Chorsu Bazaar Hot Food

Chorsu Bazaar is where you can get anything you want, and that includes a hot meal.  Since the hot food section of the Chorsu Bazaar was different from most other bazaars and markets we saw, I’ll make this post about the hot food at the Chorsu Bazaar.  I don’t even know what some of the food was but it was all hot and all the locals seemed to be stopping in for a meal.

The guy in the first photo was cooking kabobs, so at least I knew that dish.

I’m not sure exactly what was being served in the next three photos.  I can identify some parts of some dishes but I can’t say much more than that.

You can see people eating in the back of the third and fourth photos.  In the last photo, you can see an eating area.  They were scattered all around the hot food area and were mostly very busy. 

We didn’t eat here but it would have been an experience.

Uzbekistan to Tajikistan

On this day, we drove from Tashkent, Uzbekistan to Khujand, Tajikistan.  If you still have my map, it took about two hours to drive from Tashkent to the Tajikistan border.  It only took us about thirty minutes to clear immigration and cross into Tajikistan.  Then it was about another hour to drive to Khujand (pronounced like “who-john”).  The posting is about the trip between the two locations.  These will be moving bus photos but hopefully worth the bad pictures.

I love photos like the first one.  I’m not sure why but I can never resist taking a photo like this.  I’ve moved a lot of alfalfa in my life, but never like this.

Agriculture has been changing since their independence.  Russia had all central Asia growing cotton.  The Russians tore out their orchards and vineyards but little by little, they are putting them back.

The third photo is in a small town where we just stopped for a restroom break.  I don’t even know the name but it was a lively place. 

“Have big tire; Will travel” should be the title of the fourth photo.

We have arrived in Tajikistan in the last photo.  Tajikistan is primarily a mountainous country.  This was between the border and Khujand.

Uzbekistan QUIZ

We have been in Uzbekistan now for 38 Posts.  Uzbekistan was the biggest part of our trip to Central Asia.  So now I’m going to give you a “comprehensive” quiz on Uzbekistan.  Good luck.

We are in Khiva in the first photo.  This is the inner part of the Kuhna Ark which was the Khiva ruler’s own fortress and residence.  It dates back to the 12th century.  You can see Vicky on the porch of the Khan’s throne room or receiving room.

Question:  What is the raised round brick platform for?

The second photo is in Bukhara.  This is the Moschea Bolo-khauz Mosque, a mosque completed in 1712.  Our guide said that locals call this the “40 Column Mosque”.

Question:  Why do the locals call this the 40 Column Mosque?   

We are still in Bukhara and having lunch at the Chinor Restaurant.  The pickle soup is in the third photo and it was really excellent.  Our guide suggested that it had a secret ingredient.  The secret ingredient can readily be seen in the soup (big & green).

Question:  What is the secret ingredient in the pickle soup?

Now we are in Samarkand, at the Registan Square.  The fourth photo is the Tilya-Kori Madrassah, built in 1646-1660.  As you might recall, Samarkand and most of the rest of central Asia has suffered many large earthquakes.  We were told that the quakes tend to jolt in certain directions.  In the photo, the corner tower can be seen leaning south.

Question:  In which direction do the earthquakes tend to jolt here: to the North (right) or to the South (left)?  

We are in Tashkent at the Chorsu Bazaar in the last photo.  Our favorite stop was the bread making area.  You can see a guy molding the dough in the last photo.

Question:  What is underneath the dough that he is using as a platter upon which to mold his dough? 

This quiz should be fun and give everyone a chance.

Good Luck,

Uzbekistan Quiz Answers

We are in Khiva in the first photo.  This is the inner part of the Kuhna Ark which was the Khiva ruler’s own fortress and residence.  It dates back to the 12th century.  You can see Vicky on the porch of the Khan’s throne room or receiving room.

Question:  What is the raised round brick platform for?

Answer:  For the Khan to put his yurt on.

I remind you that the central Asians hold to their nomadic roots with a passion and that means having reminders like yurts and horses around them.

