#stealing from the poor afghan people

[newstfionline]

Sunday, August 22, 2021

US keeps ban on nonessential border crossings to slow COVID (AP) The U.S. government on Friday extended a ban on nonessential travel along the borders with Canada and Mexico to slow the spread of COVID-19 despite increasing pressure to lift the restriction. U.S. border communities that are dependent on shoppers from Mexico and Canada and their political representatives have urged the Biden administration to lift the ban. In addition, Canada recently began letting fully vaccinated U.S. citizens enter the country. But the Department of Homeland Security said in a tweet Friday that the restrictions on nonessential travel were still needed to minimize the spread of COVID-19 and the delta variant. It extended the ban until at least Sept. 21. The travel restrictions have been in place since early in the pandemic in March 2020 and repeatedly extended while allowing commercial traffic and essential crossings to continue.

Booming business at dollar stores shows the widening gulf between haves and have-nots during pandemic (Washington Post) Kyle Dishman can’t afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General, where he can make $40 stretch into a week’s worth of groceries and the occasional can of motor oil for his Chrysler 300. He sticks with pasta, frozen pizza and canned vegetables, fully aware that “any food you can buy for only $1 is not the greatest for you.” But Dishman says prices have gone up so much that he’s started rationing his food. A growing number of Americans are relying on dollar stores for everyday needs, especially groceries, as the coronavirus pandemic drags into its 18th month. Chains such as Dollar General and Dollar Tree are reporting blockbuster sales and profits, and proliferating so quickly that some U.S. cities want to limit their growth. Foot traffic at Dollar General is up 32 percent from pre-pandemic levels, far outpacing the 3 percent increase at Walmart. Analysts say the explosive rise of dollar stores is yet another example of how the pandemic has reshaped the economy and widened the gulf between the wealthiest and poorest Americans. “It’s a striking disparity: In this country, there is now dollar-store land and there is Whole Foods land,” said Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), a nonprofit advocacy group. “And if you live in Whole Foods land, it’s very hard for people to understand just how desperate circumstances are for the rest of the country.”

More Americans now say government should take steps to restrict false information online than in 2018 (Pew Research Center) Amid rising concerns over misinformation, Americans are now a bit more open to the idea of the U.S. government taking steps to restrict false information online. Roughly half of U.S. adults (48%) say the government should take steps to restrict such misinformation, even if it means losing some freedom to access and publish content. That is up from 39% three years ago, with Democrats driving much of the increase. Meanwhile, a majority of the public continues to favor technology companies taking steps to restrict online misinformation.

Hurricane Grace hits Mexico's Gulf coast, weakens; 8 killed (AP) Hurricane Grace hit Mexico’s Gulf shore as a major Category 3 storm before weakening on Saturday, drenching coastal and inland areas in its second landfall in the country in two days. At least eight people died, authorities said. The storm had lost power while crossing over the Yucatan Peninsula on Thursday, swirling through Mexico’s main tourist strip, but it rapidly drew in power from the relatively warm Gulf of Mexico before reaching the Mexican coast again late Friday. At least eight people, including children, died and three were missing after mudslides and flooding, said Cuitláhuac García, governor of Mexico’s Veracruz state. García said 330,000 people lost power in the storm but it was gradually being restored.

Haitian quake victims rush aid sites, take food and supplies (AP) Haitians left hungry and homeless by a devastating earthquake swarmed relief trucks and in some cases stole desperately needed goods Friday as leaders of the poor Caribbean nation struggled to coordinate aid and avoid a repeat of their chaotic response to a similar tragedy 11 years ago. The attacks on relief shipments illustrate the rising frustration of those left homeless after the Aug. 14 magnitude 7.2 earthquake, which killed nearly 2,200 people, injured more than 12,000 and destroyed or damaged more than 100,000 homes. The frustration over the pace of aid has been rising for days and has been illustrated by the growing number of people crowding together at aid distribution sites. But Friday was the first time there was such widespread stealing.

UNICEF warns millions of Lebanese face water shortages (Reuters) More than 4 million people in Lebanon could face a critical shortage of water or be cut off completely in the coming days, UNICEF warned, due to a severe fuel crisis. Lebanon, with a population of 6 million, is at a low point in a two-year financial meltdown, with a lack of fuel oil and gasoline meaning extensive blackouts and long lines at the few gas stations still operating. “Vital facilities such as hospitals and health centres have been without access to safe water due to electricity shortages, putting lives at risk,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement. “If four million people are forced to resort to unsafe and costly sources of water, public health and hygiene will be compromised, and Lebanon could see an increase in waterborne diseases, in addition to the surge in COVID-19 cases,” she said, urging the formation of a new government to tackle the crisis.

Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: US accuses Abiy's government of blocking aid (BBC) The US international development agency has blamed the Ethiopian government for a shortage of humanitarian aid in the country's conflict-torn Tigray region. USAID accused the government of "obstructing" access to Tigray, as it warned that food aid was set to run out this week for the first time. Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of famine amid the conflict between government and rebel forces. USAID called on the Ethiopian government to "immediately allow humanitarian assistance". It noted that aid trucks have been unable to leave the town of Semera in the neighbouring Afar region—currently the only accessible land route into Tigray. About 100 trucks of aid are needed in Tigray each day, yet just 320 have managed to reach the region since the end of June, a UN spokesman told the BBC. "At least two important aid organizations have already run out of food," said Saviano Abreu from the UN humanitarian agency, Ocha. "Without urgent and unimpeded food assistance, there will be an imminent threat to the lives of over 400,000 people in Tigray already in famine-like conditions and over 1.8 million people now in emergency levels of hunger could slide into starvation," he said.

In Kabul, a fearful wait for US to deliver on evacuation vow (AP) Tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan waited nervously on Saturday to see whether the United States would deliver on President Joe Biden’s new pledge to evacuate all Americans and all Afghans who aided the war effort. Biden faces growing criticism as videos depict pandemonium and occasional violence outside the airport, and as vulnerable Afghans who fear the Taliban’s retaliation send desperate pleas not to be left behind. The Gulf nation of Bahrain on Saturday announced it was allowing flights to use its transit facilities for the evacuation, an option that should ease pressure after the U.S. faced issues Friday with its facilities at Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar rapidly filling up. The backlog forced flights from the Kabul international airport to stop for several hours. The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, said it would host up to 5,000 Afghans “prior to their departure to other countries.” So far, 13 countries have agreed to host at-risk Afghans at least temporarily, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Another 12 have agreed to serve as transit points for evacuees, including Americans and others. But the growing question for many other Afghans is, where will they finally call home? Already, European leaders who fear a repeat of the 2015 migration crisis are signaling that fleeing Afghans who didn’t help Western forces during the war should stay in neighboring countries instead. The desperate scenes of people clinging to aircraft taking off from Kabul’s airport have only deepened Europe’s anxiety.

Taliban took Afghanistan but face cash squeeze (AP) The Taliban face a frontal challenge in cementing control of Afghanistan: Money. Despite their dominant military blitz over the past week, the Taliban lack access to billions of dollars from their central bank and the International Monetary Fund that would keep the country running during a turbulent shakeup. Those funds are largely controlled by the U.S. and international institutions, a possible leverage point as tense evacuations proceed from the airport in the capital of Kabul. Tens of thousands of people remain to be evacuated ahead of the United States’ Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw its troops from the country. But the Taliban also do not currently have institutional structures to receive the money—a sign of the challenges it might confront as it tries to govern an economy that has urbanized and tripled in size since they were last in power two decades ago. The shortfall could lead to an economic crisis that would only fuel a deeper humanitarian one for the roughly 36 million Afghans expected to stay in the country.

The Taliban is flaunting captured U.S. weapons that may be worth billions. Can it use them? (Washington Post) As the Taliban swept into power across Afghanistan, it captured many millions, perhaps billions, of dollars worth of U.S. military equipment that had once belonged to Afghan forces. Footage from areas captured by the militant group shows bedraggled but celebratory fighters in control of U.S.-made guns, armored vehicles and even Blackhawk helicopters and drones. Beyond the flashy hardware, experts are also concerned that the extremist group would now be in charge of sophisticated technology, including biometric devices used by the U.S. military to identify Afghans who assisted Americans and allies. It’s an impressive haul for a group that was once dismissed as a band of rural Luddites when it emerged in the 1990s. But despite its austere interpretations of Islam and rejection of much of modern society, the Taliban has shown flexibility when it comes to technology. It is already active on the Internet and social media. And its fighters are no strangers to U.S. military equipment. “The Taliban have already been using sophisticated military equipment that they have captured from Afghan national security forces in recent years,” said Robert Crews, an expert on Afghanistan at Stanford University. “They have used everything from night vision goggles and scopes to sniper rifles and armored vehicles and artillery.”

Battered Airlines Owed Billions as Governments Withhold Cash (Bloomberg) Airlines are owed almost $1 billion across 20 countries as governments seek to hang on to hard currency, depriving the industry of vital cash at a time when travel has been devastated by the coronavirus crisis. Figures published by the International Air Transport Association show that Venezuela is withholding a further $4 billion that’s been outstanding for years and may be permanently lost to carriers. Lebanon, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are the worst offenders among other states, accounting for 60% of the $963 million deficit, according to IATA.

[mobashirfatimah]

Book Review - Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns – An Emotional Ride

Set up in Kabul, Afghanistan at  the times of war, Thousand splendid suns written by Khaled Hosseini  is a book that will make your heart  ache. It has given the sorrow of women a completely new perspective and the fact that the writer himself in spite being a ‘man’ who has shown the agony of women in a completely new light is the cherry on the top. Even though this book is about women and their hardships it is deeply impacting on the minds of men too. The author’s love for his characters and for his country is palpable. In the end, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a love letter to a country and to a people. It is a celebration of endurance and survival in the face of unspeakable tragedy. This is a love song to anyone who has ever had a broken heart and to anyone who has ever felt powerless and yet still dares to dream.

The main plot seemed to fill my criteria. Set in Afghanistan from the 1960s to the 1990s, spanning from Soviet occupation to the Taliban control, following the lives of two women in their marriages and in their war-torn country. Expecting domestic abuse, graphic war descriptions and a main theme of oppression in Afghan women.  A Thousand Splendid Suns covers much more than the aforementioned.

The novel is split in a dual narrative, the first being Mariam when she is nine, living on the outskirts of Herat with her bitter mother, anxiously in wait for the once-a-week visits from her wealthy father. Branded as an illegitimate child, Mariam faces many prejudices and blame not only from the family of her father, but also from her own mother. Hosseini introduces a naïve child whom you immediately pity, and also feel a foreboding clutch the pages. Not soon into the story, Mariam discovers the emptiness in her father's love and after her mother's suicide, is forced to marry a man, Rasheed more than 20 years her senior, her being only 15.Rasheed is a grumpy, hot headed , emotionally challenged and is sorrow stricken from the past event in his life in which he lost his son and wife. You can feel saymapathetic towards him but that doesn’t justify his abuse on Mariam. He doens’t respects Mariam and finds her stupid, naïve and  illiterate. Being a child of just 15 years the marriage consummation becomes sexual abuse for poor little Mariam. Her life becomes even more difficult when she faces continuous miscarriages which leads to Rasheed’s frustration to a whole new level and he starts performing domestic abuse on Mariam. The part where he makes mariam chew stones was one of the saddest part in the books. I don’t think so that there is any reader who hasn’t cried after that scene. “The first time Rasheed exerted physical abuse on Mariam is when he shoved the stones into her mouth and forced her to chew it to show her what her rice tastes like to him. This breaks mariam’s two molars”. Things continue like this with mariam for the majority part of her life.

Then comes the second narrative- Laila. An innocent young child with a best friend and lover, Tariq, a family torn by the war that steals her brothers away from her and in turn her mother's affection. After the war in Kabul worsens, Tariq's family decides to leave for Pakistan.Laila’s family was supposed to join them after a day. A nuclear attack makes her loose her family and house .Orphaned, torn from her love, Laila agrees to marry Rasheed who happens nto live in the neighbourhood and and rescues her. Laila was falsely informed about Tariq’s death in Pakistan. Laila was pregnant with Tariq’s child and to hide her bitter truth from Rasheed who was in the merry of him finalyy having his own child. Laila considers the unborn child to be a miracle - a memory of Tariq. Marrying Rasheed is Laila's method of providing for her child.

The stories of these two wives will make you gaze in awe at the sheer strength of love in desperate times. A key relationship forms between Laila and Mariam. Though Laila had referred to seeing Mariam at Ahmad and Noor's funeral, the interaction with Laila in Mariam's house allows the reader to not only notice how much Mariam has changed and become hardened by Rasheed, but also the differences between the two women. By putting Mariam and Laila in contrast like this, Hosseini is, you feel, not just trying to burrow into individual lives, but also trying to explain the complexities of Afghan society to the reader. While Mariam is obedient and has been forced into submission, Laila is cunning and secretive in her attempt to save herself and her child.

Rasheed wanted a boy but Laila gives birth to a girl, Aziza which infuriates Rasheed. Aziza resembles Tariq a lot which makes Rasheed doubt the gravity of relationship Laila had with Tariq before he died. One night Rasheed tries to beat mariam out of his frustration but Laila intervenes and stops Rasheed. This leads to softening Mariam’s heart for laila. Then starts the tale of their bond of familiality and the only hope for each other. Events turn out to be such that Mariam gives the ultimate sacrifice for Laila and her kids which marks the legitimate end to her illegitimate beginnings. The end of the novel encapsulates a hopeful moment.

The novel is beautifully written with descriptive details that will haunt you long after you finish reading it. What keeps this novel vivid and compelling are Hosseini’s eye for the textures of daily life and his ability to portray a full range of human emotions, from the smoldering rage of an abused wife to the early flutters of maternal love. But Hosseini vividly brings home what life is like for women in a society in which they are valued only for reproduction.

Hosseini does not challenge the usual western view of Afghanistan, but he does enrich it - he adds greater knowledge and understanding to it, and makes the Afghans come alive as loving, feeling individuals.

This book deserves a thousand splendid stars....

[topfygad]

A guide for traveling Tajikistan (Tips + 3-week itinerary)

The ex-Soviet Republic of Tajikistan is a truly wild country that you don’t want to miss in your Silk Road journey.

Home to the Pamir range, one of highest mountain ranges in the world, the mountains of Tajikistan attract the most adventurous travelers, especially those wanting to drive the M-41, or Pamir Highway, an impressive road and architectural masterpiece that goes through some of the remotest and most beautiful mountain scenery in Central Asia.

With tourism increasing year by year, the country is daily becoming more prepared to receive international travelers and, after spending 1 month in the country, I have this compiled this guide that contains all the tips needed for traveling to Tajikistan, plus a compelling 3-week itinerary.

Read: Ultimate guide to the Pamir Highway

    Visa Travel Insurance Best time to visit The country, the people and its culture Getting in Safety Scams and corruption Money Food and alcohol Transportation Useful books Internet and SIM Card Accommodation Itinerary More information

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Do you know what a VPN is? A Virtual Private Network allows you to access blocked sites when you travel, as well as it lets you access content only available in your home country (like Netflix), plus it prevents hackers from stealing your personal data. Learn here why you should always use a VPN when you travel

  How to get a visa for visiting Tajikistan

Most likely, you can get an e-visa – Most nationalities can apply for an e-visa through the official portal, valid for any port of entry.

The visa costs 50USD, is valid for 45 days, single entry and takes 1 or 2 working days.

Double entry visa – If you want one, you will have to get it through the embassy. Most people who want a double entry visa do so because they want to travel the Afghan Corridor, accessible from Ishkashim.

If this is your case, these are the requirements:

1 Passport valid for at least 6 months of validity and with two empty pages

Passport copy and visa copy from the country you are applying from

2 Passport photos

US Dollars

I applied for one in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and got it on the same day.

My double entry visa for visiting Tajikistan

GBAO Permit – The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) is the region located in the east of Tajikistan, where the Pamir Highway and Wakhan Valley are. 

If you want to visit it, you must tick the GBAO checkbox in the application form. If you are applying at the embassy, make sure to tell them, so you get the extra stamp.

By the way, the GBAO permit costs an additional 20USD.

Read: 30 Tips for traveling to Kazakhstan

Trekking in GBAO – Things to do in Tajikistan

  Travel Insurance for Tajikistan

Eastern Tajikistan, where the Pamir Highway is, is a high altitude area, averaging around 4,000 meters above sea level.

You should know that, if you read the fine print, most insurance companies won’t cover you from 2500-3,000m and above, so you better check before you travel to Tajikistan. 

World Nomads, however, does provide cover, including their most basic policy, which already covers for trekking at 4,000m.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE QUOTE FROM WORLD NOMADS

If you want to know more options, read how to find the best backpacking insurance

  Best time to visit Tajikistan

If you plan to do some trekking in eastern Tajikistan, you should come in summer.

I remember being in Alichur, a small village in the Pamir Highway and one of the coldest places in Central Asia, and, in the morning, during August, it was -5ºC and there was a freezing, strong wind, so it felt even colder. 

Imagine the weather there during the rest of the year.

Me, at the top of Gumbezkul Pass. It was the month of August and it was absolutely freezing – Best things to do in Tajikistan

Nevertheless, the Pamir Highway is open all year long so, if you are self-driving, you can drive it at any time. Actually, my friend Joao Leitao from Nomad Revelations drove it in winter.

On the other hand, the Fann Mountains in west Tajikistan are at lower altitude, hence warmer, so they can be visited during spring and fall. 

I did the 7 lakes trek in September and it was particularly hot!

The Fann Mountains – Is travel to Tajikistan safe

  The country, the people and its culture

After the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Tajikistan went through a dark period of Civil War that lasted pretty much until 1997 and it was not only in 1999, that they formed an actual, stable government, even though Emomali Rahmon, who is still today President of Tajikistan today, had already been ruling from 1994.

It was one of the countries most affected by the Soviet Union’s breakdown, as all their economy and development depended on the Russians so, after getting their independence, the country went to ruin.

Murghab and all the Pamir highway is really poor – Should I travel to Tajikistan

That crisis can still be seen today, as this is clearly the least developed of all the Stans (not counting Turkmenistan), a country with high rates of unemployment, and the fact that most of their infrastructure is still from the Soviet Union times.

It is also the least Westernized country, also due to the fact they are far from Russia so, unlike Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, their cultural influence is not that visible, hence they have less international exposure.

Actually, after having some conversations with quite a few highly educated Tajiks in Dushanbe, I felt that they don’t really know anything about what is going on in the outside world.

