A country of raw beauty

After I finished all my training in Russia, I was sent to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Now, I grew up a city boy in Russia. I was then forced to become a country boy overnight when I moved to Canada. I might have lived on a farm but I was never really an outdoors person. Tajikistan changed that.

During the summer, I had the chance to explore the absolute raw beauty of Tajikistan's mountain ranges. I went on a 3 day trekking trip with a few of my Russian friends in the Fann Mountains in the Pamirs.

My new phone screensaver.

This was my first time trekking and it was breathtaking. The clear blue skies, the green-tinted lakes lakes, the snow-covered mountain peaks in the distance. I've never seen such raw beauty. 

Tajikistan is a country of raw beauty. The city boy in me has slowly been transformed into an outdoorsman as I take in the beauty of this mountainous country. Even in Dushanbe, I see the silhouette of the Fann Mountains in the distance. 

I never thought I'd fall in love with a small landlocked, Muslim country in Central Asia, bordering Afghanistan of all places. Tajikistan is a poor country. Like most Soviet republics, Tajikistan was thrown into chaos following the collapse of the USSR. A civil war broke out as civil uprest broke out across southern Tajikistan. 

Remnants of Tajikistan's Soviet past still remain. Most Tajiks still speak Russian. It is often said, to climb the social ladder, you must speak Russian. Many Tajiks also work abroad in Russia to support their families. 

I'm currently trying to learn Tajiki. Its a dialect of Persian, similar to Dari in Afghanistan or Farsi in Iran. Tajikistan uses the Cyrillic alphabet, another remnant of its Soviet past, which lucky for me, makes learning it much easier. 

I've been living in Tajikistan for 6 months now. I hope I won't have to leave any time soon. Maybe one day, when I leave the military, I'll settle down in Tajikistan and live my days in the mountains. 

Vladik