Blogs from Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Asia - page 2

Here we are, my last leg of my little Central Asia adventure. I know I'm already two months behind on my blogging....and yet, this is not the last blog for this summer! Sadly, I'm running short on available time. So my discovery of Tajikistan will be limited to the capital Dushanbe. Most tourists making their way to Dushanbe will do to ride the Pamir Highway. This is the highest highway in the world, opening the way to the great West of China. So this will be another trip for me, for another year.... Tajikistan have just started a month before my visit an online visa. So I was not going to wait the airport to make sure I had the visa. Job done. I'm flying in one more time with Air Astana, this time from Almaty. ... read more

Geo: 38.5654, 68.77580615Up and pottering: The bright morning sun rose at about 0445 and is already "opening and enlivening" the day by casting it's golden hue across the lush green cityscape and surrounding foothills . From our "perch' on the 6th Floor I can see some quite well appointed apartment blocks interspersed with neo classical style Russian buildings from the "Colonia era" which ended som 23 years ago on the collapse of The Soviet Union. Formerly called Starlinagrad this is a laid back City and is only 75km from the Afghan border and within a day or two's drive from Pakistan, Uzbekestan and China. The Group: There are 8 of us: 5 women and 3 men......all experienced Travellers..........and naturally treading carefully with each other at this early stage........well not so carefully to be frank.....last night we ... read more

Day 76 Sunday 3rd April 2016 – Osh to Khujand (Tajikistan) Both excited and anxious about moving to another country today, the transferring should be easy it is what lies ahead that has us slightly worried. Tajikistan wasn’t initially on our plan but when we discovered it was safe and easy to do we slotted it in. Our plan had us travelling down the Pamir Highway and Wakhan Valley but stupid me didn’t pay full attention to the fine print regarding weather. We shifted our departure date a few times and as Tajik wasn’t the priority I lost sight of the significance that the Pamir is really only accessible from July to September. If it is a good spring you can do it in May but at the moment the latest word we have ... read more

We made it! Final destination Tajikistan. No more borders! We arrived in Samarkand around midday with the hope of seeing all of the sights in a day so we could catch up with lost time earlie and leave for Tajik the next day. Despite the intense heat, we managed just that and had a very busy afternoon. We learned all about the history of Uzbekistans rulers, the good and the not so good, and visited all of their long standing monuments/mosques/medressas. Topped with a bustling bazaar it was a great experience. We had an evening meal at a fancy place called "Platan" and just about scraped enough money to pay for it after realising we had each not brought out as much money as we thought we had. Easily done when you take a big wodge ... read more

On The Tajiks Culture Life in Tajikistan appear to be stress free. Faces on the streets are calm and I have yet to see someone looking distrusted or angry. In an interesting way I feel this people somehow are closer to my roots as a ‘Persian.’ The culture feel like Persian here; not an Iranian; a very strange feeling. Tajiks’ religiosity is Moslem مسلم without being Islamist or Evangelist. Government of Tajikistan is pushing to remove the mosques to outside of city limits by refusing to renew their land lease. It is a respectable way of exercising your religion without having to push it down people's throat with advertising or religious banners and propagandas all over the town, like we see in Iran. Walking kilometers everyday around here, I have not seen any mosques or heard ... read more