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| Reviews and photos of Tajikistan attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Tajikistan sightseeing. Map |
 | Tajikistan Things To Do | Tips 1 - 10 of 37 |  |
Why going to Tajikistan ? Well, there are a lot of very simple answers – it has one of the most beautiful mountain ranges on our planet, and the hospitality of the people is just incredible ! A bit high, but…. we all have to make compromises :-) and suffer from time to time (I did, my nice travellers diarrhoea did not enhance my “body feelings” in 4200 m altitude).
Go to Tajikistan and touch the sky, as I called my chapter about this fascinating country.
The eastern part of Tajikistan is an autonomous region, with the – for westerners - unpronouncable name of Gorno Badakhshan Avtonomnaya Oblast, better known as the Pamirs, offers you anything you like when it comes to spectacular landscapes, very high mountains (up to 7400 m), hot springs, lakes, ancient history with petroglyphs, animal riding on horses, yaks or camels, long and short trekking tours, mountain climbing – you name it.
I will write more about this fantastic region, separately under Pamirs , but this page is still under construction at the moment.
But - as I recently have realised that VT's things-to-do on Tajikistan is listed as second external link on Wikipedia, Pamir Highway, and thus this tip here appears at the top of our guide, I have the happy obligation to write more about the highway and the Pamirs now :-)
In the meantime, feel free to visit the website, I have added below, the famous Pamirs.org, which might get you inspired about what the Pamirs have to offer. Leave a Comment
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Inside a Madrassa opposite the fort is a small Ethnographic Museum. You can hire a guide, unfortuantely he wont speak English, just Tajik and Russian. We did however, have our driver who translated to English for us arranged through (www.traveltajikistan.com). An Ethnographic Museum is basically a museum of the Tajik Way of Life. There are fascinating pictures on the walls. Various displays with one word labels! Unfortuantely, no historcal labelling, you will have to get that from your guide!
Definitely a must visit when coming to Hissor or even to Dushanbe. Leave a Comment Directions: Hissor is about 30 Km west of Dushanbe on the M41.Hissor Fort is about 6 Km from Hissor city and it is not on the main road from Dushanbe to Hissor. The Museum is pictured to the right of the entrance, the centre of this photo in the Madrassa.Website: www.traveltajikistan.com
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By Flying this part of the Pamir Highway you get to experience the most spectacular scheduled airline flight in the world. The flight takes you through the mountains not over them. Whether the flights go or not quite often is not determined by passenger numbers but by the weather. There are meant to be about 2 flights a week.
To give you some idea of how treachorous this flight is, during Soviet times, Aeroflot paid their pilots danger money when they flew this route. However, the good news is that it has been a while since the last recorded crash, which just happened to be when a stray missile from Afghanistan knocked the plane out of the air! They still managed to land the plane without any fatalities!
Khorog is located on the Afghan border in the south east of Tajikistan (see my Khorog pages for more information).
The photo here is taken from behind the cockpit . Through the front window you can see we are heading straight towards a glacier. We shortly are about to make a right turn. Unfortunately for me, there was a Russian photographer in the cockpit and no room for me, so my photos I had to take from the passenger windows. Leave a Comment
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The thing I found hardest with this flight is just when I was really enjoying it the most it suddenly ends! The flight takes just 45 mins.
After negotiating all these mountains, the plane goes up and over one final mountain, then suddenly commences its steep descent. The descent is a strange scenerio wherby the ground remains roughly equidistant from the aircraft at all times. We are descending down the mountain like kids on a toboggan! We can see the narrow runway in the distance protruding into the Pyandzh River. We safely touch down in what really is the middle of nowhere, still on a high from this amazing flight! Leave a Comment
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About half way through the flight (20mins) you start to hit the really BIG mountains. The plane is constantly banking and changing direction. It feels more like a scenic flight rather than a scheduled airline service. The travellers/ tourists which account for a handful of the 20 passengers, dart from side to side of the aircraft looking for the best vantage point to witness the stunning scenery.
At times the wing tips are maybe 100 metres away from the mountainside! (Check the picture out).