The second photo is in Bukhara.  This is the Moschea Bolo-khauz Mosque, a mosque completed in 1712.  Our guide said that locals call this the “40 Column Mosque”.

Question:  Why do the locals call this the 40 Column Mosque?   

Answer:  Because the mosque has 20 columns and you can see the 20 columns in the reflection in the pond, so 20 + 20 = 40 columns.

Some of you thought you counted 40 columns but there are two rows of 10 columns – which is then repeated by their reflection in the pond. (at least on a good day)

We are still in Bukhara and having lunch at the Chinor Restaurant.  The pickle soup is in the third photo and it was really excellent.  Our guide suggested that it had a secret ingredient.  The secret ingredient can readily be seen in the soup (big & green).

Question:  What is the secret ingredient in the pickle soup?

Answer:  a green apricot

We saw lots and lots of apricot trees in central Asia and the apricots are used for lots of things that we don’t use them for, including, evidently, flavoring pickle soup.  We may need to try that out this winter, if I can find a green cot then.

Now we are in Samarkand, at the Registan Square.  The fourth photo is the Tilya-Kori Madrassah, built in 1646-1660.  As you might recall, Samarkand and most of the rest of central Asia has suffered many large earthquakes.  We were told that the quakes tend to jolt in certain directions.  In the photo, the corner tower can be seen leaning south.

Question:  In which direction do the earthquakes tend to jolt here: to the North (right) or to the South (left)?  

Answer:  To the North or right in the photo.

Remember that these madrassahs had to be rebuilt after the 1966 earthquake.  In rebuilding, they purposely leaned the towers to the south so that, hopefully, the next earthquake will just straighten them up (to the north) and won’t knock them down.

We are in Tashkent at the Chorsu Bazaar in the last photo.  Our favorite stop was the bread making area.  You can see a guy molding the dough in the last photo.

Question:  What is underneath the dough that he is using as a platter upon which to mold his dough?

Answer:  an LP

I don’t know why, but the several people that we saw molding the dough were all using an LP to do it on.

What band’s album?  Who knows.  Probably the Rolling Stones…since they have a lot of dough…and they really knead it….

I hope you had some fun with this one.

Tajikistan and Khujand

We have now made it to Tajikistan, the last of our five central Asia republics on this trip.  Tajikistan declared its sovereignty over a year before it officially withdrew from the USSR.  Unfortunately, after gaining independence from Russia, a civil war broke out that lasted for about five years.  The civil war was between the Communist-dominated government and an insurgency by Islamic and democratic opposition forces.  Some 60,000 people died in the civil war and it was not ended until June 27, 1997.  The communist party is still Tajikistan’s second largest political party.  Peace has been in place since 1997 but the country has not been without violent sprees by various opposition groups.

Ninety-three percent of Tajikistan is mountainous and its mountain glaciers are the source of the primary rivers in central Asia.  Over half the country is above almost 9,400 feet elevation.  This area has a history going back some 3,000 years.  Tajikistan is slightly larger than the state of Illinois.  The Tajik people were once part of the Persian Empire, then under Alexander the Great, then the Arabs brought Islam, then ruled by the Uzbeks, the Afghans, and eventually the Russians in the 1860’s.

Khujand (pron. Who John) is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, probably founded in the 7th or 6th century BC.  It was located on the Silk Road connecting Samarkand with the Fergana Valley.  It was conquered by Alexander the Great and destroyed by Genghis Khan.  Khujand is an important industrial, scientific, and cultural center for northern Tajikistan.

Our first stop in Khujand was Independence Square.  It is an unusual building which you can see in the first photo.  It was very underdeveloped with lots of empty space but it did have an elevator and stairway to get up to near the top.  The next three photos were taken from the top of this museum, looking out over Khujand.

You can see the main river in the second photo.  One of Tajikistan’s greatest assets might be its water.  You will also notice that you will see mountains in all three photos.