A Soviet truck

They were people with very few Western values and no apparent ambition who asked me many times why I would ever want to travel to Tajikistan.

Moreover, Tajikistan is one of those fake democracies where elections are celebrated but there is only one political party, so the same President has been ruling since 1994.

There is no freedom of speech and I remember when my Australian friend, Sam, was talking to a local man for about half an hour at the main square in Dushanbe, a man in a suit came to ask what was going on and invited him to leave.

This means that, still today, the Government doesn’t like their citizens to get international exposure.

The Tajiks – Tajiks are a Persian ethnic group who live mainly in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, but also in Xinjiang (China) and Uzbekistan.

Actually, nearly half of the total Tajik population live in Afghanistan.

Lovely Tajiks in Khujand – tRAVEL TO tAJIKISTAN

Nevertheless, you should know that, like all the Stans, Tajikistan is ethnically mixed and, actually, most of the people living in the Pamirs are Kyrgyz, whereas those in the Wakhan Valley are Wakhis, so if you want to meet the real Tajiks when you are traveling to Tajikistan, you will have to explore Dushanbe and the western part of the country.

Kyrgyz people from the Pamirs

Language – Tajik, which is a dialect of Persian (the language spoken in Iran and Afghanistan) is the official language. Russian is, of course, widely spoken among most people. English tends to be a problem across all the country. I recommend you learn some basic Russian before you visit Tajikistan. 

Religion – Tajiks are Suni Muslims but, like in all Central Asia, religion is not a very big deal. However, I felt that Tajiks were the most religious people in all Central Asia, especially those from the Fann Mountains. I remember that the men there never said hello or shook hands with my girlfriend.

Read: 65 Tips for traveling to Uzbekistan

Tajik women – Tajikistan travel guide

  How to travel to Tajikistan

Travel to Tajikistan by air

Traveling to Tajikistan by air is very easy, as there are many international flights connecting Dushanbe with Europe.

If you intend to travel the Pamir Highway, many people fly into Osh, the largest city in southern Kyrgyzstan and the beginning of the M-41 on the Kyrgyz side.

Travel to Tajikistan by land

Moreover, if you want to travel to Tajikistan by land, know that it shares a border with 4 countries and most of them have multiple border crossings. 

Kyrgyzstan – There are 6 border crossings and 4 of them are open to foreigners. The most obvious is the Kyzyl Art border crossing, which is the one that follows the Pamir Highway. For more information, read the latest Caravanistan updates.

Kyzyl Art pass: Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan border – Tajikistan travel guide

Uzbekistan – There are 5 border crossings with Uzbekistan and all of them seem to be open. I personally crossed the one at Konibodom, that links Khujand with the Fergana Valley, but if you don’t plan to visit that region, it is not very convenient. The Oybek border crossing is the one that connects Khujand with Tashkent and Penjakent is the one that connects the Fann Mountains with Samarkand. For more information, check the latest updates on Caravanistan.

Afghanistan – You can cross at Ishkashim, the gate to the Wakhan Corridor and a very safe part of Afghanistan; or the border crossing south of Dushanbe, which is also open but leads to Kunduz, a not very safe part of Afghanistan. Both borders are open but, if you plan to travel back to Tajikistan, remember to have a double entry visa.

China – Apparently, Kulma Pass is open now, as long as you have a valid printed visa on your passport. For more information, check the latest updates on Caravanistan.

Kulma Pass leads directly to the Karakoram Highway that connects Kashgar with Islamabad in Pakistan. Read here the full guide.

Read: 75 Tips for traveling to Kyrgyzstan

Uzbekistan – Tajikistan border crossing

  Is it safe to travel to Tajikistan?

In summer 2018, 4 cyclists traveling across Tajikistan were murdered in Danghara, an area relatively close to Dushanbe. ISIS claimed the attack.

That accident triggered a big concern among many travelers and the Tajiks are concerned that it might affect their tourism negatively.

This unfortunate event, however, has been a one-off thing and I personally think that it shouldn’t affect your decision to travel to Tajikistan. A similar case happened in Morocco in December 2018 when 2 Scandinavian girls were killed and, so far, it doesn’t seem that tourism has been affected.

Aside from that, Tajikistan is a safe country with very low crime rates.

Tajiks are always friendly – Is traveling to Tajikistan safe

  Scams and corruption when visiting Tajikistan

I still remember being in the car with a homestay owner, on our way to Khujand, when he gave some money to a policeman after stopping at one checkpoint.

Why did you give him money? – I said

Oh, this is just the standard bribing procedure. If we don’t pay him, then he would try to find a reason to fine or arrest us. 

The corruption in Tajikistan is a well-known fact and some of these police officers also try to rip off foreigners but luckily, as tourists, there is not much they can do to you unless you are credulous and believe their lies.

Common scams include policemen telling you that there is a problem with your Tajik visa or making you pay an entrance fee to a place that, obviously, doesn’t require an entrance fee.

Dude, just think:

How the hell there is going to be something wrong with your visa? And also,where have you been where you need to purchase an entry ticket from a policeman?

Just say no and continue with your business.

Epic landscapes

  Money when you travel in Tajikistan

The official currency is the Tajik Somoni and, in February 2019, 1USD = 9.50SOM

ATMs and credit cards – You can find ATM’s in the big cities (not in the Pamir Highway).

How much does it cost to travel to Tajikistan

It really depends on where you go and, ultimately, how you travel the Pamir Highway.

Typically, meals cost something between 1 and 3USD and budget homestays around 10-15USD, which tends to include dinner and breakfast.

In Dushanbe, you can find dorms for 3-4USD and the local transportation ranges from 2 to 10USD, depending on where you go.

For all costs referred to the Pamir Highway, read my guide.

Read: 80 Tips for traveling to Iran

We were on a low budget, so we hitchhiked the entire Pamir Highway

  Food and alcohol when visiting Tajikistan.

Heads-up.

Like in all Central Asia, the food won’t be the highlight of your visit in Tajikistan. 

In the Pamirs and different homestays, you are likely to eat shorpo for every meal, which is a meat broth.

In local restaurants, you will just find things like shahslik, meat skewers; lagman, a noodle soup; manti, fatty meat dumplings; or plov, rice fried in lamb fat.

As per alcohol, as in all ex-Soviet countries, beer and especially vodka are found everywhere.

Lagman is the comodin dish. After eating 100 bowls of it across all Central Asia, I really hated it but since I like pasta a lot, I could handle it more than other dishes

  Transportation when you travel around Tajikistan

The below information refers to types of transportation in western Tajikistan, not the Pamir Highway. For this, read my guide to the Pamir Highway.

Marshrutkas – Marshrutkas is what former Soviet countries call their public minivans. They are really cheap and travel between most towns and cities.

Local shared taxis – Actually, we used more local shared taxis than marshrutkas and, as far as I could see, they are the most preferred option among locals.

Hitchhiking – Highly doable and easy! We actually had one of our most crazy hitchhiking experiences, when we spent more than 48 hours in a truck, on our way from Khorog to Dushanbe.

Traveling in a mini UAZ-452 – A classic Soviet van

  Books for traveling to Tajikistan

Tajikistan Travel Guide by Bradt – The most comprehensive travel guide to Tajikistan. I bought all the Bradt guides to Central Asia (e-Book format). They are, by far, the most insightful guides I have ever read recently.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK PRICES ON AMAZON

  Central Asia Travel Guide by Lonely Planet – I am not a fan of this guide, but if you are traveling to all the Stans and want to buy just one book, it is a good choice as well.

 CLICK HERE TO CHECK PRICES ON AMAZON

  Internet and mobile when traveling in Tajikistan

Wi-Fi – From Murghab to Khujand and Dushanbe, the Wi-Fi connection when you are traveling in Tajikistan is one of the worst I have ever seen. In Dushanbe, the Wi-Fi in my hostel was particularly bad and then every day I would go work to a fancy café and the internet was down every now and then. In the Pamir Highway and the Wakhan Valley, Wi-Fi doesn’t exist.

SIM Card – 3G was just OK anywhere outside of the Pamir Highway. I bought MegaFon and, for a few Somonis, I got plenty of GBs.

  Accommodation in Tajikistan

Homestays – On the Pamir Highway, homestays are the way to go. I recommend you stay in random homestays, not in the popular ones. This way, the benefits will be spread more equally plus random homestays are cheaper.

Hostels – Hostels are popular, from Khorog to Dushanbe and Khujand. Click here to check all the available hostels in Tajikistan!

Hotels – In Khorog, Dushanbe, and Khujand you can find hotel options for mid-range travelers. Click here to check all the available hotels in Tajikistan!

Yurts – In the Pamirs, you can also find nomadic yurt camps where Kyrgyz nomads live.

A yurt camp somewhere in the Tajik Pamirs

  Traveling to Tajikistan – 3-week Itinerary

I traveled to Tajikistan from Kyrgyzstan via Kyzyl Art Pass and left through Uzbekistan at Konibodom, so this Tajikistan itinerary reflects the direction I took.

Map of the Tajikistan itinerary

  Things to do in Tajikistan – Pamir Highway (8-9 days) 

Built by the Soviets in 1930, the Pamir Highway is an architectural masterpiece that goes through some of the remotest landscapes you can ever imagine.

Officially, it starts in Osh (Kyrgyzstan) and ends in Afghanistan but the highest and most beautiful part of it lies in Tajikistan.

The following information is just a small summary.

For the full guide, read my 6,000-word guide to the Pamir Highway.

The stunning Pamir Highway – Tajikistan travel itinerary

How many days are needed for the Pamir Highway?

Well, it is really hard to say. We spent more than 2 weeks between the Pamir Highway and the Wakhan Valley but that is because we stopped in many places plus we also did a 3-day trek.

Normally, most people take a 5 or 7-day tour (starting from Osh), which also includes the Wakhan Valley, but, to be very honest, it is not enough to explore the side valleys, which is where the most stunning landscapes are.

Amazing road! – Tajikistan travel itinerary

If you don’t have the time, I get it but, if you do, here are all the places you need to stop at:

Karakul (1 night) – The first big settlement coming from Kyrgyzstan, Karakul has a very big lake and with some pretty cool snow-capped mountains at the background.

Murghab (2-3 nights) – Murghab is the main town on the M-41 and a base for visiting other places and valleys. We first stayed 2 nights because we waited for a festival and then we stayed a 3rd night after coming back from the trek.

The mosque in Murghab – Tajikistan itinerary

Gumbezkul Pass trek (2-3 nights) – If you have your own car, you can do this trek in 1 day but we did it in 3, cause we walked all the way from Murghab and spent one amazing night with some real nomads in the middle of nowhere. For more information, I wrote the full guide for Everything Everywhere: How to trek the Gumbezkul Pass.

Alichur  (1 night) – Very cool landscapes, yaks, trekking and Marco Polo sheep safaris.

Madyian Valley, close to Murghab – things to do in Tajikistan

Bulunkul (Stopover) – The coldest place in Central Asia is home to a beautiful lake. The trek from Alichur to here is a popular one. You can find a few homestays.

For most travelers, the Pamir Highway is, definitely, one of the best things to do in Tajikistan.

For more information, don’t forget to check my guide to the Pamir Highway

The festival we attended in Murghab – Things to do in Tajikistan

  Places to visit in Tajikistan – Wakhan Valley (3-4 days)

Many travelers tend to classify the Wakhan Valley as part of the Pamir Highway (M-41), which is completely wrong because they are 2 different places.

Actually, to reach the Wakhan Valley you need to leave the road and drive towards Afghanistan for several kilometers.

The Wakhan Valley

Anyways. The Wakhan Valley is one of my most favorite places in entire Central Asia and my most favorite place in my Tajikistan itinerary.

And the reason is that, besides being home to intriguing and jaw-dropping landscapes, the Wakhan is of great historical importance as the ancient border between North Asia and South Asia and on the remarkable Silk Road route, which can be seen in the many fortresses and other sites of cultural heritage there.

Moreover, in the 20th century, the Wakhan Valley marked the border between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan and the Soviet tanks came through here to invade Afghanistan in the 70s.

Today, the river you will go along during your whole journey, whose other side is in Afghanistan, is the main entry point for smuggling products, especially heroin, and, from the window of your car, you can wave and say hello at the many Afghans across the river, from whom you are separated by only a couple of meters.

Once again, this is a small summary, so for more information, don’t forget to check my guide to the Wakhan Valley in Tajikistan.

The views from Khaaka fortress – Left side is Afghanistan and right Tajikistan – Places to visit in Tajikistan

These are all the places we stopped at:

Langar (1 night) – The first big settlement you find is Langar.

We personally didn’t like Langar, as it is the only place in the Wakhan where the locals are very pushy in trying to promote their homestays, plus it is actually far from the river.

I recommend you continue for a few kilometers to Hisor, a more genuine village and with nicer views to actual Afghanistan.

Vrang (stop) – Vrang is another old village that has an ancient Buddhist temple. It is worth stopping for a few hours.

Yamchun (1 night) – The most striking fortress in the Wakhan, which stands with the Afghan Hindu Kush on its background.

Yamchun fortress – Places to visit in Tajikistan

It also has some famous hot springs called Baby Fatima that are believed to have some fertility benefits.

Namadgut (1 night) – There is nothing in particular to see here but travelers don’t tend to stop here, so it is quite untouched. That is why here we had the best cultural experience with a local woman who blessed us with her hospitality.

Kaakha Fortress – The second most famous fortress after Yamchun has also great views to Afghanistan.

Ishkashim (1 night) – The main town in the Wakhan Valley. It used to hold the Afghan market in no man’s land but it is temporarily closed. It is also the border to Afghanistan for those interested in doing the Afghan Wakhan corridor.

For more information, read my guide to the Wakhan Valley

Wakhi people – Best things to do in Tajikistan

  Tajikistan itinerary – Khorog (2 days)

After nearly two weeks of showering with buckets, using holes and bushes as toilets, exclusively eating shorpo and with no internet at all, getting to Khorog felt particularly good.

It is not a very big town but it has a good local market where you can buy many food items that were not available in the Pamir Highway, like cheese, and supermarkets with cold beer.

There is also an Indian restaurant that tends to be filled with travelers and a really good Tajik restaurant by the river, serving high quality grilled meat and other stuff.

Other than this, Khorog is a place to just chill, where we spent 4 days just catching up with work and filling our bellies with decent food.

By the way, the famous Afghan market takes place on Saturday.

Afghan people in the Afghan market of Khorog – A travel guide to Tajikistan

Where to stay in Khorog

Backpacker Hostel – Pamir Lodge – All right, it is a cool place and there is a friendly atmosphere. However, the hostel has the capacity for nearly 100 people and it only has two toilets and two showers, so when I came in August, it was very difficult to find them empty, apart from being quite dirty of course.

Backpacker Hostel – Hostel Do Nazarbayg – An alternative to Pamir lodge. You will find fewer backpackers but the location is much better and it is not that busy.

Click here to see the latest prices

Guest House – Riverside – A quieter, more homestay-style place.

Click here to see the latest prices

  The journey to Dushanbe – 1 day

The road to Dushanbe is a very long way.

Shared taxis take around 12 hours and cost 30USD. They leave from near the market but you need to be there early, 7am at most.

We arrived before 8am and there weren’t any marshrutkas or taxis left, so we decided to hitchhike and it took us 3 days, spending more than 48 hours in a truck.

The distance is only 518km but the road is really bad but beautiful and interesting as, again, it goes along the Afghan border for the most part of it.

The road from Dushanbe to Khorog: the left side is Afghanistan and the right Tajikistan

  Things to do in Tajikistan – Dushanbe (2 days)

The capital of Tajikistan is another place to chill for a few days while you collect some visas, like the Uzbek or Turkmen visas.

Well, not the Uzbek visa anymore, as from February 2019, they started issuing visas on arrival. Check my Uzbekistan travel guide for more information.

Dushanbe has cafés with real coffee, a variety of restaurants and a few pubs where to hang out at night.

What I liked about Dushanbe is that it was my first introduction to the real Tajikistan, as most people you meet in the eastern part are Kyrgyz, Wakhis or Pamir, so you will see a significant difference with the people living here, especially in the way women dress.

Don’t forget to check the main bazaar and the Rudaki Park, which holds the second tallest flagpole in the world

Where to stay in Dushanbe

Backpacker Hostel – Green House Hostel– We spent so many days here because the hostel was really comfortable. Comfy beds, a big kitchen and a living room with awesome couches.

Click here to see the latest prices

  Budget Guest House – Hello Dushanbe – If you want a less backpacker-friendly place, Hello Dushanbe may be slightly more expensive but the facilities are great. It has both private rooms and a dorm.

Click here to see the latest prices

Lovely Tajik women

  Hissor Fortress – Day trip from Dushanbe

If you are bored to be in Dushanbe, we also did a day trip to a fortress named Hissor, which was built by the Uzbeks in the 18th century, as this part of Tajikistan used to belong to the Emirate of Bukhara. The north was part of the Russian empire. 

All right, the fortress itself was boring, as it was overly refurbished, but we always like to get out of town, take a local marshrutka and just see other towns, so it was worth it only for this reason. 

How to get to Hissor fortress

From Dushanbe, you need to take a marshrutka to a town named Khisor. From there, take a taxi or hitchhike back to the fortress which is 4 or 5km away.

The fortress

  Places to visit in Tajikistan – Penjakent and the Fann Mountains (3-4 days)

Once again, this is a small summary.

For all the information needed, read my guide to the Fann Mountains.

While they are not as stunning as the valleys around the Pamir Highway, the Fann Mountains are also very pretty and their main advantage is that, unlike the Pamirs, they are heavily populated and filled with several tiny villages where actual Tajik people live.

Tajiks from the Fanns

Therefore, visiting the Fann Mountains is a great opportunity to discover the real Tajik rural life, so different from anything you have seen during your Tajikistan itinerary. 

Most people come to the Fann Mountains to visit Iskanderkul lake but I recommend going to the area around Penjakent and doing the 7 Lakes Trek.

Trekking in the Fanns

The reason is that, although Iskanderkul is a beautiful lake, no people live there plus it is always busy with domestic tourists, which isn’t a bad thing, but you won’t see much of the local culture. 

On the other hand, the 7 Lakes trek starts in Penjakent and goes through several tiny villages where you can do homestays.

From Penjakent, we took a UAZ-452, the classic Soviet mini-van, and drove to a village named Rachnapollon.

That area is really off the beaten track, so the driver himself invited us to stay at his place, for free, but we decided to give him a generous tip because he had been feeding us. 

