Kurgan Tepe

So, only a few days until we leave for Turkey... Since there are just a few days left, I decided We should try and get out of the city a bit before Eric's firt trip to Tajikistan is over. Today's adventure was to go to Kurgan Tepe, which is a city that is a few hours to the south of Dushanbe.

We started the day by getting up early to make sure we'd get on the bus before it got too hot. Kurgan Tepe is in the plain to the south and is always 5-10 degrees hotter than Dushanbe. We finally made it to our Minibus by 8:30am and we were on our way.

We arrived and I could instantly see some changes. Soem projects they were working on last time I was here were completed and others were started. Our first order of business was to check out the Bazaar. I was hoping to find some hand made goods... but this was the one day amonth that the bazaar was closed for cleaning... it was the emptiest bazaar I'd ever seen. So, not fun handmade goods on this trip, but I'll definitely find some next time.

We also wandered down to the river/ canal area. While I was there before it was THE place to swim and they city was adding a riverwalk area with fountains. They had completed the work and it looke dpretty nice, but they fenced off the canal so not as many people were swimming, but there were still some boys who were swimming.

After the river walk we went to have lunch at one of the cafes and just as we were crosing the street we noticed a wedding party at the base of the "tepe" that was dancing. I hadn't seen that tradition before, but I was happy Eric got to see a wedding party (Actually, just the other day a family in our neighborhood hosted a wedding party at in the courtyard outside their house so we joined the other neighbors in watching from affar. It must have been wedding week here.)

Just down from the Tepe was a nice cafe next to the canal. Just across the canal several oldmen wer sitting on traditional "KOTs" jus tlike the one we have in our house. They were drinking tea and playing cards and chess. While we were eating lunch a group of kids came floating by... it would've been nice to jump in the canal and cool off too.

After lunch we wandered back to the bazaar area to take our minibus home and after a few hours we were back in Dushanbe. Just in time for a quick trip to the pool!