Musashi says:

Η πρωτεύουσα Dushanbe είναι 1700 km από την Mashad του Iran.

Musashi says:

Σχόλια στο Lonely Planet για το Pamir Highway

Preliminary Ablutions (Tajikistan)
DO have a long hot shower and a good meal immediately before you depart Dushanbe. It may be awhile before you repeat this experience.

blue star Hitchhiking
DON’T try to hitch a ride in Kalaikhum on a Sunday morning. However, your fellow occupants of the vehicle that does eventually come along is likely to insist on providing you with a hospitable welcome in their home when you finally get to Khorog. If you’re lucky it’ll be in a traditional Pamiri house.

blue star Patience (Tajikistan)
DON’T worry if a section of the road has been washed away by the Pyanj river before Khorog. The local villagers will provide food and a place to sleep while the road is being recreated. Even if it takes two days.

blue star He’s the Man (Tajikistan)
DO hire a private jeep driver called Pamiri-bek (pamircar@yahoo.com). He is an ethnic Kyrgyz from Murghab but he will come to Khorog to pick you up. He is friendly, reliable, and learnt to handle his sturdy Russian Uaz (say “Wahz”) vehicle in the Tajik army. His English is improving all the time and so will your Russian.

blue star Ancient Civilisation (Tajikistan)
DO follow the sunburnt cheeked children of Vrang through the village, across the water course and up to the ruined Zoroastrian fire worshipping platforms. Sit on the ruined steps and look down into the cultivated fields of the Wakhan Valley. Behind you the barren cliffs are pock marked with Buddhist caves.

blue star The View (Tajikistan)
DON’T forget to look back as you climb up onto the high altitude plateau. Take in the vast spider like patterns of the alluvial valley. Over the way is Afghanistan of donkey trains and long veiled women. Behind the brown mountain range can be glimpsed the eternal snows of the Hindu Kush. Beyond that is Pakistan.

blue star Why we’re here (Tajikistan)
DO camp at least two nights beside the exquisite Lake Bulunkul (3800m). The water is turquoise, the sky huge, the hills surreally veined and painted, snow capped in the distance. There is not another soul there. Don’t worry if you don’t have a tent – Pamiri-bek has one, along with an ancient Russian Army camp cooker that looks like a flame thrower.

blue star The View Again (Tajikistan)
DO take another detour to enjoy a vista of the Pamir to view the magnificent Wakhan Range with the great Pamir plateau beneath the mountains. Did Marco Polo stand on this very spot? No words can speak of the isolation and beauty of this place.

blue star Local hospitality (Tajikistan)
DO stop for tea at a yurt encampment near Bash Gumbaz on the high plateau. Pamiri-bek knows where to go. When you emerge into the sunlight after eating a pile of fresh bread, jam and yak cream, the neighbors will be awaiting their turn. Repeat. DON’T worry about whether you’ll survive the Central Asian hospitality until they bring out the vodka.