How to get to Penjakent

First, take a local shared taxi from Dushanbe to Penjakent, which costs 70TJS (8USD). It is a 230km journey.

In Penjakent, for just a few somonis, we got in the UAZ-452 to Rachnapollon, from where we started walking on the next day.

Remember to check my guide to the Fann Mountains

Random people during the trek

  Places to visit in Tajikistan – Khujand (2-3 days)

Khujand is the purest Tajikistan in its most genuine form and one of the oldest cities in Central Asia (2,500 years old). 

It is the second largest city in the country, a city with little international exposure that has kept its traditional values.

Most travelers use it as a mere transit point, as it is close to the closest border with Tashkent, but I recommend spending here two nights at least.

Arbob Palace Tajikistan

Things to do in Khujand

Don’t forget to check the traditional bazaar, one of those traditional bazaars where everybody asks for a photo and gives you free stuff; and all the mausoleums and historical buildings around the main square. The Arbob Palace is also worth checking out. 

Mosques in Khujand

Where to stay in Khujand

Budget Hostel – Somoni Hostel – The best choice for backpackers and a really cool hostel.

Click here to check the latest prices

Budget Hotel – Golden Apartments – The alternative to a backpacker hostel.

Click here to check the latest prices

Khujand’s bazaar

  More information for visiting Tajikistan

Here you can find all my articles and travel guides to Tajikistan

And here all my guides to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.

Traveling to Iran? Find all my articles here

    from Cheapr Travels https://ift.tt/2WmI1Xa via IFTTT

[tezla7]

Starvation in Afghanistan

I’ve noticed this turning up on websites and in my news feeds:

https://www.dec.org.uk/ it’s a website appealing for money from British taxpayers- to support people starving in Afghanistan.  Let me try and be very clear about this because otherwise I’m in danger of sounding like a particularly horrible person.

Firstly, with the USA, the UK military illegally invaded Afghanistan on nothing but a bunch of lies and bombed the country into oblivion.  Using taxpayer money, for the USA $2.13 trillion, the UK- approximately £22 billion (or £37billion by 2013) that money went to weapons companies, it went on war, death and destruction.

Earlier this year in August 2021 the USA, UK and allies left Kabul on the run in a shambolic withdrawal, just after another drone strike that killed yet another entire family.  Right after this, just like sanctions on Syria, the US and UK seized Afghanistan’s central bank reserves, the same thing the US and UK did to Venezuela.

After all this, at Christmas time when people are magically being more conscientious- DEC emerges to ask UK citizens to pay money to UK and Western charities, to the humanitarian aid complex- to help feed starving people in Afghanistan.  After taking £billions from taxpayers to bomb and murder Afghans, here’s an appeal to ask for money to feed the starving people left behind...by giving money to Western companies.  Instead of all that bullshit, the UK and USA could simply treat Afghanistan as a sovereign country- let them have their own money and let them feed themselves.  After which, it’s time to negotiate reparations paid to Afghanistan for the astronomical and irreparable damage caused to the country from an illegal 20 year war.

Obviously this situation isn’t about money at all, but tragically in the world we live in it’s one of the few universal metrics people can use to quantify things.  What this is obviously about is that poor people finance wars of imperialism that cause death, destruction and untold horrors around the world.  Then when it’s over, poor people are told to finance a fake recovery that takes even more money from poor people and gives it to the same kinds of people that caused the problems in the first place.  Are western charities the same as the weapons companies?  No, but they are part of the same system and I’ve seen first hand how charities operate when ‘helping’ those in need.

What’s undeniable is, it truly doesn’t matter what you or I think about the government in a sovereign country- the only democratic, legal, ethical and legitimate action is to recognise a sovereign country as a sovereign country, and let them practice self determination.  Afghanis don’t need western charities stealing money.  Afghanis need sovereign independence, they need access to their own gold and central bank reserves and they require reparations for suffering an illegal 20 year war that they didn’t cause or provoke.

A lot of the time, the world feels like a broken record stuck on repeat.

[xtruss]

US Intelligence Community’s Virus Origins Report Is “Artificial, Political Flavoring, Not Science”: Pakistani Scholar

Global Times | August 25, 2021

Illustration: Liu Rui

Editor's Note:

Ninety days have passed since US President Joe Biden ordered for a report probing into the origins of the still ravaging novel coronavirus. On Tuesday, Biden reportedly received a classified report from the US intelligence community that was inconclusive about the origins of the novel coronavirus. It included information about whether or not the virus jumped from an animal to a human, or escaped from a lab in Wuhan. What are the US' intentions behind its origins-tracing maneuver? Global Times (GT) reporter Wang Wenwen talked to Yasir Habib Khan (Khan), founder and president of the Institute of International Relations and Media Research in Pakistan, on these issues.

GT: What do you think are the US' intentions behind its origins-tracing maneuver? Why could a scientific investigation become so politicized?

Khan: Every intension has its deep-rooted history that gives foundation to spillover action. The reason behind the US' intention to manipulate origin-tracing efforts is never framed on the basis of logic and rationality. Instead, it originates out of fears of losing global dominance. Though China is not the claimant of superpower but the US is under threat that if China continues to spell its economic miracles with peace diplomacy, rule-based international law, equal-footed relations without any prejudice, America's lopsided world order will lose its steam soon.

Haunted by qualm, White House administration has come out with full-blown "malice and malign campaign" to demonize Beijing administration. It is already naked secret that even before the COVID-19 breakouts, former Trump regime had triggered trade war against China.

To my opinion, origins tracing is just a tip of iceberg. Roots of the US' anti-China feud are found since inception of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Having leveled unfound allegations against China for stealing US intellectual property rights, the US Trade Representative prepared a report in 2017 which tried to establish that Chinese theft of American intellectual property cost between $225 billion and $600 billion annually. Former president Trump, in August 2018, signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 and banned Huawei and ZTE equipment from being used by the US federal government, citing security concerns. In 2019, the US Treasury designated China as a currency manipulator. In an attempt to subvert China's counter-terrorism and de-radicalizing efforts, US' bill "The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020" was signed by Trump into law on June 17, 2020. Afflicting China's internal affairs, The Hong Kong Autonomy Act was passed by the US Congress. The US imposed sanctions and visa restrictions against several Chinese government officials on false allegations of a genocide against the Uygur population in Xinjiang and human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Tibet. The US also launched "The China Initiative" that also involved an aggressive outreach campaign, with federal prosecutors and FBI agents regularly meeting with academia and the private sector about the threat of Chinese espionage.

Above-mentioned points reveal conspicuously that origin-tracing moves are driven by ulterior agenda lacking scientific research and probe.

How did Biden's intelligence team concoct the 90-day report on coronavirus origins? US President Joe Biden turning to the intelligence community for a COVID-19 virus origins story. Photo: Xinhua

GT: Do you think it is reliable for the US intelligence agency, which is incapable of judging the situation in Afghanistan, to make the report on the origins of the virus?

Khan: Technically speaking, if we look into professional acumen and integrity, the US intelligence agency stands exposed. Over the last many decades, on home ground to international spheres ranging from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Arab Spring, Syrian crisis and recently Afghanistan mayhem, US national intelligence agencies have been losing steam for inept calculations and flawed assessment reports. Given the disrepute, their report on origin-tracing of COVID-19 is another fiasco.

US public's own faith on professionalism of CIA and FBI went into tailspin when a special 11-member investigative body traced abuses of power by the nation's intelligence agencies in 1975.

The worst episodes of unbalanced judgments by the US intelligence agencies came to fore when the US-led invasion destroyed Iraq in 2003 on the wrong plea of weapons of mass destruction. In October of 2002, nine months before the US-led invasion of Iraq, the CIA produced a document summarizing relevant intelligence on Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons programs. On March 31, 2005, the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction reported that the intelligence community was "dead wrong" in its assessments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities before the US invasion.

A new book by former CIA deputy director Michael Morell spilled the beans that not only did the intelligence community fail to predict the advent of the series of popular uprisings starting in 2011 known as the "Arab Spring," but also deemed that the movement would "take a heavy toll on Al Qaeda by undermining the group's narrative." The Arab Spring intelligence failure led by the US is an eye-opener when touching upon other issues requiring objective assessments, such as Iran's intentions regarding nuclear weapons, Russia's next moves in Eastern Europe or China's expansion. It encapsulates how policymakers can be in a position to command virtually unlimited information and yet know so very little.

Origin-Tracing: Has Biden been set up by politicized intelligence agencies with absurd virus origins tracing? Gao Lei

Failure of the US intelligence system has many other glaring examples. One of them is poor assessment on the rise of the Islamic State (IS), an offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which sprang to life during the US occupation in Iraq. The US garrisoned and occupied for eight years, in which it had assumedly developed countless sources of information and recruited agents of all sorts. And yet, by all accounts, when IS' militants suddenly swept across northern Iraq, the CIA in particular found itself high and dry.

So much so, on the basis of comprehensive information compiled by US intelligence community, the Biden administration had complacent that Afghan forces were capable to defend their territories and even it could take at least three weeks to reach Kabul by Taliban. All assessment proved wrong.

Given the detailed evidences substantiating US intelligence judgments rife with errors and omission, if produced a report on origins tracing will suffer validity and public trust.

GT: Mainstream media in the US have largely reported the report of US intelligence is going to reveal more about the virus' origins. But when a scientist pushed back the idea that the virus was leaked from the Wuhan lab, few US mainstream media reported that. Why is the case? What is the role of the US media in pushing the origins tracing probe?

Khan: It is irony that leaving aside some, US media freedom and integrity are compromised to greater extent. On the issue of virus origin-traceability, US media is polarized. Some feel dictated by authorities at helm of affairs. Some are funded. Many toe the line propagated by the US government in order to show their solidarity with national narrative. Among them there are media outlets that do not practice impartiality and objectivity. Broadly speaking, the reputation of the news media is under siege. According to the General Social Survey, the number of Americans with some or a great deal of trust in the press has dropped 30 percentage points since the late 1970s. Even Trump used to call mainstream media as "fake media."

If looked into behavior of US media to see how it report, it is evident what is being published and aired on origins tracing investigation is not the result of unbiased evidences but ulterior motives.

However I am still optimistic that there might be some US media that will uphold the supremacy of truthfulness. Recently media also published a study on the issue. A new antibody testing study examining samples originally collected through the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research Program found evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections in five states earlier than had initially been reported. These findings were published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. The results expand on findings from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that suggested SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was present in the US as far back as December 2019. This report is one of evidences to debunk Wuhan lab leak theory.

GT: From your perspective, what impact will the report have on China and China-US relations?

Khan: As far as the report's impact on China, it is obvious that so far investigation is completed to fathom origin-traceability, China has come clean. First, the joint WHO-China investigation did not drop a hint about China's laxity or criminal oblivion in Wuhan lab leak propaganda. World knows very well that The COVID-19 virus was first publicly reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, but that does not necessarily mean China must be the origin of the virus. As we know, the first patient of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic was identified in the US in 1981, but scientists later traced the origin of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) back to chimpanzees and simian immunodeficiency virus in Africa. On February 9 this year, the joint WHO-China investigation team held a press conference to present the preliminary findings from its four-week field trip study. The 319-page joint research report supported the natural outbreak theory and clearly stressed it was "extremely unlikely" that the COVID-19 virus was leaked from a Chinese lab.

Undoubtedly, report that seems to be declaring China's hand in lab leak theory will add fuel to fire flaring up China-US brawl. It will make situation highly tense as Biden administration has decided to restrain China at all costs.

On the pretext of origin-tracing report destined to accuse China, President Biden has started disengaging US from various countries to shift complete focus on China. US' drawdown from Afghanistan despite massive criticism had to digest to get recharged for preparation of final battle against China. Meanwhile the US is ending its combat mission in Iraq by the end of year. At a defense industry event, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Hyten said the drawdown in Iraq is necessary to ensure the military is prepared for a fight with China, if that day comes. However, there is also an opinion that conflict will not be as tense as witnessed in Trump era. Contrary to Trump, Biden desires to use anti-China outrage for political mileage.

[maziliteralworks]

Pelosi wants 'big' health care, infrastructure push in 2021

U.S.OKs Extradition of 2 nabbed in Ex-Nissan Boss' Escape.Trump's Slogan " Make US Great" rhetoric without Basic & Contradicted US Statistics/Records,as the US witnessed the Highest Food Stamps during Trump's Admin. than any Govt in the US History/Data. BOSTON (AP) — The U.S. State Department has agreed to turn over to Japan two American men accused of smuggling Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of the Country while he was awaiting trial, the men's lawyers said in a legal filing on Thursday. (1 of 1) Michael L. Taylor, center, and George-Antoine Zayek at passport control at Istanbul Airport in Turkey. The U.S. State Department has agreed to turn over to Japan Taylor and his son Peter Taylor, who are accused of smuggling former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of the country while he was awaiting trial, the men's lawyers said in legal filing on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. (DHA via AP) October 29, 2020 A federal judge intervened to block the immediate removal of Michael Taylor, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran, and his son Peter Taylor, letting them stay in Massachusetts while she reviews an emergency petition filed by their lawyers. The lawyers said the State Department informed them on Wednesday that it would approve Japan’s extradition request. The State Department does not comment on pending extradition requests, a spokesperson said. A federal judge in Massachusetts last month ruled that the men could be extradited, although the State Department had the final say. The Taylors are wanted by Japan so they can be tried on charges that they helped Ghosn flee the country last year with the former Nissan boss tucked away in a box on a private jet. The flight went first to Turkey, then to Lebanon, where Ghosn has citizenship but which has no extradition treaty with Japan. Ghosn said he fled because he could not expect a fair trial, was subjected to unfair conditions in detention and was barred from meeting his wife under his bail conditions. Ghosn has denied allegations that he underreported his income and committed a breach of trust by diverting Nissan money for his personal gain. The Taylors have been locked up in a Massachusetts jail since they were arrested in May. Their attorneys never denied the allegations, but argued they can’t be extradited because they say their actions don’t fit under the law with which Japan is trying to convict them. Bank records show Ghosn wired more than $860,000 to a company linked to Peter Taylor in October 2019, prosecutors said in court documents. Ghosn’s son also made cryptocurrency payments totaling about $500,000 to Peter Taylor in the first five months of this year, prosecutors say. Michael Taylor ran a private security business initially focused on private investigations. The caseload grew through corporate work and unofficial referrals from the State Department and FBI, including parents whose children had been taken overseas by former spouses. In 2012, federal prosecutors alleged Taylor had won a U.S. military contract to train Afghan soldiers by using secret information passed along from an American officer. When Taylor learned the contract was being investigated, he asked an FBI agent and friend to intervene, prosecutors charged. The government seized $5 million from the bank account of Taylor’s company. Facing 50 charges, he spent 14 months in jail before agreeing to plead guilty to two counts. The government agreed to return $2 million to the company as well as confiscated vehicles.     Subjects:        General news, Business, Government and politics, Smuggling People:  Carlos Ghosn Locations:      Massachusetts, United States, North America Companies:       Nissan Motor Co Ltd ---------------- Police unions nationwide have largely supported President Donald Trump's re-election,amid mass demonstrations over police brutality and accusations of . Experts opined that US Poor & US Middle Class from all Races vote for Joe Biden,while Rich from All Races for Trump,but Joe Biden with Democrats/US Moderates must prevent Trump with his Republican Hardliners & Trump/Putin US Coordinators from blocking or frustrating Voters from Voting. -------------------------- US should be very Careful,as Russia might use Imperial Queen led UK/Allied Satellites & Surveillance,as to Spy,Monitor,safe-guard,tel-guide or to steal or to sabotage or to intrude or to intercept into US Networks/Communication or to Steal Sensitive/Vital info. All to be Careful & Be Warned that the Imperial Queen ledUK/CommonWealth used the UK/Allied Satellites & Surveillance to Spy,Monitor,safe-guard,tele-guide & Advice the Buhari Medieval Regime. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I,Mazilieralworks,Primarily to inform,theorize,Caution,Dialogue,Expose or to educate All People & not to engage or to join issues with any Gullible,Misinformed,Ignorant or Bankrupt Cronies or Hired Sycophants on any Mazilieralworks Issue or literal Article. Gratefully to late US President George Bush for his Successes,on his 13 years as CIA Boss,greatly straightened the US & Western Economically/Globally in 1970s during his Active Service,when the US had past Economic Problems & on his Assistance to Nigeria 1977,with his Vast Experiences. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx View my articles on these websites: http://maziliteralworks.wordpress.com http://maziliteralworks.blogspot.com https://medium.com/me/stories/public http://disqus.com/home/channel/mazipatrick/ https://maziliteralworks.tumblr.com https://twitter.com/Maziliteraworks Regards, Mazi Patrick O. email: akwaba2000@gmail.com Thinker, Writer, Political Strategist, Historian & Psychoanalyst....

[aftaabmagazine]

Were We Bad?

By Roya Khorshid

From the October - December 1997 issue of Afghan Magazine | Lemar - Aftaab

[photo: “Untitled” by Yama Rahimi

Roya Khorshid reminisces about her childhood experience in Afghanistan pestering her Russian neighbor and his cat. And in the process, she learned a life lesson.

We were bad? Well, we didn't think so back then, but we were everyone's nightmare, especially our Russian neighbor, Mr. Kredovsky. He had lived in our building for a few months when my friends and I made him our target. We used to call him shaigham (turnip) for he was as round and pink as one. The poor man used to take our teasing as a child's play until we really crossed the line -- several times!

The first month that he moved there, every evening he would give us cookies and chocolate and let us play with his big, white cat. We used to spend hours on the hallway stairs, teaching him Dari and learning Russian. After a few weeks, we were tired of all his food and friendliness and wanted to spend our evenings in more exciting ways. We were going to do that by bothering him.

After holding one of our childish meetings, we decided to ring his doorbell several times and then run and hide. We did that a few times that evening and he would come out and ask with his thick Russian accent, Keey bood? (Who's there?), while we held our breaths under the staircase. I don't know why, but we took joy in his misery, so we continued doing that for weeks until one day.

It was my turn to ring the doorbell and I did, but as I was running away, I slipped and fell. He came out of his house, with his face red and angry, picked me up and took me to his apartment. He put me on the couch and went to the kitchen. I sat there as scared as a cat, remembering the horror stories that my friend, Rodaba, had told me about our Russian neighbors.

