Laalmo Home Stay at the Pamirs

When we arrived at Khorog at 5 am after our loong, grueling road trip, we just could not wait to get to bed. We had emailed and talked on the phone with Pamir Lodge, and they said they would have places for us. However, in that early morning they told us that there is only one big room available (we needed three), but there was a home stay very close that had rooms. I did not feel like going somewhere else, but what could we do. The Laalmo Home Stay really is just a stone throw away.

It is quite common to find home stays in the Pamirs. People have decided to open their homes for travelers, so during the busy months between May and October they might even be all full.

Laalmo Home Stay is run by a very friendly and hospitable couple. Their three kids are all big and have left the home, so now they rent three bedrooms and, if needed, their big guest room.

In case of our group it was needed.

Here we are eating a good, hearty breakfast in the main room. We sat on the Central Asian mattresses, and had our breakfast set on a tablecloth on the floor. Breakfast is home made bread (scrumptious), butter, two different kind of jams, tea and sugar and your choice of either cream-of-wheat or eggs. We chose cream-of-wheat, 'manna' porridge, because it is a convenient way to fill the tummies of our kids. And it was really, really tasty. I am not a big manna-porridge eater myself. I might take a bite when I cook it for my kids, but I am not a fan. However, at Laalmo, it was really yummy and tasty...I think she added sugar in the porridge!

You can also order home made dinner, but we were too attracted to Delhi Darbar Indian Restaurant in town!

The main room is where we sat and talked and planned our little trips, ate our meals, where our kids played card games, where you can watch TV with a cat curled in your lap, and get to know other travelers who are staying there.

The owners told us that sometimes the place is so full that the main room is full of mattresses and the yard is full of tents. Luckily not this time!

This is our room. Bed is on the floor, and there is some furniture, depending on the room.

The owner has build the house himself, and we really liked the rustic feel of the boards in the ceiling.

Cute little light bulb. The electricity in the Pamirs is good. It apparently never goes out, unlike in other parts of the country. It is because they have their own hydro electric station.

Laalmo also has an indoor, western style toilet and plenty of hot water in the shower! A big plus in this part of the world!

We were talking about this. In US, for example, a Bed and Breakfast can charge a loot of money per night if there is a private bathroom with the room. Here we were just rejoicing that we could have a sitty potty to share with everyone!

The flower garden was really pretty! It really adds a nice touch to the place.

The home stay is right next to a school. Our kids had fun playing with a ball in the court yard.

She will hate me for publishing this picture here. Well, I think the cute red stockings feature her beautiful legs really well!

Oh the things we do to our children!

Visiting hot springs Garm Chashma and little hike

Garm Chashma mineral rich water makes funny formations. It looks like something from alien movies. And in a way, it was. More about the hot spring bath after our hike...

When we arrived to Khorog we had no specific plans in our travel itinerary. Years of life in Central Asia have taught us that plans will change million times and flexibility is a virtue. So we were very flexible and just plain happy to be alive after our monstrous 24 hours road travel.

But we knew of some hot springs up in the Pamirs and were quite interested. We decided to visit Garm Chashma and at the same trip hike a bit in the mountains. Our wonderful host family advised us where to get taxis. The place is about 46 km south of Khorog in the Wakhan Valley. Marco Polo traveled the valley AD 1274 (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tajikistan/the-pamirs/the-wakhan-valley). As we had million kids with us, half of us sick and tired, the "hike" was a very small walk through a village and up a hill.

Actually traveling with children should be honored in its own post, but let me just say that they can have some hilarious comments. We were praying for our trip in the car and in the middle of "Andy's" mom's prayer my son said loudly "I will marry Andy". His mom stopped the prayer and laughing quietly said "Hopefully not" to me.

As you can see, the mighty 10 minute walk on a village road has done it to my 4-year old.

There was a very pretty brook.
This is a good little bridge.

We decided to stop here, where the views were great, for a picnic.

Would have been great to visit the snow topped mountains, too!

Children playing with water.

Men planning conquering the mountains.

Family picture, again.
Boys decided to dam the stream.

Important part of the picnic: the food. We had ordered a shop to boil some eggs for us the night before, and we just picked them up in the morning. The price was the same as fresh eggs. Central Asia is nice and hospitable in things like this. Then we had Russian sausage and cheese plus some tomatoes and green peppers to eat with Central Asian bread, non.

Suddenly I got hungry.

This is a funny little cave I saw on the road. Looks really spooky, actually. We did not visit it.

Guess what? The hot spring is near! You can smell it! The water has sulfur in it and it smells like...sulfur. The formations look like giant monster tentacles to me.

It was ladies time to bathe in the outside pool and we headed up a little hill to find this pool behind a wall. There were some local women bathing there. And they did not wear swimming suits. But do not fear, we did. We, the brave, Northern, Finnish people who spend all our lives going to sauna naked carefully covered ourselves. Somehow swimming outside in a hot spring in our birth suits did not feel comfortable. But local ladies were very comfortable and even commented on our swimming suits. 'You don't need to wear one!' 'Oh, yes, I need to!'.

The views were quite something. I mean, look at the water! It is basically steaming! And it was HOT!

The water was flowing down from the top. The pool water was really warm, but you could still swim in it. I read somewhere that the pool water is +38- +50 degrees Celsius. Wow.

THIS water is HOT!

We turned nice and pink after soaking in it for awhile.

The pool water was nice milky colored. There was white mineral clay that the women were getting from the walls and rubbing it in their skin. It is believed to have curative characteristics.

After this we felt ready to go home and sleep. But there was the ride home. Even though the kilometers were only 46 something, it took couple of hours in the car. The roads are not very good.

I was fascinated by the Afghan side of the river. Those little paths up there are the main roads!

We saw people and villages and it is such a different world out there. A stone throw away.

But Garm Chashma is a place worth visiting, if you happen to be on that side of the world!

Khorog - a town in Pamir mountains

I have so many pictures from our trip! I want to share more about our home stay, but it needs to wait for its own post. But here are some pictures from the town of Khorog, the new park and Botanical gardens.

Khorog is a peaceful town of about 27000 inhabitants. Like everywhere in Central Asia, animals roam free also in the towns. This couple is going shopping.

We walked to the town centre.

Kids were energetic and we took lots of video. For grandparents!

This is a new town park. It is really nice. Real lawn!!! Big trees, and fun things for children to do.

The park is built by Aga Khan foundation.

It has lovely amount of room to run and play, even a little pond to swim in.

Missy is posing.

Then we took a minibus to the Botanical Garden. The entrance fee for foreigners is 3 $. The minibus took us all the way to the garden (usually you have to walk the last 0,5 km, but maybe the driver felt sorry for the million kids we had with us. )

The views were great, this is towards the town.

Pretty flowers and lots of fruit trees.

We found fallen pears and took some...little sour but a nice snack.

Apples look gorgeous! And so does the fruit.

Khorog

This is the second highest botanical garden in the world. I do not know where the highest is.

Busy little bee.

A gardener came to greet us and showed us more fruit trees. He really encouraged us to freely take the fallen fruit, but we just took some to eat right there and then.

Little rest time in the orchard.

Family picture!

We had one or two colder nights, and the result was beautiful snow topped mountains around us!