I put in the last photo just to show Tajikistan and all of its mountains.  Khujand is in the green section on the left in the photo, which is north.  In a couple of days, we crossed the three large mountain ranges to get to the middle of the right green section in the photo and the capital of Dushanbe. 

The Mystery Stop

After getting some lunch and settling into Khujand, we went out touring on our bus.  I was confused heading for our first stop because I could not understand exactly where we were going.  Normally, I don’t worry about things like that much, but as we drove, I didn’t like the looks of where we were going.  We seemed to have veered from the central part of Khujand towards some old or remote section of the city.  It seemed odd and a bit eerie to me.

The first photo didn’t seem too bad but unfinished buildings and graffiti made me wonder.

As we drove on, in the second photo, it just seemed more industrial and off the beaten path, so I wondered some more about what we were going to see.

Eventually, we made a big turn off a road and onto this back road that you see in the third photo.  We came off the road at the back of this photo, driving towards where I took this photo.

Turning around from the third photo, we drove around the corner that you see in the fourth photo and my wonder grew.

Finally, we walked a short distance past a grazing cow and some unkempt walkways with weeds over-growing them, to get to the last photo.  It’s a statue of Lenin.

For background, Khujand used to be named Leninabad, under Russia.  Lenin’s statue was erected in 1974.  Russia is still a nearby neighbor and a trading partner.  The second largest political party today in Tajikistan is the communist party.  So in the middle of the night back in 2011, the Lenin statue was moved from its former place (next post) to its retirement placement.  I’ll grant you, he does have some roses around him, but….

Somoni Park

We left the statue of Lenin and drove to Somoni Park.  Somoni Park used to be Lenin Park and this is where the statue of Lenin used to reside.  It’s quite a contrast in locations.  Likewise, the highest mountain peak in Tajikistan used to be Stalin Peak and later Communism Peak but is now Ismail Somoni Peak.  The times have changed.

Ismoil Somoni was born in this area and rose to be a general and later the leader of the Samanids.  Today at least, he was considered an intelligent, just, compassionate person and a good leader who conducted affairs with justice and good ethics.  

I was never able to get to a position to take a good photo of the overall park.  It is quite large and on a hill so not an easy place to photograph in its entirety unless you are somewhere else looking at it.  But you will get the idea that it is a nice place.

The first photo was taken from the lower end of the park at the bottom of the hill.  The park features marble stairways, lots of water features, the history of the area in mosaics, an ice skating rink, sculptures, lights and fountain shows.

We are looking back down the park and off to one side from higher up in the second photo.

Off to each side on multiple levels of the park are historical mosaics that tell about Alexander the Great and many other historic events here.  You can see one bank of mosaics in the third photo.

The fourth photo was from near the top of the park looking down the center of the area which is mostly water features. 

At the top of the park is the statue of Ismoil Somoni.  This is where the statue of Lenin used to reside.

Arbob Palace

Our next stop was the Arbob Palace, the site of a large Soviet collective farm out east of Khujand.  I remember thinking “palace” and “collective farm” probably didn’t belong in the same sentence.  I was wrong.

The Voroshilov State Collective Farm had a leader named Urukhojaev.  He was a very large mustachioed Tajik man.  He evidently loved everything Soviet but not as much as he loved being a Tajik.  He refused to wear soviet style clothing but instead, dressed as a Tajik, always.  He even wore his plain Tajik clothing with Russian dignitaries, even Khrushchev.  

Urukhojaev was evidently a good leader with the support of his people and he ran a top notch soviet collective farm.  At some point, they needed a collective farm headquarters.  Most people might have expected some collection of small huts and buildings.  But Urukhojaev had been to Russia many times and also to St. Petersburg.  He decided to build his collective headquarters modelled after the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.  Consequently, it looks like a Russian style palace building filled with fountains and gardens.  It has over 100 rooms.  It was built between 1951 and 1956.  So in essence, this is a rather grand and elegant farm collective administration building, built under the Soviet Union.

