Tajikistan 1 – Hilly Beauty with Pothole Guaranty

 

The border between Usbekistan and Tajikistan is uncomplicated, we quickly get all formal things done and exchange our remaining money from Som to Somoni. It is love at first sight: Super roads, super weather and a super mountain panorama. We cycle towards huge, snowy peaks.

 

 

Only around 9 million inhabitants live in Tajikistan, one of the poorest countries of the world. Like it’s neighbours it had once been part of the sowjet union, unlike them it doesn’t own any natural resources. After the collapse of the sowjet union a bloody civil war took place. By now, the situation is stable but the county is ruled by strict hand. The presidents face is omnipresent in the country, only recently censorship has been reduced and social networks are no longer blocked.

 

 

A young man, who helped us to purchase a sim card told us that at some point the president seemingly realized it might be beneficial if everyone is using Facebook and co instead of being angry at hin for blocking everything. We take it as a signal, that the country is slowly opening up. This is also true for international tourism, for example with the new e-visa. Apply, pay, print and arrive. While at the border this worked perfectly well, at different locations this is completely unknown. For example when we wanted to buy a local sim card. We need to show our visa, so we show the printout with the stamp from the border. The vendor quietly takes a look at it, then she looks at us and tells us, she needs to see a real visa. We explain it is real, but she only responds she never saw something like this before, that is cannot be valid and her company doesn’t accept it.

 

 

Es gibt schließlich zwei große Mobilfunkanbieter im Land, also auf zum zweiten. Leider spricht die Dame so gut wie kein Englisch. In Kombination mit den so gut wie kein russisch Kenntnissen von Christian erarbeiten wir so langsam gemeinsam, dass wir gerne eine Simkarte im Simkartenshop kaufen wollen. Die Dame verlangt daraufhin unsere Pässe und nimmt völlig überrascht zur Kenntnis, dass wir keine Tadschiken sind. Was uns anfangs noch zum schmunzeln bringt lässt uns dann doch verstummen, denn es gibt hier nur Karten nur Tadschiken. Da es keinen dritten Anbieter gibt bleiben wir hartnäckig und es kommt doch noch zum Geschäftsabschluss, denn die Dame kauft sich unsere Sim selbst. Das fanden wir hochsympathisch. Genau wie die Strecke welche nun auf uns wartete. Erstes Ziel ist die Hauptstadt Duschanbe. Hier müssen wir ein Permit für unseren nächsten Streckenabschnitt beantragen, welcher mitten im Pamirgebirge liegt. Um uns schonmal ein bisschen für die kommenden Aufgaben warm zu machen geht es erstmal auf einen 2700m hohen Pass. Die Straßen folgen fast ausschließlich den Flusstälern.

 

 

The landscape is incredibly stunning, the locals driving skills incredible scary. On our way we pass lots of graves on the tighter and tighter roads towards the summit. We pass lots of trucks, which broke down on their way uphill, those which are still working are only slightly faster than us. We split the climb on two days and camp relaxed in one of the serpentines.

 

 

Finally on top a surprise is waiting for us: A 5 km long tunnel. We try to hitchhike for a bit, but all trucks in our direction had to wait a bit further back – so we take our chance to pedal through while traffic is low. After two kilometres the illumination stops and it gets scary. Additionally the quality of the tarmac gets worse, so does the quality of the air we have to breathe. When we realize that the oncoming vehicles simply honk and overtake each other our hearts start to beat like hell and we try to vanish as far on the right side as possible. Finally we did it and and the tunnel opens up into an amazing view.

 

 

We start the roughly 50 km way down to the capital Dushambe, which is located about 1700 meters below us. That’s fun. We recognize the city already from large distance because of its famous landmark. Do you know what it is? What might a country having huge economical crisis being highly dependand on international help purchase? Right, the world’s highest flagpole! Funfact – in 2001 the Emirates started a strange competition with a 123m high flagpole. 2003, Jordan beat them. Since then year after year another ressource rich country joins the competition, no record lasts long. The real winner is the company Trident, who sells everything dictators love. We ask ourself if and when the US break the records.

 

 

Our hostel is located far away from the flagpole. We share it with a group of cyclists from Poland and have great evening together – for all of us it was the first beer after a long time. Unfortunately our ways split on the next morning as they want to go north. Instead we meet Armin from the Netherlands again and he joins us for the first kilometres of Pamir highway. A street full of superlatives, history, exciting presence that demands a lot from the cyclists condition, material and planning. Read more in the next blog post.

 

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