"GREETINGS FROM…" are short field notes. Friends of OLLI send us their impressions from their travels.
Pamir Highway, Tajikistan. Jana and Dominik are traveling in their Buchanka along one of Central Asia’s most spectacular high-altitude mountain roads. At over 4,600 meters, they experience the endless expanse of the Pamir, challenging roads, hardly any traffic—and a hospitality that will remain especially memorable to them.
Hi there! How are you?
We’re writing to you from the Roof of the World—the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan, one of the highest and most impressive roads we’ve ever driven on with our Buchanka. The road climbs to over 4,600 meters, past rugged peaks, deep valleys, and a vastness that you can only truly grasp when you’re right in the middle of it. No cell service, hardly any other vehicles—sometimes for hours on end, no one but us and the mountains—just us, our car, and this vast landscape that humbles us anew every day.
And then, as so often happens here: an encounter that changes everything. We ended up—more by chance than anything else—at the home of a man named Askar, who spontaneously invited us to spend the night on his property. What was meant to be a quick stop turned into an entire evening: We ate late into the night, shared stories, got to know his whole family, and were even allowed to tour his Pamir house—those typical, artfully designed homes where several generations live under one roof. It’s precisely this hospitality, which we experience time and again here, that makes this journey so special for us. People who have never seen us before share their food, their time, and their homes with us, just like that—without any ulterior motives, without expecting anything in return.
It is precisely these moments that remind us time and again why we chose this life. No luxury, no comfort in the world can compare to the feeling of sitting at the table with a family of strangers in the evening and sensing how quickly strangers can become friends.
💡 Did you know that the Pamir Highway is one of the highest international highways in the world? In Tajikistan, it runs through the Pamir Mountains as part of the M41 and reaches elevations of over 4,600 meters. Significant portions of the current route were developed by the Soviet Union in the 1930s—in part for military-strategic reasons, to better open up the remote Pamir region. For us, it has been one of the most impressive—but also one of the most challenging—sections of our entire journey so far—characterized by thin air, rugged roads, and a landscape unlike any other in the world.
For us, the best souvenir from here isn’t a trinket, but an attitude: that you can be so richly blessed with so little if you’re simply open to the people you meet. That’s exactly what we’re taking with us from here—more than any photo ever could.
Warm regards from the Pamir Highway
Dominik & Jana
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