Penjikent, Tajikistan

The hotel we chose in Penjakent was really great. The owner designed the larger rooms against his architect's advice so we were able to enjoy the space for our three day stay. The wi-fi was erratic but we could automatically switch from it to our phone data and run our netbook on our mobile hotspot. We have learnt a lot about this sort of technology over time.

There is not a lot to see in Penjikent but we needed somewhere to wait for our Uzbekistan visa entry date to click over. When we organised the visa early in the travels we did not know how much time we would need for each country.

 Somoni 

Fifteen  kms outside of Penjikent are the ruins of Sarazm, a 5500 year old site and one of the oldest city sites in Central Asia. It was the largest metallurgical center where turquoise was obtained from nearby sources. It later became an important agricultural region and both wheat and barley grains were discovered from the site. A farmer found a dagger sticking out of the ground in 1976 and a Russian archaeologist and a French team excavated it in 1977. As they are now only ruins, and we had seen the findings in the Dushanbe Museum, we decided not to bother to visit the UNESCO listed sight.

We visited the local Radaki Museum and were shown around the exhibits by a local woman who was told by her school that she needed the English speaking practise. She really just read out the signs already on the exhibits ' ceramic vessel', 'terracotta vessel'. However we were at least able to ask some questions about the exhibits.There were lots of replicas of the findings from Sarazm including some of the wall murals and a burial grave of a wealthy woman with her lapis beads and seashell bracelets. The woman stayed with us around the eight rooms and when we got back to reception the souvenir stall holders were hanging out for us to leave so they could go to lunch.

We ate at a cafe recommended by the hotel owner but the meals lacked variety. The beefsteak was a minced meat patty served with spaghetti, mashed potatoes, kibbled wheat and topped with an egg. Stroganof, was tenderly stewed bits of beef, served with exactly the same accompaniments and a lot of oil. John, the meat eater, went for the shish kebab options with raw onions. Unfortunately after our last meal here John ended up with terrible diarrhoea.

 Lenin

We walked around the city a couple of times visiting the parks and back streets. We saw a huge construction site and the sign said it would be a school and the drawings looked impressive. An old Soviet era fire engine rushed to a house fire one day while we were out and had it out in no time. The local stadium was being renovated near the river and looked a long way from finishing.

The new style of apartments alongside the Soviet era apartments.

We often see vehicles from Europe still with their country of origin advertising. This had a Tajik registration.

We often see locals putting their cash into these machines, as it is where they can pay for their telephone, internet, gas, electricity, loans and other expenses. They would never work at home as they would get stolen for the cash.

We took the time to catch up on correspondence, pay bills, and catch up on accommodation reviews and update the blog.

Next stop Khojand, Tajikistan