Upon arriving in Khorog I never really gave much thought to visit the Pamir Botanical Gardens. I had my mind on one place and that place was in Tajikistan's Wakhan Corridor. As chance would have it though, I departed from the Wakhan a little early to ensure for a timely ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Tajikistan
Hidden Gems: Pamir Botanical Gardens
Upon arriving in Khorog I never really gave much thought to visit the Pamir Botanical Gardens. I had my mind on one place and that place was in Tajikistan's Wakhan Corridor. As chance would have it though, I departed from the Wakhan a little early to ensure for a timely ...Dining in Dushanbe: Delhi Darbar
I've saved one of the best for last my foodie friends. After dining at Delhi Darbar about six times during my stay in Tajikistan I discovered one absolutely fantastic thing about the place and that one thing is this: there isn't a single bad dish on the menu. Anything you ...Volunteer Vacation Day Seven: Last Day of Building
This was it - the end of the Global Village road. The final day of building had reached. When we pulled up that morning in the van we were greeted by several smiling Tajik children who extended their tiny hands for the shaking. As we walked away from our new friends to the ...Dining in Dushanbe: Kand
Kand wouldn't be the first place I'd recommend if you're hoping to dine the way most Tajiks do. While the quiet open outdoor dining is fabulous for couples looking to be left alone however, groups seeking cultural experiences will be disappointed. We ate at Kand on two ...Volunteer Vacation Day Six: Every Hand on a Bucket
Sometime early in the trip I made the rule: Every hand on a bucket. If you were one of the players in one of the many bucket lines this was important. Again, the task could have easily been a huge snore, but with all hands and eyes watching a bucket no one should have been ...GADLING'S TAKE FIVE: Week of September 24
Time for another weekly wrap-up of some delicious Gadling finds from the week that was. I'd like to think of it like seconds of a most incredible dessert. 5. Locals Only, Whatever: Iva blogged about this issue just yesterday, but she gives you a little food for thought on ...Hidden Gems: Tajikistan's Pamirs & Wakhan Corridor
Before I set off to Tajikistan I sought the council of anyone who had been there, been close, or at the very least could locate the country on a map without much difficulty. I'd heard Dushanbe; the capital city was a bit of a bore after a few days and it was best to plan on ...Dining in Dushanbe: Eurasia
While the trout I ordered doesn't exactly look like the most mouth-watering of dishes, the food at Eurasia is some of the tastiest in all of Dushanbe. Serving a mixture of Tajik foods, European foods, Russian yummies and breakfast anytime of the day, Eurasia hit it off well ...Volunteer Vacation Day Five: Third Home, Same Duties
Most of the first-timers in the group weren't surprised when we'd heard we were headed to a third worksite, but some of the veteran builders found this shuffling interesting. On my first Global Village trip five years back in Cluj-Napoca, Romania we stayed at the same ...Dining in Dushanbe: Rohat
Here's another one you'll find in the Central Asia LP guide under the teeny section devoted to all things Tajikistan. Rohat is a large Persian-style chaikhana (teahouse) perfect for passing the time away watching locals and an expat or two parade by on Rudaki. The somewhat ...Volunteer Vacation Day Four: Bringing Mud to the Roof
If you recall, yesterday I touched on the mud making process and how we were left out of squishing our feet in the cool wetness of it all which probably would have felt great in Dushanbe's heat, but with time we would have muddier days. Day four wasn't going to be one of ...Dining in Dushanbe: Chinese Restaurant
Lunch at the Chinese restaurant was like a blur. Perhaps it is not even fair of me to provide a review considering all the factors: eight very jet lagged and hungry foreigners together for the first time with one very quaint young waitress. I would not wish that situation ...Volunteer Vacation Day Three: More Dirt, More Mud
On day three we found we were being moved to a new site for another family close by to the one we had been working with the first two days. This new home was being built from the ground up, but we were coming in with a significant portion of the framing done. The home would ...Dining in Dushanbe: Sim Sim
I'm not entirely sure when Sim Sim came into existence or why it didn't make guidebooks, but all that doesn't really matter. If you're searching for live over-the-top entertainment, decent dishes and a chance to hob-knob with some of Dushanbe's upper-class you've found the ...Volunteer Vacation Day Two: Making Concrete Is Not Easy
What a difference a day makes! In our case we were all terribly sore, but chipper as ever. Okay, there is the one small exception of a few upset stomachs in the bunch. Still we were all very ready to continue building, but before I go further, yesterday I made an awful ...Dining in Dushanbe: Merve
Dushanbe isn't NYC, it isn't Paris, and it most certainly isn't Rome. In other words it may not be the most high-trafficked culinary city in terms of tourism, but having had the opportunity to dine out around town quite often I feel it my duty to dish the 411 on the good ...Volunteer Vacation Day One: Shovels, Buckets, & the Pit
On the days leading up to my departure both friends and family raised their eyebrows and shook their heads as I casually talked about my coming vacation. Vacation in their eyes is not taken in unpronounceable places bordering Afghanistan like Tajikistan and most certainly ...Tajik Air - Party Plane
There are certain travel stories you hear about and instantly grow insanely jealous that you didn't get the opportunity to experience them first-hand. If you recall I opted out of meeting my other travel companions in Moscow to fly through Istanbul to Dushanbe on Turkish ...Being Invisible in Foreign Countries
Perhaps my days of traveling abroad are numbered. Wait, no, never. First, let me say hello and I'm back from my three week jaunt through Central Asia or more specifically the Republic of Tajikistan. I'll get to the meat of the matter on why I was there and what I was doing ...Word for the Travel Wise (09/08/06)
Last November when Outside magazine featured Mark Jenkin's piece on his travel through the Wakhan Corridor I had no clue I would be traveling through the region in less than a year. While my trip is very different than Mark's the story and pictures fueled my imagination and ...
