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.