We are at the bottom of the collective building’s grounds in the first photo.  It was a bit of a walk to get up to the building but the fountains were very cooling.     

The second photo was taken most of the way up to the building.  The grounds were very nice and they had enough roses for a king and a queen and their court.

We met lots of school kids here at the palace.  Many seemed eager to engage with us, mostly through our guides translation.  This was part of a class and their teachers seemed to encourage this exchange.  There are just as many boys in the class but the girls were up front and the boys in back and off to the sides.

Is anything starting to say “collective farm” in these photos?  We are closer still in the fourth photo.

In walking up to the building, there was a long line of young women.  They lined the pathways all the way to the door as you see in the last photo.  An event was taking place with a presentation by the mayor of Khujand.  My guess is that it involved other dignitaries as well since the long line of welcoming young women weren’t there for us.

Inside Arbob Palace

We are still at the Arbob Palace and will now take a peek inside the palace.  The palace contains a glorious entry hall, a large and fancy auditorium that seats about 700, historical photos lauding collective workers and assorted hero award winners.  There are over 100 rooms with some devoted to cotton production, wheat production, cattle breeding, and so on.  There is also lots of soviet paintings and propaganda posters, especially happy, productive collective farm workers.

Rather than show some of the major rooms, I’ll give some hints about the content of the smaller rooms which were much more interesting to me.   

You can see a small portion of a hand-painted ceiling in the first photo above.  Much like the St. Petersburg Winter Palace, much of the building was done beautifully like this ceiling. 

Many sculptures were in the palace such as the one in the second photo.  It’s a nomad or shepherd herding his sheep on horseback.  Tajiks had a big horse culture as well.

This painting in the cotton room in the third photo is a good example of what we saw.  Central Asia was the soviet cotton producer.  The people in the painting sure do look happy about their work.

The fourth photo shows several things.  First, it has quite a nice vase, somewhat reminiscent of the Winter Palace.  Behind the vase to the left on the wall is a painting of Urukhojaev, the leader of this collective farm and builder of this palace.  You can see that his dress was Tajik and not soviet.  This is in his office that to this day is supposed to be much as it was in his day.

The last photo is also in his office.  This is his actual desk.  Behind the desk is the palace as originally constructed.  On his desk is a blotter with an outline of the Kremlin.  And if you wonder how on earth a soviet satellite collective farm leader could manage to get the funding and build a palace like this, look at his desk again.  He has two phones, a black one and a red one.  His red one was a direct line to the Kremlin leadership.  Urukhojaev had the Tajik pride and courage to defy the soviet dress code.  I expect that he was a larger-than-life character.  I also expect that his collective farm was incredibly productive and stood out amongst the soviet’s collective farms.

Kamoli Khujandi Square

We are in Kamoli Khujandi Square.  During Russian times, it was called Pushkin Square.  Kamoli Khujandi was a Persian (Iran today) born in Khujand.  He was considered to be among the great romantic poets of the 14th century.

The square had lots of different things going on the day we visited.  It has some very nice buildings such as the Kamoli Khujandi Theater.  It has fountains and many bronze statues of Khujand’s historical leaders, bridges, a large auditorium, the Timur Malik Fortress, the Historical Museum of the Sugd Region, and a number of cafes and restaurants.  I’ll try and give just a glimpse of the square area.  The whole square is on the banks of the Syr Darya River.

We started at this end of the square, and I’m not sure why it’s called a square anyway.  I believe the large structure might be a mausoleum.  You can see a bronze statue on the right side and the Syr Darya River is just to the right of the photo.

From about where the first photo was taken, there was a series of three very large raised gazebos.  You can see one in the second photo.  This was a chess tournament for kids age 6 to 16.  Talk about supervision, the adults greatly outnumbered the kids in the tournament.  We saw video cameras and judges and parents and policemen and scorers and who knows who else.  It looked like fun but the kids were busy concentrating.

