Day 188 (Tajikistan): rest day in Murgab (where do all these microvans go?)

It was a off day and I treated it as such. I did some shopping for the next days at the local bazaar, had a look around town and so forth.

After finishing Moby Dick before breakfast (I am getting up early these days), I am now reading Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene. We shall see how it turns out to be.

The one thing Andre (another traveler staying at the same place I do) and I were wondering was where the huge number of microvans were heading. I had seen them often before and it never made sense to me to transport toilet paper in these small vehicles. Some of them had “transit” written on them, i.e. Manufactured in China and before being handed over given a good beating on the Tajik roads in the Pamir. But it seems to make some sense that it would be interesting to take a closer look at those toilet paper rolls as I am sure not all of the stuff transported will turn out to be legit. There are just so many of them and my hunch is that by splitting things up the likelihood of some of the stuff getting through is increased.

Here are some pictures of me bumbling around town …

Other than that another early night due to lack of electricity. It is a rare and strange occurrence here. It works well at like 2am and you can charge batteries then even, but is basically non-existent for the rest of the day. With all its problems of course (keeping things refrigerated or easy cooking).