on March 9, 2009
All over in the Pamirs there are guesthouses, mostly run under the protection of MSDSP or META, which are local organisations supporting the development in the region. If I write "protection", then I mean that the hosts are protected through a price scheme, which is hanging in every guesthouse and which is very much transparent. Depending on your stay, you pay either only accommodation or in addition the meals you are given in the houses.
For 2007, prices are: 6, 8 or 10 USD/person/night in a homestay and 5 or 8 USD/person/night in a yurt. Breakfast: 1,50 USD/person; Lunch/Dinner: 2,25 USD/person.
MSDSP offices are in Khorog and in Murghab and they can help you finding a stay for the night.
It should be self-evident to leave a contribution for your stay. The actual fees for accommodation and food are given on META's website, which has been updated and shows the prices as of 2007.
In case, you are hiking and are offered shelter and meals by locals (be it in houses or in Kyrgyz yurts), it should be out of discussion that you also pay for this.
In this context, I would like to quote Robert Middleton, founder of the best website about the Pamirs - the famous Pamirs.org.
He just returned from the Pamirs (September 2007) and I saw his post on LP Thorn Tree
quote:
I have just returned from a trip to the Pamirs where I learned from some of my homestay contacts that a few travellers are not paying for hospitality received in Pamiri homes. The Pamiri people are modest and polite and are not yet used to the commercial side of eco-cultural tourism (this is one of the charms of the Pamirs as an 'undiscovered' destination) - not to pay for an overnight stay and meals offered is the moral equivalent of robbing the poorest of the poor. I hope no Thorntree participants are guilty of what might charitably be called a fundamental lack of consideration and, less charitably, theft. I have posted a note to this effect on the home page of www.pamirs.org.
unquote.
I join him and hope that none of the travellers on VT who have been, are or will travel along in the Pamirs, is guilty for this !
Thanks !
on August 25, 2002
on August 26, 2002
on November 26, 2008
on January 10, 2006
