Town with limited/bad accommodation

Morning in Khujand.

I woke in Khujand around 0530 and lay till 0630 and slowly got ready. I had a heavy but healthy breakfast of banana, oats and kefir washed down with a lightly sweetened cup of black tea.

Having explored the Citadel area yesterday, I wanted to explore the bazaar area. It took about 15 minutes to get there by foot. It was located near a square with a mosque and somewhat semi-circular tunnel in shape. It wasn’t anything new to me and didn’t stay long. I had also seen the Afghan Market on Google Maps and checked it out because it was so near. It was more clothes and toys and was even less interesting.

I headed back to the apartment but stopped along the way to change money, since the Dushanbe hostel had written to me they only take local currency. I wanted to change USD80 and tendered the bank USD100 but they didn’t have USD20 change. So unfortunately, I had to give them my smaller USD notes which are always useful for changing small amounts on the last day. My alternative was the ATM but none worked last night and besides I had a lot of USD left even if I wanted to carry them over to my Iran trip in 2018.

I was back in the apartment by 0900 and had an hour’s rest before Anisa turned up, about half hour before my indicated check-out time. It worked well for me. She walked me to the road where I could catch a minibus (TJS1) to the station where I caught a shared private car to Istaravshan (TJS20). The driver wasn’t serious about filling up the car with 4 passengers as he already had goods in the boot so we left with just me and one other.

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Afternoon in Istaravshan.

The journey took just less than an hour. I got dropped off around 1130 at the Sadbarg, which may be the only hotel in town. No hotels are available online in this town.  It is a hotel and wedding hall in one. The only had simple cleanish rooms with shared bathrooms (a little less than cleanish) today and cost TJS100. I reluctantly took it as the option was to find the station and continue to Dushanbe. I tell myself the room is fine and I only use the bathrooms several times a day.

I took a light lunch of shwarma opposite/near the hotel before wandering to the markets. After recent markets including the one this morning, I was wondering if I should bother. However, it turned out to be very atmospheric. Despite being a modern building, it was very dark inside with lots of dust illuminated by the several skylights. The locals were also very friendly and invited me to take a few pictures.

Opposite the market were a few workshops were blacksmiths fashioned knives by hand.

I headed back to my area and took a very brief wander through the old town. The roads were supposed to lead to the mosque but I had had enough already. The thought of returning to my room didn’t appeal either at first but once I was there, I realised the thought was actually worse than the reality.

I lost myself in some downloaded Youtube videos which I had downloaded many months ago which I still hadn’t had the time to watch. Finally I have that time!

There’s not much to see and do in Istaravshan (that I haven’t had enough of already). I had kinda pencilled it into the plan because I needed to pace the journey at this rate in case I had problems getting through the Besharik/Kanibodom border. If I had had to detour through Oybek, then it would be too many days of long travel. Now that everything had gone smoothly, I could up the pace and head to Dushanbe … but then I’d have too much time there till my flight.

I headed out at 1830 for the nearby restaurant. While they had shashliks, a lot of the food was precooked and kept in the warmer. Nothing appealed. So I headed back to the lunchtime shwarma bar and had a doner sandwich. It was enough but I feared being up all night with hunger as it wasn’t that big. So I followed up with a shwarma again.

Back in the hotel, I got ready for a shower. Then shock horrors I realised that the shared bathroom’s shower cubicle didn’t have any taps. I thought, that must be the way it is! But then why would they give me towels? Crisp scratchy towels, just the way I like them.

I went down to reception but it was unattended. I waited and finally got to ask the receptionist. He led me down to the basement to one of several shower cubicles; the only one that was functioning. I got my stuff and had that shower. Tell you what! The best shower is the one that you thought you weren’t going to have. But honestly, it was a pretty strong and warm shower.

The best shower is the one that you thought you weren’t going to have.

I finished the evening with a few rounds of Solitaire on my laptop. Something I hardly ever do. It’s good to be “stuck” somewhere and not have internet once in a while.