Life goes as it goes and there was a great country to visit and discover again, Tajikistan. Tajikistan is a presidential republic and is bordered by Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east. It was part of Persia and the Soviet Union and today it is a developing country with amazing 93% of the land covered in mountains!
They had a great problem with deforestation and some parts of the country miss around 70 % of the trees. To heat and cook they need electricity or firewood, and spend sometimes hours of trying to find it.
So I went there with the UN to build some solar collectors for heating water and had a great week of discovering only three places, the capital Dushanbe and the small village of Jilikul and Shaartuz on the border with Afghanistan.
In Dushanbe one can find this..
In Dushanbe one can find this..
this..
this..
this..
this..
..or if looking at the horizon in any direction one can see the whole city is surrounded with big mountains.
The highest peak is Ismoil Somoni Peak with 7.495 m. The peak is not on the picture and most of the highest mountains are situated in the region of Pamir, one of the next destinations. :)
Dushanbe has a western influenced culture already. It is a city with great differences, being traditional muslim but also with a nightlife scene and vodka drinking sessions, it has people working for 35 USD a month, but also people with iPhone 6 and 100.000 USD cars. Many of them are stollen in Europe and bought with heroin money.
The village of Shaartuz were I was is the last city on the heroin trade route on the border with Afghanistan. The biggest opium producer in the region.
As they have a great problem with labor migration they miss around 1.000.000 men who are working in Russia. Well, some stay at home and try to find work. On the picture below you can see the so called "handymen" who wait on the markets with their tools so one can hire them for a day's work.
But on every trip the food is something that has to be discovered.
Dushanbe has a western influenced culture already. It is a city with great differences, being traditional muslim but also with a nightlife scene and vodka drinking sessions, it has people working for 35 USD a month, but also people with iPhone 6 and 100.000 USD cars. Many of them are stollen in Europe and bought with heroin money.
The village of Shaartuz were I was is the last city on the heroin trade route on the border with Afghanistan. The biggest opium producer in the region.
As they have a great problem with labor migration they miss around 1.000.000 men who are working in Russia. Well, some stay at home and try to find work. On the picture below you can see the so called "handymen" who wait on the markets with their tools so one can hire them for a day's work.
But on every trip the food is something that has to be discovered.
Well, they cook it mostly on fire and its delicious.
So I went to the market and spent most of my free time there. The people are amazing, many of them want to be on the pictures and with their fruits, so the end of the post is theirs.
Tajikistan is famous for its nuts and dried fruits. Cheap and crazy tasty variety of more then I know about nuts and fruits.
Ouh, spices, well they keep them like this, and measure the amount with the glass on top of the little spice hills.
There is always someone going around with this herb they burn and the smoke cleans the air and calms the spirits.
White, yellow, green and black tea.
Sugar! :)
An ugly part of the market, but a good pic. :)
They cook wheat for a long period of time and get this paste which is used like a dip.
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