cycling into Tajikistan

I am writing this post from a very beautiful spot that we found yesterday in the western mountains of Tajikistan, after a very challenging and tiring day. I would like to share again some of the many impressions that are having a deep impact on me since we left Samarqand towards the capital of Tajikistan, called Dushanbe.

It was Wednesday morning, we had planned to leave early to make use of the colder temperatures and magically my alarm didn’t go off. I ran down the stairs to see where and how my colleagues were doing and apologized for being late. Something that could only happen to me. After rushing back and forth to get my bike loaded and preparing everything to get started, we finally hit the road and made a stop for a conscious start at the Registan Square in the centre.

We started our way and even after the first meters I had a huge smile on my face – I was cycling with two great men and was not alone, it felt so good and I enjoy that up until this moment.

While riding eastwards the appearance of the city changed massively, from a polished, nicely maintained inner city to a very chaotic and way less organized periphery. There were so many impressions flowing into me, the smells, especially the fumes of cars, the people, the way life was organized. What appears as poor conditions on the outside was balanced with the most amazing and awestriking attitude towards visitors I have ever experienced in my whole life. We were constantly greeted by people who greatest us with one or two English words, we had a lot of children running towards us, behind us or just wanted to express their greetings and have a moment with us. It stayed like that until this present moment, a true culture of welcome.

We had our first pitstop to fill up our bottles with water and the locals started to ask us questions, often they want to know where we come from and how we are called. They are often very surprised and each have a unique association with our countries. The best known is Ronaldo from Portugal, then people admire Berlin from Germany and the associations with Switzerland I didn’t hear yet. Mostly we get offered a tea and we continue telling about our cycling ideas and many think we are doing something impossible.

We continued our way, a tough mix of heat, slowly reaching over 45°C in the sun and a lot of unfiltered fumes of cars. Especially the fumes make it hard for me, but I am slowly getting used to the taste.

After having cycled enough for the first part we decided to stop for lunch and a Siesta, some kids saw us and flocked around us to say hello and check us out. We found a great spot under a tree and within minutes someone came and gifted us freshly baked bread. Gratefuly we ate it with our lunch and wanted then to take a Siesta in the shade. One young man came to me after a while and asked me to follow him. He prepared a place to sleep for us in his house so we could rest in a cool place. We were so happy as it was getting ever more hot and we decided to cycle only after a good amount of rest.

I woke up from my power nap while the others were still resting and started to stretch and do a few pushups. The young man saw me and invited me to come over to another corner where he usually trains his calisthenics skills. So me and his friends did some chin ups, pushups and they proudly showed me their calisthenics moves. It was so great to see how open they were, young men 16, 17, 18 years old.

At around 4 pm we continued and slowly entered into the mountains. We found another cyclist of the area who accompanied us for a long time, he was translating and helped us in many ways.

After a rather humourous time at the border where we went through houndreds of gates and had to show our passports thousands of times we finally reached Tajikistan. We were all really happy.

The people were as open and welcoming as before (ore maybe even more), which is also the most significant impact we feel on our selves. I have never thought it would be possible that people welcome others in such a way. It is a huge contrast to the way we live in Europe.

In the late afternoon we reached a bigger town where we visited the local bazar and got another first insight into local customs. It was a very crowded place and we were a bit overstimulated at first, but we could find many things we needed for our dinner. We were offered chairs so we could sit, people tried their best to help us, find people who could translate, it is so humbling to experience this hospitality in such a random place. We were happy and always stay a bit longer to chat and share.

Cycling on we found a great place to pitch our tents on the land of a friendly farmer. We were happy how the day unfolded and were greeted with a beautiful sunset behind the mountains. Our common dinner filled our batteries and after a while we all fell into a deep sleep.

The next day started pretty easy, we got up early, packed our stuff and cycled further into the valley which offered ever more exciting views and landscapes.

The first hours we mostly spend cycling and only stop for a tea break so we get most km done before it gets too hot around 12 – 13 o’clock.

Again we found a tree with a well next to it and a small shop where we could enjoy lunch. People then come and see us, and immediately we attract ever more of the locals, especially the children. It is always nice to spent a bit of time in conversations, which is specifically possible because we are traveling by bike.

We see a lot of children on the way, as I said, they are greeting us everywhere and they are mostly taking care of animals like the cows, the donkeys or they help out on the fields. They are a very important part of the life here and I was surprised to see how responsible they are for things already at that young age.

At that time I started to recognize that I didn’t feel so good anymore, it was also slowly building up during the morning, but at that time it got ever worse. We decided to not prepare more food as intended but continued our way, hoping things would get better. The streets were now getting ever more steep and the combination of nauxia (don’t know how to write that), burning sun and exhaustion lead us to a great place to rest again and set up camp. It was again a farmer who let us stay on his land and we decided to take a break so we could all recover. The bad feelings developed into headaches and we were all a bit lethargic laying in our tents. Despite the circumstances we all had a great sense of humor in it and enjoyed the good spirit of each other.

We were send to bed with a beautiful sunset and all recovered well and woke up much more relaxed and without our stomach issues.

We decided to stay here for the day to give our bodies time to heal, as we will have to climb quite some hight throughout the next phase.

Claudio and me decided to hitchhike into the next town 20km away, which turned to be my best hitchhike experience ever. The moment I put out my hand we had someone pull over and picked us up and dropped us in the city.

We had another grocery trip and enjoyed a nice tea in a teahouse we found. After a good lunch we hitchhiked back, which worked the similarly fantastic. We didn’t wait for 5 minutes until someone stopped to give us a ride. It was a wonderful experience.

The rest of the day we kept very relaxed and simple, I went for a stroll around the area, followed some tracks into the mountains that I saw some people took with their donkeys and found a beautiful mountainstream. When we started cooking the farmer came over and brought us some eggs, dried apricots and tomatoes from his garden. It became a lovely dinner.

Right now I am laying in my tent and writing these words, in between I am having great conversations with my colleagues. Soon we will go to bed because we will get up before sunrise.

Thanks for reading this far and for being with me in my heart,

I hope this finds you well.

I will let you know when I will reach Dushanbe and when I am going to be off for a month without posting here, only afterwards.