Douchanbe | Avoiding the danger of Taliban - quick detour through Tajikistan

When leaving Afghanistan I had two choices to reach my next destination - Iran. First was to cross the border directly and go to Herat, Afghanistan. However, that would involve crossing areas controlled by Taliban. Another option was to go to Tajikistan, then Uzbekistan, then Turkmenistan and finally Iran. Quite a detour, but also allowed me to add many more interesting countries to my travel.

What that would also mean is that I would leave the muslim world (at least in certain regards) for a little while as the former Soviet republics are quite a different experience. In Douchanbe, Tajikistan for instance you can still see the photos of Lenin in the streets and the decades of communist idealogy have definitely made the mark on the society.

The change of the world was also present in my hitchhiking habits in Tadjikistan. I had more freedom in picking the rides and didn't have to be so organized as in Afghanistan. Although traffic on the road is light and very few people speak English so I was forced to spend hours sitting on the side of the road awaiting the ride and continue my travel.

Tajikistani people were extremely hospitable, as much as in muslim countries before, but expressed it with much more alcohol. Here vodka flows easily where as alcohol in the muslim world is forbidden. Please see some pictures of that hospitality and my wonderful hosts of this region.