Carpet Slippers

26th May

Carpet Slippers

 

Neither of us are feeling 100% yet, but we left Samarkand for Panjakent in Tajikistan this morning. A mammoth 70km. The weather seems to have re-established itself and it was bright blue skies and sunny.

 

We even had scenery on the route with snow tipped mountains signalling the approaching Tajikistan. The border was not announced on any signposts, so we kept heading East in hope. This border crossing was a bi-lateral crossing not open to foreigners when we planned our trip last year, so we are now off-piste. The road was exceptionally quiet and in pretty good state. We dawdled along as we were under absolutely no pressure of any sort whatsoever. We arrived at the border - there were a few ladies on foot crossing, but that was it. Everything went very smoothly and probably, for both sides, took no more than an hour. And the road on the Tajikistan side was perfect. 

 

We struggled to find our hotel. We were certainly the centre of attention when we ended up slightly out of town, down some very narrow unmade streets - a GB Harley with two Europeans - in the back streets of Panjakent? Panjakent is very soviet; the opening of the border to tourists will probably change things enormously. It is a wonderful base for the stunning Fan Mountains, which we will drive through when we visit Dushanbe.

 

With some help and sketches we found Hotel Sugd; the owner is one of the most gracious people we have met. We went out for lunch. Whether it was last night's evening meal, the breakfast, the water, the sun coming out or the lunch itself we will never know - but we ran back to the hotel to avoid embarrassment.

 

So change of plan again! We will stay an extra day in Panjakent to recover and go and visit the Fan Mountains without the bike.

 

Paul had always thought that the term 'Carpet Slippers' stemmed from not wearing dirty shoes on carpets. Here however, the slippers are made of carpet and you are asked to put them on immediately when you enter a property. Getting our motorcycle boots on and off isn't that easy, so putting on the slippers is quite a performance. Especially as the heat tends to make your feet swell more than the boots.

The pavements throughout Central Asia are complete booby traps and you really have to look where you walk. They are in far worse condition than the roads. The drainage is also open gullies - and they are deep. Ladies are constantly sweeping pavements with their Harry Potter brooms, but it make little difference. Then of course there are the Mulberry trees. Those trees  give the leaves that feed the silk worms. But there are Mulberries too. Black ones and white ones. Our raspberries and blackberries etc are low down and easily accessible. They don't splat on you or the floor and stain everything - or make your shoes very sticky indeed. So off with your shoes as soon as you enter anywhere.

 

Our day in the mountains visiting the seven lakes of Haft Kul was tremendous. There is no way we would have made it ourselves, as it was nearly all off-road. The lakes are all along one valley, where the hillsides have slid down and created dams. The last lake is not accessible by 4x4, so we walked up to that one. We had grilled lake fish on the way down. It is very poor here. We felt very out of place, but almost everybody was waving at us and if we have contributed something to the local economy then that is great!