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Hi. I am currently in Almaty, having a wonderful time, and I was planning to fly to Dushanbe later this week. I had anticipated that I would spend some time in the capital (I like cities even without obvious tourist attractions), and then I would move to the vicinity of Penjiktent and spend a while taking day hikes or short treks in the Fann Mountains and Zerafshan Valley.

I am wondering if I will be able to get decent wifi in the bigger places in this region, like Penjikent or the Artuch Alpine Base Camp. I am not just asking this out of curiosity or because I am hooked on the internet. Rather, I need to intermittently do some work for my job on my computer (unrelated to my travels) and email it home. The workload I have in the next few weeks is especially heavy, and it would be impossible to complete it if I were cut off from the internet.

If there is not decent internet available in the Fann/Zerafshan area, I will need to change my plans and instead go there later in the summer. Then the question becomes where to go for the next few weeks as an alternative. I want to be located in a place where I can go for nice hikes but also come back to a town or city and have good wifi access. I thought of Karakol but I think it might be too early (due to snow and a lot of rain) for good hikes in this area. I even thought of flying to Georgia and hanging out in the well-touristed mountainous region, but again it seems there is a lot of precipitation and continued cold weather.

If you have good info about wifi access, weather, etc., this would be great. Thanks in advance for your help.

Todd

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1

It's the poorest country in the region, so don't rely on your accommodation hosts to offer wifi or a stable connection.

If an online connection while travelling was important to me (and it is), I would invest in an unlocked pocket wifi hotspot (and I have) and then buy a local SIM (which I do). This site can help with the latter:

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That is a great suggestion. Really helpful. Now I wonder if there is actually decent cellular data reception in the Fann Mountains and surroundings.

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In Penjikent, there is a GH that is actually coupled with a Internet cafe (same owner), in the center, on the corner.
Don't expect Internet in the small upvalley villages and homestays.

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