Day 2 in Dushanbe

 

Walking Stats

Travelogue 

We somehow managed to get up at 7:00 today which isn't bad. We want to adjust to the local timezone quickly.

We'd both found our appetites again this morning and my breakfast at the hotel included a  fried egg and tasty bread.

We still had a few chores to do so we started there. K1 now has lots of cash, hopefully more than enough for the Pamir Highway.

And I now have a T-Cell SIM card! The man in the shop assured me I'd be able to use another network called Megafon as well with this SIM. Megafon gets good reports from travellers in the Eastern Pamir where we're soon to be headed. The SIM certainly worked well in Dushanbe with a 5G service right from the start. It's a data only SIM giving me an allowance of 100 Gb right up to the date my visa expires and all for 220 Somoni (about £18). Bargain.

We still needed petrol but apart from walking to the nearest petrol station we could see on the map to get orientated we decided to buy our petrol later. 

The president's image is everywhere 

K1 emptying another ATM

Dushanbe uses a system of deep water channels - you need to be careful not to fall into them!

Near our hotel. A fairly typical back street in this district.

Today was to be our last day in Dushanbe and that meant sightseeing was an absolute must!

Almost everything you might want to see in Dushanbe is a walk away. We did walk almost 23 km though so the steps do stack up.

All in all we had a great day and like this city. It has a very relaxed and friendly vibe. Everyone we've had personal contact with has been friendly, helpful and welcoming.

I like to watch out for novel birds when I travel. Yesterday I discovered that the most common bird here is the Myna bird. Today I saw Muscovy ducks in one of the parks and identified Laughing Doves which are also very common.

So, what sights did we see?

Just walking...

A cycle lane!

English books for sale

Bread - wood fired oven

Apartments and Taxis

KFC Dushanbe 

The Sadriddin Aini monument and gardens 

Independence Monument 

Monument to Ismail Somoni

There were lots of guys in suits with earpieces here looking just like what they were. Security! This monument is close to the Parliament of Tajikistan and we later witnessed a huge police and military presence build in this area with some approach roads closed. The presence of the Georgian national flag alongside that of Tajikistan that we'd noticed many lamp posts have attached to them now became clear. The president of Georgia was in town!

I asked a couple of local guys what was going on and after telling me they didn't speak English, they explained. In English :-)

The Parliament of Tajikistan 

Rudaki Park and Monuments 

Monument of the Persian poet Rudaki

Peacock!

Dushanbe Flagpole 

There's a flag up there, honestly!

Parliament seen from in front of the flagpole 

Istiklol (independence) Monument 

Botanical Gardens 

En route here we walked through a hospital area which was interesting to see.  Eventually we reached the botanical gardens and paid 10 Somoni each for entry. That's 82p each. Bargain.

A shelter guarded by a bear

M1 using the outdoor gym

Rain soon filled the drainage channels!

Yes, as we walked around the botanical gardens we started to hear thunder and then it started to rain. Nice rain. Welcome rain that felt good. It probably only lasted about 30 minutes but it was pleasant after the heat of the day.

By the time we'd finished sightseeing we were tired, hot and thirsty (despite buying lots of cold drinks today). We dropped into a supermarket and bought more drinks, some bread and salty snacks. We didn't feel like having a proper dinner. I bought some bananas for breakfast and on the road tomorrow and we bought some bottled water for in our bike water bottles too. Because tomorrow we start cycling!

We dropped our shopping back at the hotel and then cycled to the petrol station and had our four fuel bottles filled.

I strapped my second bottle to The Mule just in front of my saddle. Tomorrow I'll find out whether or not this works.

Tomorrow

We plan to get up at 5 am tomorrow, forego the hotel breakfast and make an early start. It will be cooler and we hope there won't be much traffic as we cycle East out of the city and onto the Pamir Highway. The adventure really starts tomorrow!

Day 1 in Dushanbe

 

Against the odds, after a long day getting to Dushanbe and not great sleep, K1 and I both woke up at about 9:00. We're four hours ahead of the UK now, by the way.

