Week 5: Our Weekend Escape (Iskanderkul, Khujand)
~Special Post~: We escape the confines of the capital city Dushanbe for a weekend! A truly revitalizing experience that I, and my classmates, all needed after a month of being in Tajikistan.
Because I had limited WiFi in Dushanbe, I decided to journal everyday and upload blog posts / highlights after I returned! I’ll be breaking these up into weekly posts, with key events or days that made my Tajikistan experience special. I hope you enjoy reminiscing with me on my six-week journey. I miss it already. :)
POSTS
Week 1: Welcome to Dushanbe
Week 1: 1st Day with My Host Family! (Рӯзи Аввал бо Оила мизбонам) - full day
Week 2: Easing In, оҳиста, оҳиста...
Week 2: Bet on It, Bet on It (A “Bazaar” Day)
Week 3: Tests, Dictionaries, Other Nerdy Things
Week 3: Embassy PARTAY & Hike!!!
Week 4: Hitting My Stride
Week 4: My Big Fat Tajik Wedding
Week 5: A Critical Point
Mini-Itinerary:
7/20 - The Adventure Begins!
7/21 - A Gradual Self-Decay
7/22 - A Bizarre Bazaar Day
7/20 - The Adventure Begins!
In the morning, we headed to American Councils for some brief WiFi time (where I posted the Tajik wedding photos! ). We then met our driver, Усмон (meaning “sky”), dropped by Rudaki for water, and headed on our way in the Jeeps to our weekend trip in Iskanderkul. We were split about 4-5 people per car, including our teachers and Carly/Mehroj. I napped and even mustered up the courage to ask the driver if he could stop and let us take pictures.
A few hours in, we dropped by a restaurant called ошхонаи меҳроҷ and I ate some questionable qurutob. After finally finishing driving, we stopped to take very long hike. By no means was it an actual hike -- it was mostly just following bumpy, sandy paths and avoiding sharp brush -- but I think a good majority of us weren’t extremely athletic, so maybe that’s why it seemed more strenuous than it should have been. In any case, the weather was absolutely beautiful, and the view of Iskanderkul was gorgeous. We walked all the way to a waterfall, шашара, and I climbed up some steep pathways and also a dead tree! (see pictures)
After walking all the way back down and talking about Sun Wukong (The Monkey King) and Chinese legends, we sat by the lake for a long time, skipping stones and just relaxing. Finally, we drove to our quaint little cottage house atop the mountains! The girls were separate from the guys, and we had split rooms - 2 or 3 to each room - and a main carpeted area to relax.
The guys had just 1 bed and most of them had to sleep on the floor (haha). We discussed pranks we could do to the guys (which never carried out at the end), and we then walked out and scaled a sorta big rock to talk to Mehroj / Ian. Ian was really nice; he offered to hold my phone/charger and give me a hand up since I’m a small person. After that, we ran into some American teachers back at the cottage! They’re guests here too, and they’re part of some group that gives discounted travel rates to groups of teachers.
Around 8 pm, we ate dinner! It consisted of soup (how much soup can one ingest in one 6-week period?) and surprisingly non-oily osh. And also airdropping weird photos to each other. Did I mention it was actually sort of cold? I put on my light sweatshirt. I will cherish this feeling.
After, we sat around the bonfire, and locals there were delighted to hear us speak the little Tajiki we knew, and recite proverbs and poems. Mavjuda (my teacher) had me recite the whole “har bod” poem, and I literally regurgitated it like a robot. This is what 5-hour+ of Tajiki studies can do to you. Be warned. Anyways, I tried to explain the Cowherder and Weaver Chinese legend to Carly/Mavjuda in Tajiki, and it went okay! Later, we dropped by the guy’s cottage across the field to say hi to Yannick, but he wasn’t doing too well. I was a little sad because my phone couldn’t capture the constellations dancing above our heads - I’ve never seen so many stars before, in the night sky. Ava pointed out the Big Dipper! No wonder I was thinking about the stars again.
We soon got ready for bed, and Yannick moved into our room. I put in my earbuds, grabbed a pillow to hug, and went soundly to sleep.
7/21 - A Gradual Self-Decay
Breakfast on the balcony of our cottage was really nice - I ate bread with jam and honey, a few cookies, and split a tomato egg omelette and a chocopie. I even took a few pics of the refreshing, bright morning view. We relaxed a little in the general area, and jumped in our Jeeps around 8:30. I did some light reading, an easy NACLO question since I’m rusty, and slept a bit. We made a stop or two, including at a statue of Rudaki near Panjikent. Unfortunately, Yannick took a taxi back with Sadullo, since they thought it’d be best for him to recover in Dushanbe.