She used to tell us that if they catch you, they would cut your ears and tongue, and then send you to the Russia where you would have to peel potatoes for the rest of your life. I kept on thinking to myself, "Oh my God! I want my mommy... I don't wanna go to Russia and I hate peeling potatoes!"

Now that I think about it, I laugh, but if you are six years old, you believe anything your cool friends tell you. So I held on to my ears tightly, thinking that he went to get his knife from the kitchen. Tears were rolling down my face when he came back.

He sat next to me and asked me why I was crying. I didn't want to answer him because I thought as soon as 1 opened my mouth, he would pull my tongue out and cut it. I continued sitting, holding on to my hot, sweaty ears. He attempted to tell me something in Dari, but the only phrase that I understood was that he had called my mom to pick me up; my mom came in a matter of minutes, apologized to Mr.Kredovsky and took me home. We were all punished and had to spend a whole week at home after school.

That long week passed and we were out again, stronger and more prepared. We were going to get him back! We stole a bucket of yellow paint from the manager's office and before he came from work, we painted his door yellow and poured the rest under the door so that it would get inside his apartment. Were we proud of our deed! We went to the market near our buildings and celebrated our victory with ice cream. After spending a few hours outside, we all went home.

When I entered the apartment, my mom was in the kitchen with Rodaba's mother. The second my eyes met my mom's, I knew she had found out. Rodaba's mother left to go home and punish her, while my mom was standing at the kitchen door staring at me. I hated when she did that. I really preferred being hit, but she would never lay a finger on us because she knew her eyes were enough. This time, we were punished for a whole month of staying home after school and doing extra reading and math.

The month was finally over, and if you think we learned our lesson, then you are dead wrong! We were going to do something extremely bad to him this time, even if it meant that we were going to spend our whole life at home.

Rodaba was the one who always came out with dangerous plans. Feraidoon, Jamshid, and Nelufar were the ones that provided us with all the necessities to carry on the plans. Asad and I usually ended up executing the plans to the end. This time we spent days, thinking of the perfect plan, and finally, one evening, we were all sitting under the big tree, when Rodaba came up with the idea of stealing his cat. It sounded good for a few minutes, but what we're going to do with the cat? 

Nobody could keep it, so we had to think of something else. It was then that I came up with the most sickening plan that I would ever make. I told them to catch his cat, cut his tail and then let him go! Wow! It wasn't going to get any better than that, so the decision was made in my favor.

We spent about six days waiting for his cat to come out of the apartment into the hallway. On the evening of the sixth day, Mr. Kredovsky left his cat in the half to go inside once. Jamshid grabbed the cat and ran to the back of the building. Nelufar had stolen her mother's big scissors and had hidden them under a bush a few days before. The minute I saw Jamshid, I took out the scissors and we all started following him. We went to the side of the building, away from the lights, and made a circle around the cat.

I gave the scissors to Asad and told him to do cut his tail. He swallowed his spit and took the scissors from me. Jamshid and I held the cat while Rodaba held up its tail.

“Come on! Hurry up!”, Rodaba yelled. Asad's face turned red and then pale. Tears filled up his eyes and he shook his head.

“I will not do it!”, Asad said as he dropped the scissors.

“Roya, here you do it”, Rodaba said as she handed me the scissors.

"Oh no!”, I thought to myself. I couldn't do it, but I wasn't about to let them know that. So I picked up the scissors and held them so tight that blood circulation to my fingers was cut off. I looked at the cat which was trying to free itself, moving from side to side.

"He is going to come any second now, look for his cat, so H U R R Y!", Nelufar yelled.

My hands were shaking and my face sweating. I gathered every bit of courage in my body and put the scissors around the cat's tail and cut it!

I heard a scream. I can't remember if it was the cat's or mine, for I passed out in a matter of seconds. And when I opened my eyes, I was at home, with my mom and most of my neighbors, including Mr. Kredovsky, all looking down on me in a circle. My head was spinning and I felt nauseous.

"I think we should go and let her rest", said Rodaba's mom, and everyone followed her out of the apartment.

"How are you feeling, Roya ?", asked my mom.

“My head! It hurts!", I answered as I put my head on her chest and fell asleep.

I saw Mr. Kredovsky two more times before he moved back to Russia a month later. He had completed his duty there and wanted to go back home. I was too embarrassed to talk to him or even say goodbye. I always thought about the cat and what had happened to it, but I never asked anyone about it.

A year passed and my mom bought a house and we moved. I went through a lot of changes and had to deal with new people and areas, but one thing that never left me was the guilt that I carried for hurting the poor cat.

When I was in seventh grade, I saw Rodaba one day on the bus. We both had changed a lot. For the first few minutes, we looked at each other with disbelief; then we started talking about all the good times that we had and all the bad things that we did. As I had anticipated, she brought up the last story that I wanted to hear: Mr. Kredovsky's cat.

I told her that I still felt guilty for doing that and that I wish I had never done in the first place.

She looked at me with questioning eyes, and asked, “Your mom never told you what really happened?”

Well, t was a good thing that I met Rodaba that day or I would have carried a big burden throughout my life. Things had happened a bit differently than I was told. The truth was that I had passed out before I had a chance to cut the cat's tail; however, my mom had insisted that they shouldn't tell me anything to teach me a lesson. Well, I have to give my mom credit for being such a strong teacher. I learned the lesson too well, for now, every time I hold a pair of scissors, I start shaking.

[badgop]

The Republican Party is a Killing Machine

Conservatism has never really been a political ideology to begin with, merely an empty screen for rural voters to project all their racism, xenophobia, hatred and angst upon and watch it unfold like the world's most horrific movie.

Their entire platform is whatever benefits the top 1% and industry. Their bizarre pastiche of libertarians, evangelicals, rural poor, working class and wealthy idiots will gladly sway whichever way the wind blows, because they have impossible visions of different Americas-that-never-can-be and happily repress the knowledge that the GOP can literally never bring any of their dystopian fantasies to fruition.

They have no good ideas. They have nothing to offer the American people. They are abject failures, the winners of popularity contests in racist sinkholes put into positions of responsibility magnitudes greater than their capabilities and are inoculated from the consequences of their continual failures and disappointments by what may be the most willfully and stubbornly ignorant population of voters ever to disgrace the planet.

Since the start of this century, Republicans have been responsible for a truly heinous catalog of horrors. The Iraq and Afghan war. The PATRIOT act. Donald Trump. Look, we had a tape of a Republican candidate saying on tape that he could grab women's pussies because he was powerful and 60 million people with mothers, sisters and daughters voted to give that guy MORE power!

Republicans were extremely harsh on Russia... until they just simply allowed Trump to change their 2016 GOP platform to tolerate Putin's annexation on Ukraine.

They claim to be for small business, and yet they unilaterally grant extraordinary power and government protections to MASSIVE corporations that always act against the American peoples' best interest. Why revoke net neutrality? Because they were paid to! Why revoke the clean air and water protections? Because they were paid to! Why confirm Betsy DeVos to dismantle education? Because they were paid to!

They never sponsor bills that actually make life better for a majority of Americans. Single player health care would. By almost all expert opinion, single payer would be cheaper and far better for a majority of Americans. Who oppose it? Republicans.

Who oppose a common-sense minimum wage rate increase? Republicans. 

Who oppose common-sense food education for children and the public? Republicans.

Everywhere you look, in every place we fall behind the rest of the civilized world, you’ll find a Republican straining to hold us back. They do nothing purposeful. 

For eight years they opposed Obama not even on policy, but literally because it made them look better to do so. They tolerated the entire "birther" conspiracy theory simply because it was useful for them, even though it dramatically debased the professionalism of their party.

And now, Trump is an unmitigated disaster, a wrecking ball tearing giant holes in his own policy, and yet Devin Nunes and Republicans in the Senate are doing their best to delay and stall an investigation into his conduct and his very possible TREASON. Why would an American political party deny a universal consensus among our intelligence community that the POTUS is working with Putin's Russia?

There are far, far too many people caught up in the moment of this that have not yet gained the perspective to see how crazy and toxic the modern GOP is. They are a blight and a cancer on the Earth. 

There's no reason to tolerate 60 million people who vote for a demented 70 year old who accused the last President of being born in Kenya and wiretapping his tower. That's insane. That's the sort of behavior that if a normal person did it you would really consider getting him professional help. And you made him President.

How do you want the left to work with that? Why am I supposed to tolerate people who want to teach creationism in school, who legitimately think Obama was a Muslim infiltrator who wanted to steal your guns? Who think universal health care is a liberal scheme and a great evil? Who deny man-made climate change exists? Who think building a 3,000 mile long wall at a cost of billions is a reasonable solution?

These aren't ideological differences between liberals and conservatives anymore. This is a dangerous and deeply disturbing divorce from reality. This is a party parasitically consumed by conspiracy and madness and hate. Democrats are pretty much center/right leaning right now, at least compared to the rest of the world.

Conservatives by contrast are spiraling wildly into fascism. Trump asked Comey to pledge his loyalty and wanted him to help him lock up journalists. That isn't an ideological difference you can ask us to compromise on. That is a outright betrayal of every freedom America is supposed to stand for. That's treason and betrayal of the first amendment.

And that is what the conservatives are today. Trump was the champion you chose. Trump was what conservatives nominated to represent their party, and he is legitimately insane. His policies are heinous atrocities that do massive damage in broad swaths across the country. He betrays Republicans, he betrays his base, with a sort of callous disregard for the reality he lives in that is the hallmark of the truly insane.

[thewebofslime]

Taliban fighters attacked a convoy carrying Afghanistan’s vice president over the weekend, at the same time the group is preparing for a second round of “peace talks” with the United States slated to start this month. It was the second assassination attempt in eight months against Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord who helped U.S. forces liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks. Dostum had assailed the terrorist group in a speech Saturday in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where he’d just arrived after a trip to Uzbekistan. Given the chance, he said, he could “eliminate” the Taliban from northern Afghanistan in “just six months.” Subscribe to our new print magazine for more politics, deeper culture, better access Watch Full Screen to Skip Ads He left Balkh province later that day and was on his way to his native province of Jowzjan when Taliban partisans ambushed his convoy in the Pashtun-majority district of Chahr Bolak. After about an hour of fighting, the convoy was able to move on, but it was attacked twice more as it continued to Jowzjan. The two sides gave dueling accounts of the casualties. A Taliban spokesman claimed on Twitter that the attacks destroyed an armored personnel carrier and a pickup truck, with “4 guards killed & 6 wounded.” He insisted that no Taliban fighters were harmed. A Dostum aide said that one of the general’s bodyguards was killed and two wounded, with two Taliban members captured and 10 more killed or wounded. The aide said Dostum knew the Taliban had planned to attack but would not change his plans. “Taliban miscreants must know that with every attack they carry out on our political leaders, our resolve gets further strengthened to defeat them,” Afghanistan's chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, said in a statement. Dostum was targeted in July when an Islamic State suicide bomber killed 20 people at the Kabul airport. He had just returned from Turkey, where he’d been in exile for a year after a rival accused him of kidnapping and torturing him while Dostum was acting president with President Ashraf Ghani out of the country. The Taliban had sent its own suicide bomber after Dostum in 2003, as he left a mosque during Eid al-Adha. Newsweek in 2002 described Dostum, who turned 65 last week, as “one of Afghanistan's most ruthless and effective warlords.” Born to a poor family and receiving only a seventh-grade education, Dostum rose to become a leader infamous for his changing allegiances. He’s been loyal at some point to just about every group that’s fought over Afghanistan in the last 50 years, aligning himself with the Soviets before switching over to the mujahedeen. In the civil war that followed the Soviet rout, Dostum ruled an area in northern Afghanistan so successfully that many Afghans fled there as the Taliban began to take over elsewhere. Dostum printed his own currency, and the area was one of the most prosperous in Afghanistan. Girls were allowed to go to school, women could choose whether to be veiled, and all adults could buy alcohol. But he wasn’t exactly a benevolent dictator. “Over six feet tall with bulging biceps, Dostum is a bear of a man with a gruff laugh, which, some Uzbeks swear, has on occasion frightened people to death,” journalist Ahmed Rashid once wrote. Rashid recalled "that the first time he went to meet Dostum, he saw bloodstains and pieces of flesh in the courtyard. Dostum had ordered a soldier caught stealing to be tied to the treads of a tank, which then drove around the compound, crushing him to death.” The Taliban drove Dostum out of his Mazar-i-Sharif headquarters in 1997, but the general returned triumphantly in November 2001. As one of the leaders of the Northern Alliance, Dostum fought alongside U.S. Special Forces in the invasion of Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. His work with the “horse soldiers” — the animals helped U.S. forces navigate the mountainous terrain of northern Afghanistan — to defeat the Taliban was portrayed in last year’s film "12 Strong," in which Dostum was played by Navid Negahban. After the weekend’s failed assassination attempt, the Taliban vowed to keep targeting Dostum. The terrorist group blames him for the deaths of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001. Some Western observers also believe he suffocated the prisoners in sealed truck containers, which Dostum denies. Though Dostum serves under Ghani, he’s thrown his lot in with Abdullah, who is challenging Ghani for the presidency in September’s elections.

[angrycollectordaze-me-blog]

Paper代写：The European refugee crisis

本篇paper代写- The European refugee crisis讨论了欧洲难民危机。自2014年以来，欧洲难民问题变得越来越严重。由于偷渡路线和地理位置，难民首先到达南欧国家，如希腊和意大利。难民问题的主体是战争难民，除此之外还有大量的非法移民和经济难民。战争、冲突和动乱是欧洲难民人数急剧增加的主要原因。叙利亚、利比亚等中东、北非战争不断，动荡不断，再加上极端组织的伊斯兰国家猖獗蔓延，阿富汗塔利班卷土重来，使难民的问题又加剧了，这些问题共同导致了欧洲难民危机。本篇paper代写由51due代写平台整理，供大家参考阅读。

​The European refugee crisis, also known as the Mediterranean refugee problem, it is a chronic illness. The so-called refugees and illegal immigrants are often from the same class of people. they come from poor or volatile Central Mediterranean countries and even farther. For example, after World War II, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Algerian war, the Iran-Iraq war, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Kosovo civil war, the Albanian turmoil, the Afghan chaos, have created thousands of Mediterranean refugees. With the help of smuggling gang, they take whole family or even in droves through the sea, land and air channels to steal into the EU territory. if they not be found or blocked, they are illegal immigrants, otherwise they will use various reasons to seek refugee refuge and become a Mediterranean refugee. Almost all of them have filed political refugee asylum applications, but in fact a considerable part should be counted as economic refugees.

Since 2014, the Mediterranean refugee problem has become more and more serious, and more and more attention. Because the smuggling routes and geographic location, the refugee first arrived southern European countries, such as Greece and Italy. Syria appear a large number of refugees, because the Arab Spring event and the rise of ISIS led to the domestic war. Eritrea and other countries has become a refugee source because it has been suffering from civil war, fundamentalism and conflict with neighboring Ethiopia, and has accompanied many serious natural disasters.

The main body of the refugee problem is war refugees, in addition to a large number of illegal immigrants and economic refugees. War, conflict and turmoil are the main reasons for the dramatic increase in the number of refugees in Europe. Syria, Libya and other Middle East, North Africa war constantly, continued turbulence, coupled with the extreme organization of the Islamic countries rampant spread, the Afghan Taliban comeback, making a large number of refugees continue to cause. All these problems come together cause European refugee crisis.

The serious polarization in the process of globalization is also one of the reasons for the increase in the number of refugees in European rich countries, like Germany, Italy, etc. Although the same European countries, but a few southern European countries, such as Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the economy is relatively backward, the unemployment rate as high as 40%, plus organized crime rampant, for these countries, the Nordic, Western Europe and other developed countries is more Good destination.

Illegal immigrants mixed with refugees, increasing the size of the European refugee wave. The difference between a refugee and an illegal immigrant is that illegal immigrants are likely to escape from bad economic conditions and seek opportunities for other countries, who are not fled in order to protect their own personal safety. And refugees are forced to flee to other countries if their personal safety can not be guaranteed.

A large number of refugees choose to enter Europe, mainly because: geographically speaking, Europe and the Middle East, North Africa and other war areas are relatively close, such as North African refugees generally travel to Italy, the Middle East refugees generally go to Greece and other countries; from economic conditions Speaking, Europe has a good job opportunities and economic income, to give the welfare of refugees is also very attractive.

For a long time, the relatively open attitude towards immigrants and the ever-erected humanitarian flag have made Europe an ideal destination for refugees seeking asylum. However, it now appears that the sharp rise in the number of refugees this wave, apparently has exceeded the capacity of European countries. Especially in Greece, Italy and other Mediterranean coastal front countries, their economic and social situation is not very good, the influx of a large number of refugees also increased their burden.

At present, Europe is standing on a balance, the balance of one end is the humanitarian and the so-called universal value, while the other end is the real national interests. Europe's refugee tide mainly from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Africa and other turmoil, and these countries are almost all World War II after the Western political interference or military direct shipments of the product, so this effect is good or bad, Is big or small, to some extent, Western countries are followed by rude interference and forced the withdrawal of the results of the United States, more like themselves in the clean up the mess.

Refugees through Italy in the Mediterranean channel, the Greek East Mediterranean channel and the Hungarian West Balkans road to Europe asylum, so the most affected should be Italy, Germany, Greece and other countries, in the international community under the voice of humanity, Europe established " Responsibility-sharing system ", each country needs to bear a certain quota, the burden on the specified number of refugees; Syria's small refugee Elam Kurdie in the turmoil of the Turkish scene, so that the refugee crisis get more attention and sympathy , The European countries have expressed their willingness to accept a greater number of refugees.

The most intuitive impact of refugee tide on European countries I think mainly in three areas:

The reception and placement of refugees requires a lot of money and manpower as a support. And the provision of basic food and clothing is not a permanent solution. To solve the refugee problem once and for all, it is necessary to provide a stable job for the refugees. It is necessary to raise the expenditure on the resettlement of the refugees and provide them with basic skills training and language training. Integration of refugees into the labor market, of course, need to provide them with welfare protection to maintain social stability

The political influence comes mainly from the pressure of the domestic people and other parties. After the European sovereign debt crisis in 2010, the economic weakness of European countries has not yet completely recovered, a large number of refugees into the then to seize the residents of their resources, social and economic welfare and people's per capita living standards will be affected, greatly reduced, The general breeding of "anti-immigrant plot" and xenophobia. Germany in the first half of this year, refugee shelters were more than 150 cases of arson attacks, other countries outbreak of anti-immigrant demonstrations, political instability greatly increased.

