Dining in Dushanbe: Eurasia

by Adrienne Wilson on

While the trout I ordered doesn’t exactly look like the most mouth-watering of dishes, the food at Eurasia is some of the tastiest in all of Dushanbe. Serving a mixture of Tajik foods, European foods, Russian yummies and breakfast anytime of the day, Eurasia hit it off well with me and my companions. If you’ve been hit by the stomach bug most travels tend to get in Central Asia, order the crepes with jam as a lighter selection sure to cheer up the most upset tummies.

If you’re up for a real meal I might suggest the trout so long as you can bare its very ugly and Muddy-Mud Skipper like appearance. Afterwards if you’ve got plenty of room for dessert (and I do mean plenty of room) go for the stuffed spiced apples. One is enough, but they serve two. The Russian waitresses are all quite pleasant and with their being an English menu as well their jobs are made that much easier. However, not all things translate well so knowing a little Russian or Tajik might be helpful if you’ve got additional questions on the way meals are prepared.

In the morning it’s fairly quiet, but dinner hours are much the opposite. If you’ve got a large group head over early so dinner is served in a timely manner. Plates run from 2TJS-15TJS.

Eurasia is located at Rudaki 81. Telephone: 2233994.

Volunteer Vacation Day Five: Third Home, Same Duties

by Adrienne Wilson on


Most of the first-timers in the group weren’t surprised when we’d heard we were headed to a third worksite, but some of the veteran builders found this shuffling interesting. On my first Global Village trip five years back in Cluj-Napoca, Romania we stayed at the same worksite for the entire trip and noticed very significant changes from the time we arrived to the day we left. Christina (the six time GV builder) found it strange, but good. If ever you want an idea of how the local people live bouncing from home to home will give you a better understanding quicker. In Tajikistan we could still see what was within our means to lend our helping hands on the first and second homes. Making concrete was not easy at all, but we knew if they’d had more of the wooden frame up we could have knocked the entire concrete portion out. With the second home there is far too much to mention where I’m positive we could have been of use. However, the story was they decided to move us because this family really needed our help. Their goal was to have the home completed by the end of this month.

According to the new homeowner, Anvar, the house had previously caught on fire back on May 3, 1998. The fire was caused by fighting and shooting that had broken out and they were presently staying nearby in a place where rent is $50 USD a month. That kind of money for rent is considered ridiculously expensive which was why the family is really looking to complete the building by month’s end. There are six family members in all: Anvar, his wife, son, daughter and two grandchildren. The daughter who was my age was divorced, which piqued my interest some because divorce is rare in countries like Tajikistan. I never found out much and I would have loved to have sat and chatted with the daughter for a while, but naturally language complications intersected.

Getting started on this new site was frustrating for most of us. The work space was smaller than the previous two and it didn’t seem well-organized or that they had thought out in which ways they desired our assistance. There were too many of us for the duties assigned at this new site which for the first day ended up being some mud smearing on the back side of the house. One or two lucky individuals had their chance to place their fingers in the cool wet mud and smooth it across the rather rough bricks! The others were part of a small bucket line. Many of us became distracted with all the neighborhood children coming by to stare, giggle and chatter. Though the homeowner or his son tried running them off on many occasions they always found their way back to the big bluish metal gate in front of the house to gawk and have their photos taken. We still had two days left and I hoped there would be more to do other than filling our camera’s memory cards with pictures of cute Tajik children.

On the flipside we discovered more about this last homeowner than the other two and with that I felt more connected.

Locals Only. Whatever.

by Iva Skoch on

Adventure travelers tend to describe their favorite places abroad like this: “There are no tourists there, it’s just the locals.” That, of course, does not include the writer, who is, inevitably, a tourist. It’s just that he/she thinks he is slightly better (more worldly, less loud, etc.) than the other tourists.

I have always been torn about this issue. When I travel, I like to think that I go to the less touristy places, but the “locals-only” tags scare me. First of all, it is a bit hypocritical to go to a “locals-only” place as a tourist. Next thing you know, it will be in Lonely Planet described as a locals-only joint and locals will have to find a new place. And, those same tourists will also stop going, realizing that a locals-only place has go tourists-only or expensive, or both. At that precise moment, it disappears from Lonely Planet or is renamed “tourist trap.” Here is an example.This has happened to quite a few wonderful Czech pubs, too, for example U Fleku. It’s quite sad, if you think about it.

But that is not the only thing that intrigues me about people’s attraction to “locals only” places. I first discovered it when I realized that I am about the only person in Prague not concerned about “touristy places.” As a Czech native, it would never even occur to me to go to places where only locals hang out. I actually prefer to go to more cosmopolitan hangouts; a lot of natives do. Just like you would be hard-pressed to find New Yorkers hanging out in fried chicken joints because that’s what a lot of locals do, it is the same way in Prague. It is my foreign friends in Prague who always demand to go to some “locals only” place. I guess they derive some weird pleasure out of fulfilling their stereotypes of Eastern Europe: crusty old men playing cards and drinking beer. It’s like observing wild animals in their natural habitat…

Nat Geo on Sherpas

by Erik Olsen on

On a few occasions in the past we’ve linked to stories about the famous Sherpas of the Himalayas, those hearty, hale and, well, helpful souls who basically make it possible for Western climbers to summit tall mountains. Without the Sherpas, it’s doubtful that we’d see nearly as many Gortex-clad city slickers summiting mountains like K2 and Everest.

The Sherpas are, without a doubt, the unsung heroes of mountaineering.

And if anyone out there can be trusted to put together a fine homage to the Himalayan Sherpas, it would be National Geographic. And so it goes. This wonderfully done multimedia feature provides text by the writer T.R. Reid as well as gobs of excellent photos, maps and even some downloadable audio for your listening pleasure. The photos are particularly good, but trust me, if you are interested in what the Sherpas are all about you can spend a few educational and entertaining minutes perusing this feature.

It’s World Tourism Day Today!

by Adrienne Wilson on

I figured we couldn’t let the day breeze by without acknowledging World Tourism day. No, no! But what exactly does World Tourism day mean? Are you and all your friends planning extravagant vacations somewhere? Anyone just return from Tonga, Finland or Zambia? I’m not 100% sure, but I’m sure the folks at the World Tourism Organization have a clue. This year’s theme is Tourism Enriches and without reading much one can already guess that a theme like that goes in both directions: it enriches the country and the tourist.

Anyways, happy World Tourism Day!