End of a Long Week, Beginning of A Long Weekend

So here it is, finally Friday, and what a week. My computer up and decided to die on me on Thursday so I had to reboot to factory setting. At least it worked and I was able to back up my files, but it's a pain to have to reinstall everything I had on there. Work has just crazy busy in general with the end of the fiscal year, but today in particular was rough.

I had a lease renegotiation go bad - the guy wanted to double, yes, double the monthly rent for his house! Obviously can't be doing that with the taxpayer's $$$ so spent a chunk of the day working on a plan B in case this guy wants to play it tough when we meet again. I was really ticked off at the time, but now that I have it figured out I'm feelin' pretty good about it. Dude's gonna learn he's barking up the wrong American.

The rest of the day was pretty much random madness but there was a bright spot... I now have the keys to a car, and it's sitting in the embassy parking lot! The sale isn't quite final and I still have to get it registered with diplomatic plates, but if all goes well, we'll be driving around Dushanbe in a Mitsubishi Pajero within a couple weeks. Small enough to fit down Dushanbe's crazy streets, but with 4WD to get out of town.

Plan for tonight is to watch The Hangover at the marine house - assuming Stephanie can finish her work in time - and then we kick off a long weekend. Monday is a holiday for Ramazan (I'm not sure why, but this is what they call Ramadan here). I'm hoping to do the hash and a hike this weekend so I'm sure stories will come from that and maybe some pictures.

Nick

Random Thoughts

I thought I was going to have great news today - that we finally bought a car. Unfortunately, nothing is so simple here in Dushanbe. The woman selling the car was missing one important document and our motor pool supervisor (who will have to register the car) will need it to get us our diplomatic plates. All hope is not lost, however, the woman is supposed to come back on Friday with all the paper work, and hopefully we can move forward.

Even if we can buy the car, it will still be awhile before we can drive it since we will have to wait to get the diplomatic registration and even after that, we will need the trench in front of our house to be filled in so that we can park in the driveway. It looks like they're starting to do it but I'm not holding my breath for a quick resolution.

I can't say I'm chomping at the bit to drive either. Sure it will be easier to not have to rely on the embassy shuttle or 'public transportation'. I mean, it's great so far as that you can ride the bus here for a little over a dime, but then again, one of my colleagues had her phone stolen out of her purse while I was standing next to her. Violent crime is pretty rare here, but pickpocketing appears to be something of an art.

But back to why I'm not so eager to drive. The people here are crazy - pedestrians walk out into the middle of the street, traffic laws are more like 'guidelines', there are lanes in some places, but no one drives in them, and as I've mentioned earlier, red lights don't mean much. It doesn't help that before a red light turns green, the yellow light comes on with the red to tell you that it's about to be green -and most people just take that to mean 'go'. Defensive driving is definitely the name of the game.

The other thing is that people love their horns in Dushanbe. They honk if you stop at a red light, if they see someone walking on the sidewalk, if they want to turn into oncoming traffic, they honk if the sun is shining or if a bird flies by. I often see them honking after an obstruction is passed - say a pedestrian steps out into traffic, the driver will swerve around them and then honk several minutes later - maybe out of relief?

The other day, walking home from the supermarket, I heard someone honking and it sounded like it was right behind me, but I was on the sidewalk. When I finally turned around, it was a guy on a bike who had wired an electric car horn to the handlebars of his bike. Excuse me for being a little slow when I'm carrying over two pounds of meat, 5 bags of frozen veggies, a 10 lb bag of flour, a 4-pack of yogurt, 2lbs of pelmeni (Russian dumplings), 2 chickens, a turkey, and a pheasant! We're stocking up our freezer in case you were wondering.

Also during that shopping trip, I found some interesting flavors of potato chip to try - roast chicken, sour cream and dill, shashlik (kind of a kebab), and caviar. Will let you know how they taste when I try them.

And of course despite the car thing not quite working out for now, the day wasn't a total loss. We tried to play tennis with some friends at the embassy tennis court after work -I say tried because none of us really knows how to play. To add even more excitement, there was a false duck & cover alarm after Stephanie arrived so I had to spend some time on the floor of my office and she ended up hunkering down in a bathroom. Again, totally a false alarm, so it was just good practice, but it sure gets your pulse racing all the same.

