Dushanbe: The charming capital of Tajikistan

It’s an overcast, rainy day here in Liberia as I sit down to write my travel stories from Tajikistan. We are amid the rainy season with heavy downpour daily and if the sun breaks out, then that’s more an exception than a norm. Its also been two and a half weeks since I got back from Tajikistan and its fairly late to start writing my travel blog…motivational issues perhaps? I hope not!

                                               

Almaty airport and the Tian Shan in the background

I don’t recall the specifics of when Tajikistan came on my bucket list, all I remember is stumbling on an article raving about the wild, untapped trekking opportunities in this country’s Pamir mountains. A couple or so years ago, around the time when my marriage was crumbling, I had even looked at “get me out of here” tickets from Nashville to Dushanbe and then onward to India for vacation but the idea always felt far fetched and more a distant dream.

Tajikistan mountains as seen from air

Until that article, the only recollection of the word “Tajik” was during the early years of the 21^st century when Taliban laid siege over much of Afghanistan. I was still in college when news spread of a barbaric group of people called Taliban overrunning Afghanistan. A significant resistance to them, especially in the northern part of the country came from a warlord of Tajik ethnicity called Ahmed Shah Massoud. 

Dushanbe airport

Highly revered in guerilla warfare, he was ultimately assassinated by al Qaeda and/or Taliban which caused a great deal of sadness in Afghanistan and around the world with the sense that the person who represented the best hope against Taliban was now gone.

Cut the chase to present times, and with a new lease of life after returning to Liberia, Tajikistan and the Pamirs became my top destination. Going in the winter was not an option in this bitterly cold part of the world so I just had to wait for the summer of 2019.

Picking mulberries off the street

Tedious flights from Liberia are par for the course but still the route from Monrovia-Casablanca-Istanbul-Almaty-Dushanbe was “just” 37 real hours. The worse part was two nights spent at airports; the first one leaving Monrovia at an ungodly hour of 3:25am and then the following night waiting for the connection from Istanbul to Almaty. I tried getting a nap whenever I could but that never really substitutes real sleep.

Cherries

I might sometimes go against the common sense I’ve learnt in my years of traveling, but by and large I now respect the needs of my body to rest after landing in a foreign country. The new airport in Istanbul is impressive but the one in Almaty had a special appeal. 

Almaty, the commercial hub of Kazakhstan is situated in the foothills of the Tian Shan range of mountains. This range is another sister range of the Himalayas in the mountainous border regions of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China.

…and just like that, now Kazakhstan is now on my list of countries. It might be a tough pick between the Tian Shan mountains and the Altai mountains bordering Mongolia but I’ll punt that decision in the future.

Dushanbe Grand Mosque

Eventually I made it to Dushanbe on the surprisingly good if pricy Air Astana flight. Immigration was a breeze and quite interesting. Upon seeing my Indian passport, one lady immigration officer started belting out names of Bollywood actors and songs. 

Ismoili Somoni statue 

She even told me that her good friend got married to an Indian and she wished to marry an Indian and move to there as well. I joked with her telling that I’m available and will take her to India when I leave the country and that bought out a good laugh from her. My Indian readers…there you go!...If you want a Tajik wife, you now know where to go. Sorry, I don’t quite recall her name though.

Unlike most international airports, the Dushanbe airport is close to the city center and the ride to my hostel on the other side of town was just a few dollars and about 20 minutes away.

A few hours of rest and I was ready to explore Dushanbe. The city, atleast the part of it that was in was charming with roads lined with trees and flower beds all around the city.

How could i not oblige when these nice
Kazakh ladies want a picture with you

At one moment when I lost my way I asked a guy for help and he promptly called his English-speaking friend who offered me an ice-cream and discussed opportunities for immigrating to the US. I told him the best opportunity for anyone aspiring to make a better life was to pursue higher education in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) field. 

He taught English at the local university so not sure if I discouraged him but he seemed happy with my advice. We thanked each other and parted ways.

Typical Tajik women attire

As I turned around and started walking, the interaction with this guy and the immigration officer earlier in the day made me wonder if the opportunities for growth and development are extremely limited in this country. My travels over the next 15 days confirmed my view but I’ll leave that thought for a later blog.

From a tourist standpoint, the must see in Dushanbe is the Ismoili Somoni statue and the Rudaki park. My favorite was just strolling through this clean, tree lined city, watching the well-dressed locals and stopping to pick cherries and mulberries from the city’s trees. It must have been atleast a couple decades if not more since I ate mulberries. The last time I recall eating them was at my maternal uncle’s home in Satara in my summer holidays. Funny how some memories stand the test of time…and some others don’t!

Dushanbe was a good introduction to Tajikistan but my yearning lay for the land to the east. The next morning, I would need to catch a 4X4 land cruiser for a long day of bumpy travel gradually rising from the plains of the west to the mountains to the east…the Pamirs beckoned!