The Aircraft we are flying in is called an AN-28. They are an older model aircraft which have been superseeded by the AN-38. If you want to read more, click the link below. Basically they are the same aircraft. Leave a Comment
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The local Tajiks call the Pamirs "Bam-i-Dunya" (the Roof of the World). They are an impressive sight and yes you are very high up! From the Pamirs the world's highest ranges radiate:- the Karakoram and Himalaya to the south, the Hindu Kush to the west, and the Tian Shan along the Kyrgyzstan-Chinese border. There are numerous high, wide valleys amongst these enormous 7000m plus peaks. It's all pretty high and as a result most of it is not settled with us humans. But that doesnt stop the animals. On the lower passes you can find Marco Polo sheep, the elusive snow leopard and maybe a Yeti! Although naturally I failed to see any of these creatures.
The main town in the region is Khorog (pop 22,000), the capital of the autonomous region of Gorno-Badahkshan. It lies 2000m (6560ft) above sea level.
If you of the more adventurous nature, then trekking, mountain climbing, and other activities of a mountainous persuasion abound here. Check out the website below. Leave a Comment
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The main reason to come to Hissor is to see the enormous remains of an 18th century fortress. It has been recorded that on this sight various fortresses have been built and destroyed since Alexander the Great's time. The 18th century fort was occupied until 1924 and was destroyed by the Red Army. All that remains is reconstructed. Make the effort to climb to the top and you'll get some great views! Leave a Comment
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The most spectacular journey in the world! Well definitely what I've done and from what I've heard from other travellers who have done other well renouned journeys-they agree.
The Pamir Higway starts out of Dushanbe along the M41. The part of the journey isn't as spectacular and many chose to fly to the town of Khorugh.
The route from Khorugh to Osh on the Pamir Highway is a mind-blowing, suspension-wrenching, two-day, 728km (450mi) traverse on a badly-surfaced road that's worth every dizzying headspin you get from the relentless hairpin bends. The road is no pushover since large sections have been ripped away by landslides and avalanches, leaving only precarious, deeply rutted tracks of frozen mud, but the views, the drive across the Pamir plateau and the crossing of the 4655m (15,270ft) Ak-Baital pass are spectacular.
Please read my travel pages on Khorugh, Murghob, and Osh in Kygyzstan to get my version of this utterly amazing journey!
It was disappointing in retrospect that I only took a handful of photos. Very hard to do when your driver doesn't speak English and your bones and brain have been jarred from their sockets. However, photos would never do this journey justice. It is simply an amazing experience that doesn't compare.
Note that accommodation options along this highway, are non exhistant practically. (Only two places I was aware of). However, the local Pamiris are a terribly hospitable bunch and would put you up for probably around 10USD including meals.
The website below is excellent, and shows you what you can expect. Leave a Comment
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I already mentioned this in the previous tip – you should not only NOT rush along the Pamir Highway, but also spend some days along in the villages and landscapes.
Khorog is a possible starting point for the trip, and it is worthwile to stay here for at least 2 days. The village is the capital of the Pamir region, very much supported by the Aga Khan Development Network (and proceeding links in there), a non profit organisation. It has a university, schools and a very good hospital, people speak very good English (mainly the young ones, but the elder as well). In Khorog, you can learn so much about the region’s history and peoples former life in the museum – highly recommendable. And some kms east of town is a Botanical Garden, which is said to be the highest on our planet.
Khorog has a big bazaar where you can get any supply you can think of, excellent local dishes (oh yummmmm….) and you can fill up your stock of food when you want to set out for hikes.
Khorog felt for me like Shangri-La. I was overwhelmed by the locals, so friendly, so big smiles everwhere I went. Given the altitude (2200 m), a lot of fruit trees and berries grow here, so enough of wonderful fresh food supplies as well.
If you want to read more about Khorog, please check my separate page about this Pamir gem (see link below). Leave a Comment
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"No pictures"- I was told by the co-pilot while we were on the runway at Dushanbe airport. "No pictures of airport".
So no pictures were taken but as soon as we took off I started. Gradually as th flight progresses you can see how the terrain changes as we fly towards Khorog. Alot of the flight snakes it's way along the Pyandzh River which borders Afghanistan. Leave a Comment
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on August 23, 2007
on October 30, 2004
