July 13th, 2019

We went to Romit today. It was by a river outside of the city. We got to eat in this platform over the river. It was at this resort like place with a pool. But the water was freezing since it game straight from the river. In Tajikistan, they don’t chlorinate the pool water. Swimming for short periods of time was fun since it was so hot out but then you would get cold.

            The scenery was strikingly beautiful. The resort itself was nestled in a narrow valley between two very steep hills/mountains. There was very rocky and covered in yellow-ish grass and scrub. The drive on the way there was remarkable too. We passed through all of these little villages in the valleys very close to the mountains. We passed fields farrowed with unknown plants, numerous cows, women and men working under the trees lining the roads and in the fields, children working or touting wheelbarrows, an uncountable number of water melon sellers. The land was almost Mediterranean at times with olive trees and rocky terrain. I wish we had stopped at one of the vegetable or watermelon sellers along the road or in one of the little villages. The mountains were very close on one side, but much further on the other with a whole massive better-populated valley occupying the space. On the side closer to the mountains there was still agriculture as well, but it seemed more rural and less developed. I also hesitate to call them mountains because they weren’t that high, but they were incredibly steep and rocky. In some stretches there were more grassy and rolling. None of them stood alone as well, making a continuous ridgeline. Occasionally you would see signs of a path or men up on the sides of the steep hills, but generally they looked very wild.

            I was reading The Crossing while on the bus and as Billy wanders through the Mexican mountains I would imagine him in Tajikistan. It’s kind of funny, same with as he went through villages or stopped at compounds. Now that the test is over I am allowing myself to read English books again just for this weekend. The Crossing is so sad. The wolf part really got me. I saw the death coming. I just didn’t realize at whose hands. The tone is different from All the Pretty Horses.