The third photo is near the other end of one branch of the square.  The river is still to the right.  Another long arm of the square goes down to the left of here.  It was a beautiful park and much more crowded than this photo indicates.

The interesting part of the fourth photo is probably not the part you noticed.  This is the wall of the fortress that witnessed the invasions of Alexander the Great, and the Arab, Mongolian, and Russian armies.  But the part on the left is a recreation.  The original part of the wall is the section on the rights side.  It mostly looks like a pile of dirt today but if that dirt could talk….

We were stopped a number of times by groups and mostly by kids.  You can see a part of one of the kids groups in the last photo.  They loved to take our photos and to chat, mostly through our guides as interpreters.  They seemed to be very interested in us and most certainly knew about the United States – as in a lot more than we knew about central Asia.

Panjshanbe Bazaar

We are in the Panjshanbe Bazaar.  Panjshanbe means “Thursday” at they used to just trade at this market on Thursdays.  Now they trade here every day.  This market is near the center of Khujand and was very crowded.  It had locals, tourists, and people shopping from the neighboring villages.  It was a huge place and divided into grocery and non-food items.  Non-food items included clothing, electronic devices, and household items.

The building itself was also impressive, especially since it was built by the Russians in 1964.  It looks a bit like Stalin gone off the rails.  It has a pink neoclassical façade, statues of field workers, a large dome and all sorts of attached areas with shops, tents, and trucks loaded with melons.  Again, I’ll try and pick out some lesser seen photos rather than just the fruit and vegetables, though they looked wonderful.

You can see a portion of the façade with the grand entranceway in the first photo.  There was a large religious and memorial complex across the open square that we visited before we walked across to the market.

The main market was crowded and we had limited time so we wandered out the back of the main building to see if we could find more interesting or unusual items.  In the second photo, you can see that it was still crowded out back.

I included the third photo because I don’t remember seeing peanuts and cotton (behind the woman) for sale in any of the other markets.

We learned that the way back section was considered the “wholesale” area, so we went there.  The fourth photo was back there.  It also included great big piles of onions and potatoes and the like that weren’t bagged, just piled.  At one point, a guy tried to speak to Vicky and myself but we couldn’t understand him.  Finally he asked in broken English, “Where are you from”?  We said California and he shouted “Arnold Schwarzenegger” over and over in a big booming voice.  Everyone laughed.

The last photo is inside the covered building.  It was melon season and melons were everywhere.  They were in booths, in trucks, stacked up, spread out and it seemed that most people were buying melons.

Khujand Lunches

We had two or three lunches in Khujand.  I’ll just make one post for our lunches here as this was some of our first Tajik food.

We had two salads at the first lunch which you can see in the first photo.  Both salads were really good.  I think they make some interesting combinations in their salads.

The salad on the left was meat, beans, tomato, peppers, lettuce, and onions.

The salad on the right was beets, raisins, and walnuts.

The salad in the second photo was also really good.  It was dill pickles, beef, olives, tomatoes, corn, wild mountain onions, green beans, lettuce, and chives.

The soup in the third photo was meat and vegetables with lemon, sour cream, and dill.  Yes, it was quite tasty.

I had to throw in the fourth photo.  It was still warm here, upper 90’s, but the beer was only .67 cents US.  What a bargain!

You can see that we were still eating kabobs in the last photo.  They were beef and lamb with onions and basil and very delicious.

Seamstress Visit

A few people in our group opted to go on an unscheduled side trip, to meet a seamstress.  She also does quilting and embroidery.  She lives out in a regular neighborhood and her shop is a separate room in her home compound.  She learned all her skills from her mom and continues to pass them along.  She teaches classes to young women so that they can learn as well.  She has won many awards and we saw several magazines that featured her on the cover. 

She told us that crafts are an important contribution to a Tajik family because of the money that it brings the family.  For all her success, she was a very low-key person who just seemed like she went about her work very normally, but with some passion.

You can see our seamstress in the first photo, standing behind her work table and sewing machine and surrounded by some of her work.  She has used the same non-electric sewing machine for 50 years.  It’s operated by foot petal. 

