Click the pic.

       This one was a bit of a two day hit and run really. We leave our driver ,and walk across the border. It takes about an hour, standard one bloke stamping passports while the rest watch. Our resident Pom has to pay a hundred bucks for a visa because they don’t like poms. Seems fair. Our new fixer/guide Al, meets us on the other side. Obligatory Mosque, Pile of dirt, old dusty museum stops. The local market is great. We stock up on things for the evening meal, along with sweets, and fruit. Then it’s off to the highlight. The seven lakes.

            Tajikistan is poor, oil poor, gas poor, land poor, people poor. The smallest of the Stan’s, ninety seven percent mountains, even Ghengis Kan  couldn’t be bothered invading the place, didn’t stop the Russians though.  It’s only really exports are gold and electricity. Being mountainous  with lots of snowfall it has the best hydro resources of all the Stan’s. The Chinese are busy building stuff, and apparently Dushanbe  has a good Steak restaurant.  We don’t see it, our path takes us five hours up a rutted mining road through Taliban country. No ankles visible here. At one stage we are attacked by kids selling us locally made jewellery. Maria keeps them happy, while ten of them try to squeeze into the car to make a sale.  

         The lakes are spectacular, and our basic home stay in the mountains just about kept us alive. A quick word about Tajik wine. “Don’t ”.  The next day is the reverse of the first. Al finds us a good coffee in a hotel before we do battle with the border gods again. Two days doesn’t really do the place justice. There is some spectacular scenery to be had here.  Our guide and driver were great, giving us a bit of background to one of the lesser known spots of the world. So Tajikistan  “До свидания” until the next time.