That Fahking Hotel

The luxury suite for $50 was pretty amazing, though I can't say it was worth every penny.  I made every effort to ensure I used every penny, however, so I wore the free slippers, used the free toothpaste, pocketed the soaps and shampoos, watched Russian music videos, took a 30 minute hot shower, and then really sprawled out on the bed.  Just totalled soaked up the experience.  It was a massive room, too.    In the morning I found my way towards the lobby and when I reached the landing on my floor I noticed that there were two men in plainclothes with AK-47s sitting in the lounge furniture.  My first reaction was, "People actually sit in that furniture?  I thought it was for show" followed by "holy crap, they have AK-47s." I have no idea what they were there for, and whether or not they would have harassed me if I hadn't darted down the stairs, but it goes to show that even the fanciest of Dushanbe hotels weren't immune to the internal strife of Tajikistan's storied history.  

The circus (also guarded by men with AK-47s) in front of the Fahking Hotel

 I checked my bag with the bellhop (and learned later with chagrin that there was a surcharge to do so) and went in search of a cheaper hotel.  I decided to use the internet to search for anything that would help to indicate where I could sleep and some site or blog had indicated to me that there was some sort of hotel-like establishment called the Fahking Hotel, which was behind the circus and took in a lot of Afghan traders and wasn't too expensive.  It's vague, address-less, and wholly unsubstantiated qualitative descriptions like this that really awake the adventurer in me and I set off across the river towards the circus in search of it.  It was actually remarkably easy to find, even if people weren't very helpful when an exasperated English speaker demands of them in accented Russian where the Fahking Hotel is.  Anyway, I ended up paying around $10 for a room, which locked and had shared access to a bathroom that I had zero intention of using.  There was a TV playing Tajik comedies from the 70s and there was even room service tea for 20 cents, so I was actually losing money by not taking advantage of it.  In all, a real treat.

I never did shower in Tajikistan.  

Once I had dropped off my bag at the Fahking Hotel and attached my own lock to the door*, I was ready to take in all that Dushanbe had to offer.  The first thing I did was go to the park by the opera house and found a delicious cantina where I ate a great meal.  I had some sort of meatball with mashed potatoes.  I can't even imagine there being a more delightful thing to come across.  In fact, all of Dushanbe was so pleasant.  It really was a city I could get used to, and once again I went through the motions of imagining my life there and thinking, "Yes, this is a good place to finally hang up my hat."  

*Sorry, not to mislead you, but when I said that the door "locked" I meant that it had two metal holes that lined up and I needed to supply the lock.  But really, it had the infrastructure for attaching a lock and that's a big win if I'm honest.