Neither of us were hungry but we went to the hotel's breakfast room anyway. The food on display was largely unappealing. We're aiming to be careful with food and water and so anything washed in water is likely to be avoided. I don't eat meat in general but K1 is planning to avoid meat here too.

We both had a couple of small slices of bread. That's all we wanted anyway.

The general idea for today was to get various chores done so we could have tomorrow free to be tourists.

This included:

1. Get cash, which for me meant collect the Western Union transfer I'd initiated last week. We didn't know what it meant for K1 at this stage!

2. Get me a SIM card for the megafon network. Apparently this is best for the eastern Pamir region where we're headed.

3. Visit a supermarket and get some provisions for the road and for today.

4. Buy petrol for our stoves.

5. Check the bikes after yesterday's hasty reassembly outside the airport.

We started by focusing on cash. The Pamir is cash based. We don't expect to be able to use cards once we're on the road. So obtaining enough cash for our journey is critical.

K1's problems with Western Union continued. None of the cards he used to transfer money were accepted and no reason was given. K1 used his bank's system to send money to my bank account so I could try using my Western Union account. But I had the same problems. Evidently the issue was something to do with us being in Tajikistan. A quick Google search indicated that our scenario which involves initiating a transfer from a UK bank account whilst physically outside of the UK looks suspicious to Western Union so they reject the attempt with a vague message, presumably not wanting to give useful information to naughty hackers.

K1 requested help from Western Union support. They were useless.

This all took place at the hotel where we have WiFi. We gave up eventually and walked to a bank that the Western Union app indicated would be able to process my transfer and allow me to receive the money I'd sent myself from the UK.

It was an 8km walk and took about 30 minutes. It was already feeling pretty hot, apparently in the mid-thirties Celsius.

Walking allowed us to see part of the city. The streets in general. The construction work going on. Small tea shops and bakeries. A festival of Korean culture which included music and street food. An impressive theatre/opera house that was scheduled to host a K Pop concert! A cool, shady park with animal statues and other art in it. It was a good introduction to "real Dushanbe".

We entered the bank and by chance the young man I first approached spoke excellent English. Apparently he'd taken extra classes at school :-)

He listened to what I needed and walked me to another small bureau belonging to the bank via the street. He then stayed to help translate to the man working behind the glass.  It all seemed to be going fine until I was asked to provide proof of the address I was staying at. I tried to show our booking.com reservation details on my phone but without access to the mobile network, couldn't easily. The clerk tried to set up a WiFi hotspot on his iPhone for me to use but it didn't work. The two bank staff really tried! But in the end, I couldn't satisfy the bank's rules which seemingly insist on some kind of printed statement that indicates the address of your hotel.

The helpful young man suggested a different bank that he thought didn't need the paper-based proof of address.

We left and I was feeling frustrated. Everything depended on being able to fund our journey. No cash, no trip.

We visited a supermarket close to the hotel and I bought oatmeal, stock cubes, sweets and coffee. I shall not starve. K1 paid using a card which here in modern Dushanbe is an option although we found the supermarket allowed Visa payment cards but didn't support MasterCard which is my preferred card when travelling.

Back at the hotel I found that the man currently working on reception spoke English! This was good news as it's not that common to find English speakers apparently. I explained what I needed and he was able to help. He created official looking letters on hotel paper for both K1 and myself indicating we were guests and stating the address.

K1 revisited his Western Union situation while we had WiFi but nothing has changed.

We looked for the other bank on a map and found it was only about 1 km away and so walked to it. Except that it didn't exist. It's shown on the map but nobody we asked knew for sure where it was. It may be a corporate office was on an upper floor rather than a retail branch outlet.

So that left one option. We walked all the way to the first bank again, me with my proof of address hoping to collect my Western Union transfer and K1 hoping to use an ATM with one of his cards.

I was successful! It's a big relief to have both local currency (Somoni) and some extra US dollars which can be useful and in particular might come in handy when we first cross into Kyrgyzstan.

K1 however was not. He'd forgotten his PIN and with no mobile internet access couldn't use his bank's system to find its value.

M1 decided to try one of his cards and was able to withdraw a maximum of 2000 Somoni which is roughly £200. This was handed straight to K1 who finally had some local currency!

