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Tajikistan - 2017

 

My travels today included great variety, starting with further explorations of Dushanbe that were followed by a great excursion into the mountainous areas that surround Dushanbe.

Our departure from the hotel was at the civilised, almost leisurely, time of 9:00am.  Our first stop was Victory Park, an expansive area of green parkland on the south-eastern outskirts of Dushanbe.  My guidebooks mentioned a Soviet-era cable car service that was available to take visitors to the summit, adding helpfully that it was probably safer to walk.  The comment was probably prophetic, as the cable car was not functional, and was sitting in all its 1950s glory in a grim station building at the top of the hill.

The view across Dushanbe was indeed impressive, even though the cables of the non-functioning cable car interrupted the panorama.  Interestingly, every high-rise building had been built within the last five years; prior to that time, Dushanbe must have had a very provincial feel to it.

Victory Park was named because it also contained the large war memorial to the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany (1941-1945).  Although no fighting took place on Tajik territory, Tajikistan was part of the USSR and so was called upon to make great sacrifices of men, gold and resources to the Soviet war effort.

At the head of the memorial, the huge wall proclaimed (in Tajik and Russian) “No-one is forgotten, and no-one forgets”.  Ascending the hill to the main memorial was a wide staircase lined with memorial photographs of Red Army heroes from Tajikistan, although some of the photographs were a bit puzzling, especially on one memorial where two servicemen were shown as having the same face.

Our second stop was towards the north of Dushanbe, another expansive (34 hectare) area known as the Botanical Gardens.  With an impressive entry gate featuring ancient Persian imagery, the Botanical Gardens reportedly contain more than 2,000 species of plants.  The area also contains some impressive wooden buildings constructed in traditional Tajik styles, so with half an hour available to spend in the gardens, I explored these first before heading to the large glass conservatory that dominated the area’s landscape.  The conservatory rose to a height of several tens of metres, and was dominated by a large portrait of the President that covered much of that height.  On closer look, the building was less impressive, being somewhat run-down.  It is seldom open to visitors, but it was open this morning, so I entered to have a look at the exotic plants reportedly kept there, only to find nursery beds of small plants and seedlings, many of which seemed to have died through neglect.

At 10:45am, it was time to head north out of Dushanbe towards the Varzob Valley.  As we processed north, we passed a huge cement works that was impressive both for the copious quantities of air pollution being emitted from its chimneys and the hundreds of paintings on its high walls illustrating almost every aspect imaginable of Tajikistan’s history.  A history student in Tajikistan could do worse than using the wall of the cement factory as a place for study and revision.

The Varzob Valley is lined with hundreds of dachas (holiday homes) for wealthy residents of Dushanbe, and apparently they are quite expensive, with smaller dachas starting at about US$100,000.  Our drive northwards was delayed for about an hour when we came to a small bridge on the road that had been the scene of a horrific traffic accident the previous night.  The driver of a semi-trailer truck carrying a container load of bagged cement fell asleep while driving south towards Dushanbe and the truck careered off the road into a small canal, killing the driver and a passenger.  We arrived just as three cranes were beginning the difficult task of lifting the semi-trailer out of the canal.

We were eventually on our way north, and after about half an hour, we turned eastwards off the main road onto an unsealed road that followed the course of a small river that was a tributary of the Varzob River.  This was a rough but scenic drive, following the course of a river with huge, rounded stones and steeply eroded valley sides topped with abundant snow cover.  We climbed steadily, past the uranium processing plant that was labelled as a calcium difluoride factory, until we reached the village of Takob.  Our destination was a family home at the top of the village, where we were due to have lunch.  Getting there involved a beautiful climb up a dirt pathway through the village, past goat sheds and houses, surrounded by snow-covered hills, up to our destination altitude of 1,800 metres. 

The family’s house is not marked on any map, and even Takob is only shown on the most detailed of maps.  If you are interested, you can find the house by accessing Google Maps, activating the aerial photo option, and going to latitude 38°50'21.1"N, longitude  68°56'24.9"E (38.839191, 68.940239).

Lunch was a feast, served on the floor of a room with soft mats around the perimeter for seating.  Lunch took an hour and a half because our hosts kept bringing food – highlights being the soup with potatoes and lamb, and plov, which is Tajikistan’s national dish, comprising oily rice with shredded carrots and roasted garlic, topped with pieces of lamb.  (Lamb is often served in Tajik meals, but all I see in the fields are goats.  The two animals have the same label in Chinese, and I can’t help wondering if the same applies in Tajikistan).

After lunch, we were given the option of climbing to the top of a nearby mountain, or resting.  A small majority of our group took the climbing option, as did I, intended to return before reaching the distant summit. 
The climb was steep and high, largely comprising the loose gravel of an ephemeral mountain stream.  Having dutifully completed half the climb, I awkwardly descended down the slope (an even harder task than ascending because of the loose surface) and returned the house, honestly being able to claim the crown of being the first returnee.

There was just one last stop to make on the return trip back to Dushanbe.  In the lower reaches of the gravel road, the Deputy Administrator of Railways had a large dacha with an expansive and unusual garden.  We weren’t able to see the pool and the zoo, but we did manage to see the 20 metre high artificial waterfall, the sculpture of three cavemen attacking a sabre-tooth tiger, the large pavilion that is used to accommodate a hundred or so guests for functions, and the stairway to a cliff top lookout point.  The artificial waterfall obviously requires quite a bit of power, but fortunately the dacha has its own electricity sub-station.

The drive back to Dushanbe was quick and smooth, and we were back by 6:45pm.  Dinner was scheduled for 7:30pm, but having only finished a huge lunch at about 3:00pm, I decided to give it a miss.  Amazing but true!



 

Day 3 - Dushanbe and Takob

Saturday 25 March 2017