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Tajikistan - 2017

 

The bleak weather forecast I had red for today was confirmed as soon as I looked out of my window – grey overcast skies with steady rain.  Our destination for the day, the spa town of Khoja Obi Garm, was not that far from Dushanbe, being a one and a half hour’s drive to the north, so there was no great urgency to set off.  With the free time we had this morning, a group of us set off to explore the Green Market, a short ten minutes’ walk from the hotel.

Although the walk was in the rain, it was immediately apparent that the week-long holidays of last week were over and everything was back to
normal.  The streets were crowded with cars and people, even including lines of cars parked down the centre of some streets which were being used as parking lots.

The Green Market is the largest bazaar in Dushanbe, and is also known as the Shah  Mansur or Zilloni Bazaar.  The name suggests it sells fruit and vegetables, which it does, but it sells far more than that – just about everything in fact.  Whether you want clothes (including Russian tank helmets), DVDs, meat carcasses, spices, household goods, candy, or anything else, this is the place to come.  It’s also a great place for people watching, as it is a hub of everyday life in Dushanbe.

The downside of the Green Market this morning was that everything was dark and wet, and with a camera still prone to misting up after yesterday’s exposure to wet weather, photography was challenging (not that this stopped me, of course).  The Green Market is a place I will try to return to in drier, brighter weather.

Packing for our departure presented its own challenge as a rapid series of power blackouts began a few minutes after returning to the hotel.  I was one of the fortunate ones who managed to get down to the ground floor (from the 13th floor, where all our rooms were located) with my luggage in the elevator rather than having to use the stairs – lots of them.

The drive northwards to Khoja Obi Garm was through beautiful mountainous scenery with rushing brown silt-laden streams cascading through the snow-covered slopes.  Unfortunately, the rain prevented photos, but the scenery was quite spectacular.  We reached our destination, Khoja Obi Garm, at a little after 12:30pm.

Khoja Obi Garm is a health spa that was built during the Brezhnev era of the USSR between 1972 and 1982.  It was one of ten such spas in various parts of the USSR, and a popular destination for ordinary families who might perhaps go to stay twice each year.  It sits at the head of a valley over a natural spring of water containing radon.  The curative properties of radon are debated, and the balance of evidence I read before coming suggested it was carcinogenic and to be avoided.

The buildings of Khoja Obi Garm made an immediate impact as soon as we turned a sharp corner and it came into view.  Brutalist would be the best description of its architectural style; this is NOT a cosy little intimate alpine spa!  The closer we got to the buildings, the more run-down they appeared, with decaying, decomposing concrete, rusting metal and grim, dark corridors.  It would be out of place as the villain’s lair in a James Bond movie.

We checked into our rooms, which were huge in size with generous slab-like beds.  Apart having no internet, the worst aspect of the room was undoubtedly the bathroom plumbing, which seemed not to have had any maintenance since Brezhnev’s death.  After a lovely lunch, we were given a tour of the facility and an overview of the treatments available.  As expected, most treatments focussed on the radon-infused water in forms such as underwater massage, soaking in hot water, colonic irrigation, genital cleansing, being sprayed with high pressure hoses, and so on.  Other treatments included having hot paraffin wax applied in patches to the skin, and massages, either by machine or by humans.  The leech treatments were unfortunately not available because they are seasonal; all the leeches had died and they need to wait for a new batch.  Most of the radon water treatments were complimentary, but the other treatments were available at a cost.

With steady rain continuing all afternoon, the possibility of doing some walks through the mountains was not practical, so I opted for a massage instead.  At 60 somani (about US$7.50) for one hour, it was wonderful value and I felt great at the end of it.  There are two male masseurs at the spa, both in their 60s, one who resembled a Russian wrestler, and one with huge, bulging, goggle eyes.  I had the goggle eyed masseur, whose style was not regular Swedish, Thai or anything mainstream; rather, I would describe his style as Energetic Red Army.

With nothing else to do after dinner, I joined the others for what was described as a party organised by the spa at 8:00pm.  It was a bit bizarre, but ‘bizarre’ is one of Tajikistan’s attractions.  To get to the party venue, we had to descend the dimly lit stairs through five floors of the hotel, walk along a long corridor to an adjoining building, descend another five floors by stairs (several sections of which were unlit), walk along a couple of corridors, through what looked like a ballroom, and then down four more flights of decaying stairs to arrive at a theatre, complete with its Soviet-era decor (like everything else in the spa), with seating seemingly set for a stage production of some kind. 

Two men on a jukebox were playing techno-music with coloured lights flashing on an off, and there was beer and chips available (sadly no non-alcoholic alternatives).  I was told that at a similar event last year, lots of locals turned up, and it had been a good chance to mix and mingle.  This year, the locals seemed more interested in playing pool in another area, and the large theatre was ours alone.

Back to discussing the accommodation rooms ... The spa does not provide any soap; if you want soap you have to buy it in their shop.  The branding was, I thought, unusual.  I needed soap, so I bought a box, and asked where it had been manufactured.  Can you guess where?

(By the way, the reason that the photos of the spa are in brilliant sunshine, even though today was pouring with incessant rain, is that I have used photos taken the following morning - Tuesday).


 

Day 5 - Dushanbe to Khoja Obi Garm

Monday 27 March 2017