Social influence comes from ideological conflicts. The history of the conflict because of religious and cultural conflicts and conflict is not unusual, especially Islam and other cultural conflicts (India and Pakistan war, the Palestinian issue ...) and from the conflict and war zone Muslims and European Christian culture coexist, will In all aspects of social life have irreconcilable contradictions, like a time bomb, for social stability buried hidden dangers.

The favorable side is to establish a responsible international image of European countries, for the European countries have been advocating human rights values is also a strong support, but also for Europe to bring a lot of high-quality labor, because the ability to escape to Europe are A certain economic capacity, it can be said that the local elite groups, the other refugees will certainly bring their own family property, into the purchasing power of the words can not be underestimated.

The negative aspects are as follows: 1 In recent years, the global economic downturn, high welfare of the European developed countries, the government has been facing enormous financial pressure to accept the head of the refugee tide they are also lack of effort, although there are people in the humanitarian requirements The government accepts the refugees, but when their lives are affected by the refugees, it will inevitably ask the government to limit the refugees and increase the cost of the government to receive refugees. The welfare of the local population may be reduced and the government will be asked to receive the refugees At the same time, the conflict between the refugees and the local population is also common, so the refugee problem is likely to affect future elections.

Other is the influence of religion, the mainstream culture of Europe is a Christian culture, the influx of a large number of refugees will certainly increase the forces of Mu Su Lin, may change the territory of European religious beliefs, due to economic downturn and the impact of terrorism, Europe Exclusive atmosphere, especially the atmosphere of Islam, has become increasingly concentrated, the collision of Christian civilization and Islamic civilization may tear up European society. One of the motivations of the unity of Europe has a common religion, the religion of Islam Turkey has been seeking to join the EU but can not, religion is a big problem, the influx of Islam will not affect the integration of Europe?

May affect the situation in Europe. The development of the Internet, so that terrorists can easily affect the Muslims in Europe, conducive to the spread of extreme ideas, first of all can not rule out the refugees themselves in troubled waters of terrorists, as well as refugees in Europe after the face of cold reality, Will not turn to extreme thinking into a terrorist! The So the face of the pros and cons of the refugee wave, the European countries are also in a dilemma, poor handling will cause the value of the crisis. European countries have been promoting their values in recent years to stand on the commanding heights of morality to exert international influence. If Europe does not accept refugees, the values that he preaches will be questioned. If a large number of refugees are accepted, they will be able to bear the influx of refugees Bring a lot of negative effects. So all countries claim to accept the refugees, but the number of people compared to the huge influx of refugees, very limited

In the European policy of refugees, Germany is the first to stand up and receive the largest number of refugees. Germany is facing a huge gap in labor and the aging of the new industry population. This means that the German welfare system is facing a crisis, because the increasing number of retirees, serving staff in the reduction, and the system is dependent on the taxes paid by the staff. And a large number of young refugees into Germany will immediately ease the problem of aging.

Compared with Germany, the United Kingdom is not active in the issue of refugee acceptance. This is because, unlike in Germany, there is no trend of declining population in the UK. This is mainly due to the influx of large numbers of immigrants and the higher birth rate. In addition, for the British position on the issue of refugees, most of the British people expressed support. They are concerned that more foreign immigrants will bring greater pressure on economic competition, but also worried that these immigrants will have the impact of the British mainstream culture.

In this round of refugee crisis, the number of refugees admitted to France is also limited. Like the United Kingdom, France is also one of the few countries in Europe where the population is still growing, and the nationwide population is growing, even in rural areas. In short, on the one hand, France is not as faced with a serious shortage of labor as Germany, on the other hand, the French government is difficult to find an effective way to better integrate immigrants into French society. Based on the above two points, it is also understandable that France's willingness to accept more refugees is limited.

Many Eastern European countries are facing challenges of population reduction and economic weakness. However, they still refuse to accept more refugees. Hungary even built a wall at the border to prevent the influx of illegal immigrants. Although most of these governments refuse to accept refugees on religious grounds, the reasons behind them may be the high unemployment rate and the weak economic situation in the country, as population growth does not necessarily lead to economic growth.

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[clubofinfo]

Expert: Our capitalist elites have used propaganda, money and the marginalizing of their critics to erase the first three of philosopher John Locke’s elements of the perfect state: liberty, equality and freedom. They exclusively empower the fourth, property. Liberty and freedom in the corporate state mean the liberty and freedom of corporations and the rich to exploit and pillage without government interference or regulatory oversight. And the single most important characteristic of government is its willingness to use force, at home and abroad, to protect the interests of the property classes. — Chris Hedges, “Corpses of Souls” Here’s a thought experiment for social workers assisting homeless, recovery (drug, alcohol), re-entry (coming out of prison), and those diagnosed with mental and physical health challenges: Take a college educated “professional,” George, and then a “homeless” person, Julia, and put them in the same tattered clothes, take away phone, ID, money, credit cards, blindfold them, transport them from say Portland, Oregon, and to Toronto, Canada, or Buffalo, NY, and drop them off in an alley in a run-down part of town at 3 am on a Monday. Then challenge them to get back to square “go.” We know the homeless person, or the former incarcerated person, or the recovering addict will be home — Portland – within 48 hours. The professional, either in FIRE (finance insurance real estate) or any number of elite fields, will tank quickly. Especially if we were to drop that person off outside of town into a homeless camp. In my field of social work, many employers I talk to would rather have a former inmate, a former felon, who has gotten his or her life back on track, on the job. Really. There are even Harvard (who cares that it’s Ivy League, by the way?) studies to that effect. Of course, the rationale is based on company loyalty; an ex-con would really appreciate his freedoms now; hard work – workaholic – since all that time in the lobotomizing prison system would kick in an obsessiveness toward keeping busy, keeping moving. Then, some employers I talk to think most workers or potential workers are the problem, would steal time, money, goods, and things from the company. So, the felon has already done time, knows the depravity of prison systems, and would stay on the up and up without jeopardizing incarceration. Plus, in the US, companies get a tax break for hiring former felons! The fields of social work are growing, yet the pay is shrinking, the work conditions are ramped up, the management are bizarre examples of former social workers themselves (very anti worker, very hard on outside-the-box thinkers, and completely blank on what radical social work is and how to even apply the principles of that form of social work). Most non-profits do the dirty work of what a society is looking more and more to not provide for – mental health care for a bigger and bigger share of the USA population; disability services for a larger and larger swath of Americans mentally, psychologically, intellectually, socially, physically, and spiritually broken or disabled; financial, employment, education, housing assistance for an ever-growing population of humans who are not able to work and live and transport and find health care for themselves in this New Gilded Age. The non-profits I have worked for are top-heavy, have very little money put aside or earmarked or grant-provided for the workers; many of the non-profits hire development associates, upper management shills, PR folk, marketing and events coordinators; many are in shining and remodeled digs while casting shadows on the street people they supposedly care about. Some of us in social services have come from other professions, and like me, many are former teachers. Very few are radical thinkers, and many are just trying to hang on. When you work in an at-will state, where organizing and workplace coordinating is akin to communism, and when you work for people younger and the same age as yourself who once had their lives more or less put together but who are today on the streets, in shelters, in vans on the side of the road, and who have to pay for legal debts – hospital bills, legal financial obligations, debts coming at them via mean-assed debt collectors and repo men —  the idea of Six Degrees of Separation comes cold like melting glaciers as really Only One Degree of Separation. Manfred Max Neef calls this country, USA — richest, biggest land rip off abusing, military mightiest, vastest financial thieving, culturally insanest — underdeveloping. I mean, your country is the most dramatic example that you can find. I have gone as far as saying — and this is a chapter of a book of mine that is published next month in England, the title of which is Economics Unmasked. There is a chapter called “The United States, an Underdeveloping Nation,” which is a new category. We have developed, underdeveloped and developing. Now you have underdeveloping. And your country is an example, in which the one percent of the Americans, you know, are doing better and better and better, and the 99 percent is going down, in all sorts of manifestations. People living in their cars now and sleeping in their cars, you know, parked in front of the house that used to be their house — thousands of people. Millions of people, you know, have lost everything. But the speculators that brought about the whole mess, oh, they are fantastically well off. No problem. No problem. This short piece – rare for me at DV, LA Progressive,  and other places, since I still believe that concision is not a favorable tool to understanding the complexities of our society and systems thinking – is all tied to really what many Americans WAY WAY before Trump’s family set foot in this country have always believed about Mexico or New Orleans or Dominican Republic or South Africa or Philippines or Afghanistan (just replace a country like Haiti with any number of 120 countries in the world) have said, stated, written and professed undiplomatically and through the Economic Hit Men: They are ALL shitholes. I have had plenty of people in my 61 years living on this planet, after being in dozens of countries (I have lived and worked in), fellow (sic) Americans (sic) who thought my white skin and my little lists of three college degrees and my male status entitled my fellow Americans to rant on and on about how dirty, backward, primitive, slow-witted, poor, inefficient, shady, criminal this or that country is — countries from which I lived, traveled and worked and those many have not stepped foot in, beyond FOX News and Hollywood propaganda. That Trump now voices what Americans have believed, and economists have practiced, and our military branches have reflected – America is Great, and the rest of the rabble (well, maybe not Norway or Finland — that’s about it for that pure white race places) are part and particle the shitholes Trump so undiplomatically states the world is. In reality, though, if we look at the definition of “shit”/”hole,” it all comes back to this warring, militant, earth-killing, global lording over country called the United States of America. Infantilized, lobotomized, one-paycheck/broken bone/auto accident/employment termination/criminal justice involved/foreclosure AWAY from shithole status. This poor white and now multi-race co-opting country of people who have zero idea how and why its more or less isolated little status among the global actors is set in their minds as “okay . . . Great/Yes We Can/Make It Great Again/Numero Uno” because of the shit we serve up to the rest of the world vis-à-vis military and economic and resource plundering insanity. While our own country is full of shit-holes– full of systems of penury and debasement and depravity and delusion and destruction and increasing wrath upon its own populations – we see this spasm of protestations from the Liberal Democrats Who Support All Those Democratic Party apparatchiks of regime change and collateral damage carried out on what Bush or Obama see as the “shit hole Iraqis and Afghans and Libyans and Yeminis and Somalis.” Imagine, the democrats crying about Trump and his redneck Americanism. Which party said we had to bomb them back to the stone age? Which party wrapped up Japanese Americans in barbed wire luxury? Which party helped to wipe out 3 million Vietnamese? Who bombed, razed, illegally mined, economically double-triple tapped the world’s other shit holes? Way-way before two-bit The Apprentice got raves and ratings and millions. It’s Trump who is still on record ranting about the Central Park Five, found to be falsely convicted and held in prison (now released), stating months ago, after the five men were acquitted, found to be innocent and released, that “they are guilty of the rape, man.” His Trump Faulty Towers Corp. paid or two full page ads in the NYT ranting about “their guilty” after they were found innocent. Again, a reset button is necessary when looking at the big billionaire’s motley mind and fourth grade thinking style: who is he, how did he get here, where did he learn, how did he exist in this country, what is his American soul made of . . . . The who, why, when, what, where and how are questions Americans of all political stripes never ask. We can tap dance around those “deplorables” voting for George Wallace or Barry Goldwater or George Bush or Donald Trump, or dance around those millionaires who see other shitholes producing other super predators, or two-step into more delusion when Super Rich Hollywood defines You and Me and Success and Failure, or when Amazon dot com comes crashing into your local bricks and mortar, or how the millionaire media or celebrities come into your living rooms via cable or iPhone and kidnap your loved ones, young and old. Seriously, which shithole shall we concentrate on in the US of A, the engine of shit holes, the Mother of All Shitholes, coming to a neighborhood nearby, or Flint Michigan, or Charlottesville, or Fortune 1000 boardroom or dis-education college faculty and administration? Who in your group of friends and acquaintances even knows what economics is for? Manfred Max Neef again: One, the economy is to serve the people and not the people to serve the economy. Two, development is about people and not about objects. Three, growth is not the same as development, and development does not necessarily require growth. Four, no economy is possible in the absence of ecosystem services. Five, the economy is a subsystem of a larger finite system, the biosphere, hence permanent growth is impossible. And the fundamental value to sustain a new economy should be that no economic interest, under no circumstance, can be above the reverence of life. I am sorry to say in my years as a journalist, college teacher, union organizer, social worker, environmentalist, urban planner, etc., I have run into more shithole thinkers in this country than all the countries I’ve been to combined, by far. If you want to run into real thugs, real criminals, real depravity, delusional thinking, disgusting thinking, real retrograde philosophy, real illiteracy, real infantilism, come to a town near me – Pacific Northwest, or Texas or Arizona, or anywhere I have done my time in. Not many anti-Trump people would question the root cause of his shithole role running this shithole country, and the mirror is not large enough for self-reflection: biggest military in the world, biggest land mass stolen from original nations, biggest area cleared of natural ecosystems, biggest group of la-la-land thinkers. Magical thinkers, the lot of us, really. Let the knee-jerking go on and on as Americans attempt to parse out who they are in that mirror mirror on the wall! Unless you have ended the mythical belief in this country’s prowess and greatness and stopped hiding from this society’s advanced malignant cancer called predatory and consumer capitalism, then you are the Trump in that mirror, without or without the orange glow! Max-Neef: First of all, we need cultured economists again, who know the history, where they come from, how the ideas originated, who did what, and so on and so on; second, an economics now that understands itself very clearly as a subsystem of a larger system that is finite, the biosphere, hence economic growth as an impossibility; and third, a system that understands that it cannot function without the seriousness of ecosystems. And economists know nothing about ecosystems. They don’t know nothing about thermodynamics, you know, nothing about biodiversity or anything. I mean, they are totally ignorant in that respect. And I don’t see what harm it would do, you know, to an economist to know that if the beasts would disappear, he would disappear as well, because there wouldn’t be food anymore. But he doesn’t know that, you know, that we depend absolutely from nature. But for these economists we have, nature is a subsystem of the economy. I mean, it’s absolutely crazy. http://clubof.info/

[writerscraftrt-blog]

24hrs w/ Character + Advice

What just happened? One minute I was admiring this beautiful brunette little girl, the next, she’s in my arms, dead. The blood that was pouring out of the wounds from the fish hooks pierced on her soft, delicate skin started to spread all over her cute, neon blue, two-pieced swimsuit and onto my vest. I was beginning to get caught up in the moment until I heard the little girl’s family calling for her name as they finally noticed her absence. 

“Amelia! Where are you? We told you to wait for us! Amelia, honey, come here!”

I took that as my cue to jet out of here as fast as possible, but I couldn’t just leave the beautiful little girl’s body out on the pier to bleed. Nor did I have the heart to dump her body in the lake. So I took her with me, of course. I run towards my Ford Escort that my parents gifted me when I turned 16, in hopes that I wouldn’t run away. It didn’t work, but now at least I had a car to run away with. I open the car doors, and sloppily plop the child’s body on the passenger seat and got out of there as quick as thought. 

As important as it is to keep your eyes on the road, it is kind of challenging when there’s something so beautiful propped up in my passenger seat in all her glory. My eyes couldn’t help but drift off to her, the sun’s rays managed to bring life back into her lifeless complexion. Unfortunately, these moments of blissful distractions had caused me to take the wrong exit off the highway. Now, I was driving in an unfamiliar area, along a street called Military Trail. Filled with suburban, red bricked townhouses rendered it unexciting, yet the perfect environment to try to blend in as a typical white middle-aged man with a beer belly and hair covering every inch of my body. I did not know what to do but keep driving, so I did. Eventually, I stumbled upon what seemed to be a high school, “St. John Paul II”. The rust coloured bricks mixed in with the depressing faces of the students making their way into the school reminded me of my high school days that were almost 2 decades ago. It is to no surprise that I was definitely the token “freak” in my year. I was extremely scrawny, wore clothes you’d find your 70 year old grandpa sporting, and I couldn’t be seen without my huge Powerbook laptop. To make matters worse, some football asshole once saw me looking at images of what he thought were “little” girl and decided to start a rumour. However, he was completely wrong. They weren’t little, majority of them were around 8-9, even 10 years old! I was 16 at the time, so a 8 year difference is hardly anything. Well, to me at least. 

Just reminiscing about high school made me cringe, I really felt for these kids. But even that couldn’t compare to the stress of having to figure out what to do with a dead body right next to me. Looking around, there was very little that caught my eye and could potentially help me out. Then, I see a small Asian girl, walking away from the school, crying on the phone. Being the person I am, I roll the windows down, and tried to listen in on what she was so frantically weeping about. 

“Mom, please. I’m being serious, I CAN’T BREATHE. Like at all, I don’t know what to do.  Ate and Kuya aren’t answering my calls, but I can’t go to school.” the girl had managed to say while gasping for air on every other word, her face drenched in tears. 

“I feel so light-headed, I can’t breathe. I don’t know what to do” The girl started to hyperventilate and reach for her neck to exemplify her struggle to breathe while continuing to walk away from the school. For some reason, I felt inclined to follow her, I don’t know whether that had something to do with my predative  instincts or me being a genuinely caring person. Or maybe, it had to do with the fact she reminded me of this girl I had a crush on when I was in high school. She was perhaps the only girl I had ever shown interest in that was my age. It was so unlike me, but her raven hair contrasting with her ivory skin had always left me enchanted. Now this girl, this weeping girl may not have been a carbon copy but she looks like she could have been her in another life, or even a distant relative. 

After carefully trailing her for 10 minutes, she finally got off the phone and decided to suddenly look back. I was startled but desperate to not have my cover blown leading me to duck down which probably made things even more obvious, if they weren’t already before. I had been so fixated on this weeping girl that I had forgotten what had been on my passengers seat this entire time. I move the now freezing body to the back and cover it using my old crocheted afghan blanket. Maybe the blanket could warm her poor little body up, but fairly speaking, I’ couldn’t care less about her anymore. This weeping girl, she had completely taken my mind hostage. It became something more than the black hair and the pale skin, whatever it was, it has made me willing to go to any extreme measures just to have her. I sit back up, hoping that I didn’t lose her, only to see her get in a silver Infiniti that drives off immediately. With no hesitation, I go to follow and see that we are now at a hospital, “Rouge Valley Centenary”. A man bearing much resemblance to her gets out of the car and opens the door in which she came out. With no hesitation I got out of my car and followed them both into the ER, not exactly sure what I was getting myself into nor did I care. 

