Khudoguy

Overall, the experience was ok. A list of pros and cons:

Cons:

1. the driver was unable to speak a single word of English. We were told that might not be possible to have a driver with English skills, but at least would have a basic. That basic skills didn't really exist, so sometimes it made the experience a bit hard. For the price we pay we really would expect a minimum of English skills.

2. Sometimes the driving was a bit too fast (for western standards of safety). But this will be on Pros too, because considering the roads and how people seem to drive in Tajikistan, the driving was ok and the driver seemed skilled.

3. Poor meals choice or no choice. Harder too because we couldn't communicate with anyone (no English at all).

4. Last day in Artouch was a bit pointless, we had 1h there only. Was mostly time driving to get there and to get out of there, and didn't seemed planned at all Artouch (the driver haven't ever been there for instance, so have no idea)

Cons:

1. Overall the plan was good. With the exception of Artouch, things made sense to us. Sarytog and Seven Lakes were the highlight.

2. In the difficult mountain roads, the driver seemed experienced and capable, and that was surely a plus.

3. Before we get to Tajikistan, Khudoguy was always able to reply our questions. Is brother was in the airport to receive us (and he did spoke English) and seemed a nice guy.

Great trip with genuine Pamir driver (English-speaking).

The team was very knowledgeable and responsive. They tailored a trip for me in the last minute as I contacted them only 2 days before the beginning of the trip.

They also helped arrange everything on the Afghan side.

Highly recommended.

After my review & after I had been in contact with the co-funder of Indy-guide, Khudoguy admitted that he might had done a misstake & said he was willing to pay back 25 % of the money as I had asked for. Now we thought that he was being a good guy again. So should we get 25 % back of the whole amount for our 2 trips or should we get 25 % back from our 2-day trip to the Pamirs?, neither. Khudoguy being Khudohuy paid back 25 % out of 85 % for our 2-day trip to the Pamirs. He "forgot" about those 15 % we had paid in advance. Now we were just so tired of him so we just agreed to get those 195.5 dollars back. Told him to just leave the money in our hotels reception. It didnt end there. He mailed & said that according to Tajikistan law the people in the reception cant recieve dollars to keep for us. I asked the people in the reception & they just laughed & said that its a lie of course & they are happy to receive the money for us . I mailed Khudoguy & told him his. Now he said ok & should leave the money in the reception for us. Well if you think its over its not, he comes to the hotel & made me come down & give him 4.5 dollars as change for his 200 dollars. Its just sad everything. Im writing this reviews so honest because I dont want any older people that dont have the energy to end up in situations like we did here. Like we said before, we were really happy with the driver we had during both our trips. He drove safe & secure at all times. We loved Tajikistan. We loved the friendly people that we met. We loved the beautiful views. Khudoguy could be in an early phase of his work & he just needs to improve in his communication & become more service-minded. I still recommend using Indy-guide & thats mainly beacuse of the proffesional communication with the co-founder Ati.

We booked 2 trips with Khudoguy. One was a 2-day trip to Pamir & the other one was a day trip to Iskanderkul. Both trips should include driver, guide, food etc. We had paid 15 % in advance for both our trips. So far so good. The driver picked us up as scheduled & we drove to Kalai Khum. Beautiful views all the way. In Kalai Khum we ate the worst plate of food ever in all of my life. While eating we were told that the road we were supposed to take back to Dushanbe the next day was closed due to the bad weather. Well those things can happen but here I talked to Khudoguy for the first time (On the phone). I had booked him as a guide but he never showed up & on the phone he said that we should be happy that he did not charge us extra because now when the driver has to drive us back the exact way we come from they would spend more money on gas than they would have done the way that was closed. Are you fucking kidding me! We had paid for a 2-day trip that should take us up to Kalai Khum one way & down to Dushanbe via another mountain way. We were the ones losing on this deal, not him. Obviously Khudoguy knew beforehand that the road was closed & firstly told us about it when we were in Kalai Khum. He should have told us they day before & given us the option to cancel the trip of course. Well the next day went smooth & the driver took a different road the last bit into Dushanbe to make us happy. The day trip to Iskanderkul went well. A flat tire but it was fixed without any problems. Overall: Khudoguy the guide we had booked for 3 days never showed up at all. Very strange. The driver: The driver turned out to be Khudoguys younger brother. He must be the best driver in all of Tajikiststan. He was driving very secure & smooth in very bad conditions, heavy rain & a fog insanely thick for 10 hours straight one of the days. My advice: Just book Khudouguys brother as a driver & nothing else. Dont book Khudoguy as a guide because he will apparently not show up.

We were met upon arrival in Dushanbe airport by him and his brother. Everything went smooth. We had a great 7 days using their proposed route. Most of the stays are in relatively comfortable homestays. I will recommend him positively to other people who have the interest to travel to Tajikistan.