Dushanbe is considered a difficult post for US Embassy staff, so emphasis is given to providing comfortable home spaces. Heather’s house for her three years here is close to the US Embassy on the edge of the city. Behind the gated wall is a large paved area, a rose and magnolia garden, and a grape trellis. Nestled amongst the roses is a large tapchan that Heather has beautifully furnished.
Air pollution is often deadly in Dushanbe. There’s a massive coal-fueled electricity plant that recently came online. But, on the days when air pollution is lower the tapchan is an idyll.
October tends to be a low pollution time, so we got lucky and enjoyed some relaxing tapchan moments.
Emomali Rahmon, has been President since 1994 and heads an authoritarian regime.with very poor human rights records. The whole set up is corrupt and showy. Putin was in Tajikistan for a summit last week and Dushanbe ground to a halt. Extravagant flower gardens appeared out of nowhere, at least one took up an entire traffic lane.
There are photos and signs honoring Rahmon all over the place. It really seems like the kind of arrangement that Trump would like.
Since the end of the Soviet era many of the beneficial and interesting buildings, such as the National Teahouse have been demolished and replaced with ostentatious and exclusive government buildings that are mostly empty shells.
As we were only here for a couple days we didn’t actually spend time exploring the city – just driving through to get to a hike, for dinner, and to get to the airport.
Siyoma Gorge
Heather guided us on one of her favorite hikes up the Siyoma Gorge.
On the drive there, on a very busy road we encountered this:
The hike was a fairly mellow 3 mile out and back with 1,700 elevation gain. The challenge was starting at ~5,000 feet. 95% of Tajikistan is considered mountainous, with the most famous being the Pamirs. The mountains here, even these relatively smaller Fann Mountains, are so severely tall and rocky. And then, in this gorge, the loveliest stream and fall colors were such a respite.
We made leftover fish sandwiches with fatir bread for lunch.
Found some fireweed:
There are many bee hive wagons dotted around. Honey is a major local commodity.
Dinner at Bohora
We crashed a dinner with an Embassy guest and Heather’s coworkers at a local fancy restaurant that’s very special to Heather’s Tajik coworkers.
We came prepared with earplugs and ready for sensory overload. There was an extravagant light show, lounge singers, and Tajik dancers.
Heather drove us into the city this morning and helped us with getting a cab to the airport. Today we are flying to Nukus via Tashkent… For the next phase of vacation in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan…
Quillpig 