Soviet Satellites - Tajikistan

13 Jun 2016 . category: Travel . Comments
#Soviet

Intro

From Almaty, we flew to Tajikistan, described by our guidebook as “arguably Central Asia’s most exciting destination.” We certainly had a great time!

Dushanbe

We arrived in Dushanbe Airport just after lunchtime, and passed through a surprisingly relaxed passport control before meeting our guides for the day, Parvina and Faridun. In addition to guiding, they both worked as teachers of English and Chemistry, respectively. Parvina was especially interesting in that she called attention to herself being a “modern Muslim woman,” having gone to college and also been divorced. These are both incredibly rare in this traditional country in which many marriages are still arranged.

After making peace with the heat, we walked around the downtown area for a bit, seeing first a statue of their national hero, Isma’il Somoni. He’s really everywhere in Tajikistan, with the national currency named after him as well as parks, roads, and statues everywhere. We heard repeatedly over the next couple of days about how so-and-so road/park/mountain was previously named after Stalin/Lenin/Communism but has since been renamed in Somoni’s honor. Next was a flagpole, formerly the tallest in the world (it has since been surpassed by one in Saudi Arabia). The thing really is massive, being nearly as tall as the Washington Monument. It flies a flag that weights 1540 pounds!

We then went to the National Museum of Antiquities, where we were given a tour by a local guide about the various relics left behind by the waves of peoples and religions that had inhabited this region. The highlight was the “Nirvana Buddha,” an 45 foot Buddha lying on its side found recently in Tajikistan. After came the National Museum, an airy new building that contained exhibits regarding history, art, geology, and nature.

This museum reminded me in many ways of North Korea. First, it seemed largely empty until we arrived, with the escalators only turned on after we walked through one exhibit. Moreover, there were several displays regarding their (at this point basically Eternal) President Emomali Rahmon. For example, here’s a map of all his trips around the world:

There was also a luxuriously decorated room dedicated to gifts given to him by world leaders. We had seen basically identical (albeit flashier) displays in the DPRK about the Kims. There was even a display of Rahmon’s various works, all of which were apparently read by our museum guide while in university:

Next was Hissar fortress, located a short drive away from the city. This was frankly underwhelming, as the visible buildings are largely new reproductions. In addition, there was a small museum, where a very enthusiastic guide told us how Tajikistan is 93% mountains (probably the fourth time I’d heard this today) and showed us more stone age tools. I was…not particularly enthused by this presentation.

That evening, I wasn’t feeling well, so our guides ordered room service for me, while Aaron went to dinner and wandered around the city for a bit, saying goodbye to Parvina for the both of us as she was just our guide for Dushanbe. We both wished we had had more time to talk to her about modern day Tajikistan, perhaps next time?

Onwards to Khujand

The next day, we set out with Faridun for Tajikistan’s second largest city, Khujand, which is located in the North. Along the way, we drove through several newly built tunnels, which unsurprisingly greatly shortened the driving distance. They were also a great example of foreign investment and industry, as all of them seemed to have been dug by either Chinese or Iranian companies. Here’s a shot of our car in the mountains, an Opel. It’s a German brand owned by GM that seems to have majority of the market in Tajikistan:

Around lunchtime, we stopped at Iskandor-Kol, this nice alpine lake. The real highlight though, was this waterfall we trekked out to. There was a perfect rainbow in the spray:

Picture taken from this pretty sketchy looking platform. Faridun assured us it was safe. After all, it was constructed in Soviet times! The placement of heavy rocks here was not reassuring…nor were the rather widely spaced and bent bars:

From here, we drove to Istaravshan, an old city sacked by Alexander the Great back in the day. There are only remnants of the original old fortress, but a new gleaming gate was built in 2002 for the city’s 2500th anniversary. Again, I didn’t find this particular interesting as there was not much to see aside from the recent constructions.

Finally, it was onwards to Khujand. It’s thought to be near the Alexander the Great’s northernmost Central Asia outpost. In Soviet times, the city was named Leninabad, the main street of which was Lenin, on which was this huge statue of Lenin:

It’s since been moved to a more out of the way location (replaced with a statue of Somoni of course). Our guide told us that it is the largest still standing statue of Lenin in the former Socialist Republics.

At dinner, Faridun insisted we try some local alcohol. Unfortunately, the restaurant wasn’t serving it on account of Ramadan, so he just ran to a local shop and bought some vodka. It was surprisingly smooth. My attempts to adulterate it with watermelon were less successful.

We finished up sight-seeing in Khujand the next morning, first meeting our guide in the city, Shahboz. The highlight of the day was the beautiful Bazaar, which included amongst other things, piles of sour cream out in the open for purchase, pieces of pure Calcium for pregnant women, and this wonderful iPhone case:

Driving around the city, I finally snapped a picture of one of the many Rahmon posters that are all around Tajikistan. He wasn’t quite as ubiquitous as the Kims in the DPRK, but pretty darn close. For example, our hotel in Khujand displayed photos of him at its opening.

Our final stop was at a nice resort area on a man-made lake. Over lunch there, we had a nice chat with Boz. He shared some interesting thoughts about everything from regional politics to the Sunni - Shi’a split. Nearly all of Central Asia is Sunni, but apparently conversions to Shi’ism brought about by Iran do occur, and tensions may be mounting. He also told several horror stories about people being detained while exiting or entering Uzbekistan. A couple of hours before we were supposed to cross the land border by ourselves, this was not particular reassuring…

After lunch we bid farewell to our guides. I don’t often travel with guides, but my experience in Tajikistan showed me how much of a difference they can make. Of the three countries so far, Aaron and I definitely liked Tajikistan the most, and I think that is in large part to the interesting conversations we had with our local guides. I would not hesitate to recommend Faridun, Parvina, or Shahboz for anyone journeying to Tajikistan. Here’s a picture of us with Faridun and Shahboz on the last day, unfortunately we missed getting a picture with Parvina:

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