Murgab, Tajikistan | 1 October, 2006 | $8.75 Murgab is the main town on the Eastern end of the Pamir Highway near the Tajik, Kyrgyz and Chinese borders. We arrived in Murgab around lunchtime and our driver took us directly to the police station where we were ushered into a concrete office with a man…
Alichur, Tajikistan | 29 September, 2009 | $8.75 We arrived in Alichur with an hour or two before sundown so I went out exploring. I took wonderful photos of the local kids and the father and daughter I had tea with in their home. Unfortunately, this is the one memory card in my camera I…
Navabad, Tajikistan | 28 September, 2006 | $5.83 Although there are a few official home stays that are approved by a Tajik organization we spent most of our nights on the road in the Wakhan Corridor and Pamir Highway with our driver’s friends. Navabad was the first place we stayed after leaving Khorog. We don’t…
Khorog, Tajikistan | 27 September, 2006 | $8 One of the two guys I was traveling with in Tajikistan flew into Khorog a day early and met me at the airport. He had walked, but a nice petroleum businessman from South America befriended me on the plane and offered us a ride in his fancy…
Dushanbe, Tajikistan | 24 September, 2006 | $10 USD It took me all day to get from Samarkand, Uzbekistan to Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The trip through the mountains was beautiful and you can read more about it here. The only real hotel in Dushanbe at the time was an old Soviet monstrosity and it took a…
Not too long ago I was asked to participate in a contest sponsored by the French Tourism Office of Martinique. The idea was to have 25 bloggers write a 500-word story about their “most exciting, astonishing, funny, special holiday experience.” Once I confirmed that they wanted a story about my vacation and not my favorite…
and China won’t let me in. Tajikistan started and ended on bad notes (waiting for permits in Dushanbe… almost getting into a fight with the militsia in Murgab and projectile vomiting at 3,800 meters), but everything in-between was completely amazing. I flew on a tiny 17-seater plane with no computers on board. We soared through…
There’s a lot of US Aid goods being recycled in Tajikistan. I’m not sure if they were given to Tajikistan or Afghanistan but it’s nice to see my tax dollars at work in this part of the world.
By my estimate it would be four or five days before I got another chance to take a shower. I was waiting in the small Pamiri town of Khorog, Tajikistan, to find a driver to take my friends and I across the Pamir Mountains by way of the Wakhan Corridor bordering Afghanistan. We were sure…
Crossing over from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan was relatively simple—It was one of the least busy borders I’ve ever seen. A German guy named Vincent whom I met at my hotel was heading to Dushanbe as well and decided to tag along with me a day earlier than planned. I was happy to have the company…
There’s a new Uzbek post up about Nukus and Moynaq backdated here. Where, you ask? I guess you’ll just have to read it to find out. Some little part of me really hopes that someone out there reading this is learning a little about geography. Did someone say souvenirs? here you go, Korea, Mongolia, China…
After a day of driving through the mountains I’ve made it to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. I haven’t had time to look around yet and today will be spent searching out a Kyrgyz visa (so I can get back to China), possibly registering with my embassy for my mom’s sake and picking up my…