Dushanbe

Flying over the Pamirs is kind of breathtaking. Someday I want to see them up close.

As we landed at the Dushanbe airport under a cloudless blue sky, I could see a series of military jets underneath the airplane hanger equivalent of a carport, only arced. And as the airplane taxied towards stairs that would be rolled up to the plane so we could alight and board the bus which would take us to the terminal, the flagger on the runway appeared out my window. He was grasping what looked like giant old-school flyswatters, or maybe ping-pong paddles with longer handles – one red and one green – the bicycle he had ridden out to the middle of the runway laying on its side behind him.

This is the first time I’ve been to a place that was recently in war. The guidebook says Dushanbe is the prettiest of the Central Asian capitals, which seemed improbable given the many year civil war and the city-wide curfew that existed until 2002, but it’s true. The architecture here is amazing, the roads are in great shape in the city (the main boulevard was repaved last week for the visit of the presidents of Iran and Afghanistan, but apparently the road was fine before that), the fountains are all working, and the streetlights get turned on at night. We’re both a little puzzled and are trying to figure this place out.

Some estimates say that up to 50% of the country's economic activity is related to the opium that flows through. I have no idea if that bears any relationship to the truth.

There are, of course, still remnants of the war. It destroyed the city’s water filtration system, so the water comes directly from the river. That means silt and pebbles and plant matter can flow from the faucet. And it also destroyed the city’s heating system, though that’s not such an issue for us visiting when the temps are in the 105 range.