The 'Stans - Dushanbe (8 August 2019)

Today is my penultimate day in Dushanbe, before departing for the Pamir Highway tomorrow morning. The aim for today is to stock on supplies for the trip, and what better place than Dushanbe's Green Bazaar:

My shopping list consisted of: pistachios, almonds, sweets, dried apricots and other dried fruits. My attempt at haggling was frowned upon, seemed to be a non-haggling market but the prices were pretty reasonable. I was buying by the kilogram/half kilogram at this point so headed back to the hostel to drop my load.

I spent my day meandering the streets of Dushanbe, with not much of a plan.

I did however, manage to tick off something that was on my 'must-see' list:

Yes, that's right. This is currently the second tallest flag pole in the world, and held the record for the tallest between 2011 to 2014. It is 165m tall and it is big.

Overwhelmed by the flag pole, I tracked down a coffee shops called Mazza that was recommended to me by a friend who once worked in Dushanbe. It was one of the better coffees I had in Central Asia:

In the evening I stumbled upon a tourism market, promoting all the tourist interests within Central Asia. Again, a completely unexpected event full of locals and embassy dignitaries.

I then jumped into the trusty dollar Dushanbe cab and headed back to the hostel and a reliable bit of Turkish food from Merve, ready for the five day car journey tomorrow...