Tajik Air – Party Plane

by Adrienne Wilson on

There are certain travel stories you hear about and instantly grow insanely jealous that you didn’t get the opportunity to experience them first-hand. If you recall I opted out of meeting my other travel companions in Moscow to fly through Istanbul to Dushanbe on Turkish Air. My main reason for doing so was to avoid the additional transit Russian visa fees and besides it was far out of the way. In the process of avoiding flying Russia’s friendly skies I apparently missed out on one of the wackiest flights of a lifetime. Reports from two parties confirm Tajik Air is somewhat of a party plane.

How-so? Well, for music you’ll be graced with the sounds of hundreds of cell phone ringtones as provided by your in-flight mobile phone DJ. Don’t count on sleeping. If you’re a pretty foreigner, do count on having your picture taken by the mobile phone DJ who has a built in camera on their phone. If you’re extra glamorous in their eyes you will also have your head patted during the flight. Just when things really start to shake up things will not only shift in the overhead bins, the overhead bins as well as the roof compartment will open. Please, no sudden moves.

The second report I received from a Nat Geo guy noted smoking on board was okay, beer guzzling and shirtless back massages were additionally “A-OK.” Did the flight attendants care? Nope. Was all this really real? How I would have loved to been a fly on the wall.

Being Invisible in Foreign Countries

by Adrienne Wilson on

Perhaps my days of traveling abroad are numbered. Wait, no, never. First, let me say hello and I’m back from my three week jaunt through Central Asia or more specifically the Republic of Tajikistan. I’ll get to the meat of the matter on why I was there and what I was doing over the coming days, but it was a real experience to say the least.

My first two weeks strolling Rudaki, the main drag running through the capital city of Dushanbe were pretty cool. As a foreigner I stuck out as one would expect and children, women, and men all stared as I’d pass by. Even if they didn’t look directly at me I could feel the amount of effort it took for them to walk by without glancing my way burning off their being. Maybe the handful of stares I was getting had me paranoid. I started thinking everyone was starring at me. By my final days of the third week I was wishing only to blend in, to go unnoticed as I ducked into internet cafes and to be invisible on foreign streets. Was it too much to ask?

As an African-American woman traveling I never know what I’m going to get or what to expect. For starters there is very little diversity in Tajikistan and black people are an extreme rarity. (I counted 7 total during my time there.) And there are several very clear occasions were I found my presence was shocking more of the locals than their culture, appearance, or environment was shocking me. For instance:

  • During the 15th Independence Day celebrations on September 9 many Tajiks were more interested in taking pictures of my hairstyle and me than watching the show. The KGB ran into the stands where we seated to swat the young boys with camera phones away.
  • Young children chased me down the street with camera phones trying to snap my photo. (I wondered about their age and why they had cell phones anyway.)

A lot of people asked if I was African, Ethiopian, or Canadian and basically guessed anything but American. One guy I knew joked saying they probably thought I was a rapper as it’s pretty popular among the youngsters, but by that time I was just a wee-bit tired. “Okay, the freak show is over you can all move along now,” I thought. Please don’t mistake this rant for a sob story of sorts. I’m sure the same feeling comes over Caucasians trekking through Africa over periods of time. I don’t know. Does it? Have you ever been burnt out on being the odd man out in your travels?

Travel learning experience for me: Being the center of attention is swell on occasion, but no one wants to be gawked at everytime they open their front door.

Central Asia Refresher

by Adrienne Wilson on

Every once in a while it’s nice to remind ourselves about places that may not be on the top of our travel lists, but we forget exist or never knew existed. As I’ve been sharing some upcoming travel plans with people it’s suddenly starting to strike a nerve how much of the population is unaware of other smaller countries or entire regions to boot! On a recent trip into a book store for some quick guide book hunting my conversation with the clerk went something like this:

“Excuse me, do you happen to have any travel guides on Central Asia or Tajikistan,” I said.

The clerk scratches his head and replies, “Hmm… Why no, no one goes there.”

“But you’re missing a HUGE chunk of the world and I’m going,” I responded.

An older gent with his head tucked in an Eyewitness Travel Guide for France looks up in curiosity.

“Then you’re probably the only one going then,” he concluded.

“Thanks, I’ll look online,” I said.

After this conversation at the bookstore I have found myself being questioned as to why I’d want to go any placed that ended in -stan or where the heck Tajikistan is, but the better question will always be, why not?! Anyhow, I didn’t start all this to moan and groan. Instead I just wanted to provide a quick Central Asia refresher. Wikipedia is one of the best places to start for the basics which I’ll just throw out right here/right now. Central Asia is comprised of the following: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, western China, northeast Iran, Afghanistan, western Pakistan, and central-east Russia south of the Taiga.

The borders of Central Asia have been defined a number of ways, but in one of the broader cases this is probably your best bet. There – I feel much better now. If you’ve got some Central Asia travel experiences to share please feel to tell all. For those who hadn’t a clue before, I hope this provides a small amount of insight.