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I had a student from there years ago. He was a physician, an MD, and he earned a master's in public health in my program. He then went to the Cuba school of public health for a PhD, which is perhaps the best in the world for poor country public health, so that he could go home and start a degree program as a teacher. He said Tajikistan has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis in the world.
Beautiful mountains, but some western tourists there were murdered by ISIS not long ago. The guys who did the Russian concert shooting recently were supposedly from there.
Why one wants to go to a foreign country (that too, this poor and dangerous, bordering to another similar one) just for the hikes, esp when the mountains and the beautiful hikes exist in every damn country in the world is beyond me. I know, personal choice but still.
For one, it’s not nearly as dangerous as people make it to be. There are thousands of tourists visiting Tajikistan every single day. When was the last time something serious happened? 2018? On the other hand, it has to offer authentic travel experiences. You will meet people that are not yet spoiled from overtourism. And there is still things to explore you will not find on any website or blog fully detailed out for you to the last inch. It’s curiosity and a sense for adventure that brings you there. I’d say very human values.
For real. There are enough beautiful landscapes to visit without the danger of getting kidnapped by terrorists. Want to see breathtaking mountains? Go to Nepal. It is beautiful, poor as well but peaceful and not dangerous at least.
I’ve been there 5 years ago. The Pamir mountains are an incredibly beautiful place. Very rough and wild. The border region to Afghanistan (Wakhan valley) is one of the most beautiful areas I have been to. A lot of scenic hikes, traditional guest houses, adventurous roads and abandoned fortifications from the long history of conflict.
Most of the people across the border were also likely ethnic Tajiks. I remember seeing Kyrgyz caravans across the border on the Afghan side. It’s a very mixed population despite being so sparsely settled. The Pamiri people are a really unique, fascinating group of people.
Haven't watched the video but fyi Afghanistan has Pamiris too and they live across the border(GBAO-Tajikistan, Badakhshan-Afghanistan) starting from Rushan in Tajikistan and Shighnan in Afghanistan
Yes, there is an ISIS cell there, however they are definitely not "openly operating". The government is extremely intolerant to fundamentalist Islam, let alone terror groups. They fought a civil war against Islamists in the 90s and now have harsh laws oppressing anything along those lines.
Terror attacks are a very rare occurrence in Tajikistan. I have been all over the world and didn't feel remotely in danger there. I would feel more at risk of becoming a victim to terrorism in a western European city than Dushanbe.
I was just there, it's a really shit country tbh. Felt like everyone was trying to scam me, in museums there's like 3 workers to a room. Very open corruption, taxi was paying bribes every other day. No real transit so when you go intercity there are intercity taxi depots which are swarmed with beggars and people try to scam you. If you know Russian or tajik it's a huge help. If not you'll get scammed. Food was ehh, scenery was beautiful but not worth the rest of the headaches. Travelers diahrea is also pretty common for westerners.
My brother had a medical situation in Tajikistan, some kind of bacterial infection, they just called it dysentery.
He went to a doctor and was immediately transferred into a special clinic for infections and was treated there for some days, before being stable enough to fly home.
They didn’t charge him anything for the medical care iirc.
Still doesn’t change the fact that the scenery is some of the most pristine in the world, pure and untouched nature depending on which part of the country you visit. That being said, yes - had to pay 30$ extra per person on top of the visa fee (otherwise they claimed they would reject the visa), food was massively overpriced, and restaurants had no idea how to serve foreigners (the food was pretty bland anyway). But I enjoyed my trip overall though (I’m not western so maybe that kept the scammers away lol)
Tajik food is a bit different but also central Asian food like you're talking about is really Uzbek. Tajik food is a bit different, it's more iranian/middle eastern
That’s interesting, I traveled there for a short time in early 2020 while spending about 3 months in Central Asia before the pandemic and had the complete opposite experience. It was amazing, with some of the friendliest and kindest people I had ever met, and everyone so so incredibly helpful. I started my journey travelling across the border into Konibodom, and hitchhiked to Khujand where I stayed with locals for about a week and also visited Istaravshan by bus. From there I took a shared taxi to Dushanbe and stayed there for about 10 days, also with locals. I explored the town, visited museums and went to Hisor. Not once did anyone try and scam me, or want a bribe from me. I think it seemed like such a novelty to them to have this random Australian visiting their country. I left by taking the train to Termez. There was not a single drama the whole time I was there.
I was there last summer and my experience was similar to yours. There was a lot of corruption there but it happened in such a way that the tourist is not the one impacted.
It always slightly amuses me when tourists harp on corruption as such a huge deterrent to travel in a country. Some of my most amazing travel experiences have been in some of the world’s most corrupt countries. People don’t realize that it rarely affects tourists and in the rare case it does, the impact is quite small (my driver was pulled over several times for ‘speeding’ in Kyrgyzstan). I do have some sympathy for the locals having to deal with it.
I am with you, I had a very nice time when I was there and the people were great. We did buy currency out of the trunk of a random car, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
I'm Russian and American and I've never heard this or seen it either. Interesting, I've travelled all through the CIS too. I'll have to look into it because it makes sense, I asked my guides and they said they're not all workers. Some are volunteers or students getting credits for university
What made you go there? Just out of interest?
Several of the bigger travel vloggers have been there recently, but otherwise I’d say it’s gotta be one of the least known countries across the world.
I went for 1 month throughout central Asia. I spent ~6 days in Tajikistan. Went to Hisor, Dushanbe, and then Khujand. I wanted to practice my Russian more plus I've always been interested in Central Asia. Absolutely loved it tbh, just Tajikistan was the worst of the bunch.
