tajikistan « a second glance

to the roof of the world: episode three - the roof of the world

The high Pamir: a country-sized slab of nothingness. The most beautiful of desert nothingness. Victimised since independence, punished in the UN civil war settlement, a people already without anything and kept alive by the Aga Khan for may years eek a life when none should feasibly be possible.

Deep blue glacial lakes, sheep with horns [...]

to the roof of the world: episode two - the aga khan's people

A ramp to the roof of the world leads up the Wakhan Valley, great game vortex. NGOs outnumber tourists, potatoes provide entire meals, Afghanistan is just there and beauty in nature, both human and physical, is all encompassing:

to the roof of the world: episode two – the aga khan’s people from Tim Way on Vimeo.

A [...]

to the roof of the world: episode one - the road to monday

Western Tajikistan would extend far further to encompass Samarkand and Bokhara, had Stalin not gerrymandered to prevent ethnic unity in the Soviet Union. Today, it goes as far as Penjakent, the hopping off point for the Fan Mountains – home to isolated communities of sheep and grain farmers in a landscape straight out of a [...]

it’ll be alright on the night, in tajikistan

When it all goes wrong: the presenters mess up, the focus is off, the cameraman can’t muffle his deep breathing or sheep block the road!

A selection of (the substandard) clips from out travels through the extremely remote Pamir and Fan Mountain regions of Tajikistan, including the Wakhan Valley, the Great Game vortex. A [...]

the road to dushanbe

Tajikistan deserves all the superlatives thrown at it; they all stick. So awfully dirt poor, uber hospitable, proud, surprising, with perfectly clear skies and blue lakes, and so very good at squatting.

Although the last to be uploaded, this is the first in the series of Tajik pictures and covers the north the west and the [...]

who lives in a tajik house like this?

James ‘Loyd Grossman’ Cheah conducts a guided tour of the lower end of the Khojand hotel market:

who lives in a tajik house like this? from Tim Way on Vimeo.

yak-yakkaty-yak

The Eastern Pamir is the size of Holland and home to 16,000 people; even that is unsustainable. Murgab, the only town of note, has a market based in aircraft and shipping containers, and a constant pong of burning tesgerine; uber-unpleasant.

We travelled up from the Afghan border, through Bulunkul, Murgab and up to Jailang – don’t [...]

flirting with afghanistan

Wakhan adventures took us along the Panj river, the Tajik border with Afghanistan, for a number of days in September. Forts and potatoes aplenty, but a crossing was ruled out by our guide. “Just a little wade?”, we asked. “They are watching” we were told.

No wading for us then, but an Afghan camel in [...]

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