back to the Stans

The only one of the ‘stans that I hadn’t visited was Tajikistan, so seeing a trip there advertised that involved days travelling alongside the Afghanistan border in the Wakhan Corridor, I could not resist.

Nine of us were on the tour, but joining in different places, and I flew to the official starting point of Osh two days early, so as to save lots of money on the cost of the flight (not sure why it should cost £219 to fly there on 9 September, and five times as much to fly there on the 10th or 11th!).  I arrived in Osh early in the morning, getting out of the airport around 06:30, and decided to walk the five kilometres to the hostel given my assumption that the earliest check-in would be rather later in the day, but thankfully the door was open when I arrived (although there was no-one around), so I was able to go in and make myself comfortable.

It seemed that one of the things to see in Osh was a statue of Lenin – the largest in Central Asia (and third largest in the world ??), so I decided to see this on my first day.  Except that I couldn’t find it, with the location shown on google maps being clearly wrong.  With some more internet searches that evening and some more walking the next day, I found it … or at least, I found this!!

Apparently the statue was removed in June of this year – and I’m guessing that the change of name of the street from Lenin Avenue to something local that I can’t remember was done at the same time.

Thankfully there was also the World Heritage Site of Suleiman-Too to visit – a mountain site with a great museum, the remains of a shrine to the prophet Suleiman, some small caves and stones with spiritual significance, and a great view over the city.

Then I met my group and we started our trip south, firstly to the Kyrgyz town of Sary-Tash, and then across the border to Tajikistan.  We were initially following the Pamir Highway (the second highest international highway in the world), then into the Wakhan valley (or Corridor), which divides the Pamir Mountains from the Hindu Kush.  Part of the ancient Silk Road, it’s also the path that Marco Polo took, and goes over some very high mountain passes (one at 4,655m, others at 4,344m and 4,272m – a couple of group members did suffer a bit with altitude sickness).  The scenery was amazing as we drove alongside the very fast-moving river that separates Tajikistan from Afghanistan, with the snow-capped peaks of Pakistan further in the distance.  We were surrounded for much of the time by dramatic, stark mountains, with some small areas of farmland, a few herds of yaks, and one or two ancient ruins along the way, for example Yamchun Fort which although partly restored, has some elements dating from Zoroastrian times in the second century BC.

It was stunning, although made me feel rather ignorant as I realised how little I know about the amazing history of this area, it having been part of so many empires (including Persian, the Arab Umayyads and Abbasids, Seljuks, Mongols, and of course the Soviets in recent times), and crossed by Alexander the Great amongst many.  It was stunning, although made me feel rather ignorant as I realised how little I know about the amazing historthis area, it having been part of so many empires (including Persian, the Arab Umayyads and Abbasids, Seljuks, Mongols, and of course the Soviets in recent times), and crossed by Alexander the Great amongst many.  I often tell myself that I need to learn more about Asian history, but somehow it never seems to happen.

The trip ended in the Tajikistan capital, Dushanbe – a modern city, such an amazing contrast with the area of the country we had just driven through.