Tajikistan Travels, Jan 2010

A map of the places we've gone so far in Tajikistan:

I traveled to the south, to Kurghon-Teppa and Kulyab, to assist physicians, who were conducting interviews for a Project HOPE survey, to choose the patients they would interview. Our trips to the north, east and west have been for pleasure, to hike in the Varzob valley north of Dushanbe, and to see the towns of Vahdat and Hissor, to the east and west. Both of those towns are 20 minutes away from Dushanbe, but have rationed electricity supplies in the winter. So, they have electricity for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening. Many people use wood stoves to heat the house.

The area to the east that is very mountainous is called the Pamir. Marco Polo wrote about it on his trip to China. It is a high-altitude plateau, much like Tibet. We hope to travel there in the summer, when the road is open (and there are fewer rivers to cross by car).