Instantly as I walked through the automatic doors, I was greeted with the coughs coming from all over the room. It was easy to spot her, she was like a beautiful budding rose in a field of wilting dandelions. The wilting dandelions being all these sick, old, fat people in this damn room, of course. 

“Rikki Tuazon? You still got the same address, telephone number?” the nurse at the kiosk asks her. I lean in, secretly hoping

“Yes.” she says, with now calmed down truly showing how pure and innocent she really is. 

Before I knew it, the same nurse was now calling me up. 

“Sir, do you have a health card? Hello?”

 Oddly enough, I did have it with me when I never usually do. This must’ve been fate! This must’ve been a sign that I need to meet this girl. After the nurse finishes ringing my card up, he redirects me to sit down for a pre-examination. I lie and say I’ve been having difficulty breathing and chest pains, maybe this way I could be closer to the girl. 

“Your breathing is as sound as a whistle, but for any remaining concerns, just seat yourself in the waiting room.” 

I nod and to no delay make myself to the waiting room, and see that  luck continues to be on my side. The only seats available happen to be next to an aged woman who had at least 2 masks covering her mouth, and what looked to be something oozing out of her arm. Or, beside her, someone so helpless and vulnerable. I don’t think anyone would blame me for choosing to sit beside that beauty over the disgusting beast. I sit next to her and try to get a peek at what she was doing on her phone. 

“Hey, I’m at the ER :( my brother took me. I’m really scared, this is like the 3rd time this year, ugh.” she typed to someone clearly very important to her, as their contact name had 3 hearts. Whatever, I didn’t care, I wasn’t going to let that try to discourage. I already made it this far. 

Hours and hours have passed, and I haven’t been able to speak to her. What makes it worse is that her parents have now arrived so now it was even harder to try to talk to her without the chances of her mother giving me a dirty look. Also, after lying about having difficulty breathing I ironically started to develop it. I would cough and cough and started to notice that the girl would look at me in annoyance so I would just keep doing it because at least that meant she was paying attention to me. After countless minutes of doing this and receiving stares not just from her but practically the entire room, I mustered up the courage to try to make my first move. 

“Sorry, I must be a bother. Do you happen to know where I can get a mask like the one everyone else got?” I ask trying to hide the fact that I’ve been following her since early this morning. 

“They’re hanging by the front, near the hand sanitizer I think.” She was so shy, I could hear the nervousness in her voice, but it only attracted me even more. 

“Thank you, little lady.” I get up and quickly retrieve the mask so no one could steal my seat. I return only to find that her and her mother have switched seats, making her farther away from me. Was it something I said? Oh well, this just means I no longer have to limit myself to a side profile, I can now help myself to every angle, every detail of her face. 

It must’ve been around 9:30 in the evening, and so many people have started to leave because of the ridiculous waiting time. I was just beginning to wish that her parents would just leave for even just a minute, and all of a sudden, her parents tell her they are going to get coffee at the Tim Hortons in the hospital. I take the opportunity and sit right next to her. She decides to welcome my company, by shifting slightly away from me. That’s fine by me, I like a challenge. 

“Hello, it seems I forgot to thank you earlier.” 

“What are you talking about?” It saddens me that she had seemed to forgotten about our little moment. 

“For telling me about the mask, it’s been a great deal of help.” 

“Really? because you aren’t even wearing it even though it’s hospital courtesy to wear a mask if you have a cough.” she tells me, without even looking at me once the entire time, which kind of hurt. 

“Oh, I’m fine now, just been having trouble breathing.” I was hoping this would make me appear more relatable to her, and spark up some more conversation. But no. No response, not even a nod or a smile. So I try again. 

“How about you? What are you in for? You look perfect to me.”

She turns away from me completely before answering, “shortness of breath” as quietly as possible almost like she didn’t want me to hear. So I comply but moving in even closer, leaning in towards her. 

“What was that? Shortness of breath? What a coincidence! I don’t think you could tell me any tips to cope with it, it looks like you’re handling it beautifully.” I thought this would flatter her, but instead she looks to the ground and starts fidgeting. 

“No, sorry..” she said, with her lip quivering. Is she nervous? Why is she nervous? I’m not doing anything to hurt her, I’m just being friendly. I’m not being rude, in fact, she’s the one being rude, declining any sort of conversation. Maybe she doesn’t know how to express her feelings to me, that’s okay, I’ll give her some time. She’ll want me soon enough. 

My daydreams about her and I were soon interrupted by her sweet, soothing voice. 

“Sir? Look, I watch a lot of Dr. Phil and have seen the movie, Lolita, twice I think I know what’s going on. Usually, I’d tell you to fuck off and call one of the 4 police officers standing by that door to escort you out, but as you can see I’m not at my best right now. Also, my sister is a psychology student and has helped me understand what exactly is going in your brain right now, despite it being disgusting and horrible. That being said, I think you should do both of us a favor and move away from me and any other young girl in this vicinity, especially since we are in a room full of people and my parents should be back soon. I’m just trying to spare you the trouble, so please leave me alone.” Her once innocent, soothing voice was not as innocent or soothing anymore. It was replaced by boldness and fiery, and yet I liked it even more. 

“Young lady, what are you talking about? Is there anything wrong with trying to make some casual conversation in such a dim and boring situation?” I laugh while looking her right in the eyes, wanting to charm her so badly. 

“Yes there is, if I’m half your age. Don’t think I’m not aware of what white men your age have been doing, it’s all over the media. Also, if you’re really that bored, there are magazines to your right.” she says with a serious face. It was hard to believe that this was the same little girl weeping, looking at the ground now putting up a brave act. It had me intrigued, if that was her plan, it was certainly working. 

“Please. You’re not only being a danger to me right now, but to yourself. There are ways to cope with... well whatever you’re feeling exactly. You don’t have to constantly feel or think this way. Have you ever thought about getting help? You need it.”  

She left me speechless. Not because I was entranced by her but because she was right. What am I doing? I have a little girl’s dead body in my car and then I followed a girl into the ER  but yet I still cannot understand why any of that makes me a “danger” to society. I’m not a bad person, I’m not. It’s not like I wanted to do those things, I just felt like I needed to. But I know, that doesn’t erase the fact that she is right. I do need help. 

I was about to apologize to the girl, but had noticed that she must have left while I was getting caught up in my own little world. Then, I heard the nurse finally call my name after being in here practically the whole day.

“Hubert, is there a Hubert here?” I nonchalantly get up from my seat, but instead of walking towards her, I walk past her and out the door. I don’t belong here. This was a place for sick people and that’s not me. I am perfectly fine, remember?

[topfygad]

A guide for traveling Tajikistan (Tips + 3-week itinerary)

The ex-Soviet Republic of Tajikistan is a truly wild country that you don’t want to miss in your Silk Road journey.

Home to the Pamir range, one of highest mountain ranges in the world, the mountains of Tajikistan attract the most adventurous travelers, especially those wanting to drive the M-41, or Pamir Highway, an impressive road and architectural masterpiece that goes through some of the remotest and most beautiful mountain scenery in Central Asia.

With tourism increasing year by year, the country is daily becoming more prepared to receive international travelers and, after spending 1 month in the country, I have this compiled this guide that contains all the tips needed for traveling to Tajikistan, plus a compelling 3-week itinerary.

Read: Ultimate guide to the Pamir Highway

    Visa Travel Insurance Best time to visit The country, the people and its culture Getting in Safety Scams and corruption Money Food and alcohol Transportation Useful books Internet and SIM Card Accommodation Itinerary More information

Total transparency! – If you like my website and found this post useful, remember that, if you buy any service through of my links, I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you. These earnings help me maintain and keep Against the Compass going! Thanks

Do you know what a VPN is? A Virtual Private Network allows you to access blocked sites when you travel, as well as it lets you access content only available in your home country (like Netflix), plus it prevents hackers from stealing your personal data. Learn here why you should always use a VPN when you travel

  How to get a visa for visiting Tajikistan

Most likely, you can get an e-visa – Most nationalities can apply for an e-visa through the official portal, valid for any port of entry.

The visa costs 50USD, is valid for 45 days, single entry and takes 1 or 2 working days.

Double entry visa – If you want one, you will have to get it through the embassy. Most people who want a double entry visa do so because they want to travel the Afghan Corridor, accessible from Ishkashim.

If this is your case, these are the requirements:

1 Passport valid for at least 6 months of validity and with two empty pages

Passport copy and visa copy from the country you are applying from

2 Passport photos

US Dollars

I applied for one in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and got it on the same day.

My double entry visa for visiting Tajikistan

GBAO Permit – The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) is the region located in the east of Tajikistan, where the Pamir Highway and Wakhan Valley are. 

If you want to visit it, you must tick the GBAO checkbox in the application form. If you are applying at the embassy, make sure to tell them, so you get the extra stamp.

By the way, the GBAO permit costs an additional 20USD.

Read: 30 Tips for traveling to Kazakhstan

Trekking in GBAO – Things to do in Tajikistan

  Travel Insurance for Tajikistan

Eastern Tajikistan, where the Pamir Highway is, is a high altitude area, averaging around 4,000 meters above sea level.

You should know that, if you read the fine print, most insurance companies won’t cover you from 2500-3,000m and above, so you better check before you travel to Tajikistan. 

World Nomads, however, does provide cover, including their most basic policy, which already covers for trekking at 4,000m.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE QUOTE FROM WORLD NOMADS

If you want to know more options, read how to find the best backpacking insurance

  Best time to visit Tajikistan

If you plan to do some trekking in eastern Tajikistan, you should come in summer.

I remember being in Alichur, a small village in the Pamir Highway and one of the coldest places in Central Asia, and, in the morning, during August, it was -5ºC and there was a freezing, strong wind, so it felt even colder. 

Imagine the weather there during the rest of the year.

Me, at the top of Gumbezkul Pass. It was the month of August and it was absolutely freezing – Best things to do in Tajikistan

Nevertheless, the Pamir Highway is open all year long so, if you are self-driving, you can drive it at any time. Actually, my friend Joao Leitao from Nomad Revelations drove it in winter.

On the other hand, the Fann Mountains in west Tajikistan are at lower altitude, hence warmer, so they can be visited during spring and fall. 

I did the 7 lakes trek in September and it was particularly hot!

The Fann Mountains – Is travel to Tajikistan safe

  The country, the people and its culture

After the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Tajikistan went through a dark period of Civil War that lasted pretty much until 1997 and it was not only in 1999, that they formed an actual, stable government, even though Emomali Rahmon, who is still today President of Tajikistan today, had already been ruling from 1994.

It was one of the countries most affected by the Soviet Union’s breakdown, as all their economy and development depended on the Russians so, after getting their independence, the country went to ruin.

Murghab and all the Pamir highway is really poor – Should I travel to Tajikistan

That crisis can still be seen today, as this is clearly the least developed of all the Stans (not counting Turkmenistan), a country with high rates of unemployment, and the fact that most of their infrastructure is still from the Soviet Union times.

It is also the least Westernized country, also due to the fact they are far from Russia so, unlike Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, their cultural influence is not that visible, hence they have less international exposure.

Actually, after having some conversations with quite a few highly educated Tajiks in Dushanbe, I felt that they don’t really know anything about what is going on in the outside world.

A Soviet truck

They were people with very few Western values and no apparent ambition who asked me many times why I would ever want to travel to Tajikistan.

Moreover, Tajikistan is one of those fake democracies where elections are celebrated but there is only one political party, so the same President has been ruling since 1994.

There is no freedom of speech and I remember when my Australian friend, Sam, was talking to a local man for about half an hour at the main square in Dushanbe, a man in a suit came to ask what was going on and invited him to leave.

This means that, still today, the Government doesn’t like their citizens to get international exposure.

The Tajiks – Tajiks are a Persian ethnic group who live mainly in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, but also in Xinjiang (China) and Uzbekistan.

Actually, nearly half of the total Tajik population live in Afghanistan.

Lovely Tajiks in Khujand – tRAVEL TO tAJIKISTAN

Nevertheless, you should know that, like all the Stans, Tajikistan is ethnically mixed and, actually, most of the people living in the Pamirs are Kyrgyz, whereas those in the Wakhan Valley are Wakhis, so if you want to meet the real Tajiks when you are traveling to Tajikistan, you will have to explore Dushanbe and the western part of the country.

Kyrgyz people from the Pamirs

Language – Tajik, which is a dialect of Persian (the language spoken in Iran and Afghanistan) is the official language. Russian is, of course, widely spoken among most people. English tends to be a problem across all the country. I recommend you learn some basic Russian before you visit Tajikistan. 

Religion – Tajiks are Suni Muslims but, like in all Central Asia, religion is not a very big deal. However, I felt that Tajiks were the most religious people in all Central Asia, especially those from the Fann Mountains. I remember that the men there never said hello or shook hands with my girlfriend.

Read: 65 Tips for traveling to Uzbekistan

Tajik women – Tajikistan travel guide

  How to travel to Tajikistan

Travel to Tajikistan by air

Traveling to Tajikistan by air is very easy, as there are many international flights connecting Dushanbe with Europe.

If you intend to travel the Pamir Highway, many people fly into Osh, the largest city in southern Kyrgyzstan and the beginning of the M-41 on the Kyrgyz side.

Travel to Tajikistan by land

Moreover, if you want to travel to Tajikistan by land, know that it shares a border with 4 countries and most of them have multiple border crossings. 

Kyrgyzstan – There are 6 border crossings and 4 of them are open to foreigners. The most obvious is the Kyzyl Art border crossing, which is the one that follows the Pamir Highway. For more information, read the latest Caravanistan updates.

Kyzyl Art pass: Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan border – Tajikistan travel guide

Uzbekistan – There are 5 border crossings with Uzbekistan and all of them seem to be open. I personally crossed the one at Konibodom, that links Khujand with the Fergana Valley, but if you don’t plan to visit that region, it is not very convenient. The Oybek border crossing is the one that connects Khujand with Tashkent and Penjakent is the one that connects the Fann Mountains with Samarkand. For more information, check the latest updates on Caravanistan.

Afghanistan – You can cross at Ishkashim, the gate to the Wakhan Corridor and a very safe part of Afghanistan; or the border crossing south of Dushanbe, which is also open but leads to Kunduz, a not very safe part of Afghanistan. Both borders are open but, if you plan to travel back to Tajikistan, remember to have a double entry visa.

China – Apparently, Kulma Pass is open now, as long as you have a valid printed visa on your passport. For more information, check the latest updates on Caravanistan.

Kulma Pass leads directly to the Karakoram Highway that connects Kashgar with Islamabad in Pakistan. Read here the full guide.

Read: 75 Tips for traveling to Kyrgyzstan

Uzbekistan – Tajikistan border crossing

  Is it safe to travel to Tajikistan?

In summer 2018, 4 cyclists traveling across Tajikistan were murdered in Danghara, an area relatively close to Dushanbe. ISIS claimed the attack.

That accident triggered a big concern among many travelers and the Tajiks are concerned that it might affect their tourism negatively.

This unfortunate event, however, has been a one-off thing and I personally think that it shouldn’t affect your decision to travel to Tajikistan. A similar case happened in Morocco in December 2018 when 2 Scandinavian girls were killed and, so far, it doesn’t seem that tourism has been affected.

Aside from that, Tajikistan is a safe country with very low crime rates.

Tajiks are always friendly – Is traveling to Tajikistan safe

  Scams and corruption when visiting Tajikistan

I still remember being in the car with a homestay owner, on our way to Khujand, when he gave some money to a policeman after stopping at one checkpoint.

Why did you give him money? – I said

Oh, this is just the standard bribing procedure. If we don’t pay him, then he would try to find a reason to fine or arrest us. 

The corruption in Tajikistan is a well-known fact and some of these police officers also try to rip off foreigners but luckily, as tourists, there is not much they can do to you unless you are credulous and believe their lies.

Common scams include policemen telling you that there is a problem with your Tajik visa or making you pay an entrance fee to a place that, obviously, doesn’t require an entrance fee.

Dude, just think:

How the hell there is going to be something wrong with your visa? And also,where have you been where you need to purchase an entry ticket from a policeman?

Just say no and continue with your business.

Epic landscapes

  Money when you travel in Tajikistan

The official currency is the Tajik Somoni and, in February 2019, 1USD = 9.50SOM

ATMs and credit cards – You can find ATM’s in the big cities (not in the Pamir Highway).

How much does it cost to travel to Tajikistan

It really depends on where you go and, ultimately, how you travel the Pamir Highway.

Typically, meals cost something between 1 and 3USD and budget homestays around 10-15USD, which tends to include dinner and breakfast.

In Dushanbe, you can find dorms for 3-4USD and the local transportation ranges from 2 to 10USD, depending on where you go.

For all costs referred to the Pamir Highway, read my guide.

Read: 80 Tips for traveling to Iran

We were on a low budget, so we hitchhiked the entire Pamir Highway

  Food and alcohol when visiting Tajikistan.

Heads-up.

Like in all Central Asia, the food won’t be the highlight of your visit in Tajikistan. 

In the Pamirs and different homestays, you are likely to eat shorpo for every meal, which is a meat broth.

In local restaurants, you will just find things like shahslik, meat skewers; lagman, a noodle soup; manti, fatty meat dumplings; or plov, rice fried in lamb fat.

As per alcohol, as in all ex-Soviet countries, beer and especially vodka are found everywhere.

Lagman is the comodin dish. After eating 100 bowls of it across all Central Asia, I really hated it but since I like pasta a lot, I could handle it more than other dishes

  Transportation when you travel around Tajikistan

The below information refers to types of transportation in western Tajikistan, not the Pamir Highway. For this, read my guide to the Pamir Highway.

Marshrutkas – Marshrutkas is what former Soviet countries call their public minivans. They are really cheap and travel between most towns and cities.

Local shared taxis – Actually, we used more local shared taxis than marshrutkas and, as far as I could see, they are the most preferred option among locals.

Hitchhiking – Highly doable and easy! We actually had one of our most crazy hitchhiking experiences, when we spent more than 48 hours in a truck, on our way from Khorog to Dushanbe.

Traveling in a mini UAZ-452 – A classic Soviet van

  Books for traveling to Tajikistan

Tajikistan Travel Guide by Bradt – The most comprehensive travel guide to Tajikistan. I bought all the Bradt guides to Central Asia (e-Book format). They are, by far, the most insightful guides I have ever read recently.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK PRICES ON AMAZON

  Central Asia Travel Guide by Lonely Planet – I am not a fan of this guide, but if you are traveling to all the Stans and want to buy just one book, it is a good choice as well.

