06
Khorog
2 days
On Sundays everything is closed in Tajikistan. We keep ourselves busy drinking coffee in the only cafe that is open and planning the rest of our trip. Contrary to the info in our guidebook the museum is also closed. Someone lets us in anyway. The museum is small but charming.
While we wait for our shared taxi on Monday, a local insists that he treats us to some somsas because we are guests in his country. He shows us videos of the place where he lives in the mountains above the treeline. His offerings include 2 fighting bulls in a mountain setting, his little daughter -“she is a banditka”- near a slaughtered sheep, a cow half-eaten by a wolf and a screeching marmot he tries to free from an iron wire around its neck.
Our driver is young and insecure but tries to act tough. He stops every time he sees an acquaintance or an opportunity to buy soft drinks or cigarettes. A big difference from the over-friendly drivers we have met so far.
We sleep in Ishkashim, our first stop in the Wakhan corridor.