Tajikistan's Report Card

We almost the skipped country, but we are absolutely glad it was included in our route. Initially we didn't want to come here because of the visa cost, but was convinced to go by Teddy (our Malaysian cycling companion in Xinjiang), then reconsidered again after the tragic incident south of Dushanbe where four cyclists were killed. But after flip-flopping a few times made our way to the beautiful country that is Tajikistan.

Tajikistan received a TCP/IP score of ★★★★☆

Important Pointers

People & Culture (PC)

• Hospitality is second nature here, invitations for tea and bread have fed us well throughout the country
• The people are genuinely interested in our travel and in having a decent conversation (through Russian and English)
• Significantly less begging from kids and adults
• Sharing of food is so common, especially home grown produce like apples, grapes and once a whole watermelon
• A drunk man was begging us for money and as we struggled to get rid of him, a friendly guy who was selling stuff on the street got him to walk away and told him to not bother tourists – but in a very friendly brotherly way. A friendly local like that is hard to find

Infrastructure, Safety and Politics (ISP)

• Road throughout the Pamir is very tough to cycle on

• There was no sense of danger anywhere we stayed in Tajikistan. A visit by four soldiers one night was merely a checkup if everything is "нормально/normalne/fine"

• Picking a good mobile service provider meant we could get connected to 3G internet in every town, and 2G for villages — sometimes enough signal for our emails to come through. Thanks Megafon

• The push by the government making this year about "Tourism Development and Folk Craft" meant police were not allowed to "touch" tourists. Apparently before that they used to be annoying

• The capital had all the glamorous buildings and amazing roads, making us conclude wealth distribution is not a concept here

Landscape & Nature (LAN)

• Most of the time we were up in the mountains… remote and quiet

• Most places still get water from natural sources, so without a water filter we could top up almost everywhere the locals did

• We were lucky there was only one night where it snowed, otherwise it would have been freezing to cycle up at 4000 metres above sea level

• A side trip to Lake Iskanderkul was worth the 50 km detour, though the road was steep and challenging, the view was beautiful

Value for Money (VM)

• Fruit grown locally are cheap particularly pomegranate and grapes

• In the Pamirs, bread wasn't always available but locals made it at home and would sell them cheap, or just give them to us

• Food along the Pamirs were more expensive due to the mountainous terrain but you can always find basic produce like onions, potatoes and tomatoes

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• Being savvy travellers we stayed in the capital for 10 days and through luck did not pay a single days accommodation!

Camping & Outdoor Living (COL)

• Camping in Tajikistan is easy and we had no trouble with the locals or police

• We've camped so much that we've only paid for one night accommodation - that included a hot pool, in Jelondy

• Unfortunately rubbish and recycling isn't taught at school, so rubbish can be found everywhere

• Summer weather here has been perfect: 90% sunny days

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Return for a Retour?

We felt sad leaving Tajikistan. The Wakhan and Batang valley were skipped so that'll be something we could return for. We've also made good friends along the way and will keep in touch until we meet next.

More Report Cards?

Did you enjoy reading our Report Cards? We make one for each country we've cycled through. Please check our other Report Cards, and maybe an upvote if you've learned something new!

• China's Report Card
• Kazakhstan's Report Card
• Kyrgyzstan's Report Card
• Tajikistan's Report Card (this)

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This post is taken from our personal blog.

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