I only spent one day in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan – most of it feeling hot, exhausted and annoyed. But when the sun started to go down, I was treated to this sky full of yellow, orange, pink and purple, providing a beautiful backdrop for the statue of Ismail Samani, the founder of the …
The first thing I noticed as I waited in the departure lounge in Istanbul to board my flight to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, was the fact that I was surrounded by people speaking English. Americans, British, Swiss – you name it, everywhere I turned were government and nonprofit workers headed to Tajikistan. Aside from …
I originally planned to start my Central Asia travels by taking the ferry from Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan or by flying to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Tajikistan would be my last stop before heading back to the United States. However, after my Black Sea ferry nightmare, I quickly scrapped the idea of crossing the Caspian Sea by boat. …