Central Asia is not a uniform monolith. Prior to Soviet times, the region was settled by different groups of people with different cultures. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan being closer to East Asia, has more Turkic and Mongolian roots, whereas the people in Tajikistan, being closer to Afghanistan and Iran, boasts Persian heritage. Traveling west, the familiar East Asian facial features are replaced by Indo-European appearances. Other differences are palpable, specifically sentiments towards Russia. Soviet tolerance in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan has turned to slight animosity here in Tajikistan, and an example includes tearing down of Soviet buildings and statues. The Soviet style utilitarian buildings seen across Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are now replaced by grandiose and opulent buildings similar to what you might find in Dubai and Vegas, which is ironic given that Tajikistan is the poorest country in Central Asia. The reason for the animosity can be traced back to the early 1900s. Unlike their counterparts, the Tajiks had wanted to set up an Islamic republic and had put up major resistance against the Soviet. As a reprisal, when borders were randomly drawn, the Soviet decided to “give” Samarkand and Bukhara to the Uzbeks – two regions long held to be part of the Tajik heritage. Lonely Planet appropriately coined this as “cultural amputation”.
Traveling from neighboring Kyrgyzstan to Tajikistan is no simple feat. Despite the capitals being only an hour and a half away from each other by air, traveling between the two countries is an all day affair. This is because of recent territorial disputes resulting in all borders between the 2 countries being closed. So instead of flying direct, we had to first fly back to Kazakhstan and then make our way to Tajikistan.
Yandex Go is illegal in Tajikistan, so the only option to get to our hotel is by taxi, which isn’t expensive, but prices are not fixed like in the other countries. As soon as we exited customs, we were accosted and quoted fares for $15, which I knew was too high. The further we walked out and away from the airport, the more the prices dropped. Given that it was getting late and we just wanted to get to the hotel, we settled for $5, but knew that we could have gotten $2 had we made it all the way to the main road.
FIRE'd @ 47 