Where 4 Countries Meet: Afghanistan’s SECRET Border 🇨🇳🇦🇫🇹🇯🇵🇰 I S3, EP24

I'll take you with me back home. Good morning everyone. Welcome back and welcome to season 3 So Crowded Overland. So in summer we started in Xi'an and now in autumn we reached Wahan Corridor. And right now I am in Tajikistan and in front of me that's Wahan Corridor. It's a very important passage on the Asian Silk Road. A place where Marco Polo and also famous monk Xuanzang had traveled. But actually that river is a borderline between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. And the Afghani Wahan Corridor is a very long stripe in between Pakistan and Tajikistan. And that mountain is called Hindu Kush. It's on average I think it's more than 5000 meters. It links the Pamir with the Himalaya. And we are almost at the narrowest point of the Wahan Corridor. It's about 13 kilometers and behind it it's already Pakistan. So Wahan Corridor is one of the world's most distinctive borderlands. This Afghani land is like a finger. This border separates Tajikistan and Pakistan as a result of the Great Gain. As a buffer zone between British Empire in the south and the Russian Empire in the north. At its eastern end Afghanistan also shares a border with China. But due to the instability in Afghanistan and the extreme terrain this border remains silent. No road, no trade and no travelers crossing. And today those two powers still influence those regions. So here in Tajikistan in school the foreign language taught is Russian and English. Whereas on the other side in Pakistan it's English that is the main foreign language. Most of the houses here are box-like and only one floor. They have beds and they can sit outside. It's the last fifth year. And this is our room. Oh a kid. So this is the living room. There are actually three. No this also counts. And this is a bedroom. There are three bedrooms. One bedroom and also the living room you know. And all the blankets are there. So when the guests arrive they can sit around and also sleep here. And there is another living room. Again it's all covered with carpet. And there is another bedroom or living room that we stayed yesterday. Hello. And here people tend to live with the big families. So three generations they live in the same house. The kid, the grandkid, parents and then grandparents. Let's go. Today we'll be visiting the Wahan Corridor from the Tajik side. And this morning firstly we're going to drive to a hot spring called Bibi Fontina. It's about 4 km away. And on the way there, there is a fortress. And the hot spring is said to have some healing power. During the Silk Road era, Wahan Corridor connected Bagchia with the Tarim Basin. Marco Polo walked through here, calling it Wahan, the high plain of Pamir. He described it as pure and housekeeping. A place where people would go into the mountains for a few days to recover from illness. In the valley there are some hot springs and perhaps that's the secret of healing that Marco Polo never mentioned. Tajik truck from Geneva. Or from Lake Geneva at least. It's the last week here. Where are you from? China. Welcome, welcome. Thanks. Don't speak. And you speak Pamir? Tajik? No, no, no. Pamir. Ah, yes. Thanks. The hot spring is just in the canyon. Wow, the spring sound is loud. Here? Women. Women? Men. And I heard the spring here has a health benefit. So it has a healing effect, especially for the women. And if you go and take a bath naked, it's very good for the fertility. The water here is surprisingly quite hot. It's about 40 degrees and after days of motorbiking on dirt road, this is a high stress. Not far from the hot spring stands Yongchun Fortress, once part of the Kushan Empire, a remarkable connector on the Silk Road. Its control over long stretches of the Silk Road once brought the empire considerable revenue and power. The Kushan Empire was a true crossroads of ancient world. Its rulers descended from the Yuezhi, who migrated west from today's northwestern China, built a state that fuels Hellenistic, Persian Central Asian, and Indian traditions. Under their patronage, Buddhism spread far beyond its root, becoming a trans-Asia tradition. Although the Wuhan today is entirely Islamic, traces of that Buddhist past can still be found. We're not able to drive up, but up there on that mountain, that's the stupa, which is the evidence of the spread of the Buddhism along the ancient Silk Road. So before Islam came, and Buddhism was quite popular in Central Asia, it was spread from India along the Silk Road to this part of the world. And then after that, Islam came and Buddhism was eradicated. After leaving the mountains, we followed the Pangt River, the line that separates Tajikistan from Afghanistan. We sometimes saw Tajik soldiers, but otherwise, the riverbank felt wild. No