After returning to the hotel, K1 sorted out his PIN and was able to obtain another 2000 Somoni from another ATM. And (drum roll) we went out again in the evening and got another 2000 each from yet another ATM. So K1 now has 8000 Somoni and is getting close to what we think is needed for six weeks on the Pamir Highway. We'll obtain the rest tomorrow.

This all took forever. We walked about 20 km, got very hot and sticky and there are still items on our To-do list. We'll have to get them done tomorrow.

This evening we're enjoying the air conditioning of our hotel room and eating salty snacks to make up for all the salts lost through sweating. I've been stricken with nasty cramping this afternoon probably because of dehydration and salt loss so that big bag of crisps is officially medicine :-)

Photos

Our bikes in the hotel courtyard 

The theatre 

M1 and fountain 

K1 and fountain 

The flag of Tajikistan perhaps with that of Georgia?

Believed to be a Myna

Definitely a statue

Korean street food 

A street we walked 4 times today!

Tea shop

Outside the hotel

Pamir Highway - Travelling to Dushanbe

 

Introduction

The big day has arrived. After years of thinking about the Pamir Highway and watching others make the amazing journey on YouTube, and months and months of planning and organising, today is the day that I (M1) and brother-in-law K1 travel to Tajikistan to start our adventure.

The plan for today was simple enough. Drive to London Gatwick airport in a hired van, fly from there to Istanbul, Turkey and then catch a second flight to Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Once on the ground in Tajikistan, all that would remain is to cycle to the hotel we'd booked for three nights. Simples?

London - An Early Start

Our day started early. Very early! With our flight leaving London's Gatwick airport at 7:00 a.m., we were required to be there by 4:00 and this meant we had to wake up and get out of bed at..... 3:00 a.m. Gulp!

And "we" was three people at this stage. To get to Gatwick, I'd hired a van that was big enough to carry the partly disassembled bikes in their large cardboard boxes and our luggage. 

My son had kindly agreed to be our driver, so he too had to get up at the unholy hour of 3:00. I'm hoping the case of beers I left for him will buy his forgiveness eventually :-)

 

The van which we loaded up yesterday 

So, not so bright and very, very early, we all got out of bed this morning. Even M2 got up to say goodbye.

My son drove the van like a pro and got us to Gatwick airport by 4 a.m.  We unloaded quickly so he could get away and avoid having to pay even more than the standard £10 for the privilege of dropping off passengers (such a rip off!).

K1 went to get a couple of trollies to make getting our luggage into the airport easier. To our dismay it turned out that airport trollies have gone the same way as supermarket trollies and you need a pound coin to unlock one. Of course we had no coins at all! My son gave me a couple of £2 coins before driving off but we were unable to split them into £1 coins. Oh dear. 

Fortunately, K1 found a single unlocked trolly and we were able to balance both bike boxes on it. K1 pushed the trolley and I carried the two large laundry bags destined for the hold along with my cabin bags. My shoulders felt like they were dropping off by the time we got to the check-in desks.

Getting the bikes and luggage dropped off was more complicated than expected and it took a lot of time and energy. But every one of the airport and Turkish Airlines staff we dealt with were excellent; helpful and friendly despite the early hour.

Details of the issues and the process we had to go through have been added to the end of the Flying with Bikes post for those who want to know. 

When we'd eventually got the bikes on their way we proceeded to join other passengers passing through the usual security process. Naturally both of us had our cabin bags siphoned off to one side for further inspection!

In the end it took nearly two hours from arriving at Gatwick to us being through security and in the departures area. A long process for sure but made bearable by the excellent staff.

Our flight left on schedule at 7:05 and the journey to Istanbul was uneventful. That's how we like our flying to be :-)

Istanbul 

The airport is modern and comfortable which is just as well because we had five hours to wait for our connecting flight to Dushanbe.

On the whole, we just relaxed, had a coffee and snack and I wrote some of this blog post. It pays to be productive.

K1 also decided to take advantage of the lengthy wait between flights to start to organise a Western Money transfer of cash from his UK bank account. I'd done the same thing a week ago, the idea being I wouldn't need to carry large amounts of physical cash into the country but instead, collect it from a bank in Dushanbe on our first day. For me, the process of "sending" money went fine.

