Whenever I travel, I make sure to take a small notebook with me so I can jot down observations, thoughts and other miscellany. Flipping through the past few days of notes, there are a few things I’ve neglected to mention:
Misc. Notes from Tajikistan
War in the streets
Yesterday I witnessed my first bribe.
It was in the early evening and my chaperone, Vadim, and I were returning from a lovely dinner at an outdoor cafe situated high in the hills overlooking little Dushanbe. As we wound our way back through the small city, Vadim was busy navigating the Byzantine network of roads leading back to my hotel. We took a left onto the main boulevard — a beautiful tree-lined street with a lush green canopy — when he suddenly pulled over and hopped out.
Hatchomatic 