November 2nd, 2006 | categorizilation: all categories,Tajikistan
I have discovered a threat to civilisation. This picture was taken at my great bodily risk:
The suspect also made a beeline for my bike.
However this young terror has been bagged.
A big thank you to Achmed for putting me up for the night last night. It was most unexpected, but a very pleasant experience.
As for me, I am still in Dushanbe. Might leave Saturday…that would make it two weeks here in this great city. Maybe I could catch the bus out?
OK, maybe not. But I will be leaving soon, I promise.
I just bought a map and I know where your at, still no need to put the kettle on just yet!
good point can I steal one of your pictures to show to someone if i give you a credit for it in the email?
rob, i tried to make some panoramic photos like yours by moving a black piece of paper with a narrow slit across the front of my camera lens while i spin around really fast in a circle – all in time with the shutter speed of course, but i just cant get them to turn out like yours, why not?
I presume Achmed speaks English? Or do you sort of converse in Russian?
Cool as! Very cool photography – you never did say what happened to your camera?
Are you still aiming to get to Istanbul to link up with the Yukimasas? i thought that was to be in November but you've got a lot of ground to travel!
Good to see you’re still going strong bob. Wish I was there with ya, but realistically I would have probably fatally injured myself by now. The photos look awesome.
Look after yourself,
Carl W, and all this time I received great encouragement in the thought that you were sitting at your kitchen window, kettle boiling (adding water periodically), waiting to see me round the corner into your street…
As for the photos, go nuts.
Matt, obviously you have not mastered the skill correctly. I can now spin 360 degrees in 1/100 of a second. You simply need more practice, my young Jedi. I have now advanced to the art of vertical 360 degree panoramas. This involves doing a somersault in the same amount of time. When you have mastered the vertical panorama, you may enter the realm of the Panoramis Excellentus.
Mum, Achmed speaks no English. He does however have a massive array of magic tricks, which kept his family and I entertained for hours. It is quite surprising however how much you can convey with only a very limited knowledge of the local language. It is very tiring however.
As for meeting up with the Yukimasas, we admitted defeat on that plan about a month ago. Central Asia has taken much longer than expected. I would like to think that the reason for that is all because of the time taken to get visas, but I think my pace has been considerably slower than I had anticipated also.
The Yukimasas were going to take my winter gear (down jacket, boots etc) to Turkey and give them to me there, but since we can't meet up, they are going to send them to Azerbaijan so that I can pick them up from there. A member of the Baku Cycle Club has offered to receive the gear and hold it until I arrive there in the capital (Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan).
I estimate that I am a month behind my original schedule. A French cyclist I met recently who has cycled from France along a very similar route to the one I am planning on taking said it has taken him 6 months to get to Tajikistan. Therefore it is fair to estimate that it will also take me roughly the same amount of time to get to England. So it looks as though I'll be arriving in England in the northern hemisphere's spring.
Tofa, good to hear from you. Have you found that dream job yet?
martynJ, browse over the posts from Day 81 until Day 88 for the full uncensored tale of the missing digital camera.
[...] I do not know the exact amount that the military/police force are being paid here in Tajikistan, but I do know that a guy visiting Achmed yesterday was working as a lecturer at a local university, and receiving a salary of 7 Tajikistan Somoni (US$2) a month. To put this in perspective, a slab of flat bread the size of a dinner plate costs 0.5 Smoni (50 Diram). [...]
Cute kids!
Is Tajikistan Muslim? I don't see any women on the streets.
Aunty Les, Tajikistan is indeed predominantly Muslim. However there are plenty of women on the streets. The ones pushing the bus were of course the men. Chivalry exists here! Men on the bus will offer their seat to women on buses.
Your comment reminds me of a film I saw here in Dushanbe. While I was here, the Dushanbe International Film festival was on. There was an expecially moving Iranian film, set when the Taliban were still in power in Afganistan. The film is called 'Osama'. I think you would find the film very interesting. I had no idea of the obsurdity of the Taliban's rules until I saw this film. Perhaps that video store in Christchurch (called Alice in Videoland/Wonderland??) might have a copy of it.
Summary of the film can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368913/
I am pleased to see the Tofa is realistic, stayed out of the way and not become a liability on your trip. One mad Thomo out in the wilderness is enough for nature to handle!!
Looks like you are finding, Rob, like us in Thailand, that people are amazing things and no matter where you go or what language you speak, it is always possible to make great connections or disastrous ones! Culture and language are a mere veneer.
Hey Rob, that Osama film is still on here in Christchurch I think. By the way, did the cat survive the child handling?
cool will mail it to matey and point him towards your website.
we're being told to save electricity so i now only boil the kettle at weekends. All this very hard to type with broken wrist. Keep on the sunny side of the street all the very best.
regards from me.
Yes thanks for that Rob – I had missed your write-ups – probably because I recognised all the pics from your picture gallery / end of month etc. Wow what a trip!
Good Speed on your next leg.
Martyn
hi
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good luck