 CLICK HERE TO CHECK PRICES ON AMAZON

  Internet and mobile when traveling in Tajikistan

Wi-Fi – From Murghab to Khujand and Dushanbe, the Wi-Fi connection when you are traveling in Tajikistan is one of the worst I have ever seen. In Dushanbe, the Wi-Fi in my hostel was particularly bad and then every day I would go work to a fancy café and the internet was down every now and then. In the Pamir Highway and the Wakhan Valley, Wi-Fi doesn’t exist.

SIM Card – 3G was just OK anywhere outside of the Pamir Highway. I bought MegaFon and, for a few Somonis, I got plenty of GBs.

  Accommodation in Tajikistan

Homestays – On the Pamir Highway, homestays are the way to go. I recommend you stay in random homestays, not in the popular ones. This way, the benefits will be spread more equally plus random homestays are cheaper.

Hostels – Hostels are popular, from Khorog to Dushanbe and Khujand. Click here to check all the available hostels in Tajikistan!

Hotels – In Khorog, Dushanbe, and Khujand you can find hotel options for mid-range travelers. Click here to check all the available hotels in Tajikistan!

Yurts – In the Pamirs, you can also find nomadic yurt camps where Kyrgyz nomads live.

A yurt camp somewhere in the Tajik Pamirs

  Traveling to Tajikistan – 3-week Itinerary

I traveled to Tajikistan from Kyrgyzstan via Kyzyl Art Pass and left through Uzbekistan at Konibodom, so this Tajikistan itinerary reflects the direction I took.

Map of the Tajikistan itinerary

  Things to do in Tajikistan – Pamir Highway (8-9 days) 

Built by the Soviets in 1930, the Pamir Highway is an architectural masterpiece that goes through some of the remotest landscapes you can ever imagine.

Officially, it starts in Osh (Kyrgyzstan) and ends in Afghanistan but the highest and most beautiful part of it lies in Tajikistan.

The following information is just a small summary.

For the full guide, read my 6,000-word guide to the Pamir Highway.

The stunning Pamir Highway – Tajikistan travel itinerary

How many days are needed for the Pamir Highway?

Well, it is really hard to say. We spent more than 2 weeks between the Pamir Highway and the Wakhan Valley but that is because we stopped in many places plus we also did a 3-day trek.

Normally, most people take a 5 or 7-day tour (starting from Osh), which also includes the Wakhan Valley, but, to be very honest, it is not enough to explore the side valleys, which is where the most stunning landscapes are.

Amazing road! – Tajikistan travel itinerary

If you don’t have the time, I get it but, if you do, here are all the places you need to stop at:

Karakul (1 night) – The first big settlement coming from Kyrgyzstan, Karakul has a very big lake and with some pretty cool snow-capped mountains at the background.

Murghab (2-3 nights) – Murghab is the main town on the M-41 and a base for visiting other places and valleys. We first stayed 2 nights because we waited for a festival and then we stayed a 3rd night after coming back from the trek.

The mosque in Murghab – Tajikistan itinerary

Gumbezkul Pass trek (2-3 nights) – If you have your own car, you can do this trek in 1 day but we did it in 3, cause we walked all the way from Murghab and spent one amazing night with some real nomads in the middle of nowhere. For more information, I wrote the full guide for Everything Everywhere: How to trek the Gumbezkul Pass.

Alichur  (1 night) – Very cool landscapes, yaks, trekking and Marco Polo sheep safaris.

Madyian Valley, close to Murghab – things to do in Tajikistan

Bulunkul (Stopover) – The coldest place in Central Asia is home to a beautiful lake. The trek from Alichur to here is a popular one. You can find a few homestays.

For most travelers, the Pamir Highway is, definitely, one of the best things to do in Tajikistan.

For more information, don’t forget to check my guide to the Pamir Highway

The festival we attended in Murghab – Things to do in Tajikistan

  Places to visit in Tajikistan – Wakhan Valley (3-4 days)

Many travelers tend to classify the Wakhan Valley as part of the Pamir Highway (M-41), which is completely wrong because they are 2 different places.

Actually, to reach the Wakhan Valley you need to leave the road and drive towards Afghanistan for several kilometers.

The Wakhan Valley

Anyways. The Wakhan Valley is one of my most favorite places in entire Central Asia and my most favorite place in my Tajikistan itinerary.

And the reason is that, besides being home to intriguing and jaw-dropping landscapes, the Wakhan is of great historical importance as the ancient border between North Asia and South Asia and on the remarkable Silk Road route, which can be seen in the many fortresses and other sites of cultural heritage there.

Moreover, in the 20th century, the Wakhan Valley marked the border between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan and the Soviet tanks came through here to invade Afghanistan in the 70s.

Today, the river you will go along during your whole journey, whose other side is in Afghanistan, is the main entry point for smuggling products, especially heroin, and, from the window of your car, you can wave and say hello at the many Afghans across the river, from whom you are separated by only a couple of meters.

Once again, this is a small summary, so for more information, don’t forget to check my guide to the Wakhan Valley in Tajikistan.

The views from Khaaka fortress – Left side is Afghanistan and right Tajikistan – Places to visit in Tajikistan

These are all the places we stopped at:

Langar (1 night) – The first big settlement you find is Langar.

We personally didn’t like Langar, as it is the only place in the Wakhan where the locals are very pushy in trying to promote their homestays, plus it is actually far from the river.

I recommend you continue for a few kilometers to Hisor, a more genuine village and with nicer views to actual Afghanistan.

Vrang (stop) – Vrang is another old village that has an ancient Buddhist temple. It is worth stopping for a few hours.

Yamchun (1 night) – The most striking fortress in the Wakhan, which stands with the Afghan Hindu Kush on its background.

Yamchun fortress – Places to visit in Tajikistan

It also has some famous hot springs called Baby Fatima that are believed to have some fertility benefits.

Namadgut (1 night) – There is nothing in particular to see here but travelers don’t tend to stop here, so it is quite untouched. That is why here we had the best cultural experience with a local woman who blessed us with her hospitality.

Kaakha Fortress – The second most famous fortress after Yamchun has also great views to Afghanistan.

Ishkashim (1 night) – The main town in the Wakhan Valley. It used to hold the Afghan market in no man’s land but it is temporarily closed. It is also the border to Afghanistan for those interested in doing the Afghan Wakhan corridor.

For more information, read my guide to the Wakhan Valley

Wakhi people – Best things to do in Tajikistan

  Tajikistan itinerary – Khorog (2 days)

After nearly two weeks of showering with buckets, using holes and bushes as toilets, exclusively eating shorpo and with no internet at all, getting to Khorog felt particularly good.

It is not a very big town but it has a good local market where you can buy many food items that were not available in the Pamir Highway, like cheese, and supermarkets with cold beer.

There is also an Indian restaurant that tends to be filled with travelers and a really good Tajik restaurant by the river, serving high quality grilled meat and other stuff.

Other than this, Khorog is a place to just chill, where we spent 4 days just catching up with work and filling our bellies with decent food.

By the way, the famous Afghan market takes place on Saturday.

Afghan people in the Afghan market of Khorog – A travel guide to Tajikistan

Where to stay in Khorog

Backpacker Hostel – Pamir Lodge – All right, it is a cool place and there is a friendly atmosphere. However, the hostel has the capacity for nearly 100 people and it only has two toilets and two showers, so when I came in August, it was very difficult to find them empty, apart from being quite dirty of course.

Backpacker Hostel – Hostel Do Nazarbayg – An alternative to Pamir lodge. You will find fewer backpackers but the location is much better and it is not that busy.

Click here to see the latest prices

Guest House – Riverside – A quieter, more homestay-style place.

Click here to see the latest prices

  The journey to Dushanbe – 1 day

The road to Dushanbe is a very long way.

Shared taxis take around 12 hours and cost 30USD. They leave from near the market but you need to be there early, 7am at most.

We arrived before 8am and there weren’t any marshrutkas or taxis left, so we decided to hitchhike and it took us 3 days, spending more than 48 hours in a truck.

The distance is only 518km but the road is really bad but beautiful and interesting as, again, it goes along the Afghan border for the most part of it.

The road from Dushanbe to Khorog: the left side is Afghanistan and the right Tajikistan

  Things to do in Tajikistan – Dushanbe (2 days)

The capital of Tajikistan is another place to chill for a few days while you collect some visas, like the Uzbek or Turkmen visas.

Well, not the Uzbek visa anymore, as from February 2019, they started issuing visas on arrival. Check my Uzbekistan travel guide for more information.

Dushanbe has cafés with real coffee, a variety of restaurants and a few pubs where to hang out at night.

What I liked about Dushanbe is that it was my first introduction to the real Tajikistan, as most people you meet in the eastern part are Kyrgyz, Wakhis or Pamir, so you will see a significant difference with the people living here, especially in the way women dress.

Don’t forget to check the main bazaar and the Rudaki Park, which holds the second tallest flagpole in the world

Where to stay in Dushanbe

Backpacker Hostel – Green House Hostel– We spent so many days here because the hostel was really comfortable. Comfy beds, a big kitchen and a living room with awesome couches.

Click here to see the latest prices

  Budget Guest House – Hello Dushanbe – If you want a less backpacker-friendly place, Hello Dushanbe may be slightly more expensive but the facilities are great. It has both private rooms and a dorm.

Click here to see the latest prices

Lovely Tajik women

  Hissor Fortress – Day trip from Dushanbe

If you are bored to be in Dushanbe, we also did a day trip to a fortress named Hissor, which was built by the Uzbeks in the 18th century, as this part of Tajikistan used to belong to the Emirate of Bukhara. The north was part of the Russian empire. 

All right, the fortress itself was boring, as it was overly refurbished, but we always like to get out of town, take a local marshrutka and just see other towns, so it was worth it only for this reason. 

How to get to Hissor fortress

From Dushanbe, you need to take a marshrutka to a town named Khisor. From there, take a taxi or hitchhike back to the fortress which is 4 or 5km away.

The fortress

  Places to visit in Tajikistan – Penjakent and the Fann Mountains (3-4 days)

Once again, this is a small summary.

For all the information needed, read my guide to the Fann Mountains.

While they are not as stunning as the valleys around the Pamir Highway, the Fann Mountains are also very pretty and their main advantage is that, unlike the Pamirs, they are heavily populated and filled with several tiny villages where actual Tajik people live.

Tajiks from the Fanns

Therefore, visiting the Fann Mountains is a great opportunity to discover the real Tajik rural life, so different from anything you have seen during your Tajikistan itinerary. 

Most people come to the Fann Mountains to visit Iskanderkul lake but I recommend going to the area around Penjakent and doing the 7 Lakes Trek.

Trekking in the Fanns

The reason is that, although Iskanderkul is a beautiful lake, no people live there plus it is always busy with domestic tourists, which isn’t a bad thing, but you won’t see much of the local culture. 

On the other hand, the 7 Lakes trek starts in Penjakent and goes through several tiny villages where you can do homestays.

From Penjakent, we took a UAZ-452, the classic Soviet mini-van, and drove to a village named Rachnapollon.

That area is really off the beaten track, so the driver himself invited us to stay at his place, for free, but we decided to give him a generous tip because he had been feeding us. 

How to get to Penjakent

First, take a local shared taxi from Dushanbe to Penjakent, which costs 70TJS (8USD). It is a 230km journey.

In Penjakent, for just a few somonis, we got in the UAZ-452 to Rachnapollon, from where we started walking on the next day.

Remember to check my guide to the Fann Mountains

Random people during the trek

  Places to visit in Tajikistan – Khujand (2-3 days)

Khujand is the purest Tajikistan in its most genuine form and one of the oldest cities in Central Asia (2,500 years old). 

It is the second largest city in the country, a city with little international exposure that has kept its traditional values.

Most travelers use it as a mere transit point, as it is close to the closest border with Tashkent, but I recommend spending here two nights at least.

Arbob Palace Tajikistan

Things to do in Khujand

Don’t forget to check the traditional bazaar, one of those traditional bazaars where everybody asks for a photo and gives you free stuff; and all the mausoleums and historical buildings around the main square. The Arbob Palace is also worth checking out. 

Mosques in Khujand

Where to stay in Khujand

Budget Hostel – Somoni Hostel – The best choice for backpackers and a really cool hostel.

Click here to check the latest prices

Budget Hotel – Golden Apartments – The alternative to a backpacker hostel.

Click here to check the latest prices

Khujand’s bazaar

  More information for visiting Tajikistan

Here you can find all my articles and travel guides to Tajikistan

And here all my guides to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.

Traveling to Iran? Find all my articles here

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A guide for traveling Tajikistan (Tips + 3-week itinerary)

The ex-Soviet Republic of Tajikistan is a truly wild country that you don’t want to miss in your Silk Road journey.

Home to the Pamir range, one of highest mountain ranges in the world, the mountains of Tajikistan attract the most adventurous travelers, especially those wanting to drive the M-41, or Pamir Highway, an impressive road and architectural masterpiece that goes through some of the remotest and most beautiful mountain scenery in Central Asia.

With tourism increasing year by year, the country is daily becoming more prepared to receive international travelers and, after spending 1 month in the country, I have this compiled this guide that contains all the tips needed for traveling to Tajikistan, plus a compelling 3-week itinerary.

Read: Ultimate guide to the Pamir Highway

    Visa Travel Insurance Best time to visit The country, the people and its culture Getting in Safety Scams and corruption Money Food and alcohol Transportation Useful books Internet and SIM Card Accommodation Itinerary More information

Total transparency! – If you like my website and found this post useful, remember that, if you buy any service through of my links, I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you. These earnings help me maintain and keep Against the Compass going! Thanks

Do you know what a VPN is? A Virtual Private Network allows you to access blocked sites when you travel, as well as it lets you access content only available in your home country (like Netflix), plus it prevents hackers from stealing your personal data. Learn here why you should always use a VPN when you travel

  How to get a visa for visiting Tajikistan

Most likely, you can get an e-visa – Most nationalities can apply for an e-visa through the official portal, valid for any port of entry.

The visa costs 50USD, is valid for 45 days, single entry and takes 1 or 2 working days.

Double entry visa – If you want one, you will have to get it through the embassy. Most people who want a double entry visa do so because they want to travel the Afghan Corridor, accessible from Ishkashim.

If this is your case, these are the requirements:

1 Passport valid for at least 6 months of validity and with two empty pages

Passport copy and visa copy from the country you are applying from

2 Passport photos

US Dollars

I applied for one in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and got it on the same day.

My double entry visa for visiting Tajikistan

GBAO Permit – The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) is the region located in the east of Tajikistan, where the Pamir Highway and Wakhan Valley are. 

If you want to visit it, you must tick the GBAO checkbox in the application form. If you are applying at the embassy, make sure to tell them, so you get the extra stamp.

By the way, the GBAO permit costs an additional 20USD.

Read: 30 Tips for traveling to Kazakhstan

Trekking in GBAO – Things to do in Tajikistan

  Travel Insurance for Tajikistan

Eastern Tajikistan, where the Pamir Highway is, is a high altitude area, averaging around 4,000 meters above sea level.

You should know that, if you read the fine print, most insurance companies won’t cover you from 2500-3,000m and above, so you better check before you travel to Tajikistan. 

World Nomads, however, does provide cover, including their most basic policy, which already covers for trekking at 4,000m.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE QUOTE FROM WORLD NOMADS

If you want to know more options, read how to find the best backpacking insurance

  Best time to visit Tajikistan

If you plan to do some trekking in eastern Tajikistan, you should come in summer.

I remember being in Alichur, a small village in the Pamir Highway and one of the coldest places in Central Asia, and, in the morning, during August, it was -5ºC and there was a freezing, strong wind, so it felt even colder. 

Imagine the weather there during the rest of the year.

Me, at the top of Gumbezkul Pass. It was the month of August and it was absolutely freezing – Best things to do in Tajikistan

Nevertheless, the Pamir Highway is open all year long so, if you are self-driving, you can drive it at any time. Actually, my friend Joao Leitao from Nomad Revelations drove it in winter.

On the other hand, the Fann Mountains in west Tajikistan are at lower altitude, hence warmer, so they can be visited during spring and fall. 

I did the 7 lakes trek in September and it was particularly hot!

The Fann Mountains – Is travel to Tajikistan safe

  The country, the people and its culture

After the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Tajikistan went through a dark period of Civil War that lasted pretty much until 1997 and it was not only in 1999, that they formed an actual, stable government, even though Emomali Rahmon, who is still today President of Tajikistan today, had already been ruling from 1994.

It was one of the countries most affected by the Soviet Union’s breakdown, as all their economy and development depended on the Russians so, after getting their independence, the country went to ruin.

Murghab and all the Pamir highway is really poor – Should I travel to Tajikistan

That crisis can still be seen today, as this is clearly the least developed of all the Stans (not counting Turkmenistan), a country with high rates of unemployment, and the fact that most of their infrastructure is still from the Soviet Union times.

It is also the least Westernized country, also due to the fact they are far from Russia so, unlike Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, their cultural influence is not that visible, hence they have less international exposure.

Actually, after having some conversations with quite a few highly educated Tajiks in Dushanbe, I felt that they don’t really know anything about what is going on in the outside world.

A Soviet truck

They were people with very few Western values and no apparent ambition who asked me many times why I would ever want to travel to Tajikistan.

Moreover, Tajikistan is one of those fake democracies where elections are celebrated but there is only one political party, so the same President has been ruling since 1994.

There is no freedom of speech and I remember when my Australian friend, Sam, was talking to a local man for about half an hour at the main square in Dushanbe, a man in a suit came to ask what was going on and invited him to leave.

This means that, still today, the Government doesn’t like their citizens to get international exposure.

The Tajiks – Tajiks are a Persian ethnic group who live mainly in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, but also in Xinjiang (China) and Uzbekistan.

Actually, nearly half of the total Tajik population live in Afghanistan.

Lovely Tajiks in Khujand – tRAVEL TO tAJIKISTAN

Nevertheless, you should know that, like all the Stans, Tajikistan is ethnically mixed and, actually, most of the people living in the Pamirs are Kyrgyz, whereas those in the Wakhan Valley are Wakhis, so if you want to meet the real Tajiks when you are traveling to Tajikistan, you will have to explore Dushanbe and the western part of the country.

Kyrgyz people from the Pamirs

Language – Tajik, which is a dialect of Persian (the language spoken in Iran and Afghanistan) is the official language. Russian is, of course, widely spoken among most people. English tends to be a problem across all the country. I recommend you learn some basic Russian before you visit Tajikistan. 