fences, no cameras, only shrubs and fast water. But also I read that Tajikistan and Afghanistan border is the most porous one. There's lots of, for example, drug trafficking. In Bangladesh and Afghanistan, so perhaps at night, some people cross the river secretly. I guess that's why also there are so many soldiers patrolling along this highway. You can see that on the riverbank, there are even beaches. Although I'm wearing a helmet, there is so much sand in my mouth now. Continuing eastward, we reached Langa after dark, the end point of the Tajik Wahan. One thing that we haven't talked about is that, as a matter of fact, we have been sick our entire trip through the Pamir Highway. Yeah, so first I got a cold and then with the altitude, it didn't get better, so I had a terrible throat ache. And then the throat ache went away, I got a food poisoning. Yeah, and a very terrible diarrhea. Oh yeah, that was really not cool. And for me, I was a little bit better in the beginning, but then I got a very bad headache as we climbed. And now I'm having a, I don't know, whatever, I think it's a cold. Every one minute I have to do this and my nose is so jammed and it feels so painful here. And another thing is about motorbike riding. Oh yeah, so I don't know, the mattress last night, so now I'm back healthy again more or less. But the mattress last night was so uncomfortable that my butt hurts. And it hurts actually quite a lot, so whenever I sit, I cannot really sit, I can just lie on the side. When riding motorbike, it's really uncomfortable. I also got this actually while riding, I got a very stiff shoulder, and you too. So while we were riding together, while I was sitting in the back, I was always giving him a massage on the shoulder while he was riding. So yeah, just some fun stories of our trip. So actually now I'm also looking forward to Dushanbe. Yeah, get some rest. Some rest, to have some city life. During the Soviet time, you studied Russian and Deutsch. Russian and Deutsch, now English and Deutsch. And English and Russian. Have you been to Afghanistan? Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, now Islamic. But they are, so you are Pamir, Pamir people. Is Pamir only one people, you speak one language, or other Pamir? Pamir is very many languages. Pamir is Shughnan language, Russian language, Yazgulam language, Shughnan language, Kyrgyz language, Tajik language, Wakhan language, Ishkashim language. We have Wakhan language. Okay, so you are Wakhis. In Ishkashim too, here is Wakhan language. Ishkashim to Kharag is Tajik language. Kharag is Shughnan language. Kharag is Shughnan language, so you are Wakhi Pamir. Yeah, we are Wakhi. In Afghanistan is Wakhi. Also Wakhi. Wakhi. In Pakistan, Gilgit, Muzaffar, is Wakhi. Also Wakhi. In China is Wakhi. Yeah, some Wakhi. Very many people in country, in Badakhshan people, is Wakhan language. In China is Sarikhol, Khushgal. Yes, Sarikhol. Are there Sarikhol in here? No, Sarikhol is in China. Is only in China? Yeah. Wow. I was genuinely surprised that this elderly gentleman had never been to Pakistan or China. Yet, he could list the Pamir groups from both sides of the border with such precision. He even knows that in Tashkorgan, on the Chinese Pamirs, the main communities are Sarikholi and Wakhi, even though both are officially classified as Tajik in China. If you want to know that part of China, you can check out my three previous videos. The Chinese Pamir remains one of the most remote and little-known corners of China and lies just not far from here. Are you from China? Yes. Very good. Neighbour of the mountain is China. Yes. Last year I was in Tashkorgan, Wakhan Corridor. Tajikistan is this planning. There is Rome, go to Afghanistan. After Afghanistan, go to Pakistan. Pakistan, China. Pakistan in China, Karakoram Shashi. Yes, Karakoram. After Karakoram Shashi, go China, go Pakistan, go India. Yes. Go Afghanistan. Yeah, Afghanistan. In winter? Winter there is cold. Cold. Snow is little. Winter, cold winter. Okay. Go to sun, go to sun is good. But cold. Nice cold. Do you have animals? Do you have sheep? How many sheep do you have? I have 20 sheep. 20? 