Ok. I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been trekking around the country, and catching up on schoolwork, which means that this will be the longest and most action packed of all my musings and ramblings. Two weeks ago, we took a weeklong trip to the Pamirs – the mountains in the southeast of Tajikistan that line the Afghan border, and it was the most incredible week. I’ll go day by day to try and organize all that happened.
THE PAMIRS
Day 1: September 24. In which we drive to Qalaikumb, but are delayed by dynamite-wielding Iranians.
We left Dushanbe at the crack of 6:00 am, with the expectation that we’d make it to Qalaikumb (our first stopping point) around 4 or 5. The roads were far from excellent but the mountains we were driving through were incredible. We stopped often for photos, and once to pick cotton in a field on the side of the road. Tajik university and high school students often have to leave school for weeks or sometimes months at a time to return to their families’ cotton fields when it’s time to pick it, and education suffers (thanks Intro to IR Research paper for that gem!) When we stopped for lunch, we were told that due to some blasting of mountainside by Iranians for road construction, our route was going to be closed for some time (basically we would be kept waiting for 4 hours). We were given the option of pressing onward and waiting, or turning back to Dushanbe and giving it another go in the morning. We pretty unanimously voted just to forge our way onward despite the delay, so off we went. Not much further into our journey, we met with the Panj river – the Afghan border. Several tourist-y “here is Afghanistan” photos later, we proceeded to follow the river eastward – it was our guide for nearly all of the trip, so most of the photos I have of mountains are actually of Afghanistan, because that’s what you can see from the Tajikistan side. It was really cool to compare the two countries… only a tiny river separates them but the houses are constructed differently, and Tajikistan boasts the electrical wires running all along the roads that Afghanistan does not. When we got to the road closing, we were told not to stray too far – I guess the landmine signs that surrounded the area where we parked our vans made our director nervous. Most of us read books, napped and chatted a bit while we waited for the road to open, and they finally let us through. After traveling across days and weeks and in and out of years, we arrived in Qalaikumb around 8:30, had a late dinner, bought some questionable water and returned to our guesthouse, which was run by some wonderful people. Due to our program director’s habit of lowering all of our Tajikistan expectations, we were thrilled and surprised to find comfortable beds, a western toilet, and a shower with decently warm water. A few of us walked a ways down the road in the dark to see the stars, which were fabulous and incredible, and then we turned in for the night in preparation for another early departure in the morning.
Day 2: September 25. In which we stroll through a park and then wait several hours to eat dinner.
The next day we woke up and were fed a delicious breakfast of nan, chai, and eggs, and then left Qalaikumb for Khurogh. Again, we stopped constantly for picture taking and leg stretching (suffice to say that the vans we were in were a bit cramped). We arrived in Khurogh relatively early – around 5 – and then were led around the city (for lack of a better word). There was a beautiful park that we walked through, and despite it’s small size, it is the capital of the Tajik province Badakhshan, so it was a pretty happening place (OK… not really, but there were shops selling chocolate and water and juice, and who needs anything more, really?). We walked through the park toward an Indian restaurant where we were planning to have dinner, but found that it was closed because it was a Sunday, so we ate instead at another restaurant, operated by a classy hotel chain. We ate outside, on a porch overlooking the river and with a beautiful view of the mountains… it was lovely to watch the sun go down from our table. The service, in classic Tajik style, was lacking, though, which would have been fine, but I was starving and it got chilly once the sun set. It took a good three hours (at least) from the time we sat down to the time we finished, and most of that was spent waiting (to order, to get drinks, to get food, to pay, etc.). As it was getting late, we turned back to the guesthouse, which was also much nicer than we had been directed to expect, though admittedly a bit rustic, and where a few backpackers were starting off their Pamiri adventures (yep… sometimes people backpack through the Pamirs – it’s a thing). Several people came into our room to play cards (one of our three Tajik drivers had learned the game Uno – or “yek,” in Farsi/Tajiki and was quickly becoming a fanatic) and then we all went to bed.
