Due Diligence

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  Khorog, Tajikistan
Thursday, October 20, 2011

When travelling it pays to do some research on forms of transport available, costs and agreements that need to be made. In Murghab we were interested in getting to Khorog via the Wakhan Valley which runs parallel for most of the journey with the Afghanistan border, separated only by the Amu-Darya river. It also follows the Pamir Highway which is regarded as one of the world's great highways. We needed a 4WD for the trip that would take us 4 days and 500km. Awaking in the morning at our guesthouse we found a 4WD waiting there for us and willing to take us to Khorog. It seemed a little too good to be true but after a discussion with the driver and some translation into English through an 11 year old interpreter we decided that the offer was good enough for us. After the pain of having to wait for transport at the border, we decided that we should take what we could get even without doing the necessary due diligence and hunting around for a potentially cheaper ride.

The driver seemed friendly enough and we made what we thought was an agreement at a price that included accommodation, fuel and food along the way. As it turns out the agreement that we thought we had made with the driver was not what the driver understood. At our first lunch stop the driver indicated that we had to pay. We then knew something was wrong. That night we pulled up to his sister’s house, with no room for us there we found another guesthouse. Once again we were forced to pay. Rather than debate the agreement too forcibly then, we decided to wait until the end of the trip to have the argument over the agreement and would continue to pay for our food and accommodation. We realised that the driver was not who we thought he was initially. Before we left Murghab we picked up another traveler who was transporting his bike to Langar, our first night’s stop. We were happy to have him along and it turned out that he was from Melbourne and had aspirations of riding a horse across Central Asia! He suggested that the driver may have been drinking as there was a strong smell of alcohol on his breath. He was right but we decided that we were going to the Wakhan Valley and would have to monitor his drinking.

That night the driver got quite drunk and ended up getting physical with our fellow traveler who did not take too kindly to being pushed around. The only reason why was that the driver had driven 7km further than he wanted to and was demanding payment for the extra mileage. Our driver was also reluctant to take us to places that we wanted to see instead suggesting that we follow his advice on what we should see given that he know what tourists want to do. His idea of a tourist is a photographing money-making opportunity. The driver continually spoke down to Alex as if her Russian wasn’t good enough to understand him, however, his suddenly became quite fluent when speaking about how hard life was for him and how he needed money. We understood that life in these parts can be hard but when it is repeated and said only for the effect of making us feel guilty, we lost any sense of empathy we may have for him.

At the end of our 4 day trip through the Wakhan Valley, in Khorog, we offered to pay him an amount lower than what was agreed at the start given that we had not received what we thought we were getting. Alex argued hard but the driver would not budge. We ended up heading down to the police station to sort it out. In the end the police officer suggested that it was a private grievance and that we should sort it out between us. After another hour or so of arguing the driver agreed to our price and walked out. It left a bitter taste in our mouths that the trip would end this way as the Wakhan Valley provided some amazing scenery and experiences with the local people.

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