20 sheep. Four cows. Four cows, where are they? Here. Here? Yes, here. They go to mountain in evening coming. And coming back. Today I go, tomorrow my neighbor go, after tomorrow neighbor, neighbor, neighbor. Ah, okay. So you take turns. Is Taliban presence here, is it strong? Like is there a lot of Taliban in Wakhan? Okay. This is politics. Politics, politics. Before Taliban, can they come here? No, no. Also need a visa? No, no. No come, okay. No come. Hi. Good evening. What is your name? Thank you. What is your name? Tanya. She wants to give you the red. Mostly like Sunni, Shia. Shia. Shia mostly. Ismaili. Ismaili is Aga Khan. Aga Khan. And Taliban is Sunni, right? Taliban Sunni, Sunni. Sunni. And Ismaili? We know his problem, who is China, who is America, who is Germany, all these people. And women? No. No, no, no. No Boca? No, no. Village, all is, no. More liberal? No, no, no. We no like. And it's called Ismaili? Ismaili. It's only in... In Tajikistan Ismaili live in Pamir. Only in Pamir. Also Pakistan. In Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Ismaili. So it's basically the Pamiri region. We stayed in this guest house yesterday. Homestay, Jodhka. I hope we can come back again. Bye-bye. Bye-bye, bye-bye. Bye-bye. I take you, take you with me back home. I see you go right. Huh? Afghanistan. I see your hand, I think you go right. Ah, no, no, no. Just want to look at the... We want to see the border. Border, Afghanistan. Yes. Can we go there? Bridge. Is it open? Open? Closed? Only Ishkashim open. Ishkashim open. Closed. Ah, closed. Wow. Crazy. I'm German. And you? Kitaya. Muslim. And you Tajikistan? Yes. You're from here? From Langar? No. No, no, no. I work here. You work here? Yes. And your house? Your dom? Where? There. Okay. Is it here? Yeah, here. Okay, wow. Children. Children? Children. And wife also here? Yes. Nice. And next year open? I don't know. Ah, you don't know yet. Welcome to Tajikistan. Tajikistan, bye-bye. Can go up? Right? This way? Can go. In the place. Ah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. This one. Okay, okay. Have a good life. Thank you. Thanks. Spasiba. That's a border crossing, but apparently it has to be closed for some days. There are two rivers that form the Panj River, which is one, the Pamir River that builds the border with Afghanistan here, and the Wakhan River, which is over there, which goes into the Wakhan Corridor, and which is basically also the main lifeline of the Wakhan Corridor, because in there that's the only place where you can find villages. And then those two come together and result into the Panj River, which builds the majority borderline between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, where we drove along all the past days. This is a Laga border crossing, so that river is the borderline. And those greenhouses, they are all Tajikistan, and the other side, that's Afghanistan. Currently it's closed, but perhaps in the coming years, it will reopen, and over there on the mountain, there's a dirt road, a very bad road going up, going further, so those are the Wakhan Corridor, Afghani Wakhan Corridor. Unfortunately, with the Chinese passport, I cannot cross into Afghanistan by land. I can only fly in and fly out, otherwise, I would really like to cross the border from Ishkashim and visit Afghanistan. So the most fascinating part about this region is actually how ethnically diverse it is. So when we were in Murghab, two, three hundred kilometers away from here, people are still very much Kyrgyz. Eighty percent of the population of Murghab is Kyrgyz. They wear the Kyrgyz hat, they speak Kyrgyz, their culture is Kyrgyz, and over there on the Wakhan Corridor, there's also a huge amount of Kyrgyz-speaking people. Whereas here, it changes. Here it's more Wakhi, here it's more Tajik-influenced, it's more Persian-influenced, and some people even say here it's the offspring of Alexander the Great, who made it until here, and Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan, like northeastern Tajikistan, is the influence of Genghis Khan. That's why these two people kind of meet here in the Wakhan Corridor. And that makes it very ethnically diverse. Every village here speaks another language. They speak Ishkashimi, which is another dialect. On the other side of the border, they speak Wakhi, which is the most prevalent language in the Wakhan Corridor, along with Kyrgyz. And even on the Pakistani side, they speak Wakhi as well. And other languages, like Burushaski, small, isolated tribal languages. So I really hope that maybe next year, we can cross this border over to Afghanistan, and maybe even further, to the Hunza Valley in Pakistan. The Ishkashimi border crossing is currently closed, but the Afghan market used to be just in the middle of the river over there, after crossing one, two bridges over there. So tourists used to be able to visit the market as well, they just need to give the passport to the soldiers at the border crossing, and then meet the Afghan traders in the middle of the river. But ever since this summer, I think it's closed to tourists as well, for, I don't know, whatever reason. And after visiting the Wakhan Corridor from the Tajikistan side, we really hope that next year, maybe we can visit the Pamir on the other side, in Pakistan, and also in Afghanistan. And today, we're going further, back to Khorog, and we hope you enjoyed this video. Thanks for watching, and bye-bye! Bye-bye!