After our attempt at tennis, our friends introduced us to a Chinese restaurant in the northern part of the city that was very good. Best of all, despite stuffing myself, I feel fine - which I take as a sign that I'm fully recovered!

Lastly, for now, we had all of our pictures hung up today so I will try to send out pictures of our home by the end of the weekend, now that it is complete.

Nick

First Hike In Tajikistan

I made it through the work day and am finally starting to feel better. I may actually try to eat something tonight.

But what I think you'll enjoy more than my stories of digestive disturbances is seeing pictures of Sunday's hike. The ones here are just a sample, click the link at the bottom of the post to see more with better quality.

We arrived at the meeting place at about 8:15 am and learned that one of my colleagues was driving his jeep so we hopped in with him. In short order we were off on our first foray outside of Dushanbe itself. We headed north on a well-paved highway - it was well-paved at first anyway - and enjoyed seeing the little settlements scattered on the narrow bank of the river that runs into the city. The bank is narrow because of the steep, rocky hills that rise up on either side.

As mentioned, it wasn't too long before the road wasn't so nice. The Chinese are building tunnels along the way to protect the road from avalanches and landslides. This will be great when finished, but in the meantime, it forces drivers to go around along single-lane, rock-strewn paths. On the way out it was early enough that we didn't have too much trouble, but on the way back we found ourselves playing chicken more than once.

After awhile we turned off and took a break before beginning our tricky ascent into the mountains. I had been aching to take some pictures and this was my first chance. The surrounding hills were becoming mountains and we saw two boys with a donkey.

Before I continue, funny story with no picture. When we got out, it seems that my yellow t-shirt attracted some bees because suddenly I was covered with them. I remained calm and walked around slowly until they went away. Then I quickly put on my fleece to discourage any future association with flowers. Then we got a little held up because some guy didn't fill up his gas tank before he left Dushanbe and had to go back down the road to find some. Gas stations aren't exactly widespread outside of the cities.

But getting back to the trip, we finally were on our way again and from this point the roads varied from roughly paved to cratered dirt and they wound up the mountainside edging along steep cliffs. In some places the roads narrowed so much that I wasn't sure all four of our wheels could fit. But the views were spectacular. Here are a few shots from our second stretch point.

We also drove past pretty primitive-looking villages with stone buildings where they stack their hay on the roof for insulation, as well as to save it for the animals. Unfortunately I couldn't get any pictures from the bumpy moving jeep. It took us 3 hours (30 minutes of that attributed to the idiot with no gas) to reach the end of the road and the beginning of the hike. And it really was the end of the road, there was no more.

Some quick background info -Dushanbe sits at about 3000 feet and the drive took us up to just shy of 10,000 feet. The hike took us all the way up to 12,500 feet. Even from the beginning of the hike, the scenery was great. It was much greener here than in Dushanbe thanks to continuing snow melt and everywhere you looked, there were these amazing snowy mountain peaks. At this altitude, the temperature was much cooler. Where we still have highs in the 80s in Dushanbe, I think it was only about 50 where we started the hike. The summit was definitely below freezing. Fortunately there were few bees around, because the exertion of the hike had me in my t-shirt up until the very end.

The pace was pretty brisk and with the altitude it was a lot of work, but it was so rewarding. A shutterbug's paradise. As a group we hiked across streams, up hills, along little goat trails, and across plains to reach a pair of beautiful lakes.






We only ascended about 600 feet to the lakes and a few people stayed behind to rest while the rest of us continued up the remaining 1900 feet to the pass. The mountains rose up around us and the snow got closer and closer until we were actually crossing it from time to time. I even saw a snow marmot, which was very cool.

Just before the summit, we stopped for lunch, I finished off the dried fruit and bread I had been snacking on, and our guide provided us with hot tea and cookies, which really helped. This is where I finally had to put on the fleece due to the cold. Then, finally it was time to make the last surge up the mountain. The last bit was definitely the hardest. We walked up a steep snowfield that was very slippery and even more difficult thanks to the high altitude.

But I think you'll agree from the pictures that the view was totally worth it. Just amazing.

The hike down was, of course, much easier than the way up. And it was neat to see the view from a different angle.


The only downside was that my heals had developed rather painful blisters since I chose this hike to break in my hiking boots.

