14/11/17
Let's go a couple of days back. In a "hotel" in Murghab I met a portuguese dude João (http://www.joaoleitao.com) who travels for living with his wife and kid in a minivan made into a house on wheels (imagine having such a splendid childhood). The heating system in their car was broken so they were temporarily stopping in hotels.
At that time I didn't pay much attention to this encounter as I was preoccupied with my own woes and these kind of encounters are not that rare.
However, yesterday in Khorog I met these guys again, when I walked into an indian restaurant. Turned out, they came here by the same route I did, but a day later. Again, such situations not that rare, sometimes you meet same people in different countries, and we are in cramped Pamir mountains. João impressed me by having extensive travel experience (~130 countries) and knowing a bunch of different languages. We even agreed to go to Eshkashem together if our schedule matches, and then parted.
Half an hour later I met them at the same homestay I stay in.
Having solved my problems with cash and communication, this morning I went to Afghan Embassy to get a visa. After filling the form, I had to pay for it 150$ in a bank where they didn't accept nor my card, nor somoni for some reason. It must have been be paid in USD. I wasted a ton of time trying to acquire this sum in USD, for all the bullshit with ATMs was still in effect - it just can't be easy, can it?
While doing that I took a break in a coffee shop where I made acquaintance with a 60 years old man named Alisher. We happened to study in the same university in Tomsk and he seemed very excited about it.
Alisher was a banker and hearing about my complications with currencies promised to solve them. So we went to the bank, but in the end I had to resort to withdrawing 500 somoni from ATM 3 times and then converting it to USD, which was the worst case scenario. I don't even want to count my losses.
On the upside, Alisher introduced me to bank employees and a museum's director with whom we had lunch later.
With all the bank hussle I couldn't make it back to the embassy in time, they closed at 12. So I'll go tomorrow.
Now it is unclear when the visa will be ready, as the weekend looms ahead. Maybe I can convince them to issue it on Friday or I'll have to pay 50$ more for express issue.
It's important not only because I'm sick of bumming around Khorog, but also because of an Afghanistan-related conference in Dushanbe which I want to attend, that will take place on 20/11/17, according to Alisher.
It is still unclear, how it's all gonna play out, as the way to Dushanbe is around 14 hours of a bad road, but both the visa and the conference are important.
[Those mountains is the territory of Afghanistan]
P.S. The dried meat is officially saved, however now it smells like cognac a bit.