Day 3: September 26. In which we decide to avoid angering Afghan soldiers hiding in the mountains.
In the morning, we were given the day to wander around Khorugh, see the bazaar, visit a Pamiri handicrafts shop, and find lunch (we all ended up back at the same restaurant as the night before). The bazaar was pretty big and exciting, but not too different from the one in Dushanbe (see previous post). I didn’t need anything foodwise – I was pretty well stocked from my trip to the Dushanbe bazaar – but I did need water, so after a look around the bazaar a few people from the group and I went back to the main street, where there were a lot of little stores, searching for water. There was none to be found except in one store – apparently the city’s usual shipment of bottled water was running late, and all the stores had run out. Ok, Tajikistan… When we had located the one store with a stock of water (and exhausted it), we went back to the restaurant for lunch, which took about as long as dinner, but was fun and relaxing and delicious. After lunch, we headed off to Ishkoshim, a small village near the Wakhan Corridor. It wasn’t too long of a drive – only a few hours – and we arrived at our guesthouse with plenty of time to spare. We were early for dinner, so our director suggested we take a walk into town. By that, I mean we walk down a deserted dirt road dotted with one or two shops that was introduced to us as “the main drag” we were walking parallel to the river when we saw that a sort of wall ran down to the bank, and thought we’d walk along it, as close to the river as we could get. We ran into some Tajik kids who followed us, laughing and talking to us, and when we got about two thirds of the way down to the river, our director suggested we ask to make sure it was ok to continue on. They said it was fine, but the Afghan guards in the mountains would probably shoot us if we did. We turned around. When we got back to the road, one of the boys told us there was a cave up in a mountain that we could walk to in about 10 minutes, but there was a bit of a slope. Please consult the photo below for proper translation of “a bit of a slope.” After a harrowing climb up (but before an even more harrowing climb back down, in which I questioned whether I might be able to build a life for myself in the cave so I wouldn’t have to go down), we discovered that the cave was really a hole that the boys had dug to keep the body of a fox. While we were thrilled with the treasure, we told the boys that we needed to return to our guesthouse for dinner, so we said goodbye to them, and returned along the main drag. After dinner, the group made it through half of a Star Wars movie, before falling asleep.
Day 4: September 27. In which we walk into the Wakhan Corridor, and stargaze a lot.
Most of us woke up early (departure at 5) with our director to walk down the road, starting off our journey on foot two hours before the vans, which were going to meet us and pick us up as they caught up to us. The sunrise over the mountains was actually spectacular; you could actually see individual sunrays as they hit each of the mountains… I have never seen anything like it, and there’s no way photos could ever do it justice. As we headed into the Wakhan Corridor, we walked through villages whose language exists only in one village, some spoken by only two or three hundred people, and not at all mutually intelligible with one another. I would love to learn one of them… When the vans reached us, they said it was only another few kilometers to our first scheduled stop of the day – a fort – so we decided to keep on walking, with the result that we walked about 10 miles before 8:30 in the morning. So, success! As we walked, Pakistani mountains came into view, so in most pictures if you can see snowy mountains behind the first set of mountains, they’re in Pakistan. The fort was pretty great (who doesn’t love to climb on rocks?) and outside of it was an Ismaili shrine, which was cool to see. Then, we piled into the vans and drove to fort number 2 of the day, which was much bigger and much cooler. We took a lot of pictures over there, of the group, of Pakistan, of the fort itself… From there, we drove to Langar, where we were spending the night. Even smaller than Ishkoshim, Langar is a barely-there town, and the guesthouse was by far the simplest of our trip, but also my favorite. There were no beds – just a “takt” (a board on the floor) lined with mats and thick, thick blankets, where we all slept side by side. The single light bulb in our room was dimmer than the lights on our phones. Still, the dinner they served us was incredible, the people were friendly and talkative, and the stars outside were unbelievable… They had been getting progressively better as we moved higher into the mountain and away from the lights of the city, but in Langar, I was laying on a hill looking up at the stars and saw more than can possibly exist in the universe. I saw four shooting stars in the space of maybe twenty minutes. Still, the cold eventually forced us inside, so we put on the rest of Star Wars, but I at least fell asleep as soon as it started, and woke up to the credits rolling. It’s ok… I couldn’t follow the first half anyway, so I don’t feel anxious to know what happened.