For K1 it was far from fine! Attempting to make the money transfer while in Turkey made his bank's fraud detection systems anxious. The transaction was stopped and K1's bank card blocked!

K1 then had to go through a complicated process with his bank to get his card working again. The Western Union money transfer remained incomplete at this stage. 

Not long before we were due to board, A Turkish teenager introduced himself in excellent English and asked us where we were from, why we were going to Dushanbe and so on. He'd learned English from computer games. We exchanged names and shook hands before boarding.

Our flight to Dushanbe took 4 hours and 35 minutes. It too was uneventful. My beetroot based Asian Vegetarian dinner was very nice. 

Dushanbe

We landed in Dushanbe at 1:05 in the morning.

I confess I'd been a little nervous about Dushanbe airport. I'd read accounts of corruption with fake fines being levied by officials. One account involved a woman being relieved of £700!

Our experience couldn't have been better. Passing through passport control was straightforward and didn't take too long. 

Our laundry bags emerged from the hold of the aircraft and appeared on the carousel. Hooray!

Our bikes in their big boxes appeared a while later on another side of baggage reclaim. Hooray again!

I went looking for trolleys but couldn't see where people were getting them from. I asked a Tajik man who immediately said "Take mine! It is your first time in Tajikistan, you must have my trolley!". I tried to dissuade him but was unsuccessful. He was quietly insistent. How nice was that?

With both bike boxes on one trolley again, K1 did well to manoeuvre the trolley through the sliding doors and out of the terminal. Outside it was busy with taxis, taxi drivers and passengers. We found a quiet corner though and proceeded to unbox and reassemble our bikes.

This all went fine but took a while and we were both feeling pretty tired.  Eventually though the bikes were ready and we crudely lashes everything to them just to be able to get everything to the hotel. Packing for flight is not the same as packing for cycling so it was not exactly streamlined but at this time of night we really didn't care.

We jumped on The Mule and Donkey and rode them through the well lit streets of Dushanbe, arriving at our hotel at around 3 a.m. Fortunately we were expected and a member of staff greeted us and showed us to our shared room.

We were both very tired now but cycling and perhaps being a little excited about.. ACTUALLY BEING IN TAJIKISTAN meant we both struggled to get to sleep properly. But we did get some sleep and were up at 9 a.m.  But that's a whole other day and the subject of the next post on this blog.

We made it to Dushanbe! We're there! Our luggage is here! Our bikes are here!

Not a bad start :-)

Photos

Building the bikes

Loading the bikes up 

En route to the hotel 

Our hotel room. Nice chandelier!

Packing List for the Pamir Highway

Introduction

Bikepacking the Pamir Highway is different so not surprisingly this has had an impact on my bike and the items I'll be taking.

Regarding "stuff", there's new stuff, more stuff and overall, the full set of stuff is heavier. And some it I will probably.... hopefully..... never use. Whaaaaaaat?

Blame the Risk Assessment

Bikepackers sometimes like to pride themselves on being able to "travel light" and not get sucked into taking things they don't really need. For this trip though, I'm knowingly taking things that I very much hope I won't need. It's all a question of risk and early on in the planning process I carried out a fairly formal risk assessment, listing things that could go wrong, how likely I felt this was and what the impact would be (graded as low/medium/high).

Amongst the various categories of risk were things that might affect the bike (e.g. various mechanical failures) or my health (accidents, injuries, illnesses etc).

I then looked for ways to mitigate each risk, assuming I thought it worthwhile and that there actually was something I could do. Not all risks can be mitigated of course. And it was here that I started to add things to the packing list; first aid items, tools, spares and repair materials.

Bike Changes

The Mule has new wheels designed specifically for touring with a heavy load. Details can be found here. This was motivated by the fact that any type of wheel damage worse than a broken spoke could probably not be resolved, possibly ending the trip. Your bike's wheels are somewhat important.

The only other change made specifically for this trip is the tyres. I'm still using the excellent Continental Contact Plus tyres but this time went for a larger 47 mm tyre. Previously I've always fitted 43 mm tyres. 

