payment in dollars. One place even had the government law on a piece of paper behind the reception just in case you tried to argue. We tried to pay (part of) the rate in som at two places. One used the same black market rate they had used to sell dollars ...

I definitely saw talk that it would include passengers - no evidence that its actually running though

Can anyone confirm that its possible to withdraw US$ in either Krygystan or Almaty? I have to make a decision on how much US$ cash we'll bring with us - and at the moment I'm leaning to topping up along the way. Do the ATMs only dispense $100's? Or smaller notes? Also I've heard rumours that Uzbecki...

So is it correct you need to pay accommodation in US$ or at the official rate - darn - that's going to blow the budget

So just to clarify - once you clear Chinese immigration - you are near the Karakoram or on it? I'm trying to work out the logistics of doing the reverse - Tashtorgan to Mugarb. We were going to do a travel agency tour from Kashgar to Tashtorgan anyways- so it sounds like they could drop us at immigr...

Oh this is interesting ... That opens up quite a lot of possibiliies - how high is the border?

Cool - we're give it a go - my only concern is that we'll going in late August - so it may be too hot to be wandering around the desert for too long

Thanks for this we leave in 4 weeks for Shanghai- and then overland to Istanbul on a similar route.