Today we crossed into our 5th “stan” country and, for me, country number 70 was crossed off my list.

We had another long travel day ahead of us so we were up bright and early this morning.

Well, I guess it’s all relative but it was 7:30am which, for me, is bright and early.

At our breakfast table this morning were two girls from Canada who had just started their two week journey through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

When I heard that they’d be heading to Kyrgyzstan next week I took the opportunity to sell my unused Kyrgyz currency to them since it pretty much can’t be exchanged anywhere outside their country.

A quick $50 e-transfer and I no longer had to carry around that stack of bills that’s been following me for over a week.

We said our goodbyes and headed out the door.

A long journey awaited us…

Step 1: Samarkand to the Jartepa Border

This was going to be the easiest of the six steps to get to our new hostel in Dushanbe across the border in Tajikistan.

A simple 45km taxi ride to the Uzbek/Tajik border town of Jartepa.

There is a way to use a combination of public transit and marshrutka to get there but knowing what lay ahead of us, I chose the easiest option of a Yandex ride (their version of Uber).

The ride took just over an hour and cost us 150,000som which is about $17.

45km down, just 250km to go…

Step 2: Crossing the border into Tajikistan

No transportation involved here but it was an adventure nonetheless.

We arrived at the Uzbekistan side of the border in Jartepa around 10am and joined the line of people waiting to cross.

As we exited our taxi we were immediately approached by someone doing currency exchange on the street.

Obviously his rates would be ridiculously bad but Nathan still had his Kyrgyz money to exchange and he was offering to do it for him.

Instead of the official rate that would have given him $80, he ended up with $62.

A whopping $18 charge to exchange his money but he was just happy to be rid of it.

He also had some Tajik money now which we’d need for the upcoming rides this afternoon.

Leaving Uzbekistan was fairly simple and only took about 15 minutes.

Getting into Tajikistan, well, that took quite a bit longer.

Waiting for us after we entered no man’s land was a line up of people at least 100 deep.

And, of course, there were people also butting into line cause I guess that’s just an Uzbek thing.

Anyway, it took about an hour to get through this portion of the border crossing.

We got our passports stamped and found ourselves in one final line before entering the country.

People starting leaving the line and bypassing us and we were wondering what the hell was going on.

Turns out we were waiting in the currency exchange line for no particular reason.

I mean, I did eventually need to exchange my money too but since Nathan already had some Tajik money we figured there was no sense in standing in another line.

We just wanted to get the heck outta dodge and get on with the arduous journey that still lay ahead of us.

In retrospect, this was a huge mistake and I should have exchanged my currency right there and then…

Step 3: A short taxi ride to the bus station

It was now 11:30 and we had successfully crossed into Tajikistan.

Next was to get a bus all the way to Dushanbe.

However, those buses don’t come all the way out to the border.

Instead, you have to catch a taxi at the border to drive you 20km to the bus station in the city center of Panjakent.

The ride costs 60tjs ($9) and normally only takes you to the Panjakent Bazaar where you have to figure out local transit to get you the last few km to the bus station.

We paid our guy an extra 40tjs ($6) to get us all the way to the bus station.

Now we just needed to find a ride to take us the remaining 4 hours to Dushanbe.

As it turns out, finding a ride wasn’t going to be hard at all…

Step 4: Bartering for a ride

We hadn’t even stepped out of our taxi when we were swarmed by about a dozen men offering us a ride to Dushanbe.

It was pure insanity.

I mean, I’ve been hounded by taxi drivers and touts in a bunch of different cities before but this took the cake.

I literally had to tell them to back off and let us walk away to gain our bearings because it was completely overwhelming.

Even then, some of them kept hounding us as we walked away.

The truth is we didn’t want an expensive taxi ride but wanted to take a shared bus known as a marshrutka at a fraction of the cost.

We walked up to where the minibuses were and asked a driver where we could find one heading our way.

Sadly, turns out there weren’t any heading in our direction as I guess they only do the trip early in the mornings and it was now already noon.

Sigh.

Okay, guess we gotta go back into the lion’s den.

They all wanted 150tjs ($22) per person but we were able to barter down to 125tjs ($19) with one driver.

We popped our bags in the back and grabbed our seat.

And proceeded to wait.

Yup, shared taxis are a big thing here and while we were ready to go, our driver wouldn’t be leaving until the car was filled up.

Shortly after another driver with 2 passengers already in his car offered us the same price.

I was torn because we had made a commitment to the first driver and, honestly, his ride looked more comfortable.

But on the other hand, who knew how long we’d have to wait and we just wanted to get on with our journey.

The deciding factor was that our first driver was nowhere to be found so it was easy for us to just open up the trunk and grab our bags.

What can I tell ya – he shoulda protected his fare!

And so, at just after noon we were on our way to Dushanbe.

Step 5: A hair raising ride to Dushanbe

Nathan and I squeezed into the backseat of the SUV and were on our way.

