Dushanbe in late December/ early January | Tajikistan - Lonely Planet Forum

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Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:51:07 +0000

Hello, I'm a university student looking to travel to Dushanbe for a week straddling the Gregorian New Year in order to do some low-key field work for a Bachelors-level thesis. I have a couple of questions on traveling/ and stuff.

I realize January 1st is a public holiday in Tajikistan, so does this mean that most things/ everything is closed that day? How about the days surrounding January 1st? I'm ok if there isn't much I can do for one day (most of my plans involve walking around the city), but I'd consider rescheduling if there will be a serious inconvenience.

Second of all, should I worry about declaring my purpose within the country on my visa form? Would mentioning I'm doing field work give me more problems overall? I'm looking at monuments and museums as a method of reconstructing Tajik identity, so its mostly touristy stuff to begin with. Would it be easier to just declare that I'm a tourist?

Thirdly, is there anywhere I shouldn’t take pictures?

Finally, I'm a female with a little traveling experience and some university level Persian under my belt. With this in mind, is there anything I should avoid or do to make my trip a little safer? I'm not that discouraged about my safety, but being a lone woman always has its drawbacks. Is there anything I should keep in mind or places I should avoid?

Thanks for all the help and advice, it’s incredibly useful

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Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:27:13 +0000

As no one's replied yet, here goes:

Dushanbe is very low key. It's easy to travel and walk about in the city; plenty of foreigners, men and women, travel through. Come declared as a tourist and you'll be fine. Any other visa will be a hassle to obtain. Make sure you get a tourist visa though and not one of those 'Private' visas (search on the TT forum) that require costly and time consuming OVIR registration.

Jan 1st will be quiet but I'm guessing museums will be open on the 31st and the 2nd. On the 31st night, there will likely be some kind of concert in front of the Somoni statue in the center of Dushanbe, a key construct in the new 'Tajik identity.'

Taking pics is fine anywhere except military points, strategic interests (no dams or bridges) or jails. People are far friendlier than in most places.

Note that you probably would not walk around New York City for a couple of days and declare to understand much of American culture. Same goes here in Dushanbe - it's quite different from the countryside. In my experience, people in Dushanbe have different concerns, worldviews and notions of 'Tajik identity.' In fact, Dushanbe is practically the only sizable city, by a long shot - the other cities like Kurgan and Khojand are tiny in comparison.

If you have any more specific questions, feel free to PM me.

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