Day 5: September 28. In which I am the only person on the planet, and also get offered a donkey to carry me up a mountain.
The next day, we woke up early again to do the same kind of walk as the day before, but the vans were going to leave after 4 hours, instead of 2, and the walk would be a strenuous uphill hike. Let there be no beating around the bush when I say I am not an intense hiker. Still, we’d be following the only road up the mountain, and the vans would be traveling the same way, so no matter where I ended up, I would be found. I was quite clear with the director the night before that I would not be hiking strenuously for four hours, and he was cool with that. My plan was to walk a ways, see the sun rise and then find a rock on which to sit and read. As soon as we started walking though, the mountains took my breath away (maybe it was the altitude too…) and I realized that I had very little interest in fighting a losing battle to keep up with the HIKERS of the group, and that I would rather stroll. We were just winding up the mountain, so I very rarely lost sight of them, but I did just kind of walk along on my own. People who know me well might say that I get lonely easily and like to have other people around, but this was actually probably my favorite part of the trip. The mountain was completely deserted, except for the occasional (by which I mean maybe 10 in 4 and a half hours) Tajik passerby wondering what on earth this white girl with unruly red hair was doing wandering around the mountain by herself, and the huge mountains all around me made me feel so tiny and insignificant, but in a wonderfully grounding and amazing way. I actually felt like I was the only person on the planet – I could hear every sound around me. The few people I passed were quick to offer me hot tea, except for one, who offered me a donkey instead, to help with my trek up the mountain. When the vans caught up to me around 9:30, I was not ready to return to civilization, but I was pretty tired. This began our return journey; we were heading back to Khorugh. We got to see camels on the Afghan side, and also some yaks at a Kyrgyz village on the Tajik side. The road was so desolate – everywhere you looked all you could see was dust and dirt and mountain – but it was a beautiful place. There were a couple lakes with the bluest water I’ve ever seen. When we had arrived back in Khrorugh, it was dinner time, so we went to the Indian restaurant we had tried to our first time in Khorugh, which was pretty good… For all of you planning trips to Tajikistan, Khorugh has great food.
Day 6: September 29. In which we return to Qalaikumb, and not too much exciting happens.
We returned from Khorugh to Qalaikumb, doing pretty much in reverse what we had done on Day 2. We got to Qalaikumb relatively early, though, so we had a little time to walk into town (I keep using that phrase… it means almost as little here as it has in the past) before dinner, which was wonderful, and complete with delicious apple tea. After dinner, I watched a movie with a couple other students, stargazed for a bit, and then went to bed.
Day 7: September 30. In which we return to Dushanbe, and it feels like development.
Our director was leading one more early morning walk, but only two of us went with him. The other students and our director both have pretty long legs and walk pretty fast, so at times I was jogging to keep up with them, but what else is new? We walked for a little over an hour and a half before the cars caught up to us, and while the scenery was certainly nothing like in Langar or Ishkoshim, it was still a nice early morning walk. The cars found us and picked us up, and we headed back to Dushanbe, with only a few stops (including one for lunch). We arrived around 4, and I was thrilled to shower and fall into bed at 8:30, for about 13 hours.
ISKANDERKUL
Ha! You thought you were nearing the end, but only of Part 1! Stand up. Stretch. Eat a sandwich. Have a drink of water. If you don’t come back to keep reading, I won’t be upset. Actually, I won’t even know. Be aware, though, that Part 2 is much, much shorter, and full of pretty exclusively relaxation. I even feel relaxed writing about it. Reading it will be a bit like a massage for your brain. I’m going a little crazy… writing about the Pamirs took a lot of my sanity…
Anyway.
