On the road to Uzbekistan

From Dushanbe our trip went to the capital of Uzbekistan - Tashkent.

As mentioned before, Uzbekistan pursues a highly protectionist policy towards Tajikistan. One of its outcomes, along with a personal fight the presidents of the two countries had, is that there are no flights between them. The official reason is "the lack of economic interests".

And, as if this were not absurd enough, the governments of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan just recently signed an agreement that will allow citizens of the opposite part arriving by PLANE to stay for 45 days without a visa.

But, back to our trip:
Because we could not fly from Dushanbe directly to Tashkent, we needed to take a flight to Khujand, go from there by taxi to the border, pass the border and go by an Uzbek taxi from there to Tashkent.

Flying on the history of aviation continued. This time, it was a Yak-40.

The entrance is under the tail fin. A just married couple went on their honeymoon, so there was Champaign for everybody on board.

Having arrived in Khujand,

we took a car (suitable version of a small Toyota jeep), my Tajik colleague Khushnid, who accompanied us together with his wife and daughter organized in advance, to the border crossing. Khushnid and his wife are Uzbek and they used our business trip as an opportunity to visit their relatives in Tashkent. Having arrived at the border crossing I changed the Tajik SOMON I had left into Uzbek SYM. Now it's clear to me, why ATM-mashines don't work in Uzbekistan.

The border crossing looked more like market, than like an n official border crossing point. The taxi drivers, who were standing around waiting for clients told us, that this crossing point was under a bilateral agreement, only for Tajiks and Uzbeks, which meant, that me and our project manager couldn’t cross the border. While he and Khushnid went to the border post to reconfirm this information, Khushnid's daughter was having her fun with my glasses.

Indeed, not even for "additional money" could we pass the border. That meant that we had to take another taxi to the official border crossing point in Ozbek. The new taxi was not a Jeep but an old Lada, for 5 adults (driver included) and a 2,5 year old girl.

The traffic on the road was sometimes relatively heavy...

and considering that this was the "main highway" from Tajikistan to Uzbekistan somehow exotic.

If was a three hours journey and of course we stopped at a "rest aria", to get some food :-)


After having to argue for the price, the taxi driver suddenly decided to raise, when we arrived at the border post we finally left the territory of Tajikistan. From the Tajik border post you have to walk for about 50 meter to the Uzbek border post's gate. (The gate to paradise?)

The people had to wait at the gate (sometimes for hours) to be allowed to "get in". Some of them, who have good connections to the border post, of course don't. The international organization's status allowed us to "get in" after one hour. But while we were not allowed to pass the border on the first border post, Khushnid's 2,5 year old daughter was not allowed to pass the border here because her name was not included in Khushnids visa.

We had to pass the border alone, while Khushnid and his family had to return to the first border post, where their daughter could pass the border without a visa, because he knew somebody working there.

After having passed the gate, the entry procedure was surprisingly easy, not at least due to our European passports. In Uzbekistan we took a taxi to Tashkent. Khushnid and his family arrived on the next day.

Some spots from Dushanbe

(I am safely back to Bishkek for over one week now, but only now I found some time to finish my entries)

Dushanbe - the capital of the Republic of Tajikistan.
After having suffered from a civil war 1992-1997 the country came to stability. In Dushanbe itself you'll hardly find anything "on the surface", which would remind you of the fact that a larger part of the infrastructure has been destroyed in the war. To realize that you are in a post war country you either need to enter a normal home - over half of the city has brown water running out of the tap. Or, you go to the countryside, where there's electricity supply for only 8 hours a day.

Development outlook
Lacking own energy resources Tajikistan is dependant on energy supply from neighboring countries. Geographically locked from all sites the only country, from where energy would be accessible, is Uzbekistan. But having a large Tajik minority itself and being in an initial stage of what the soviet-stile government understands as "nation-building", Uzbekistan pursues a highly protectionist policy, that includes rising gas prices for Tajikistan to almost western standards - one of the reasons why there's only electricity for limited hours in a larger part of the country.

But, nonetheless, the people make their living and Dushanbe looks like a typical ex-soviet capital.

The presidential palace.

A cafe where we used to breakfast.

And...
the modernized version of a public phone.

Flying the History of Aviation

Flight Bishkek – Dushanbe

Flying Tajikistan Airlines gives you the feeling that the gangway was a kind of a time machine, because – once you enter the plane you find yourself somewhere in a time of thirty years ago.

Tajikistan belongs to the poorest countries of the world and a lot of the infrastructure has been destroyed in the recent civil war. The planes that are in the possession of the national airline are leftovers from the old Soviet fleet, namely TU-154, TU-134, Iak-40 and AN-24.

The first TU-134 went on flight in 1963. The planes that are used by Tajikistan Airlines are the newer version - TU-134A. They don't look that aged from outside, but ...

...once you're inside it us really like thirty years ago. But nontheless their age, the planes seem to be pretty good in shape and the view from the illuminator while flying over Tajikistan is amazing.

The "White House" to be stormed

On the eve of November 7th, the 89th anniversary of the October Revolution, which is still celebrated in Russia as well as in the former Soviet Union republics, the political situation is becoming more and more fierce. You can literally feel the tension in the air.


With the beginning collapse of the Soviet Union, the Central Asian countries hurried to declare their independence. But, the old national holiday is kept in good memory and is still celebrated as a national holiday, especially now, when many people wish the days of the Soviet Union back again, as the economic situation in the country is a lot worse than it used to be in the Soviet times.

There's the feeling that the demonstrations that stayed peaceful till now could change any minute.

The local news-websites are being updated permanently. Some of them report 15.000 people on the central square in front of the "White House", the seat of the government.

My Kyrgyz colleague talked on the phone to her friend in the Ministry of Trade, whose building is located next to the "White House": The demonstrators are standing at the front gate and there agitations to storm it. In case this happens, the police are prepared to use teargas, said the speaker of the police.

The only western source that is continuously reporting on what's happening here is BBC World.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6119834.stm

Opposition Demonstration

One and a half years after the last revolution the Kyrgyz are one the street again to demonstrate for a new constitution, against corruption and to force president Bakiev to resign. It is difficult to say how legitimate the claims are. Some of my Bishkek colleagues say that the leaders of the opposition are the same people that were forced to resign during the revolution last year. Now, seeing that the situation in the country didn't change and the people are unsatisfied with the absence of reforms they want the power back and are paying people from the countryside to come to Bishkek and to take part at the demonstration.

Yesterday, the first day of the meeting, the universities and most of the shops and offices (ours too) closed down for fear of riots that happened during the revolution last year.
The demonstrators promised to go on hunger strike if president Bakiev doesn't resign till tomorrow.