Direct Bus Osh to Kashgar

[daftmovement]

Does anyone have experience taking the direct bus from Osh to Kashgar? Aside from cost differences, what can I expect from the direct bus vs. hacking together shared taxis, trucks, etc to cross to Kashgar?

[daftmovement]

Found out the hard way! According to the bus station attendants in Osh, the direct bus between Kashgar/Osh has been discontinued since China has put restrictions on issuing visas to Kyrgyz nationals. I would expect that it's also discontinued from the Kashgar side too, but can't confirm.

So the Wednesday I attempted to cross, they recommended I take a bus that departs from the Osh bazaar after 1 pm. I'm not quite sure if I found the right bus, but there was Marshrutka 398 located in the underpass area with all of the other marshrutkas. It departed a few hours past 1 pm when it filled up with people and provisions. It's roughly 4 hours to Sary Tash, Nura and Irkeshtam for 700 som.

The only place to stay in Irkeshtam is a super dingy hotel without running water for 200 som/night. It reeks of frying oil and is frequented by night owl truckers who have drunken conversations that continue late into the night. It at least has an outlet to charge your phone. The upside to staying in Irkeshtam is that you can be the first to cross the border to avoid the Beijing Time lunch. Being early works best if you have a quorum of foreigners (Uighurs don't count) to catch the 100 RMB/person taxi ride between the two Chinese borders. Then taxi ride from the Chinese border to Kashgar cost us about 70 RMB. Overall it took me 28 hours and plenty of patience to get from Osh to Kashgar.

[steven]

All updates re Irkeshtam transport are gathered at https://caravanistan.com/border-crossin ... shtam-pass