Assorted photos from Dushanbe, illustrations to complement my travel blog

The day our party arrived to Iskander Kul it started to rain. This change of weather was particularly unlucky, because just prior to our visit it there was no rain for over 2 months. But now, because of the weather we had to cancel the planned hikes and instead spent most of the time in our cabin, devouring immense quantities of food and hard liquor that we'd brought from Dushanbe.

The Soviet-built turbaza could accommodate hundreds of people, but since the collapse of the Soviet Union there was only a trickle of tourists. Including our group, initially there was only five guests - myself, Zara, her Dad, a friend of Zara's Dad - dyadya Sasha and one Czech girl, crazy enough to travel solo. Many public buildings and common areas were covered with thick spider web, washroom had collapsed roof, the toilets stunk beyond belief... But the cabins themselves were in surprisingly good condition. There was electricity everywhere and after our arrival the administrator turned on lukewarm showers.

Marketta, that is the name of the Czech girl, was on vacation, coming from Afghanistan where she works for some NGO and she has traveled through Afghanistan and now through Tajikistan, and as I've already mentioned she's been doing it solo. She must have had a jet engine inside, there was a good reason Zara's father has nicknamed her "Marketta-raketa". By the time we would get up for breakfast, she would have already completed few major hikes. And then she would cover few more dozen miles b/n breakfast and lunch. Initially she planned to do a 4 day hike across Fan mountains and director of the turbaza tried in vain to convince her that the season for crossing is over, the mountain passes are now covered by knee deep snow and no longer passable even for someone with a built-in jet engine. Only after Zara's dad played for her a small pantomime of Muslim funeral, she finally relented and gave up her plans.

On day two we had another group of insane people coming in: kayakers from Russia, with one French couple among them. The day after their arrival they had a near-drowning accident on nearby river in which the French girl has spent few minutes under water and had to be CPR-ed back to life. The same evening Russians had big drinking party to celebrate the successful resurrection, and next day the whole group, including the resurrected French girl, got back on their mini-bus and drove off to kayak even more challenging river in Pamirs. I've already known that French are the craziest nation, but apparently Russians are not far behind.

Overall we've found that those few tourists who made it that far as Tajikistan are people of very different stock than those one can meet in tourist friendly "beaten path" destinations like Thailand, Peru, Ecuador... Traveling in Absurdistan requires much greater survival skills, and most Western weaklings can't pass even the first test - dealing with the visa formalities.

We were probably the least adventurous of all. During our stay at Iskander Kul we would venture out from our cabin only during the short periods when the drizzling would stop. That's when I've got some beautiful shots of the lake, which is perhaps the prettiest in the entire Central Asia (the tourbook says so, and I have no reasons to disagree). We also made a visit to the dacha of Tajikistan's permanent President, on the opposing shore of the lake. There is a photo of Zara landing on presidential helicopter pad, and another one, of Zara riding presidential donkey. In some ways Tajikistan is more democratic than Western countries - I just can't imagine Secret Service letting Zara ride Bush's donkey, or actually even getting anywhere near his rancho.

On the last day of our trip, when we already gave up on the weather, we've got two very pleasant surprises. Firstly, the Sun has suddenly came out and secondly we were invited to traditional wedding ceremony in the nearby kishlak. Apparently it is very prestigious for the hosts to have the wedding attended by the foreigners. As it happened in many other places, they've assumed that we speak English and managed to find a local polyglot, a brother of the groom who addressed us in English: "Welcome! Sit down please". When we replied in Russian he was visibly disappointed. Later on, however he adjusted and we had several curious conversations. As many other Tajik men he works abroad, in Russia. So I asked:

-What do you do in Russia?
-I sell shoes
-And shoes come from China?
-No, shoes come from Novosibirsk
-Do they make shoes in Novosibirsk?
-No, they bring them there from Alma-Ata
-So, they make shoes in Alma-Ata?
-No, they bring them there from China

He also told me that he really likes Russian girls, particularly blondes.

-Then you are probably going to marry in Russia?
-No, I am already married, I have wife here. In Russia I have a girlfriend.

