I was confident that I could travel by hitchhiking alone, but an internal feeling told me that it would be better to travel as a pair, so I offered Vitya to join me. He agreed without much hesitation. It was his first trip abroad.
On that day, Vitya asked me to call him Richard instead of Vitya, although he didn't want to explain the reason. It was very strange and incomprehensible to me. A person hiding behind someone else's name and unable to explain the reason didn't inspire trust, and it was the first sign of concern for me.
Masha and Andrei were also considering warm countries in Asia, particularly starting with India. We began planning our trip that evening. First and foremost, we focused on the price of plane tickets, and the best price for a ticket to India was from Tashkent on October 30th. This meant we still had a whole month before the trip to India. Before purchasing the tickets, we needed to apply for visas and pay for them. Knowing the approximate date of departure, we decided to start submitting visa documents the next day.
If nobody minds, I would like to introduce you a little more closely to Masha and Andrei and also tell you how I met them.
In late August 2022, my colleague Anastasia and I flew to Kyrgyzstan for about a week to explore the nature and countryside of the country. In Bishkek, we rented an SUV for our mountain trip.
Since I didn't have a driver's license, Anastasia was behind the wheel throughout the entire vacation, so I suppose only my time off could be considered a full-fledged vacation. Well, I didn't have the time or the need to get a license. Sometimes, there's a certain advantage in that.
On the sixth day of our vacation, we reached the Barskoon Gorge, where we picked up a couple from Kazakhstan along the way. The Barskoon Gorge is one of the most beautiful mountainous places in Kyrgyzstan, with numerous stunning waterfalls. After Anastasia and I hiked to one of the waterfalls, she was already a bit tired and wanted to turn back. I didn't want to give up; I still had enough energy, and I planned to reach the remaining two waterfalls with their beautiful names: "Champagne Spray" and "Tears of the Snow Leopard."
I continued the ascent up the mountain. At first, it was relatively easy, with plenty of trails, but the higher I climbed, the steeper the incline became, the trails became scarce, and the solid ground gave way to loose soil. At some point, I veered off the correct trail and ended up on a less popular and riskier path leading upwards.