It’s not surprising that when you search for any blog about Tajikistan you just find the travel blogs, which are mainly posted by foreigners who travel around the country and tell about their experiences in this exotic country. So, I have decided to tell you about some of the most interesting ones.

One of them is the live-journal of a young lady, whose name is Karin. Currently she lives in Dushanbe with her host family. She calls her blog “I have no idea what to call this blog”. The family that she lives with, is a typical Tajik family, which consists of 5 children and two parents. In her blogs she tells about her everyday life and shows the life of Tajikistan from inside. There are also some very good pictures. This blog is updated almost everyday.

In Tajikistan during the summer you can see a lot of foreign people traveling by bicycles, which seems really weird to local people. When people see them, you can always hear something like “Oh my God, these foreigners have nothing else to do”. Tim and Rowen are also one of those “strange” bicycle riders. On June 28, 2006 they’ve posted a small article about their experience in Tajikistan. They tell us about how hard it was to struggle those tough and rough roads of Tajikistan, especially the roads in Pamir. There are no pictures of the roads but you can find them on the other blog, which is called “The Big Trip”. There are some very good pictures. I’ve traveled many times on this road (Osh-Khorog). It is a real torture (I’m not exaggerating). There is a very high altitude, especially when you go through the high passes. Lack of oxygen makes you sick, and you shouldn’t make quick moves, otherwise you can just fall fainted. These passes look more like a surface of the Mars. It is very difficult to travel by car and I still don’t understand how those bicycle and motorcycle riders can travel on this road, one should erect a monument for them on the highest pass.

Dushanbe pleasantly surprised Matt. First, in his blog he says: “I was ready for hell in Tajikistan. The poorest Soviet republic, one that descended into bloody civil war almost the day after secession from Moscow, and one so hard to reach that globalization doesn’t bother (take that, Friedman), I had mentally written this travelogue before I arrived.” Then he goes, “pleasantly, Dushanbe surprised me. Not that I would recommend it for a holiday — indeed, there is next to nothing to do downtown, each day is about 99 degrees with no breeze, and there is virtually no infrastructure to cater to tourists. But therein lies the charm.” Here it is good to mention a Russian proverb, “It is better to see once than to hear hundred times”. He tells his readers some interesting things about Dushanbe and Tajikistan, which can be seen only by foreigners, and also goes back to the history of Tajikistan. There are no pictures unfortunately.

“Elizabeth” tells us about her/his observations in Tajikistan. Her posts are written in a style of “what is wrong with these Tajiks?”. There are some good observations, especially about the Tajik solidarity groups. The post is called “The Pod’yezd and the Mosque”. The cis tells its readers about how the Tajiks live in a multistoried buildings.

There are not too many pictures in all these blogs but you can go to the blog of Bahtiyor and can see a lot of pictures of Tajikistan. This blog is in Russian, but it mostly consists of pictures, so you don’t necessarily need to know Russian, just enjoy the pictures.