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Published: November 3rd 2017
TAJIKISTAN with the Tajik Outlaws...Part 1. I'm really excited..replaced my computer...download my Tajikistan pics...like opening gold wrapped chocolate...hoping the wrapping indicates something special...nothing worse than stale and wretched.
Cord...camera...USB...images like cards falling to the floor. Flashing...flipping...smiling...fist forming...yes...yes...yes.
Relief rolling down my face...memories flashing before me...warm feeling of pleasure as chocolate drips from my lips.
One of the most splendiferous road trips of the World...stunning landscapes...amazed by the people we meet.
Let the tales begin...and what an adventure it was.
*****
Shane The Travel Camel says he's leading a road trip through the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan in August 2017 and asks if we want to come...yeeka!
Denise says it took 5 minutes to decide...I say it took about 6.
Really bad time of year for work though...better contact Dangerous Dave & Merry Jo Binkley to see what they think.
And as it turned out they were extremely vulnerable too.
They were sitting in BB King's Club in Memphis, Tennessee listening to the band when Denise's text came through. Within seconds came their reply.
So we contacted Shane...that's "A BIG YES" from 4 of us..."Great...You'll be the Dancing
Car...you're in!"
T'was that easy to decide..now planning required...excitement to cement the ride!
******
But it's not easy getting to Tajikistan from Oz.
For a Sunday morning road trip start...options were leave Sydney Monday 6 am via Dubai 25 hours arrive Dushanbe 2:30 am Wednesday...Tuesday via Dubai 25 hours arrive 2:30 am Thursday but double the cost...Wednesday via 3 airports in Russia 53 hours...Thursday via 3 airports in China 44 hours...guess we leave Monday.
Met Shane at Dubai Airport at midnight as we are on the same Fly Dubai flight to Dushanbe.
You'd think as we had travelled together for "Mischief on the Mekong" in 2013 he'd have got us an upgrade to Business Class...but "NO"...only a hug and a chuckle from the Man in the Hat as he heads to his VIP upgrade and we to cattle class as usual.
Fly Dubai offers 5 minutes of free TV then you have to pay...movies if you pay...anything else except for a small cup of water...if you pay.
Easy decision...the monitor on the back of the seat in front is jammed...only three and a half hours to Dushanbe...Shane can live it up...sleep for
Statue of Ismoil Somoni
Hero of Tajikistan, Dushanbeus can't wait.
Hotel transfer by Mercedes Benz...like much Third World...Mercedes has a monopoly...too excited to sleep now!!!
******
Oi, Oi, Oi Everywhere we go we see him waving...at every corner...every village...there he is on posters and billboards waving...no wonder he's been in power since 1992...the President of Tajikistan...with a Presidential Palace that makes the White House look like a washroom...no wonder he's so popular...always waving.
We don't speak Tajik or Russian but that shouldn't be a problem...just be friendly is our motto.
So we go into a bankamat to change money...swear I heard someone say "Aussie Aussie" so I loudly call out "Oi Oi Oi"...lots laughing and milling around.
Denise can't understand why I said it...says she didn't hear anyone say "Aussie Aussie"...sure I heard it...was it you? But no one owns up so I dance out of there...quizzical smile on my face.
We follow directions to the History Museum...end up in a massive market buying cherries, apricots, peaches and kilos of fruit between portraits...no one having any idea where the museum is...guess that means we don't speak Tajik or Russian or so it seems.
One guy
says he's Taliban...so I take his photo.
He goes to his friends laughing and back slapping...hope being Taliban is a magnificent joke!
And as we walk back to the hotel I feel reassured.
There is the benevolent President...waving at us.
International Police T'was after dinner that I realised why we arrived 5 days before our road trip commences.
They need help from International Police.
I've used my skills in China ("Travels with my Xion Di...How it all began") and ("Java...Am I Police?") but in Tajikistan...well...they don't take to it so kindly.
We were leaving a Turkish Restaurant in a taxi when a gent decided to park his car inside the gate and block our exit.
The driver and the taxi driver got quite heated in Tajik...moved his car when I intervened...moved his car within an inch of our bumper.
Didn't believe I was International Police...didn't believe my Travelblog card was International Police I.D. either!!!
Let's just say after three interventions by me, Denise was relieved when we got out of there.
Museums, Musical Instruments and the people we meet "Hello"..."Hello" back...looking up from
her laptop at breakfast.
"Where are you from?"..."Germany".
And that's how I met Dagmar Schreiber...just back in Dushanbe from leading a group through the Pamirs.
And no one knows the Pamirs like Dagmar...written a number of guide books on Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan...in German.
Chatted to her for two hours...like wandering high in the Pamirs...while in my chair on a magic carpet ride...eating Tajik melon and other delights.