The second photo is one piece of her work.  It might seem simple but if you look closely, you might see that it is a very intricate piece of work – according to Vicky, my wife.

The third photo is quite another style of work and she had some very impressive pieces like this one.

She had quite a bit of gold embroidery work, such as the Tajik hat in the fourth photo.  It was quite intricate work.

The last photo was one of the tables with items that were for sale.  Again, you can see the variety of items that she makes. 

Timur Malik Restaurant

This was our last dinner in Khujand.  We ate at the Timur Malik Restaurant.  It was right on the banks of the Syr Darya River but we ended up in a room with no windows.  Oh well.

Our two salads are in the first photo.  A chicken salad is on the left with onions and cheese on top.  The salad on the right is tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, olives, cheese, onions, and lettuce.  Both were very good.

The second photo was our soup which was potato, egg, corn, peas, beef, and carrots.

The third photo is our small inner group of Nora and Vicky’s brother Pete, our bus driver, our good friends Ron and Patty, and Vicky.  Imagine all those happy faces so near the end of a 31 day trip.

Our main dish was beef, mushrooms, and tomatoes and it was very good.

The Tajiks are also very musical.  After dinner, we went into full karaoke mode, led by our Tajik guide.  But Ron was definitely the star of the show, especially when he sang “Danny Boy”.  The last photo has Vicky and Nora belting out a number.  Fun!

Leaving Ferghana Valley

Khujand is on the edge of the Ferghana Valley which is one of the most fertile valleys in all of central Asia.  The Russians, for their own reasons, drew the central Asian republics in peculiar fashion.  One good example of this is that three countries share parts of the Ferghana Valley: Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.  It was easy to be impressed with the agriculture in the Ferghana Valley.

You can see us leaving Khujand in the first photo.  The Ferghana Valley is the only place that we saw them growing rice, which takes a lot of water.  They obviously have plenty of water here.  Those are rice patties in the first photo.

The second photo looks very similar but we were passing rice patties for a long time including well after we left Khujand.  We were on our way to Dushanbe, so heading south.  There were quite a few villages with all the agricultural work going here.

You can see an apricot orchard in the third photo.  We almost never saw a fruit tree that had been pruned.  These trees were probably around forty feet tall.  They either shake the tree or wait for the fruit to drop, very unlike what we do at home.  On the other hand, I keep telling Vicky that I’m doing way too much work at home in our orchard.

We saw quite a few greenhouses in this area.  My guess is that they are mostly used for plant protection in winter, but I don’t know that for sure.  It might just be for market vegetables all year long.

I just can’t help myself, but to take pictures like the last photo.  I’ve hauled too much hay to not be amused by this.  That is one heck of a load.

Istaravshan

We are now in Istaravshan.  We stopped here for some visits and lunch on our way from Khujand to Dushanbe.  Istaravshan has a long and glorious history.  It was founded by king Cyrus of the Parthian empire in the 6th century BC.  It started as a trade center on the Silk Road.  Alexander the Great conquered it.  It prospered greatly under the Tajik Samanid dynasty in the 9th and 10th centuries.  Genghis Khan razed it to the ground in the 13th century.  Timur took it over and it lived a second golden age until the 16th century when trade routes started bypassing it for Bukhara.  Russia took it over in 1886.  The city’s name was changed many times over all those centuries.

Istaravshan was famous in the past for its handicrafts, particularly carving, glazed pottery, embroidery, gold and silver ornaments, and more.  My own guess is that since it lies in the northern foothills of the Turkistan Mountain range, it probably was never much of a farming or agriculture town.  But since it was on the Silk Road back then, it probably developed into a handicraft village.  Today, Istaravshan does fruit processing and wine making but it still has many crafts people.

Since Istaravshan has a long history for handicrafts, we visited a number of crafts people.  I found them quite interesting but will limit it to one posting.

