I spent the day in a shared taxi and rode about 2.5kms to my hotel. I’m so glad I didn’t ride it. It was 100kms to the base of a climb of 1200m vertical, later there was 20kms of roadworks followed by more climbs before coasting into Dushanbe. Add to that the fact that it’s more than 30 degrees and you can see why I lost interest. I’m quite tired after 5 months on the road and it’s time for a rest and recharge … soon.
Being in Dushanbe means that I’ve finished the Pamir Highway, one of my dreams for many years. It’s a great feeling to have seen exactly what I’ve been reading about and to experience everything about this area. It’s been hard and exhilarating and I feel great about it.
This morning, the owner of Roma Guesthouse rang for a shared taxi for me and tried to negotiate with the first guy who turned up before sending him on his way. The next guy was far more agreeable, so we strapped This Moment on the roof, along with all of my gear, wrapped it all in a sheet and got going.
Only up the road though. We had to fill the car with some more passengers before leaving. That took some time. It was interesting watching the driver in operation – going to the usual passenger pickup spots, calling people, enquiring around town etc. then eventually we had a couple more passengers and we left.
What followed was a hot day in the car with lots of starts and stops.
We arrived at the outskirts of Dushanbe where they dropped me off and I loaded This Moment for the short ride to the hotel. It felt like a nice enough city and it also felt to me like the end of the Pamir part of the trip. Job done. What an amazing ride.
I went out for a celebratory dinner to the nice restaurant in the park over the road. The conversation went like this :
A table for one please
Smoking or non-smoking ?
Non-smoking please
(A guilty glance) Ok, please follow me
(I noticed an ashtray on the table) Is this non-smoking ?
No sir. We don’t have non-smoking
Ok bye bye
I found another restaurant down the road easily enough.
Dushanbe is quite different to where I’ve been in Tajikistan. I’d describe it unkindly as a cosmopolitan building site with pictures of an obviously egotistical leader plastered everywhere. The buildings that have been finished are grand and ostentatious. The tree lined main street is nice but the whole place just doesn’t do it for me. I was expecting something uniquely central Asian, but it misses the mark by quite a way. I don’t know what the city is trying to be. Maybe when they finish the building works, it’ll be different.
Besides all that, the people are the same friendly hospitable Tajiks that I’ve met for the last few weeks. So it’s hard to be disappointed with the city when it’s filled with such nice people.
As is my rest day habit, I didn’t do much here except plan out the next few weeks and book flights and hotels in Samarkand, Bukhara and Istanbul. Still, after a few days, I was ready to leave.
Pamir mission accomplished and enjoyed. I’m really happy and thankful that I had the opportunity to do this, especially at this age.