Down at the bottom, I snapped a picture of Steph with an old Tajik man she met and had bread with before we piled into the jeep to head home.

The drive home was uneventful except for the encounters with large trucks on the mountainside roads I told you about, and of course the games of chicken on the tunnel 'bypasses' that threatened to land us in the river.

By 7:30 we were back at home and ready for bed! Again, I only put a few pictures in here and they aren't the best quality, so definitely check out this link to see the good stuff.

Hike 090609 JPGS

Hope you enjoy!

Nick

Tajik Tummy -Round 2

I really meant to have my hiking pictures up yesterday, but have fallen victim to another, rather difficult bout of Tajik Tummy. I'm doing ok, but am still on a liquid diet and yesterday had to have an IV to rehydrate. Don't panic, according to the med officer, this is fairly common and I am by far not the worst case she has seen in her 6 months of being here. I still don't understand how Stephanie has managed to avoid any ill effects whatsoever, but am glad she hasn't had to deal with this.

On the bright side, I may start marketing trips to Tajikistan as the ultimate diet plan. Since arriving I've gone from the second notch on my belt to the 4th and according to the bathroom scale have lost about 15 lbs. Again, don't panic, I'm sure a good chunk of it is water weight and I've been assured I will gain it back once my system adjusts to the local bacteria culture (haha).

Anyway, I'm back to work today and doing fine. Hopefully will get the pictures up tonight or tomorrow morning. I've gotta say, they're pretty good, even for me.

Nick

A Typical Day in Dushanbe

So here we are at the end of a fabulous long weekend in Dushanbe. You've already read about the second Hash on Saturday. Sunday was a fantastic hike up into the mountains that won't be worth reading about without pictures, so it'll have to wait until I can get them together. Today (Monday) we enjoyed the day off for Labor Day by trying to buy a car and being thoroughly discouraged. Fortunately we have a mechanic from the embassy who's willing to help us make sure we don't end up with a lemon, but it looks like we're in for a long and frustrating process. It now looks like it might have been better to ship a car from the U.S. despite advice we recieved to the contrary. The rest of the day was spent putting our house together a bit more and trying to relax.

The point of this post, however, is to start giving you all a glimpse of the sights in Dushanbe. On Saturday, we took a little detour on our way to the Barakat bazaar to walk through Rudaki park. (Rudaki is a historical figure who is credited for being the father of Persian literature, and the main street in Dushanbe is also named after him.) On the way, I passed this ad for hot dogs in Russian and had to snap a picture - it literally reads 'hot dog'.

Rudaki park is a fairly large park right in the downtown area. The building you see through the gateway is one of the Presidential Palaces (he has two of them, and 18 summer homes), and yes that's Steph standing under it. Walking a little further down, there is an enormous statue of Ismail Somoni - another historic figure who ruled at the hight of the Samanid Dynasty (the local currency, the highest mountain in the country, and the road that the embassy is on are all named after him.Across from the statue of Somoni, is the Tajik Parliament building.

Tajikistan's 18th independence day is coming up on September 9th, so there are a lot of decorations going up around town.

Walking back through the park, there are a lot of flowers and fountains. While they are nice to look at and often provide a cooling breeze, there are a ridiculous number of fountains for a water-poor country.
Heading towards the bazaar, we went past a statue of Rudaki as we exited the park.

I also took a couple of snapshots of the bazaar. There is an indoor part and an outdoor part. The indoor part seems to be a bit more expensive but has more variety.
Of course, when I say expensive, this is a highly relative term. I'm talking about 20 cents for a loaf of bread, or about 60 cents for a pound of strawberries. Outside, it's about 22 cents for a pound of potatos, or tomatoes, or eggplants. And the food is very fresh and delicious. On the way home, we passed the other Presidential Palace - which is about a 5 minute walk from the other one.

This is just a small bit of our world here in Dushanbe. I'll try to show other parts from time to time to share our experience.

Nick

Second Hash

Just got home from today's Hash - what a doozy (sp?)! Didn't get off to a great start because I didn't know where we were starting from. I had assumed that we would start the same place every week (silly me) and so I jogged up there (a couple miles). When I got there no one else was around, but luckily some of my coworkers saw me running and picked me up. We then met everyone else at the correct meeting place - the Beer Factory (don't get excited, it's not what it sounds like) - and met the rest of the crew. I rode up to the start of the Hash in a car with some of the Marines from the embassy, but the scary thing was that when we were stopped at a light a beggar shambled up to the car and I recognized him from a nightmare I had last night. Not going into details, but I kid you not.

