The Stans 2026

 We're in this hotel for two nights - which works out well, because it's pretty comfortable, particularly for a place in the middle of nowhere. For the day we essentially drove up into the mountains for lunch and back, just with a few stops along the way. After driving up twisting gorges we came to a large, wide, At-Bashy Valley stretching away into the distance. Largely populated by large herds of horses, the north wall was a series of low sand-coloured hills while the south wall was capped by snow and clouds. Part way up this we stopped to look at the ruins of the Koshoy Korgon fort, which was really just the outline of the clay walls. South wall of At-Bashy Valley A bit further up we turned into a smaller valley and drove some way. Eventually we stopped for lunch at a yurt camp. The same meal I described yesterday, with prominent meat and potatoes as the main course. The meat was said to be yak, which seemed possible as there were herds of yaks in the valley, Looking up the ...

 The observant reader, should such a thing exist, will notice that this entry is headed 'Tashkent'. Such a reader might be confused by this - surely we'd already been to Tashkent? Yes! And we are again. We flew to Tajikistan just to drive back here again. But first we were obliged to see the sights of Khujand, such as they are. I did ask my guide where all the million-plus visitors to Tajikistan go, as they're certainly not at what we understand to be tourist attractions. He explained firstly that the number of 'tourist' conflates that figure with other visitors, and these are mostly locals who hop back and forth over the border. Then of the people from further afield, some are Russians avoiding the war with Ukraine and pushing up local house prices. Finally, if there are any actual tourists left, these are still mostly Russian and they don't comer for education - they grill their own shashliks and drink vodka on 'gastronomy tours'. Our tour this mor...

 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.