Articles from this Category
29 July 2024
Above: Lake Karakol and the mountains in the background. Long break at Murghab We departed Alichur at 0900 headed towards Murghab, hometown of Altynbek, our driver. It is where we rejoin the M41 Pamir Highway, and also the largest town on the highway. The scenery had changed from desert to grassland in parts. And the […]
28 July 2024
Socialising at breakfast Finally, the altitude has started to have an effect on me, with a bad night sleep. I probably had only 2h of dozing. Apart from that, I didn’t have any other issues. It was a very social atmosphere at breakfast, like at dinner last night. Two Spanish guys whom we had run […]
27 July 2024
Nasty surprise With such luxurious ensuite, of course, I slept through the night without needing it. [Edit: in later parts of the trip, I go multiple through the nights when it is an outhouse!] We had been given a leisurely departure of 0900 today. Upon settling the bill, the Germans were presented with a nasty […]
26 July 2024
Roadworks and landslide We had been given a choice of starting at 0400 today or 0700. The earlier time was to avoid road works and Altynbek, the driver, didn’t seem to offer an in-between option. So, we chose the later departure, as 0400 is obscene! With delays settling up the bill at the homestay, we […]
25 July 2024
Yesterday Dushanbe isn’t exactly loaded with sights apart from museums. In this heat, I didn’t feel like wandering around repeating exterior visits to various governmental buildings or white elephants. I did walk around the Rudaki Ave area and beyond, quite early around 0800 to explore and try get rid of about USD5 of UZS. If […]
23 July 2024
Above: You could say these four men are having a good time in bed. Samarkand to border Today, I start my 2400 km overland adventure from Samarkand in Uzbekistan to Hotan in Xinjiang, China. Today’s portion is a relatively solo border crossing from Samarkand to Dushanbe, Tajikistan. After a good breakfast at 0900, I took […]
20 October 2017
Above: View flying from Dushanbe to Almaty. The view was absolutely was gorgeous. It didn’t look any different from flying over the Southern Alps in the South Island of New Zealand but the difference here is the scale: it’s the expanse and reach. The expanse is such that these mountains were in sight the entire […]
19 October 2017
There’s nothing much to see in Dushanbe for a non-museum person. I explored a little of the city which has nice tree-lined avenues along with large government buildings. You can be the judge of the architectural styles; check out the pictures. To be honest, I needed a day of doing very little and spending time […]
18 October 2017
I woke too early around 0500. It ws raining , just as it had been forecasted. After much waiting, I finally got up to use the dreaded toilet. It didn’t turn out too badly. I must have been the first person to use it since it was cleaned yesterday. The seatless rim was clean and […]
17 October 2017
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 […]