We visited the guy in the first photo at his home compound which is also his shop.  This time of year, he works outside, right next to where he is standing.  His whole family helps him out and that’s his grandson next to him.  He is a master craftsman and he makes combs.  He and his family have been making combs for 150 years.  This is how they earn their living.  He gathers and cuts all his own wood from local trees.  He cuts up trees and boards with mechanical tools but he makes all of his combs strictly with hand tools.  He told us that his combs last more or less forever and in fact, people put them in their wills and hand them down after they die.  It’s hard to believe.

You can see some of his combs in the second photo.  He says they are virtually unbreakable.  The animals are just something he makes for entertainment when he has a piece of wood that would not work for a comb.

You can see a knife-maker in the third photo.  He too is a master craftsman.  His family has been making knives for 350 years and he learned the craft from his father.  He told us that there are 70 steps to make a knife.  Most of his work today is with stainless steel, because that is what his customers want.  His two sons were in the shop working with him.  You can see a few of their knives in the fourth photo.

My last photo was not a tour stop.  These young ladies had a shop very near to the knife-maker.  While some people in our group were buying knives, a few of us wandered over here.  They seemed pleased and flattered and perhaps a bit embarrassed that we were so interested in their work.  They have a small dress shop.  There were four of them and this is their whole shop. 

Home-hosted Tajik Lunch

We had a home-hosted Tajik lunch near Istaravshan on this day.  It was in a house in a neighborhood that looked like most of the houses and most of the neighborhoods.  You can see our hostess and cook in the first photo.  The guy on her right was our local Tajik guide, Farhad.

The second photo shows how our table was set up when we sat down for lunch.  There was fresh vegetable salads from their garden, fresh apricots and cherries, breads, dried garbanzo beans and nuts, jams and jellies, cherry juice, fresh cream, and some dessert items.

Our soup is in the third photo.  It was fennel, rice, garbanzo beans, meatballs, onion, dill, and yogurt.  It was very good soup. 

Our main dish was in the fourth photo.  It was meat, potatoes, corn, rice, and lots of spices.  It was very tasty and very filling. 

After lunch, I wandered around her garden.  I found many of the fruits and vegetables that we ate for lunch, such as the cherries in the last photo.

M34 to Dushanbe

Khujand to Dushanbe used to be an all-day, knock-down, drag-out driving day.  You went over three mountain ranges on dirt roads with cliffs right next to the road.  Our understanding was that the situation has now been largely remedied by virtue of completing the M34 or Major Highway 34.  Well, I never drove the old road but I can tell you that the new road can get your blood tingling on multiple occasions.  It was an exciting adventure to cross over those mountains.

We crossed over the Turkistan Range, the Zeravshan Range, and the Gissar Range.  When I say mountains, the peaks in these ranges are over 18,000 feet elevation.  For that matter, Anzob Pass is over 11,000 feet elevation.  And I’ll hold off telling you about the Anzob Tunnel or Independence Tunnel.  A fellow traveler queried it before we started off and found out it’s called “the tunnel of death”. 

We went in five small vehicles, four or five to a vehicle, like a camel train on the old Silk Road.  It was very exciting.  The first small van was filled with our suitcases.  We ended up having to push it to get it started, so it was that kind of day.  The mountains were a big climb, higher and higher we went.  The views were magnificent at times.  The valleys were thousands of feet below us and never to be survived if we left the road, just sheer drops.  Most of the time, there were no barriers along the sides of the road.  The edges of the roads seemed loose and crumbly.  Some fellow passengers refused to look out and I’m not sure, but they might have been praying – and who could blame them.  It was a great experience, past tense.

We saw all four seasons on our drive over the mountains.  In the first photo, you can see spring on the Khujand side of the mountains.  Despite this being June and very hot, flowers were blooming in abundance in the lower mountains.

Many of the mountains had no vegetation.  The mountains are schists, sandstones, and limestones.  Still, they were very interesting to see at times, like in the second photo.  Of course, seeing boulders overhanging the road and seeing other places where boulders had fallen onto the road gave me a bit of a pause at times.

