The Stans 2026

 I think yesterday afternoon largely exhausted the tourist sites in Dushanbe itself, as this morning we went to Hisor, about 30km away. It's a village, though now more a suburb, and also the site of Hisor fort, which dates back about 2500 years. The original thing is mostly just the gates and enclosing wall now - the contents being lost over the intervening period. From the Fort walls But the whole area is pretty old. Just below the fort is a(nother) madrasa we walked around and an adjacent caravanserai. Then there was a very loud distraction as there were several weddings taking place (presumably because it's Sunday) and they seem to compete with each other.  They had drums, very long horns and at least one saxaphone. Madrasa Back in town were were taken to a Turkish restaurant for lunch. This seemed an odd choice, but the guide suggested the food is very similar. Certainly the shashlik platters were large and very good and we were happy to spend the afternoon recovering.

 Well we'd been in Uzbekistan for quite a long time and this is meant to be a trip to the 'Five Stans'. So I expect you were wondering when we'd move on. The answer would have been 'today'. Admittedly this is a short excursion, only 3-4 days, so the implication is that there is less to see in Tajikistan, or at least that it has fewer tourist facilities.. That means today was a transit day. However we also spent time sightseeing. I thought those things were generally separate, and today I found out why. Doing both is too much. We left the hotel at 8am and went to the airport, which wasn't far and wasn't too big. All the usual hassles of international travel - multiple checks and scans, but we were pretty much through by 9am and our flight wasn't until 11.10, so there was a fair bit of sitting around and waiting, which is now comfortable in its familiarity. They have some decent shops in the airport, including one that sold a carry-on bag which was als...