We headed out early today to go to the neighbouring Tajikistan. The borders were quiet; the officers were not even ready yet. At some point we were yelled at for not listening. We retreated and tried to understand the working culture at both sides. Very laid- back type of thing up to the level of unbelievable jokes. My kind of work culture – no stress no pressure I am the boss you just shut the f* up. It was almost 10 am and the machines haven’t been up yet. Some machines like the bag x-ray machines just covered up all together. You just went through when he flipped the fingers.
Our guide, Omar, was waiting on the other side of the border and identified himself when we arrived. I needed to go and he gave me 2 somani for the toilet. Found a hole on the floor with shit all over the sides. I stopped breathing for a bit to assess a second thought. Oh what the heck! just do as the locals do and you’ll be fine. The walls were half my height so I had plenty of room to learn how. I finished in two seconds and got out. The stink trailed me for a while and I was afraid it would stuck. Phewww what an experience!
We stopped by the market and people just stared at us like we just dropped down from another planet.Visited an old mosque and realised the Korean influence in the architecture of the building. The Koreans were brought in from Samarkand, apparently. But how did they come here in the first place?
As we left the city of Pandjikent, the sun has started to warm my back but the weather was fine just a bit windy. After an hour up the winding road the gravels started to rock the SUV. We went through villages and the settlements were scattered on the hillsides. There is a gold mine operated by the Chinese in the area and as we entered they made a copy of our passports.
The lakes were beautiful but I forgot the names of each one of them. Who cares!. We met a local family up there having a family picnic. The daughter brought some grilled fish for us to try. It was delicious.I wish we could spend more time up there breathing the fresh air and just chilling like that local family. But we had to go and rode down the treacherous gravel road again.
The SUV stopped at a museum. The history of Tajikistan that I never knew. Interesting facts of how this place was part of the early human civilization. Having located on the Silk Route made this land habitable and accessible by the traders and later on by conquerors. The long history was not complete without the dark era of Soviet occupation. The time when the Islamic philosophy and literature disappeared and died altogether. A muslim poet by the name of Rudani was from this region.
Another gruelling toilet experience but this time I just gave up and held it in until reached our hotel in Samarkand.
Tajikistan like any other countries in Central Asia are isolated from the rest of the world. But people continue to live and prosper in their own little ways. They narrated their stories with pride and claimed the dignity at every step. When I waved goodbye to our guide, Umar, I knew he would go home happy and reiterated the whole stories again to the next group of tourists.
We crossed the sleepy borders again and went back to the vibrant city of Samarkand for the night.
Would you live in Tajikistan?