The higher we climbed, the steeper the mountains got and of course, we got into the snow country as well which you can see in the third photo.  In this photo, you can see spring flowers in the foreground and snow up on the mountains.

You can see some high ground in the fourth photo.  Again, peaks in these mountain ranges are over 18,000 feet elevation.

You can see one of our vans entering the Anzob Tunnel or Independence Tunnel in the lasts photo.  Iran built this tunnel and the sign says Independence Tunnel.  The tunnel is over three miles long.  Inside the tunnel is dark with no lights.  There are no road markings so every time you pass someone, it’s a bit like a game of chicken.  Most people tend to drive in the center of the tunnel until someone starts coming in the opposite direction, then it’s time to move over – but how far?  Parts of the tunnel had a lot of water on the roadway and sometimes loose gravel and big potholes.  To say the least, it was a real adventure.  But we made it out the other end, so I guess it’s not the tunnel of death, just the tunnel of fright!  We went through quite a few tunnels on this road but the Anzob or Independence was the longest one.   

More M34 to Dushanbe

We are still driving the M34 to Dushanbe.  We had quite a bit of rain on the drive.  Some of the rivers that flowed near the road appeared quite full and mountains without rivers suddenly had rivers running down them.

Our drive came to a dead stop near the top of a pass, which you can see in the first photo.  We sat in this position for maybe 45 minutes or more.  It was pouring rain and we couldn’t see what the problem was.  No one turned off their lights or car but it was a long wait.  At one point, we were getting anxious because we still had a long tunnel to go and trucks were kept off this road until 5:00pm and we wanted to get through before the trucks joined the road.

I wondered about the rivers rising in the heavy rains.  In places like the second photo, I was wondering whether the water might overcome the banks.  The road here was just gravel and the water was right there next to the road.  The third photo is just another photo of the river really rising and flowing with great intensity.  It looked like spring runoff.

The fourth photo is on the Dushanbe side.  It was nice to see the beautiful flowers but you can still see snow on the mountains at this point.

We were supposed to arrive in Dushanbe at 5:00pm but we didn’t arrive until 7:00pm.  As we neared Dushanbe, I felt sure the Great Spirit was giving us a thumbs-up, guiding-light signal which you can see in the last photo. 

Dushanbe

Dushanbe is the capital and largest city in Tajikistan.  While historically a small village, it was made the capital of the Soviet autonomous republic and grew to a population of around 800,000.  The name Dushanbe in Tajik means Monday and that’s because originally, it had a popular market here on Mondays.  It has gone through a lot of building since the Soviet days but still has lots of parks, lakes, big trees, fountains, and views of snow-capped mountains.

You can see Tajikistan’s Palace of the Nation or “White House” in the first photo.  This was as close as we got to it but it certainly looks impressive.  I don’t believe that tourists are allowed in or near it.

Ismoil Somoni is the statue in the second photo.  He is presiding over Friendship Square.  Somoni was the 10th century founder of the Samanid Dynasty.  This is a sort of renaissance of days long gone bye since it has been so long since any of the central Asia republics ruled themselves.  I’m not sure if Lenin used to be here but we found him hiding behind a crafts building a couple of days later.

I don’t know what building is in the third photo.  It’s in the main part of town but I thought it a very modern and impressive building.  I also noted the dome on top and the dome in the lower right side.  They still hang to their heritage.

The flag in the fourth photo is the Dushanbe Flagpole at 541 feet high.  It’s near the Palace of Nations which you can see in the photo.  I think we saw an incredibly tall flagpole in each country, though I don’t know why.  This one was the tallest flagpole in the world from its installation in 2011 until a taller one was built in 2014 somewhere else in the world.

The two ladies in the last photo were sitting in front of the National Museum of Tajikistan.  Several others were taking their photo so I did too.  They seemed very comfortable and a bit flattered or amused by our interest in them.  They had just been sitting there and chatting.