57. TAJIKISTAN

Due to Central Asia's weird borders, I have been to Tajikistan & Uzbekistan twice. I spent a week each time in the country, so two weeks in total. First and foremost: Tajikistan is so amazing and it has been my favorite of the five "Stans" I visited on this trip. Traveling here will guarantee you amazing mountainous landscapes (90 percent of the area is upland!), some of the friendliest people out there, a very interesting culture that still does not have too much influence of other modern time civilizations and some of the best markets I have seen on my world trip.

Tajikistan is the poorest of the former Soviet states, according to the UNDP’s human development index, mostly caused by a long devastating civil war from 1992 to 1997 and its difficult remote geography. Corruption, unemployment and governmental mismanagement affect people's lives a lot but recently the country is developing a lot. The average wage there is just 203 USD a month.

I have only been to the Western part of the country and have not visited the quite empty autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan yet. I actually planned to travel along the Pamir Highway too but after coming back from Afghanistan I was so tired, that I did not care about that plan at all anymore and enjoyed the capital Dushanbe for more days than I planned.

When I came to Tajikistan for the first time I entered from Uzbekistan and spent a few days in the northern city of Khujand. With only 150,000 people it's Tajikistan's second-largest city and the bazaar there was one of the coolest markets I have ever seen. The fruits are delicious, the choices of food and handcrafted goods are huge and it's so full of life and crowds. That is how I actually imagined the Silk Road of the old times. It's actually the largest market in Central Asia and placed in a beautiful, elegant hall with arched entrance portals.

From Khujand, I visited Dushanbe for the first time but only spent 2 days there and just preparing a few things for my Afghanistan trip. When I came back from Kunduz to Dushanbe I felt like a time traveler. Everything felt so clean, modern, calm and "civilized" (I really do not like using that word but in that case, it's really true). It felt like coming from 1800 to 2024. The most basic things like enjoying sitting in a park, talking to women or having a walk without dozens of people around me felt so good.

Dushanbe is actually quite a nice capital city. An interesting combination of modern architecture with somehow bizarre icons of statehood and remaining Soviet squares and boulevards. It has a super tranquil atmosphere and some decent food options & museums too. Locals tend to be very friendly and sometimes even speak English. I had a very cool Couchsurfing host there too, Sayido & his father who used to live in Somalia and had plenty of interesting stories from there and Eastern Germany.

After my second visit to Dushanbe, I headed into the Fann mountains where I rented camping equipment and had a wonderful 3 day hike. From Altuch I hiked to several emerald green lakes passing beautiful landscapes, tiny hamlets, steep mountain passes with gorgeous viewpoints & pastures of flowers and just enjoyed the empty landscapes. I even tried to catch fish in the lakes but failed and ended up with some tiny meatless babies. Definitely one of my big highlights of the Central Asian region!

I continued hitchhiking to Panjakent, spent a day there and headed off to Uzbekistan, my last step on this Central Asia journey.

3 Highlights:

- Hiking through gorgeous Fann Mountains

- The little surreal and chill capital Dushanbe with big contrasts of the old and the new

- Happening Panjshanbe bazaar in Khujand