Day 177 (Tajikistan): close to that U-turn behind Nurek - just before Kuljab (the internet rocks … yes, it does and I so depend on it I hate it)

daily distance: 120km
total distance: 10,549km
riding time: 8h

That U-turn is telling. And the tunnel that they are digging a bit further is too. It means that it goes uphill steeply. And I mean very steeply. Everything is up and up and unrelentingly so. Can’t complain about not having a good workout in the morning. The top saw - yes - yet another useless police checkpoint and some great views.

Lots of ups and downs lead me to Dangara, a town of some size here and I tried to find out whether more about the US visa situation. The quest for an internet connection was on. The first lead went straight to a toilet. I guess it rhymes with internet. The second to the post office. Computers … but no internet. Go back there says the postmaster. All the while my bike is rather unprotected and too many kids milling about. Nothing it seems. More computers in a room, but it’s games only. Finally I go into a place without having any hopes, but they advertised picture developing. There wasn’t anything, but I suddenly saw a printout with the Interent Explorer symbol as background and decided to push the agenda. Can’t be there for no reason and it had a local number on it. An older man with authority was called in. He makes phone calls and after a while we come back to the guys that said no internet before.

We get to the sole internet computer in town - in the Tajikistan Telecom building. One guy knows how to operate the machine and he says: “No problem”. And then he pulls out a 230.4kb/s connection over a dial-up modem. Never seen that - maybe someone can enlighten me how that works. At any rate, the visa exception was granted, so now I was celebrating. It still means a lot of back and forth I am sure, but the big news that I got was worth all the trouble to get that connection. Now I have to go through the interview process at a US embassy and hope that the big fat Iran visa in my passport isn’t too much cause for concern. I don’t see why it should be really.

The remainder of the day was cycling through golden hills and wonderful territory. Tough at times and hot. But awesome in so many ways. Reminded me a lot of California in the early fall. It’s called Golden State for a reason. I pushed on for a while and ended up in a farm, asking whether I could pitch. The shorts were objectionable. So I put on long pants and right away was invited in. The young farmer would not let me stay outside … and soon enough everything was set up for many people to come by. Communication was much easier after Olimjon came by, an aid worker who had studied in Kayseri / Turkey and who spoke excellent English. Thanks so much to him and the family for putting me up. I again learned so much over dinner and during the time I spent there.