It’s understandable why the 250km drive takes anywhere from 4 to 5 hours since the road is primarily through long winding and curved roads through mountain passes.

Our driver, however, was determined to get there as fast as possible.

While I’m normally on board with getting there faster, some of these turns were precarious with a steep cliff on our right side.

Let’s just say it’s the first time I’ve put a seatbelt on in a car on this trip.

There were three of us in the backseat so we were squished in there and rocked from side to side as we navigated the curves.

I started to watch a video but had to give up after a bit because I was starting to feel nauseous.

Thankfully the other two in the car were dropped off halfway through the journey so we weren’t squished in the car anymore.

Doing speeds over 100kmh and constantly passing cars going into blind corners while our driver would occasionally pick up his phone to make calls, it’s a wonder we made it in one piece.

At one point there was a cop car in front of us and we both wondered if he’d pass him.

Yup.

Outside the car doors were the beautiful Tajik mountains and, as we reached the bottom, a flowing river alongside.

It actually reminded quite a bit of the scenery on my ride into Nepal earlier this year which, sadly, has all been washed away in the disastrous floods.

We also went through several tunnels including the infamous Anzob tunnel referred to as the “tunnel of death” because of it’s 5km span.

Despite it all, we finally reached Dushanbe at 3:30, well ahead of our 4 or 5 hour journey.

Of course, we weren’t in the city center because, well, that would make too much sense.

Nope, we were dropped off at the transportation hub on the outer limits of the city a good 10km away from where we needed to be.

Step 6: A taxi to the city center of Dushanbe

To get to our hostel we needed to hire yet another taxi to drive us there.

Normally I’d just use the Yandex app (their version of Uber) where I can easily punch in my destination and pay with my credit card through the app.

However, I never realized through all my pretrip planning that Yandex doesn’t work here in Tajikistan.

They do have an app but it’s not in English and the other one that is in English won’t let me signup without a phone number.

Basically, we’re going to have to do taxi rides old school style here in Tajikistan.

Now, remember when I said in retrospect I should have done currency exchange at the border?

Yeah, this was what it was for.

We didn’t have enough Tajik currency to pay for our final ride of the day.

Incredibly, despite walking all through the bus depot area, we didn’t find a single ATM in service.

So, with Google Translate as my friend, we asked a taxi driver if he could drop us off at an ATM on our way to our hostel.

He agreed and after about 10 minutes of trying to communicate where our destination would be, we were off heading into town.

The language barrier was the greatest yet for this trip and I’m pretty sure he quoted us 10tjs ($1.50) per km which is quite overpriced but by that point we just wanted to get there.

Nathan hopped out at an ATM since he’s the only one with cards that currently work and, despite trying both his debit and visa cards at 3 different ATMs, wasn’t able to get any funds.

Well, shit.

I did find a currency exchange office a couple blocks away and led the driver there.

This time I got out of the taxi and, finally, was able to procure some Tajik currency.

Oh, happy days!

This currency detour must have taken an extra 15 minutes so we figured our taxi fare would be 100tjs for the 10km ride and that he’d tack on some extra for that extra time.

Incredibly when we arrived at our drop off point he quoted us only 60tjs which confused both of us.

We just gave him 100tjs ($15) and called it a day as we figured he deserved the extra.

Welcome to Dushanbe!

At just before 5pm we had finally arrived at our new home here in Dushanbe.

We were exhausted and spent.

That was easily one of the most, if not the most, chaotic city arrivals I’ve ever been apart of.

We quickly checked in and headed back out to get something to eat.

The host at the hostel suggested heading up a street where apparently there were a few restaurants to choose from.

First things first, gotta get some water.

We crossed the street to a market and reached in the fridge to get some water.

It was luke warm at best and, man, I really needed some nice ice cold water.

As we headed out the store, the clerk asked what we were looking for and I replied that I wanted cold water.

Outside we saw a fridge nearby which had cold water bottles in it.

I picked up three for us and the clerk who had followed us said that they were free.

I was gobsmacked!

What a generous unexpected act!

After all the chaos getting here and all the feelings it brought up, they were all immediately washed away by this one little kind act.

We continued to walk on the road our host told us and, yeah, there weren’t restaurants along there.

She was wrong.

Finally we gave in and went to flag down yet another taxi to go across town to a restaurant I had marked previously.

At 6pm we reached the Al Sham restaurant which is the top rated one on TripAdvisor.

Needless to say, we devoured our food.

I had a chicken caesar salad and a main course of chicken stuffed with cheese served with rice.

Just what the doctor ordered.

Hailing another cab to get us back home proved to be quite a challenge as, despite dozens of cabs passing us, none of them stopped for us.

Where were all those taxi touts now?

Where were the guys I encountered in other countries passing by hanging out their window asking if I needed a taxi?

Eventually we were able to flag one down and somehow communicate where we needed to go.

By 8pm we were done for the night.

I typed up this blog for awhile and was joined by the tiniest, cutest cat you could imagine.

Thank you little cat for bringing a smile to my face at the end of a long travel day.