We stopped at a rest stop after driving through a canyon on (thankfully) paved roads, and we ate laghmon (NOTE: this is the culprit of my sickness. To come.). Some people ordered the kabobs, which were huge chunks of meat. The waiter Умед (“hope”) was SO smiley, and laughed out of delight whenever anyone said anything in Tajiki.
(But then he asked Carly’s name and had someone give her a slip of paper with his phone number - and Mehroj said he was talking about it in the men’s room, like if she ripped up the slip or not).
We drove through some canyons, and I was able to talk to the driver, Usmon, more! I found out he has 6 kids - from 1 yr old to 1997. I also found out Iskanderkul was named for Alexander the Great (Macedonia), who had had great battles in this nation -- Alexander, Iskander + Lake, Kul, because one of his battles took place here.
Soon, we dropped by a Zoroastrian temple / 1800 in Istaraftshan and it was broiling outside. Going from the breezy lunch place, AC car to 110 degrees isn’t recommendable. I think this was the hottest I’ve been in my life. In hindsight, this was where I began to feel a bit queasy and dizzy.
After that, we drove some more until we reached Khujand Deluxe, a really fancy hotel!!! Mikaela and I roomed, and it was a suite, with a separate kitchen, conference room and everything. And the WIFI was AMAZING!!!!! I videochatted my family for an hour, and then we went to a local museum/park, where I bought some small presents for my friends. We also walked around the park to look at the souvenir shops.
We finally headed to a fancy restaurant-but-also-greenhouse, and we took pictures atop its tower. But I wasn’t feeling it, because I think I had a fever/heat exhaustion, some mixture of the two, and was breathing REALLY hard. Anyways, we ate some cake and waited forever for our chicken and fries to come out. They had good walnut bread though! 2 hours of dizziness and fever later, we finally headed back to the hotel! Unfortunately, I had Tajik tummy, and I went to sleep after some good Internet surfing.
7/22 - A Bizarre Bazaar Day
I couldn’t eat any breakfast today because my stomach hurt, and I was lowkey dying. We headed out to the Panjshanbe Bazaar with the mosque right nearby. We took a quick peek inside the mosque, with headscarves. (Fun fact: Panjshanbe means “Thursday.” Dushanbe is Monday, because it’s when the bazaar there would take place years and years ago. But that location became even more populated and busy until it became the capital of Tajikistan!)
Soon, we headed out to look for scarves and jewelry, but when you’re a) on a fever b) haven’t eaten anything c) have stomach issues and aren’t retaining any water you consume, walking amongst the hot rows of raw-meat sellers isn’t the best for your health. Mehroj found us a scarf seller, but I really couldn’t focus, even though I tried so hard!!!! I felt faint so he took me to sit down in a porcelain store with AC and bought me water. I felt dizzy and vaguely distant from my surroundings... I sat there and chatted with the 21-year old there, who said he studied in Guangzhou for 2 years! So his Chinese was SUPER good - though I was trying to speak Tajiki with him too. Mavjuda came in to sit with me too, and after an hour, we left! But I realized standing wasn’t a good option for me still, so we stayed in a fabric/scarf section, and I bought a couple of cute scarves for my family. After that, I chatted with Mavjuda, about her family and languages! I told her about characters in Asian languages and things like that. After an eternity, we finally got in the Jeep and went on our way.
First restaurant stop? Not good for some reason - maybe since they didn’t have AC.
Second stop - at 2 pm. I died. The bread was salty.
Bathroom stop. My grumpy driver Usmon wouldn’t let me use AC, and I was trying to sleep in the back so I switched seats with Carly! It was very breezy and nice, and my driver Zorkeel eventually turned on the AC. He was such an amiable guy! He told me he married at 25, has been married for 16 years, has 4 kids (2 girls and 2 boys), and even has a wife in Russia too (I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not?). He even joked that he’d marry Maggie to his brother. We got back to Dushanbe in the evening, so I walked home, excitedly showed pictures of my trip to my family, and slept at 10 pm without eating dinner.
Besides the sickness, this weekend trip was a true reprieve from the academically-intensive days we’ve been having. Seeing the stars on the mountains, hearing Iskanderkul bubble peacefully, kicking up sand while strolling with my new friends, and seeing the swaths of blue and cloud-dipped brush strokes in the sky… I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. It was all worth it.
Isn't it crazy? I can't believe I only had about a week left living in Tajikistan by this point... I didn't know it yet, but I was really going to miss it. See you soon in Week 6!
