The Five Stans of the Silk Road - Tajikistan - 2019
30th July 2019 - Cross into Tajikistan; on to Dushanbe
Today I was supposeed to go into Tajikistan. I didn't go to plan. We started out early and drove straight up to the border arrived around 11am. We all left Uzbekistan and walked across to Tajikistan immigration. One by one people got through but it came to my turn, I handed over my passport and visa letter and waited. One minute, two minutes, three minutes, then the immigration guy got up and walked out the back with my passport and visa letter. Everyone else went through and they took me into the office. We their very little English I gathered that they didn't have my visa on their computer and therefore I wasn't going into Tajikistan.
I told them I was with a group and they let me, accompanied by a guard and leaving my bags behind, go through to see them. Now this is where being on an organised trip is a big, big plus; if I was on my own I would've had no chance. Our Tajikistan fixer came back with me to immigration. Lots of talking and me waiting around and they found the problem and it was my fault. A stupid schoolboy error. I'd entered my passport number wrongly on my application. For the second time in a year (sorry Mum) I'd transposed two characters. Our fixer said there is a way around this but it would cost me around $100 and would probably take an hour. I said OK, he made some calls, he got me a taxi driver for when I was done and he and the group headed on to Dushanbe.
I sat for an hour outside but in the shade in the 42 degree heat for an hour then the fixer called the driver to say it was sorted. I went back in, got the stamp, shock the guard's hand, he said "Welcome to our country" and I was on my way and the taxi driver drove me to Dushanbe to catch up with the group. Note to self don't just check and recheck, check again.
Dushanbe looks much more like a European city than anywhere we've been so far. Trams, big squares, solid Eastern European looking buildings and most of all it feels like a working city. We walked through one of the parks down towards tallest free-standing flagpole in the world. along to way were lots of sculptures and fountains. Here's the flag through one of the sculptures. Believe me the flag pole is tall, 165 metres high and the flag 30 m × 60 m.
Above is the Independence Monument, which is a nice monument in itself but we arrived at just the right time of dayso that stood in the right spot which happened to be to middle of a relatively busy road and it turns in the Eye of Sauron.
We also visited the National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan. More old and very old stuff; thankfully our guide took us around just talking about half a dozen of the best pieces. This included a large Reclining Buddha. The 'Buddha in Nirvana' is almost 13 meters long, and weighs over 5,5 tonnes. The Russians found this 1600 year old Buddha in the 1960s and cut it into pieces and bought it to Dushanbe. This is the original apart from the chest which had to be restored.
31st July 2019 - Into the Fann Mountains and Iskanderkul Lake
Today we headed into the Fann Mountains one of the two great ranges of Tajikistan's along with the Pamirs. As we drove up through the valleys and over small passes we had snow capped mountains on either side. The Fann Mountains rise up to 5,489m, not sure if we saw the highest peaks but the valley walls and the peaks behind towered above us. Driving up the valley sides were quite bare, I guess not much can survive the winters up here .
Our destination was Iskanderkul Lake (named after Alexander the Great and is thought to be the final resting place of the conqueror’s beloved horse, Bucephalus). The lake is situated at 2,200m and surrounded by hills and mountains. A nice spot to spend the day
After lunch we walked down the valley from the lake to a roaring waterfall. It was nice to get out for a bit of a walk on this trip we've not really expended much energy at all.
The waterfall wasn't all the large but the water was pouring over it at quite some rate and a cloud of water splashed back up from the bottom. There was a reasonably sound platform built out over the waterfall which gave us a decent view of the water below.
On the way back we passed through a sort of alpine meadow which gave me chance to take an arty shot back over the lake.
Being up in the hills we had lovely dark skies which gave me us the chance to do some night photography. George gave us some pointers which was great as I was taking pictures of stars for the first time. It took a while to set the camera up correctly and to compose the shot with a bit of horizon and the Milky Way but in the end I got some decent shots. Nothing as good as George and Tom got but for a first attempt I was quite pleased with the results.
1st August 2019 - Istravashan and Khujand
This morning we left the Fann Mountains behind and it was quite a drive. We drove along valleys, we hair-pinned up the valley sides and then dropped down into the next valley. We drove through long tunnels through the mountainside. We started in the same barren valley but the next valley was completely different, lush green and cows and sheep in the fields, the change was amazing. We stopped off for lunch in Istravashan where I had plov (rice pilaf) a sort of biryani that is found throughout the region.
From there we headed into Tajikistan's industrial and agricultural heartland around the city of Khujand. After dropping off our bags we headed out in the 43 degree heat for an explore. First up the main square with the usual mosque, minaret, madrassa etc.
More interesting was the bazaar opposite. Nuts, bread, fruits, bread, honey, bread and some more bread. It is amazing how much bread is baked, sold and eaten here. Plate sized loaves, maybe an inch high around the edges and thinner in the middle. It is served with every meal, it is big, it is heavy and chewy and tastes good. I'm going to put on weight on this trip and it is all going to be down to the bread.
The main fruit we have seen on the Silk Road is watermelon, they are everywhere sold in markets, sold from lorries and served at the end of many meals. Alongside the watermelons are yellow melons, these are tasty and much firmer.
Next up the Arbob Cultural Palace. This place is the former headquarters of a Soviet collective farm, it was built in the 1950s and modeled on the winter gardens of Peterhof, St Petersburg. Typical Communist style over substance. But some more tractors? Build better houses for the workers? No, let's build a palace. It was quite nice, it contained many ornate rooms, a theatre and a small museum of Communist history in the area; unfortunately only in Tajik and Russian.
Our last stop before eventually being able to crash out in the lovely cool hotel was a Lenin statue. I guess it once held centre stage but now it has been moved to an out of the way place near the Afghanistan Memorial. I like that statues like this have been kept, it's part of their history.
2nd August 2019 - Fergahana Valley in Uzbekistan
Up early and down to the border to cross back into Uzbekistan for a night. Basically we are just cutting across the Fergahana Valley to get to Kyrgyzstan the following day. Thankfully leaving Tajikistan was drama free and we were all through in no time. Quite a bit of driving today and the obligatory stops at a mosque and a museum; looking at our itinerary I think these are the last ones. Here's a shot over the cemetery with the mosque in the background.
In the afternoon we did a couple of artisan craft stops, first up a ceramics place. They were making some nice stuff but nothing as good as what I bought in Iran and Turkey 3 years ago so I made no purchases today.
Next up a silk making and weaving place. This is the only actually silk we are going to see in the whole three weeks on The Silk Road. Actually this is fair enough as the silk was actually coming from China and our trip doesn't go that far.
I've been to a few silk places in the past including in Madagascar in May so I just took the opportunity to take a few more arty shots.
Tomorrow we head into Kyrgyzstan and up into the mountains. We'll be staying in homestays and then in yurts up at 3,000m on the Central Asian Steppe. So there may not be any more updates for nearly a week. So don't worry that I've been detained by immigration at the border or eaten by a bear. Although if 10 days pass and you hear nothing do send out a search party.