June 2, 2012

Ryan’s bed is a solid box spring with no cushions or duvets to soften it at all. As soon as I woke up, I jumped out of the bed and took refuge in the kitchen where I made my coffee and caught up with my email and Facebook postings. When Ryan got up, I offered to cook breakfast, but he indicated he never ate breakfast, and just drank coffee. I wanted to make sure I ate something substantial since my flight was at 1:00pm and I was sure no meal would be provided on the one hour journey. I cooked eggs and salami and ate it with flat bread. Some of the building’s kids were already hanging around and shared the dish with me

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I couldn’t stay inside the apartment while waiting to depart for the airport and went to park for a walk. The place had been cleaned up of all the ice cream wrappers, soda bottles and assorted debris and it was once again populated by lone males talking on their cell phones and some love birds trying to hide from intrusive eyes. It was a quiet and still relatively cool morning perfect for enjoying it alone. I returned to the apartment to find many missed calls from Eraj who wanted to let me know one of his relatives had an empty flat in Khujand where we could stay for free, but he was already at the airport and needed to obtain the key and get it to the airport. I said yes and he instructed Daler to meet us at the airport by noon. I got into a cab and made it there in less than 15 minutes. Eraj was quite nervous as he had never flown in a plane before.

The security check was a breeze and we waited in a bright and tiled room quite different from the dark and oppressive international departure area I recall from our trip to Kazakhstan. We got into the bus that took us to a tiny airplane similar to ones I used to take from my village in Gaindakot to Kathmandu, Nepal. Seats were not assigned and there was a run as everyone wanted to go in first to select the best seat. I got a window seat, which I later switched with Eraj so he could appreciate his country from the air for the first time, and thoroughly enjoyed the views of the Pamir Mountains up ahead. We were offered room temperature water and soda and could only have one of each. We landed without incident and Eraj performed like a real trooper as he confessed he had being apprehensive about the flight the whole time.

His brother-in-law was waiting for us along with a friend of his and took us to his car, a rather luxurious Audi model with the latest gadgets. They chit chatted about the flat and the place where we were going to spend the next three nights, a place called Chkalous, some forty minutes from the actual city of Khujand. We pulled into a desolate apartment complex built just like all others with four entrances, although this one had been painted a garish yellow color. There was the usual layout with one all-purpose room to eat and sleep, a bathroom with intermittent water service, a kitchen with no stove, but a gas balloon, and no furniture whatsoever. Eraj asked me if it was all right with me and if not, his brother-in-law would drive us into the city in search of a decent hotel although he himself liked the idea of having some privacy and being able to prepare his own food. I had no idea how as there wasn’t even a fridge to store groceries.  I forgot to mention that there was to be no payment for using the flat for those three days. I said it was good enough for me and we brought in our bags.

I was getting hungry by then and we walked a block or so to a grocery store where the young grocer told us a mini-van, #3, would take us into town for dinner and entertainment. The driver recommended a place that appeared to be brand new and where the owner came personally to serve us when she learned someone spoke English at that table. There was no menu, just the usual recitation of Tajik dishes and I settled for my usual trifecta: soup, bread and salad and this time a cold beer, or let’s say close to cold as it seems impossible to buy a cold beer in Tajikistan as the locals believe that very cold drinks will get you sick. Eraj was dismayed when presented with a bill for 56.00 somoni or less than $12.00 and furious that the restaurant didn’t have a menu so he could have been aware of the prices ahead of time. To me, of course, it was a bargain.

We walked down to the beautiful fountain I could see from the restaurant and took several photos there before heading to the museum across the street where we had all of twenty minutes to see the exhibit. Not that we needed more than that since there was little to see and what was there seemed to duplicate what I had seen in Dushanbe. The old man serving as a guide told us to take a walk along the riverside where there something resembling an amusement park and where Eraj convinced me to go for a ride in a rusty rickety Ferris wheel which practically groaned its way up and I didn’t even feel it come down until Eraj motioned me to get out while it was still moving as there was no mechanism to make it stop. We did manage to take a couple of shots of the city from the top. The place was full of gnats and Eraj kept getting them into his mouth while refusing to wear my bandana around his mouth. I lucked out and was able to keep them away from my face, but I couldn’t understand how the locals could be seen just parading around with their kids and dates oblivious to the nuisance the insects created. We sat down to eat an ice cream cone and I begged to leave the place right after that.

We rode back to the flat and I stopped to buy 3-1 instant coffee at the store.  I had yet to figure out what we would do for breakfast the next morning. I took a cold bath with a bucket of water which felt good after such a hot afternoon and much sweating. Eraj spread the cushions and duvets on the floor and set the floor fan to face me the entire evening. He had never had access to a laptop and much less unlimited access to the Internet and was delighted when I showed him how to get on YouTube so he could watch and listen to his favorite Tajik and Persian singers. I put on my earplugs and quickly went to sleep.