Anyway, I hope you found this entertaining... And now you can move on to see the pictures.
Most of the photos you'll see in the album are from this wedding.

of the weather we had to cancel the planned hikes and instead spent most of the time in our cabin, devouring immense quantities of food and hard liquor that we'd brought from Dushanbe.

The Soviet-built turbaza could accommodate hundreds of people, but since the collapse of the Soviet Union there was only a trickle of tourists. Including our group, initially there was only five guests - myself, Zara, her Dad, a friend of Zara's Dad - dyadya Sasha and one Czech girl, crazy enough to travel solo. Many public buildings and common areas were covered with thick spider web, washroom had collapsed roof, the toilets stunk beyond belief... But the cabins themselves were in surprisingly good condition. There was electricity everywhere and after our arrival the administrator turned on lukewarm showers.

Marketta, that is the name of the Czech girl, was on vacation, coming from Afghanistan where she works for some NGO and she has traveled through Afghanistan and now through Tajikistan, and as I've already mentioned she's been doing it solo. She must have had a jet engine inside, there was a good reason Zara's father has nicknamed her "Marketta-raketa". By the time we would get up for breakfast, she would have already completed few major hikes. And then she would cover few more dozen miles b/n breakfast and lunch. Initially she planned to do a 4 day hike across Fan mountains and director of the turbaza tried in vain to convince her that the season for crossing is over, the mountain passes are now covered by knee deep snow and no longer passable even for someone with a built-in jet engine. Only after Zara's dad played for her a small pantomime of Muslim funeral, she finally relented and gave up her plans.

On day two we had another group of insane people coming in: kayakers from Russia, with one French couple among them. The day after their arrival they had a near-drowning accident on nearby river in which the French girl has spent few minutes under water and had to be CPR-ed back to life. The same evening Russians had big drinking party to celebrate the successful resurrection, and next day the whole group, including the resurrected French girl, got back on their mini-bus and drove off to kayak even more challenging river in Pamirs. I've already known that French are the craziest nation, but apparently Russians are not far behind.

Overall we've found that those few tourists who made it that far as Tajikistan are people of very different stock than those one can meet in tourist friendly "beaten path" destinations like Thailand, Peru, Ecuador... Traveling in Absurdistan requires much greater survival skills, and most Western weaklings can't pass even the first test - dealing with the visa formalities.

We were probably the least adventurous of all. During our stay at Iskander Kul we would venture out from our cabin only during the short periods when the drizzling would stop. That's when I've got some beautiful shots of the lake, which is perhaps the prettiest in the entire Central Asia (the tourbook says so, and I have no reasons to disagree). We also made a visit to the dacha of Tajikistan's permanent President, on the opposing shore of the lake. There is a photo of Zara landing on presidential helicopter pad, and another one, of Zara riding presidential donkey. In some ways Tajikistan is more democratic than Western countries - I just can't imagine Secret Service letting Zara ride Bush's donkey, or actually even getting anywhere near his rancho.

On the last day of our trip, when we already gave up on the weather, we've got two very pleasant surprises. Firstly, the Sun has suddenly came out and secondly we were invited to traditional wedding ceremony in the nearby kishlak. Apparently it is very prestigious for the hosts to have the wedding attended by the foreigners. As it happened in many other places, they've assumed that we speak English and managed to find a local polyglot, a brother of the groom who addressed us in English: "Welcome! Sit down please". When we replied in Russian he was visibly disappointed. Later on, however he adjusted and we had several curious conversations. As many other Tajik men he works abroad, in Russia. So I asked:

-What do you do in Russia?
-I sell shoes
-And shoes come from China?
-No, shoes come from Novosibirsk
-Do they make shoes in Novosibirsk?
-No, they bring them there from Alma-Ata
-So, they make shoes in Alma-Ata?
-No, they bring them there from China

He also told me that he really likes Russian girls, particularly blondes.

-Then you are probably going to marry in Russia?
-No, I am already married, I have wife here. In Russia I have a girlfriend.

Anyway, I hope you found this entertaining... And now you can move on to see the pictures.
Most of the photos you'll see in the album are from this wedding.