Americas Best Value Inn Dushanbe

... terms after the rough time they got over the last two days. A bit of exploring and a lot of internetting see the rest of the day out. I wonder what happened to the civil war occupants of my room. I also have my first stomach upset of the trip so I resort to an ancient remedy. Coke and vodka. Any spirit will do but vodka is cheap.

... point and I'm told it's another 100k to Dushanbe. Oh yeh! Another 60 miles or so of the same except there are more vehicles on the road so there are more blinding dust trails to negotiate. It makes overtaking interesting. I get to Obigarm and find it is 90k to Dushanbe and the light is beginning to fade. BUT. But there is this dream road with smooth tarmac curving its way through the hills to Dushanbe. The hills are much lower now and riding this road is another sort of thrill. <br ...

... Lonely Planet's pick. We hopped into a cab and drove up to where our restaurant awaited. Jumping out of the cab we feasted our eyes on Cafe Merve, a restaurant that looked like the love-child you would get if McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut all jumped into bed together. While we were happy to go with the safe(ish) western options on the menu (and for me the first pizza I'd had since we left), none of us could believe that this was the best Dushanbe had to offer, even to ...

... mountain sides and peaks where little more than a 100 feet from the wingtip. We even flew over a 4000m mountain pass clearing it by 15m at the most. It was 40 minutes of life in slow motion but somehow very enjoyable. Crossing over mountain passes where the winds are so high, the plane was being thrown around like a kite. I would have vomitted but for my heart already being in my throat - Christina ...

... auch ueber ein Videosystem, die Musik hier in Tajikistan gefaellt mir nicht besonders (habe jetzt so zehnmal "Mustafa, Mustafa" gehoert und mein Jeepfahrer auf dem Pamir Hwy hatte nur 2 Kassetten, eine mit 15min Musik, die andere mit 8min Musik, habe ich jeweils 100 mal gehoert...). Die Strasse war wie gesagt, sehr schoen, zunaechst weiter das Flusstal an der Grenze entlang. Tajikistan ist ja ziemlich arm, aber Afghanistan ist doch ...

... named "the tunnel of death", a Iranian project that was supposed to be finished last year but for some reasons have gone through some small problems... So supposedly it is closed but for a small bribe our driver takes us through this extremely dark and polluted tunnel with at some part close to 1 meter deep of water. Despite all that I still spent most of the 8 hours drive with my mouth open, enjoying the ...

... towers, and the hill where once a city had stood. The weather was cold, and a gray sky prevailed. We were the only ones there. A thin layer of ice had covered everything, and I spent the whole day cursing my hiking boots for not doing well in this environment. We visited the fortress and two nearby Madrassas, the ruins of which are located on the same premises. One of the Madrassa's ...

... and we never got in the front of the line or were sped through in any way whatsoever. The only helpful thing was the fact that he linked us up with a driver and a van, who subsequently took us to our hotels. I say us, since I had arrived with three Air Force security personnel who were in Dushanbe for some personal security detail work. I arrived at the hotel 'Mercury' amidst a power outage. The reception staff processed us with flashlights, and ...

... nach Dushanbe zu fahren, vorbei an kleinen Doerfern die sich im ueblichen Zustand des Verfalls zeigen (die Tajiken sind in der Region als fleiszige Arbeiter bekannt, das muessen sie auch sein wenn sie ihre Doerfer erhalten wollen). Aber die Ostalgie im sowjetischen Intourist und das Panorama des Fan machen die aufkommende Magenverstimmung und Rumpelfahrt vergessen, wir sind wieder mitten im tajikischen Abenteuerland. Irgendwann geht die Fahrt vorbei an sowjetischen ...

... civil war! Near the end, there are young girls (and I mean 8yr olds and later younger ones) carrying piles of sticks they have collected and bringing them home - talk about child labour! We hoped to flag down someone to bring us back to Dushanbe. However most of the cars are full - feck, its a long way back - about 50km.Eventually after a bit of walking (DAve D it reminded me of hitch hiking times in ...