Sucky Day

7/30/09  God Knows Where, Tajikistan

 

Today kinda sucked.

 

Not all day—just nearly all of it. It started great. I got up early, and had all the directions I thought I needed for the next leg of my journey—a trip through the last corner of the "Roof of the World," through 15-20,000 foot mountains to a lake, where I would spend a day or two hiking. I got a liter of Coke and a couple of rolls for breakfast, and found the right Marshrutnoe for the next part of my journey.  When the driver finally understood where I wanted to go, we were already past my stop!!!! So,  he flagged down a Mashrutnoe going the other way, and gave him specific directions on where to drop me. Then I got a taxi to get me to the next town 100 kilometers away, and after that I quickly picked up a ride to the next destination, some 200 Kilometers down the road. Then it went real bad……

 

It seems that the Chinese construction crew has maximized their efficiency in rebuilding the road by simply closing the existing road for twelve hours a day. This is the main highway down from Tashkent to Dushanbe, the capitals of the two countries. As a matter of fact, it is the ONLY road between the provincial capital of Khojand and the national capital of Dushanbe. ---So, for the past nine hours I (along with what is now more than a hundred other cars and smelly trucks) have been waiting  on the side of the road, far from my mountain lake.

 

And the worst of it has not even happened!  Instead of driving through the beautiful mountains in mid-day, it will be dark. Instead of getting to the lake in the middle of the afternoon, I will be arriving in a little town with limited tourist capacity (not much of a hotel, I am told) at about 11:00 at night. This really sucks. And it is starting to rain. And I broke my glasses about an hour ago—so they have to balance on the tip of my nose.  (Added later-----you want it to be suckier—Right as it was approaching 19:00, the time to re-open the road, I find out that my watch is wrong—I was still on Kyrgi time. Here in Tajiki, it was only 18:00!!!--Another hour to wait!)

 

I did meet some really nice people, including one student of Tourism, who told me a lot about his country. He spoke pretty good English, and was happy to practice with me. He also told me that I had overpaid for my taxi (Duh, what else is new?, But that it was not by too much. The locals are paying 50, and I am paying 65. (about three dollars too much!) And it could have been a whole lot more suckier except for the nicest thing that happened all day. In Khojand, I got involved with taxi dealings, and when I finally picked the winner, I walked off with my backpack about 50 meters to his taxi. What I did not realize until I saw somebody running up to us was that I had left my camera bag (and money, credit cards, etc...) back at the taxi stand.....They had found it and ran after me before I could leave. I was so lucky.