July 27th, 2019

We got up early to watch the sunrise. It was actually cold in the night and early morning, which was a first for me since being in Tajikistan. The sunrise was a bit disappointing since we were in a deep and narrow valley surrounded by towering mountain. After breakfast we hit the road again. It was a five or so hour drive with at least two flat tires (we in three cars in total), since as our driver explained hot tarmac and hot tires don’t mix well. The land around Hujand was much flatter and looked very agricultural. We past many a field full of corn and other unknown crops, as well as numerous cows (most popular), donkeys (used for transport of people and stuff), goats, sheep, horses, and chickens. In Hujand we went to a park, a museum with a fast and loose relationship with the term authentic when it comes to artifacts, a river, an atlas (?) fabric store and a massive reservoir. It was so wide you couldn’t see the other shore on the horizon. Getting to swim there was very fun.

            Tajik moment of the day: In the museum one of the bowls labeled “china bowl” in the 12^th century section still had a price sticker on it. They must have bought it from a store very recently.