Tadjikistan

Crossing into Tajikistan
was my first time entering a new country on my own.

A quiet border post.
A simple taxi ride through dusty hills.
And already, I could feel it:
The Pamir Highway was coming.

I arrived in Dushanbe,
checked into a well-known hostel –
a base for cyclists and bikers
about to head into the mountains.

I stayed a few days.
Talked to travelers from all over the world.
Listened to stories,
shared a few of mine.
Made a plan –
one that would soon change.

I walked through the huge bazaar of Dushanbe.
It was endless.
Packed stalls. Narrow corridors.
People shouting, bargaining, laughing.
A place where everything exists at once –
chaos and rhythm, noise and color.

Then came the shared taxi.
The usual way to travel deeper into the country.
We drove for hours,
with stops along a river
that marked the border to Afghanistan.
On the other side: a different world,
and yet so close.

The road was rough,
half-built in parts,
snaking through dramatic mountain landscapes.
It was bumpy. Beautiful.
Exhausting.

Eventually, I reached Khorog –
a small city tucked between the peaks.
The last stop before the real altitude begins.
I stayed for a while,
visited the Afghan market across the river,
bought a small souvenir.
A strange and peaceful experience.

Then came the next leg –
a packed bus full of Tajik poeple and me.
No room to stop,
one small break to walk or breathe.
Just watching the landscape blur by.
Even so,
something in me knew:
this wouldn’t be my last time here.

In Murghab,
a remote mountain town,
I wandered the market,
took in the silence.
It was dry, high,
a world of its own.

And then,
one early morning,
I squeezed into a shared taxi again –
this time heading for China.

Endless barbed wire.
Heavily armed border guards.
Hours of waiting.
Eventually, they led me into a concrete hall,
asked me to unpack everything I had.

Then a short ride down the mountain.
A second checkpoint.
More scans, more questions.
And finally –
I was in China.

A border like no other.
And a cultural shift
that couldn’t have been more extreme.