Religion – Tajiks are Suni Muslims but, like in all Central Asia, religion is not a very big deal. However, I felt that Tajiks were the most religious people in all Central Asia, especially those from the Fann Mountains. I remember that the men there never said hello or shook hands with my girlfriend.

Read: 65 Tips for traveling to Uzbekistan

Tajik women – Tajikistan travel guide

  How to travel to Tajikistan

Travel to Tajikistan by air

Traveling to Tajikistan by air is very easy, as there are many international flights connecting Dushanbe with Europe.

If you intend to travel the Pamir Highway, many people fly into Osh, the largest city in southern Kyrgyzstan and the beginning of the M-41 on the Kyrgyz side.

Travel to Tajikistan by land

Moreover, if you want to travel to Tajikistan by land, know that it shares a border with 4 countries and most of them have multiple border crossings. 

Kyrgyzstan – There are 6 border crossings and 4 of them are open to foreigners. The most obvious is the Kyzyl Art border crossing, which is the one that follows the Pamir Highway. For more information, read the latest Caravanistan updates.

Kyzyl Art pass: Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan border – Tajikistan travel guide

Uzbekistan – There are 5 border crossings with Uzbekistan and all of them seem to be open. I personally crossed the one at Konibodom, that links Khujand with the Fergana Valley, but if you don’t plan to visit that region, it is not very convenient. The Oybek border crossing is the one that connects Khujand with Tashkent and Penjakent is the one that connects the Fann Mountains with Samarkand. For more information, check the latest updates on Caravanistan.

Afghanistan – You can cross at Ishkashim, the gate to the Wakhan Corridor and a very safe part of Afghanistan; or the border crossing south of Dushanbe, which is also open but leads to Kunduz, a not very safe part of Afghanistan. Both borders are open but, if you plan to travel back to Tajikistan, remember to have a double entry visa.

China – Apparently, Kulma Pass is open now, as long as you have a valid printed visa on your passport. For more information, check the latest updates on Caravanistan.

Kulma Pass leads directly to the Karakoram Highway that connects Kashgar with Islamabad in Pakistan. Read here the full guide.

Read: 75 Tips for traveling to Kyrgyzstan

Uzbekistan – Tajikistan border crossing

  Is it safe to travel to Tajikistan?

In summer 2018, 4 cyclists traveling across Tajikistan were murdered in Danghara, an area relatively close to Dushanbe. ISIS claimed the attack.

That accident triggered a big concern among many travelers and the Tajiks are concerned that it might affect their tourism negatively.

This unfortunate event, however, has been a one-off thing and I personally think that it shouldn’t affect your decision to travel to Tajikistan. A similar case happened in Morocco in December 2018 when 2 Scandinavian girls were killed and, so far, it doesn’t seem that tourism has been affected.

Aside from that, Tajikistan is a safe country with very low crime rates.

Tajiks are always friendly – Is traveling to Tajikistan safe

  Scams and corruption when visiting Tajikistan

I still remember being in the car with a homestay owner, on our way to Khujand, when he gave some money to a policeman after stopping at one checkpoint.

Why did you give him money? – I said

Oh, this is just the standard bribing procedure. If we don’t pay him, then he would try to find a reason to fine or arrest us. 

The corruption in Tajikistan is a well-known fact and some of these police officers also try to rip off foreigners but luckily, as tourists, there is not much they can do to you unless you are credulous and believe their lies.

Common scams include policemen telling you that there is a problem with your Tajik visa or making you pay an entrance fee to a place that, obviously, doesn’t require an entrance fee.

Dude, just think:

How the hell there is going to be something wrong with your visa? And also,where have you been where you need to purchase an entry ticket from a policeman?

Just say no and continue with your business.

Epic landscapes

  Money when you travel in Tajikistan

The official currency is the Tajik Somoni and, in February 2019, 1USD = 9.50SOM

ATMs and credit cards – You can find ATM’s in the big cities (not in the Pamir Highway).

How much does it cost to travel to Tajikistan

It really depends on where you go and, ultimately, how you travel the Pamir Highway.

Typically, meals cost something between 1 and 3USD and budget homestays around 10-15USD, which tends to include dinner and breakfast.

In Dushanbe, you can find dorms for 3-4USD and the local transportation ranges from 2 to 10USD, depending on where you go.

For all costs referred to the Pamir Highway, read my guide.

Read: 80 Tips for traveling to Iran

We were on a low budget, so we hitchhiked the entire Pamir Highway

  Food and alcohol when visiting Tajikistan.

Heads-up.

Like in all Central Asia, the food won’t be the highlight of your visit in Tajikistan. 

In the Pamirs and different homestays, you are likely to eat shorpo for every meal, which is a meat broth.

In local restaurants, you will just find things like shahslik, meat skewers; lagman, a noodle soup; manti, fatty meat dumplings; or plov, rice fried in lamb fat.

As per alcohol, as in all ex-Soviet countries, beer and especially vodka are found everywhere.

Lagman is the comodin dish. After eating 100 bowls of it across all Central Asia, I really hated it but since I like pasta a lot, I could handle it more than other dishes

  Transportation when you travel around Tajikistan

The below information refers to types of transportation in western Tajikistan, not the Pamir Highway. For this, read my guide to the Pamir Highway.

Marshrutkas – Marshrutkas is what former Soviet countries call their public minivans. They are really cheap and travel between most towns and cities.

Local shared taxis – Actually, we used more local shared taxis than marshrutkas and, as far as I could see, they are the most preferred option among locals.

Hitchhiking – Highly doable and easy! We actually had one of our most crazy hitchhiking experiences, when we spent more than 48 hours in a truck, on our way from Khorog to Dushanbe.

Traveling in a mini UAZ-452 – A classic Soviet van

  Books for traveling to Tajikistan

Tajikistan Travel Guide by Bradt – The most comprehensive travel guide to Tajikistan. I bought all the Bradt guides to Central Asia (e-Book format). They are, by far, the most insightful guides I have ever read recently.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK PRICES ON AMAZON

  Central Asia Travel Guide by Lonely Planet – I am not a fan of this guide, but if you are traveling to all the Stans and want to buy just one book, it is a good choice as well.

 CLICK HERE TO CHECK PRICES ON AMAZON

  Internet and mobile when traveling in Tajikistan

Wi-Fi – From Murghab to Khujand and Dushanbe, the Wi-Fi connection when you are traveling in Tajikistan is one of the worst I have ever seen. In Dushanbe, the Wi-Fi in my hostel was particularly bad and then every day I would go work to a fancy café and the internet was down every now and then. In the Pamir Highway and the Wakhan Valley, Wi-Fi doesn’t exist.

SIM Card – 3G was just OK anywhere outside of the Pamir Highway. I bought MegaFon and, for a few Somonis, I got plenty of GBs.

  Accommodation in Tajikistan

Homestays – On the Pamir Highway, homestays are the way to go. I recommend you stay in random homestays, not in the popular ones. This way, the benefits will be spread more equally plus random homestays are cheaper.

Hostels – Hostels are popular, from Khorog to Dushanbe and Khujand. Click here to check all the available hostels in Tajikistan!

Hotels – In Khorog, Dushanbe, and Khujand you can find hotel options for mid-range travelers. Click here to check all the available hotels in Tajikistan!

Yurts – In the Pamirs, you can also find nomadic yurt camps where Kyrgyz nomads live.

A yurt camp somewhere in the Tajik Pamirs

  Traveling to Tajikistan – 3-week Itinerary

I traveled to Tajikistan from Kyrgyzstan via Kyzyl Art Pass and left through Uzbekistan at Konibodom, so this Tajikistan itinerary reflects the direction I took.

Map of the Tajikistan itinerary

  Things to do in Tajikistan – Pamir Highway (8-9 days) 

Built by the Soviets in 1930, the Pamir Highway is an architectural masterpiece that goes through some of the remotest landscapes you can ever imagine.

Officially, it starts in Osh (Kyrgyzstan) and ends in Afghanistan but the highest and most beautiful part of it lies in Tajikistan.

The following information is just a small summary.

For the full guide, read my 6,000-word guide to the Pamir Highway.

The stunning Pamir Highway – Tajikistan travel itinerary

How many days are needed for the Pamir Highway?

Well, it is really hard to say. We spent more than 2 weeks between the Pamir Highway and the Wakhan Valley but that is because we stopped in many places plus we also did a 3-day trek.

Normally, most people take a 5 or 7-day tour (starting from Osh), which also includes the Wakhan Valley, but, to be very honest, it is not enough to explore the side valleys, which is where the most stunning landscapes are.

Amazing road! – Tajikistan travel itinerary

If you don’t have the time, I get it but, if you do, here are all the places you need to stop at:

Karakul (1 night) – The first big settlement coming from Kyrgyzstan, Karakul has a very big lake and with some pretty cool snow-capped mountains at the background.

Murghab (2-3 nights) – Murghab is the main town on the M-41 and a base for visiting other places and valleys. We first stayed 2 nights because we waited for a festival and then we stayed a 3rd night after coming back from the trek.

The mosque in Murghab – Tajikistan itinerary

Gumbezkul Pass trek (2-3 nights) – If you have your own car, you can do this trek in 1 day but we did it in 3, cause we walked all the way from Murghab and spent one amazing night with some real nomads in the middle of nowhere. For more information, I wrote the full guide for Everything Everywhere: How to trek the Gumbezkul Pass.

Alichur  (1 night) – Very cool landscapes, yaks, trekking and Marco Polo sheep safaris.

Madyian Valley, close to Murghab – things to do in Tajikistan

Bulunkul (Stopover) – The coldest place in Central Asia is home to a beautiful lake. The trek from Alichur to here is a popular one. You can find a few homestays.

For most travelers, the Pamir Highway is, definitely, one of the best things to do in Tajikistan.

For more information, don’t forget to check my guide to the Pamir Highway

The festival we attended in Murghab – Things to do in Tajikistan

  Places to visit in Tajikistan – Wakhan Valley (3-4 days)

Many travelers tend to classify the Wakhan Valley as part of the Pamir Highway (M-41), which is completely wrong because they are 2 different places.

Actually, to reach the Wakhan Valley you need to leave the road and drive towards Afghanistan for several kilometers.

The Wakhan Valley

Anyways. The Wakhan Valley is one of my most favorite places in entire Central Asia and my most favorite place in my Tajikistan itinerary.

And the reason is that, besides being home to intriguing and jaw-dropping landscapes, the Wakhan is of great historical importance as the ancient border between North Asia and South Asia and on the remarkable Silk Road route, which can be seen in the many fortresses and other sites of cultural heritage there.

Moreover, in the 20th century, the Wakhan Valley marked the border between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan and the Soviet tanks came through here to invade Afghanistan in the 70s.

Today, the river you will go along during your whole journey, whose other side is in Afghanistan, is the main entry point for smuggling products, especially heroin, and, from the window of your car, you can wave and say hello at the many Afghans across the river, from whom you are separated by only a couple of meters.

Once again, this is a small summary, so for more information, don’t forget to check my guide to the Wakhan Valley in Tajikistan.

The views from Khaaka fortress – Left side is Afghanistan and right Tajikistan – Places to visit in Tajikistan

These are all the places we stopped at:

Langar (1 night) – The first big settlement you find is Langar.

We personally didn’t like Langar, as it is the only place in the Wakhan where the locals are very pushy in trying to promote their homestays, plus it is actually far from the river.

I recommend you continue for a few kilometers to Hisor, a more genuine village and with nicer views to actual Afghanistan.

Vrang (stop) – Vrang is another old village that has an ancient Buddhist temple. It is worth stopping for a few hours.

Yamchun (1 night) – The most striking fortress in the Wakhan, which stands with the Afghan Hindu Kush on its background.

Yamchun fortress – Places to visit in Tajikistan

It also has some famous hot springs called Baby Fatima that are believed to have some fertility benefits.

Namadgut (1 night) – There is nothing in particular to see here but travelers don’t tend to stop here, so it is quite untouched. That is why here we had the best cultural experience with a local woman who blessed us with her hospitality.

Kaakha Fortress – The second most famous fortress after Yamchun has also great views to Afghanistan.

Ishkashim (1 night) – The main town in the Wakhan Valley. It used to hold the Afghan market in no man’s land but it is temporarily closed. It is also the border to Afghanistan for those interested in doing the Afghan Wakhan corridor.

For more information, read my guide to the Wakhan Valley

Wakhi people – Best things to do in Tajikistan

  Tajikistan itinerary – Khorog (2 days)

After nearly two weeks of showering with buckets, using holes and bushes as toilets, exclusively eating shorpo and with no internet at all, getting to Khorog felt particularly good.

It is not a very big town but it has a good local market where you can buy many food items that were not available in the Pamir Highway, like cheese, and supermarkets with cold beer.

There is also an Indian restaurant that tends to be filled with travelers and a really good Tajik restaurant by the river, serving high quality grilled meat and other stuff.

Other than this, Khorog is a place to just chill, where we spent 4 days just catching up with work and filling our bellies with decent food.

By the way, the famous Afghan market takes place on Saturday.

Afghan people in the Afghan market of Khorog – A travel guide to Tajikistan

Where to stay in Khorog

Backpacker Hostel – Pamir Lodge – All right, it is a cool place and there is a friendly atmosphere. However, the hostel has the capacity for nearly 100 people and it only has two toilets and two showers, so when I came in August, it was very difficult to find them empty, apart from being quite dirty of course.

Backpacker Hostel – Hostel Do Nazarbayg – An alternative to Pamir lodge. You will find fewer backpackers but the location is much better and it is not that busy.

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Guest House – Riverside – A quieter, more homestay-style place.

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  The journey to Dushanbe – 1 day

The road to Dushanbe is a very long way.

Shared taxis take around 12 hours and cost 30USD. They leave from near the market but you need to be there early, 7am at most.

We arrived before 8am and there weren’t any marshrutkas or taxis left, so we decided to hitchhike and it took us 3 days, spending more than 48 hours in a truck.

The distance is only 518km but the road is really bad but beautiful and interesting as, again, it goes along the Afghan border for the most part of it.

The road from Dushanbe to Khorog: the left side is Afghanistan and the right Tajikistan

  Things to do in Tajikistan – Dushanbe (2 days)

The capital of Tajikistan is another place to chill for a few days while you collect some visas, like the Uzbek or Turkmen visas.

Well, not the Uzbek visa anymore, as from February 2019, they started issuing visas on arrival. Check my Uzbekistan travel guide for more information.

Dushanbe has cafés with real coffee, a variety of restaurants and a few pubs where to hang out at night.

What I liked about Dushanbe is that it was my first introduction to the real Tajikistan, as most people you meet in the eastern part are Kyrgyz, Wakhis or Pamir, so you will see a significant difference with the people living here, especially in the way women dress.

Don’t forget to check the main bazaar and the Rudaki Park, which holds the second tallest flagpole in the world

Where to stay in Dushanbe

Backpacker Hostel – Green House Hostel– We spent so many days here because the hostel was really comfortable. Comfy beds, a big kitchen and a living room with awesome couches.

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  Budget Guest House – Hello Dushanbe – If you want a less backpacker-friendly place, Hello Dushanbe may be slightly more expensive but the facilities are great. It has both private rooms and a dorm.

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Lovely Tajik women

  Hissor Fortress – Day trip from Dushanbe

If you are bored to be in Dushanbe, we also did a day trip to a fortress named Hissor, which was built by the Uzbeks in the 18th century, as this part of Tajikistan used to belong to the Emirate of Bukhara. The north was part of the Russian empire. 

All right, the fortress itself was boring, as it was overly refurbished, but we always like to get out of town, take a local marshrutka and just see other towns, so it was worth it only for this reason. 

How to get to Hissor fortress

From Dushanbe, you need to take a marshrutka to a town named Khisor. From there, take a taxi or hitchhike back to the fortress which is 4 or 5km away.

The fortress

  Places to visit in Tajikistan – Penjakent and the Fann Mountains (3-4 days)

Once again, this is a small summary.

For all the information needed, read my guide to the Fann Mountains.

While they are not as stunning as the valleys around the Pamir Highway, the Fann Mountains are also very pretty and their main advantage is that, unlike the Pamirs, they are heavily populated and filled with several tiny villages where actual Tajik people live.

Tajiks from the Fanns

Therefore, visiting the Fann Mountains is a great opportunity to discover the real Tajik rural life, so different from anything you have seen during your Tajikistan itinerary. 

Most people come to the Fann Mountains to visit Iskanderkul lake but I recommend going to the area around Penjakent and doing the 7 Lakes Trek.

Trekking in the Fanns

The reason is that, although Iskanderkul is a beautiful lake, no people live there plus it is always busy with domestic tourists, which isn’t a bad thing, but you won’t see much of the local culture. 

On the other hand, the 7 Lakes trek starts in Penjakent and goes through several tiny villages where you can do homestays.

From Penjakent, we took a UAZ-452, the classic Soviet mini-van, and drove to a village named Rachnapollon.

That area is really off the beaten track, so the driver himself invited us to stay at his place, for free, but we decided to give him a generous tip because he had been feeding us. 

How to get to Penjakent

First, take a local shared taxi from Dushanbe to Penjakent, which costs 70TJS (8USD). It is a 230km journey.

In Penjakent, for just a few somonis, we got in the UAZ-452 to Rachnapollon, from where we started walking on the next day.

Remember to check my guide to the Fann Mountains

Random people during the trek

  Places to visit in Tajikistan – Khujand (2-3 days)

Khujand is the purest Tajikistan in its most genuine form and one of the oldest cities in Central Asia (2,500 years old). 

It is the second largest city in the country, a city with little international exposure that has kept its traditional values.

Most travelers use it as a mere transit point, as it is close to the closest border with Tashkent, but I recommend spending here two nights at least.

Arbob Palace Tajikistan

Things to do in Khujand

Don’t forget to check the traditional bazaar, one of those traditional bazaars where everybody asks for a photo and gives you free stuff; and all the mausoleums and historical buildings around the main square. The Arbob Palace is also worth checking out. 

Mosques in Khujand

Where to stay in Khujand

Budget Hostel – Somoni Hostel – The best choice for backpackers and a really cool hostel.

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Budget Hotel – Golden Apartments – The alternative to a backpacker hostel.

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Khujand’s bazaar

  More information for visiting Tajikistan

Here you can find all my articles and travel guides to Tajikistan

And here all my guides to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.

Traveling to Iran? Find all my articles here

    source http://cheaprtravels.com/a-guide-for-traveling-tajikistan-tips-3-week-itinerary/