After that unsettling experience, when we arrived at the start of the Hash, the trail was littered with cow bones. Not a pretty site. Then it turned out to be what the other, more experienced Hashers called one of the worst trails ever. We followed it down into a ravine and then had to climb up the side of the ravine to get out. Then it was running up goat trails to the top of an almost-mountain (not quite a mountain, but more than a hill). I'm not a goat. I'm a person, I have huge feet, and they don't fit on goat trails! It was a little touch and go in some spots, but I made it to the top.

From there, I had to kind of scoot down on my rear because the trail went down what would have been a cliff had it been any steeper until I got to a place where I could stand up again. Let me tell you something. It is NOT fun to scoot on your rear when the surface you are scooting on is covered in rocks, thorns, and prickly things! All the while, there was the fear that my shoes would slip on the loose Dushanbe soil (a.k.a. dust) and I would go tumbling down the hill/mountain like Jack and Jill -speaking of them, I now imagine they were not off to fetch a pail of water, but doing a Hash.

Nonetheless, I survived my second Hash and we had some tasty watermelon when it was over before gathering for drinks, ridiculous ceremony, and good food. Despite the arduous trek, I had a good time and look forward to the next one. I'll have to see about using one of my older cameras to get some pictures. When you aren't hanging on for dear life, there's some great scenery. Hiking is up for tomorrow, definitely plan on bringing a camera.

I wanted to get this story down before I forget it, but we did do some sightseeing this morning as well as a trip to the bazaar - pictures to come.

Starting to feel like work...

I think I've already reached my first TGIF - which is qualified by actually thinking to my self "Thank god it's Friday". Nothing terrible about the week, just a long one with a lot going on. With a new Ambassador arriving and the end of the fiscal year approaching, not to mention just learning how to do my job in general, things are busy busy. It also looks like I'll now have a hand in managing the cafeteria at work. I kind of like the idea because it's food ('nuff said) but I wonder if I'm the best one for the job since I'll eat just about anything and like it. It will probably be best to make sure I get input from a broader selection of my colleagues. Facing the ever mounting to do list, I'm all the more grateful for my staff, who are definitely helping me to learn the ropes as I go.

On a brighter note, yesterday evening, some of the Hashers went on what's called a 'fun run' (basically a friendly jog without all the ceremony - and no wasps!). Actually, we went to the Botanical Garden around sunset - it's not too far from where I live - and it was a really nice place. Quiet, lots of trees and birds, etc. I'm looking forward to going back and exploring some more. It's also nice to have a safe place to run. To call Dushanbe non-pedestrian oriented would be something of an understatement - something I got to experience myself today when a couple of my staff members took me to some furniture stores on a work-related excursion. The thing is, people just walk out into the road whenever and wherever they want. Not that it's entirely their fault -there are no real crosswalks and a red light here is taken more to mean "Close your eyes, hit the gas and say a Hail Mary" than "Stop!" And even when one car does stop to let you cross, three or four will try to drive around it -even into oncoming traffic - and try to run you over. I dunno, maybe it's some form of population control?

Also yesterday we received the rest of our belongings. Amazing - all of our stuff in two weeks. Must be some kind of record. Now that we have everything, we're trying to find a place to put it all. Our basement is starting to look like a general store with all of our consumables and we're actually running out of space in general. I don't know how the belongings of a 2-bedroom Manhattan apartment managed to fill up a 4 story house, but they did.

Anyway, the jog was nice and today, one of my coworkers gave me some fresh local honey she got while on a trip to another part of the country. It's delicious -and when I say fresh, I mean FRESH! So fresh there are still bees floating in it! I didn't get any bees in my portion (for Stephanie's sake) but I did take some satisfaction in seeing some of the buggers meet their demise.

So now it's the weekend, and we have quite the line-up planned. A little sightseeing and shopping tomorrow morning, Hash tomorrow afternoon, and a hike on Sunday - assuming I don't find some other way to put myself out of commission. On Monday, we're planning to follow up on the cars we saw last weekend and then maybe a trip to the botanical garden. No doubt there will be stories - and hopefully pictures!