A Few Short Stories

For starters, here's some pictures of the car. It might be hard to tell how small it is from this picture, but trust me, it's smaller than you think. But, as I said, it's nice because it can maneuver through the construction blockade on our street. Car ownership is certainly changing the way we live in Dushanbe and has opened up a variety of opportunities. Of course, car ownership is not without responsibilities and as I took the car in for a tune-up on Saturday, I was reminded that it isn't all fun and games. Luckily, we have a mechanic at the embassy who is willing to come in outside of hours to work on personal vehicles (I pay him, of course), so at least I have someone I can trust. But let's get back to the fun part of having a car. I have a few quick stories to share from this weekend that probably wouldn't have happened if it weren't for our trusty Pajero, (so far, so good, 5 days and counting). I'll even break it down into small sub-chapters just for the heck of it...

The Very Bluest Margarita

Saturday night we went out to dinner with a couple we met from the British Embassy and a couple of their friends. The venue was Salsa Restaurant - an Ecuadorian Restaurant right here in Dushanbe. The menu isn't entirely Ecuadorian, there's some Mexican, Italian, and Tajik mixed in, but the food was actually really good. We had some homemade tortilla chips with delicious bean dip and fresh salsa for an appetizer and I had some very passable llapingachos (potato patties stuffed with cheese) for a main course. It was a nice break from the norm. The real star of the show, however, was the margarita. I've been told it is a must-try ever since arriving. It's certainly not like any margarita I've ever seen. The color was a very deep 'windshield-washer-fluid' blue. My friend from the British Embassy told me that it gets better with every sip. It's a good thing he said that because I probably would have stopped at one otherwise. It tasted a lot like windshield washer fluid too! But he was right, by the end it was quite drinkable. Other-worldly margarita aside, Salsa is a place to which we're looking forward to returning.

Carnivorous Bee

Today, (Sunday), we took advantage of having the car and drove a little way out of the city, in the direction where we have gone for the hikes, to a restaurant Stephanie saw a couple of weeks ago near the river. When we arrived a wedding party showed up and there was a guy with a drum and another guy with a clarinet-like instrument. The group was very nice and allowed me to take a couple pictures and I got to wish the bride and groom success before we went to take our seats. The tables are traditional Tajik style and we sat at a low table on a raised platform with some cushions. Our table was right beside the river and the weather was beautiful.

While we were waiting to order, the wedding party left and a couple more showed up. I'll have to ask about the tradition and find out more. We had a delicious lunch of cold cuts, quail, and lamb shashlik. Unfortunately, we had an unexpected guest... This gi-normous red and yellow bee discovered us - I think it was the same kind that stung me on my first hash. Given that experience, we gave the bee a wild berth. It was a rather brazen bee, and landed right on Stephanie's plate ( I guess if I had a stinger I'd be pretty brazen too). Then the bee did something I've never seen a bee do, it started dragging a piece of meat across Stephanie's plate and then cut off a chunk, no kidding, a chunk, of meat and flew off with it. We were a little scared and pretty flabbergasted. That's a serious bee. It returned a couple of times before we left, but I quickly shoved the meat in my mouth to deprive it of another steal.

Of course, we also got to see the usual great scenery. We drove across this little bridge, but there was something of a traffic jam on the other side so we turned around. Something to explore later.

Stephanie also drove for the first time today- you can see she how much she liked it :-)

Mysterious Ice Cream Factory

On the way home, we tried to stop at this mystery Ice Cream Factory, which people have told us is excellent, but which we can't seem to find. It's apparently next to Salsa. No one could tell us where it is, but they told us it is closed on Sunday. We'll keep trying and I'll let you know how it is when we do.

That's pretty much it for now. The only other thing is that I bought a tennis racket so that I could play with Stephanie on the embassy court. We played for a little over an hour, (I use the term 'play' loosely since neither of us really knows what we're doing), until the end of the handle broke off my racket. Go figure. I'll try to go back to the store and see if they'll do anything, otherwise maybe some crazy glue...