The idea is just to have a greater volume of air supporting the heavier load being carried on this trip.

Carrying Stuff

The main carrying system consists of:

• 2 x Ortlieb Back Roller Classic panniers (40 L capacity total)
• 1 x Ortlieb Rack Pack (31 L)
• 1 x Ortlieb Handlebar Pack QR (11 L)

And new for this trip to provide extra capacity:

• 2 x Ortlieb Fork Packs (5.8 L each)

The Mule with the six main bags

In addition, I bought a dry bag from Alpkit (13 L) which I can use to carry extra stuff such as food, with the dry bag lashed to the back of the bike using one of two bungee cords or the luggage straps that I'll have with me.

I also have a small frame bag on the top tube. This is mostly used to carry my phone for navigation. 

A small saddle bag contains tyre levers, a spare inner tube, mechanics gloves and a bike multi-tool.

Indirectly related to this topic, I also bought a dry bag for my sleeping bag from Sea to Summit. This gives me the option to carry my relatively bulky sleeping bag strapped to the bike rather than taking up room in one of the panniers.

So, I have the ability to carry a greater volume of stuff and spare capacity for the food I expect to need to carry in the more remote, higher altitude parts of the journey. 

Keeping Warm

It's likely to be hot during the day time, especially at lower altitudes nearer to our start point, Dushanbe. But it's possible that at high altitude it will get quite cold at night, maybe a few degrees below freezing point. That means that not only is it essential to be able to keep warm in the tent at night but also sitting outside the tent in the evenings and when first cycling early in the morning. To that end, the following new items are coming on this trip:

• Sea to Summit Spark -9 C down sleeping bag

• Rab down jacket

• Sealskinz mittens

Mittens may seem like a questionable choice given we're expecting day time temperatures around 35 degrees Celsius! But, I have shockingly bad circulation in my hands and suffer badly in chilly (but above freezing) conditions so without them would struggle on those cold early mornings we are expecting to encounter at high altitude.

As well as the new additions, as always I'll have merino wool leggings, a long sleeved top and and a hat for extra layers to wear whenever necessary.

Drinking Water

We've been advised to not drink tap water. We also know there will be occasions where tap water won't even be available and mountain streams and rivers will be our only available source of water. So the kit list includes the following water purification tools:

• Katadyn BeFree water filter - this is a one litre flexible bladder with a screw on filter. To use it, you fill the bladder from a tap or stream and then push the water through the filter and nozzle by squeezing the bladder. It's quite a slow process but will reduce the presence of particles, bacteria,  protozoa and parasites.

• Steripen Ultralight - The water filter doesn't remove viruses. The steripen should. Steripen is an electronic ultra-violet emitting "wand". It is used by  immersing it in water that has been through the filter and then switching it on. UV is emitted for a period of time before the device switches itself off. It has a rechargeable battery in it with a USB socket.

• Water sterilisation tablets - we shouldn't need to use them but if for example the Steripen breaks or if we simply want to be extra careful, a tablet left in the water for a suitable period of time will get rid of (most) bacteria and viruses.

We also have the option to boil water as well.

The usual strategy will be to filter water using the Katadyn filter first and then zap it with the Steripen.

Food 

We expect to wild camp sometimes, possibly most of the time. So for the first time, I'm taking cooking equipment with me. 

I had to buy a new stove. My existing equipment either uses gas canisters or alcohol. Neither of these fuels are easy to obtain in Tajikistan. So that left fuels such as petrol, diesel and kerosene. There are a number of multi-fuel stoves on the market that can run off any of these types of fuel and I bought an MSR Whisperlite.  I also bought a titanium pan and a fuel bottle to carry fuel for and be connected to the MSR stove.

To carry the MSR fuel bottle and its contents, I bought a Blackburn bottle cage which is to be lashed with cable ties to the underside of the bike's down tube.

These stoves seem to use fuel quite quickly so I'll be taking a second fuel bottle made by Trangia so that I can carry extra fuel. I'll either be cramming it inside the Ortlieb Rack Pack or I'll be lashing it to the bags at the rear of the bike. Necessity is the mother of invention. 

