Dushanbe

We took a taxi from Samarkand to the border with Tajikistan (only about half an hour) and despite the easiest border ever, which we walked straight across, the chaos started straight after when we realised we had no internet, not enough money, and no way of getting money thanks to Tajikistan not supporting Mastercard. (We did in the end find a visa card for emergencies...) While we figured this out, we crammed ourselves in the back of a shared taxi with 7 people and drove 5 hours to Dashanbe.

We knew Tajikistan was hard to travel around and very mountainous but this whole experience was something else - most of it was through an increasingly precipitous mountain range with a maniac driver. We drove through the "tunnel of death" as its known locally - 5km of unlit unmarked tunnel. Best way through it is to close your eyes.

Dushanbe meanwhile is a bizarre contrast between the very tidy, clean, shiny boulevards and streets in the city centre, featuring a whole series of brand new monuments built by the Tajik government with China (including the 160m high flagpole which was the tallest in the world for 3 years only) to celebrate independent Tajik culture and to neatly divert funds away from the rest of the country which really needs it. There are large photos of the President all over the city and the streets are full of university students in suits with briefcases which gives a slightly weird formal vibe to the whole place.

Meanwhile go two minutes outside the city centre and you get much more of the style of slightly dusty streets and courtyard homes that we've seen elsewhere across Central Asia - simple and still very beautiful in its own way.Baca lagi