Holiday in Central Asia (14): Khojand in Tajikistan
Another day – Day 13 and the half way point in the trip – and another country – Tajikistan which on its eastern side borders China, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
So we took our large coach from Tashkent to a border crossing with Tajikistan some 90 km south – a journey of about two hours – where we said goodbye to our guide Timur (we will see him again in Samarkand). Like the border crossing into Uzbekistan, the crossing into Tajikistan involved lots of walking, lots of dragging of suitcases, and repeated examination of passports (and, in this case, visas).
About three quarters of an hour later, we met our guide for Tajikistan Shahbaz and were ushered into two small minibuses. The journey further south to Khojand took an hour and, once at the Khojand Deluxe Hotel, we were given all of 15 minutes to find our rooms and return to reception for the short ride to our lunch venue: a restaurant called “Zaytun”.
Khojand was called Leninabad during the Soviet era. It is the second-largest city in the country and one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, dating back about 2,500 years and a major city along the ancient Silk Road.
Our afternoon tour of the city involved visits to the Historical Museum of Sughd Province (fascinating review of local history), the Sheikh Massal ad-Din complex (a former mosque, a current mosque and a mausoleum), the Panchshanbe Bazaar (reputedly the largest in Central Asia), Victory Park ( the site of the relocated 22 metre statue of Lenin), and – after a slow cable car ride across the Syr-Darya river – a memorial to regional hero Ismail Samani which stands where the Lenin statue used to be.
An early dinner was held sitting outside the city restaurant “Adibon” where, instead of yer another version of plov, Shahbaz ordered for us chicken, lamb & beef kebabs which were delicious.