Next day she introduces me to a guy who has travelled to meet me...thinks I arrange music festivals...yeeka!
Travel is wonderful...the people we meet.
The Museum of Ethnology with costumes, jewellery and finery from the early 20th century displaying Tajik culture in various regions that were elaborate and grand.
Oh for the good old days...pre-Soviet no doubt.
Impresses how in only 100 years the fortune of this now poor post-Soviet republic has changed.
Then next door a building of massive white columns and an elaborately carved door...the Museum of Antiquities.
Tagged onto a group poring over a map...then the group disbanded and we were left with the guide.
And that is how we met Hadicha, a learned Tajik
economist...leading us through the ages of NW & SW Neolithic archaeological sites, an intricate ivory scabbard with a lion and a deer from 5-6th Century BC, the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism and its symbols, Persian & Greek influences and the largest sleeping Buddha...12.5 metres long and 5.5 tonnes...simply wonderful.
Sometimes we meet a guide in a museum who is overqualified and shows us around because he or she has a passion to share knowledge...we walking out of there enthused and hopefully wiser.
Time to dance...time to find some Tajik music...try the Gurminj Musical Instruments Museum...a house filled with the stringed instruments of Central Asia.
I could hear the exotic sounds in my head but no one available to play them, the founder's granddaughter said...so she offered us watermelon and we sat down and fed.
A group of three wandered in also looking for some music...so we chatted as you do.
They had just come from a 3 day music festival at Khorag...giving me contacts when we arrive in those parts.
Then one talks of Tinarawen, of Habib Koite...yep "been to the Festival au Desert in Timbuktu, Mali and seen them," I say.
"Also been to the late Ali Farka Toure's home in Niafunke and had tea with his second wife."
"What about Mariam Hassan?" he says.
"She's from Western Sahara," I say..."La Tumchi Anni is one of my favourite African Blues tracks."
Soon he's telling me about Geoffrey Oryema "from Kenya".
"He's from Uganda," I say.
Soon he's smiling and shaking his head, "I didn't think I'd meet anyone who knew more about West African music than me."
And that's how we met Conor Ashleigh, an Aussie visual storyteller and photo journalist who works with charities and refugees, his Iranian wife Mariem and their friend Clare an advocate for the rights of children.
And after a meeting like that they invited us to dinner at a Ukrainian restaurant...so we brought The Travel Camel to join us for that.
Chatting with Conor over vodka and human rights issues...rescued by Clare's partner Lachlan who wanted to discuss World Music.
And that's how I met Lachlan Dale, a Sydney musician and record label owner who was recording the Tajik musicians he had and would meet.
Chatted to the early hours of the morning as
if we had known each other most of our lives.
Travel is wonderful...the people we meet.
******
The Tajik Outlaws, Hisor Fortress and two white weddings Days pass...Shane busy planning...Denise and I now locals...Dave & Merry Jo arriving early Saturday...so excited in fact they missed a sleep and met us for breakfast.
Two and a half years since we were Blues cruising the Caribbean together...now we are known as the Tajik Outlaws...better watch out Al Qaeda!
Minimal time before we leave first thing Sunday... so book a car to the castle our Filipino friend (travelled 150 countries) had told us about.
Parked in a carpark with a couple of mosques...sometimes toilet stops more important than scenery.
A boy pops out and blows a massive horn at me...then disappears with the probiscus of the horn much taller than him.
So as is my way...I followed him.
A gang of men and boys with long horns and drums...awaiting something.
Cars come...crowd gathering...resplendent bride emerging...head bowed behind her veil...bridesmaid as if worrying...groom in blue and groomsman grinning...horns blaring...drums a drumming...men and women dancing...photographers weaving in and out...bride head down...groom and
entourage grinning...a sea of nuptuals floating us by.
Then another bridal party rolls up...the band rising to greet the new occasion...groom proud as punch...bride in ivory and white fit for a queen.
Ushered back into the Merc and driving out of there...past fields...rural road.
Ping...brain engaged...something amiss.
Our Filipino friend said she went inside the castle...where's the castle?
"Oh...we have just been there!"
So we turned around and drove back there...past wedding parties under trees eating ice creams with cool drinks...its not just us that feel the oppressive heat.
And there it was...a walled palace...a Tajik castle maybe...Hisor Fortress restored to its former glory...the reason we came here...gates open in welcome to us.
Man oh man...what a place...let the pictures tell the story...magnifique!
My teapot is spilling over...giving tastes of why we came here.
Tomorrow we follow the northern border of Afghanistan...excitement building.
What have I eaten? Yet another toilet stop.
Hold on there...please...please wait.
Relax & Enjoy,
Dancing Dave
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Julie Manley
non-member comment
Tea and silk
It looks beautiful.