Dushanbe is a pleasant town now, though it was hell through most of the nineties when it was the center of the civil war.  With a population of 600,000, it is twice the size of Bishkek and it would count as a city even without the palaces and patriotic monuments that the “president” has spent money on when he could have been fixing the country's roads.  With tree-lined streets, good cafes, and a vigorous market, it was a nice place to spend a few days recovering from the mountains.

Since we hadn’t seen a shower, flush toilet or even a bed for most of the last ten days, we splurged and stayed in the upscale Hotel Mercury.  Its courtyard had its own rock and water features, and its rooms were palatial. 

Like most Central Asian capitals, Dushanbe has a historical museum with a lot of old bones and a few real treasures. This one had a 13-meter (40-foot) sleeping Buddha that had been recovered from a site near the Afghan border.

We also made a short excursion to a small village called Hissar twenty kilometers west of town. At one time, this was a major outpost, with a fort, several madrassas, mosques, and a caravansarai. Much of it lies in ruins after the battles of the Bolshevik Revolution, but the great gate of the fort has been restored.

Dushanbe was built up by the Russians, and much of the architecture has the bland soviet look. But there are still nice places. Houses, while often nondescript, have interesting touches like these metal gutters.

The most colorful part of any Central Asian city is the people themselves. Women dress in long, brightly colored dresses, often velvet for the cool fall air. Schoolchildren mix archaic school uniforms with the latest backpacks. Although human representation is technically forbidden in Islam, few people in Central Asia mind having their pictures taken.