I don't eat meat but I'm not a vegan. I'm hoping to be able to buy fresh eggs from time to time as these will be a valuable protein source for me. To ensure I can carry up to four eggs without breaking them, I bought a couple of plastic 2 x egg boxes.

The final new item in my camp kitchen is a collapsible colander. I'm expecting to buy grains such as oats, lentils and buck wheat and will need to be able to rinse them before cooking.

Tools and Spares

More tools and spares than ever before are being included for this trip. Not only might I need to deal with mechanical problems in a remote location but I'll also need to reassemble my bike after flying and to prepare it for boxing and flying home at the end of the trip.

The tool bag contains:

• A full set of hex keys 
• A small torque wrench set
• Scissors
• Pliers
• Small flat headed screwdriver
• Spoke key
• Chain whip
• Socket bar
• Cassette lock nut
• Pedal spanner
• Chain link pliers
• Chain connector aid
• Tyre levers

These tools will allow me to:

• Reattach my handlebars and derailleur and tighten bolts to the correct torque.
• Reattach my pedals.
• Tighten or undo any bolt on my bike or luggage system.
• Replace or repair the chain.
• Replace a spoke, including on the rear wheel, drive side which would require the cassette to be removed.
• Remove tyres.
• Deal with other miscellaneous issues.

The "Spares and Repairs" bag includes:

• 2 tent pegs
• Pole repair tube
• Spare rack bolts
• Selection of M4 and M5 bolts with a few nuts and washers
• Cable ties (3 sizes)
• Gorilla tape
• Insulation tape 
• Derailleur hanger mech
• Chain links
• Set of brake pads
• Puncture repair kit
• Puncture repair patches
• Gear change cable
• Threadlock paste
• Super glue
• Safety pin
• Rubber bands
• Spare 114 link bike chain

First Aid 

My kit includes the following:

• Plasters
• Sudocrem
• Cotton wool pads
• Paracetamol
• Ibuprofen
• Aspirin
• 3 x bandage / dressing - Extra Large, Large and Medium
• Diarrhea remedy  (Immodium)
• Tweezers
• Triangular bandage (sling)
• Azithromycin (antibiotics for diarrhea)
• Acetazolamide (altitude sickness)

Note that:

• Ibuprofen is not recommended if dehydration is a risk. Paracetamol is preferable for basic pain relief.
• Aspirin has been included as it can be used to thin blood in the case of a cardiac issue.
• Large dressings can be folded to make them smaller 
• Diarrhea is a high risk issue and in the case of serious food poisoning could take us out of action for a week. Azithromycin can be effective more quickly than over the counter remedies.
• Acetazolamide helps the body adjust to lower oxygen levels at high elevations by promoting deeper, faster breathing.

Electrical Items and Power

The solar panel I took on last year's trip has an even more important role to play this year. Since we're expecting a significant amount of wild camping to be done, we'll only occasionally have access to electricity supplies. Hopefully we'll have a lot of sunshine and be able to keep our power banks topped up.

I'm taking two power banks this year and bought a fast charger too. The idea is that if we're staying in a homestay, plug sockets may be few and we may need to share with other people so the quicker a power bank can be charged the better.

Here are the specific products:

• Belkin 20000 mAH power bank
• Ugreen 25000 mAH power bank
• Ugreen USB-C fast charger with USB-C to USB-C cable

Items I'll need to charge are:

• My Android smartphone 
• My Suunto 9 Peak Pro watch
• The Steripen Ultralight 
• My kindle
• Front and rear bike lights

Other Stuff

Wild camping has other consequences. I've always packed but never used, a small plastic trowel for digging holes. I am pretty certain I'll use it on this trip!

In the hope we'll make minimal impact on the environment, we're taking biodegradable bamboo toilet paper and biodegradable wet wipes. We're also using environmentally friendly soap but will take care to avoid polluting streams and rivers with it.

We're bound to generate rubbish/ trash. I'm taking a whole roll of plastic rubbish sacks so we can ensure we leave nothing at places we camp (apart from obvious stuff buried in holes!). I don't know how we'll dispose of rubbish bags but hope to fall in with local practices.

That's it!