This past weekend (October 8 and 9) a group of 6 students went to Iskanderkul, a lake which is (so I’ve heard) north of Dushanbe. We were planning to camp on the shore, hike a lot, have a bonfire, and be really intense. On our way out, we called the company we were going to rent the tents and sleeping bags from, but the number wasn’t working. We were a little concerned, but pressed on, hoping that as we got nearer, we would be able to get in touch with someone. We never did get a hold of them. Luckily, our driver, Zafar, knew someone who worked at a company that rented cabins on the lake, and found him. Unluckily, the company had closed and moved out for the winter, because I guess it gets pretty cold in Iskanderkul, so the tourism season ended last weekend. Luckily (this trip is a bit full of ups and downs), Zafar’s friend was able to get him the key to one of the cabins and willing to let us stay there. The cabin was so, so nice. The rooms had beds with warm blankets, there was a kitchen, and a sort of sunroom all lined with windows, and a porch (though the boards making up it’s floor and the stairs leading from it were more than a little questionable), and it sat just feet from the shore. The view from the porch was gorgeous. Once we had settled in, we headed off to a waterfall – only about 20 minutes’ walk from the house. The mountains we were hiking amongst were beautiful (the Pamirs were awe inspiring and breathtaking and incredible, Iskanderkul is pretty, in a way that they are not) and there was a kind of platform over the waterfall which was cool (but a little frightening) to walk onto.
After spending some time near the waterfall, we turned around and walked back to the cabin for a picnic by the lake. We’d all brought some lunch/snacking food, and we shared: cheese, bread, nutella, a pomegranate, etc. Then we went into the sunroom and sat, chilling and playing cards (mostly Uno and a weird Russian game) for a few hours. When we were sufficiently relaxed, we decided to head out in the opposite direction from the waterfall to “Snake Lake,” where two of our number (not me) jumped off a rock into the very cold lake. The rest of us sat comfortably warm, sunning ourselves on the rock for a while, and then we all returned to the cabin for naps, snacks, and to gather firewood. I spent a lot of time and energy on that firewood, but as soon as the sun went down it got very, very cold, and the prospect of sitting outside (even by a bonfire) became considerably less appealing. Instead, we stayed in the sunroom, playing more cards and chatting, while Zafar ran around the town gathering surprise dinner supplies. He made us a great stew of potatoes, noodles, carrots, an onion and some garlic, and we all dug in. We found a couple forks and spoons, but mostly ate Tajik style: with hands and bread as makeshift utensils. By 9:30, I was exhausted (my bedtime here tends to be around sundown…), but I willed myself to stay awake until 11, when others suggested we turn in. As soon as I got into bed, though, it was so cold that I thought I’d never get to sleep. My last thought as I lost consciousness was “It is very cold in here. It’s conceivable that I won’t wake up.” I did, but I’m very glad we were not in tents.
While we had originally planned another hike for the morning, we were all pretty worn out from our day of relaxing so instead a couple of us walked around the lake after breakfast (more nutella, bread, and cheese) and then left by 10:00, with the hope of getting back to Dushanbe by lunchtime (it’s only about a 2 hour drive). On our way out, about an hour outside of Iskanderkul, we passed a group of people watching from afar what we assumed was a wedding. We got out to see what we could see, but were almost immediately invited (and then dragged) down to the reception of what turned out to be not a wedding, but a circumcision party, and as soon as we arrived we became the center of attention, being offered food, tea, vodka (at 11 am), and asked to dance. One of the guys in the group was then brought up to the front of the reception to give a toast, in farsi, which, if I remember correctly, went something like “Thank you… This is a very big party, very good… A lot of food… thank you” and so on, which was very funny for us, but which the other guests apparently really appreciated. Our driver soon suggested we leave, due to the plethora of drunk men, so we headed out after about an hour, and drove on. We arrived back in Dushanbe with no more shenanigans in the early afternoon, and I spent the rest of the day catching up on some schoolwork.
Phew. Sorry about the length of this. Kudos to anyone who got this far. It was an action-packed couple of weeks, though, and I think it deserved all this attention. On the agenda for the next few days: classes, studying, and recovering from all this travel.