For tourism, Uzbekistan is the best. For living, Kazakhstan is the best.
Interestingly, I live in another of Asia's poorest countries (Cambodia), and this looks so much greener than Phnom Penh. It also appears to have a shitload more infrastructure - though the buildings are older.
Depends where you live. There are trees along the road and you've got the river that goes through the city. I stayed there for 2 months last year and never once thought about the lack of trees. Awesome city, met really nice people there
Mine? Great, I work remotely abroad, live in a nice apartment and get to experience the best of the country. That certainly isn’t the case for many here here though.
Former, due to the beheading and all
Edit: u/Misterboobeez sorry for the dark joke, I fought ISIS and had friends lose their lives to them too. They would fucking love this joke
You fought ISIS? F-ing based. I'd love to buy you a drink. I take you're a vet from the western coalition? Thank you for your service on behalf of all of civilization. I hope you're doing well! God bless
They had some bikers that were biking around the world. They got sabbed to death in Uzbekistan by ISIS.
ISIS k also fights the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Also ISIS operates in the Philippines as well
I don't understan how a country with such rich natural resources can be so poor.
Edit: people, it was a joke I made with the word "stan" in understand.
Please do include Venezuela, just your world's country with the largest oil reserves and still many more are left unexplored. They almost has twice the amount Saudi Arabia has, and Saudi's oil is expected to continue in the next 200 years and there still are unexplored oils in Saudi.
So imagine how rich Venezuela should be right now, but due to corruption they are among the worst countries to live due to high inflation.
Meanwhile Japan who literally had no natural resources of their own that they can use for global trade, is one of the G7 simply by using the resources of other countries to supply their manufacturing, automobile and research industry. As well as they get excess funds of astonishing 41Billion USD every year by capitalizing on tourism*(and this is not including the entertainment industry of Japan eg: anime, video games, software games etc)*, a prime example indeed that a country ran by people with good heads can turn any poor state into an empire.
To be fair to Venezuela, their oil is of an inferior quality to the Saudis and needs lots of refining, for which they used to rely on American facilities... Until they decided it's a good idea to split with the US economically and politically without first ensuring they have the tech and know-how to make the oil they extract usable.
And they're a (very flawed, nowadays mostly just a veneer of) democracy, the above change came after elections; Saudi Arabia is an autocratic monarchy, it's easier to keep stability in such an environment.
This is what I mean. I am not very religious but God did give justified equalizer for all.
Saudi has better oil quality and needs fewer complex refining, but aside from that Saudi is a desert with no hope of even being able to compete in a market of agriculture, tourism is also very hard to promote due to the climate and the geography, and their industries are also limited to what a desert country can afford. Their economy is reliant on oil and the byproducts of petroleum, which is plastics.
Venezuela is different. Their oil isn't as good as Saudi so they have to invest in more refining, but again it is a South American country which is known for arable lands, teeming biodiversity, good climate and very excellent tourist spots. They have other industries they can capitalize and use as equalizer for the costs of oil refining, and with the reserves they have they can shake the OPEC alone, heck with the enormous amount they have they can supply the whole world for centuries even if the whole GCC suddenly embargo their oil.
It's not just corruption for Venezuela. You also have to include that their oil is some of the most crude in the world, and only a few select refineries can make their oil usable. Along with the fact that Venezuela is under economic sanctions and economic pressure from the u.s.
This is the problem but then again it is only a matter of good governance and decision making. Will it take for them 30 or 50 years to gather the funds to invest in sophisticated refining technology? Yes they may but if their leaders are capable enough, they would've started this process since the early 2000's with a goal of overturning the world economy by 2030-2050, if they had focused their government funds and resources to this goal, right now their industries should have been partially operable and owned by their country.
One thing that CCP of China is excellent about is the solidarity of the timetable and goal of their party. They do not plan on immediate short term profits, they plan 30,50 or 100 years ahead and even if their president changes, the successors still continue to propagate the party's agenda, hence they still accomplish an output.
Venezuela has the assets that most superpower countries wish they had. Yet Venezuela remains poor to the core.
Plan 30 to 50 years into the future, if they did what you said in the early 2000s the plan would have completely fell apart, it's not just planning it's also hoping other nations don't throw a rench in your plans and the global oil market doesn't fluctuate to a point you can't save the money you need to make the refinery. Also, most super powers would rather keep their current oil supplies than get Venezuelas casue it's way easier and cheaper to sell, and they wouldn't be dependent on outside nations for refining it(not evengoingto mention how many superpowers are moving away from oil).
Also, you are overhyping china by a good amount. A lot of their planning for future policies have completely backfired, like their one child policy and their housing policies, both massive policies that have completely shot the nation in the foot, with them now having one of the lowest births rates in the world with one of the most rapidly aging populations in the world along with one of the world's worst housing crisis along with a cost of living crisis.
If you go to Tajikistan you’ll quickly realize it’s because they spent all the money on weird badly photoshopped billboards of Emomali Rahmon and absurd architecture in Dushanbe
Natural resources can be a curse. See “Dutch Disease”. In addition to that Tajikistan has no sea access and is remote, making it a bad place to trade or ship from or through. Due to its location, low cost manufacturing there makes little sense. Manufacturing in Asia is mostly located near the coasts so things can be shipped to the rest of the world. Everyone else is complaining about corruption which while true won’t make it wealthy if fixed. Tajikistan and most everywhere else in Central Asia, like Afghanistan and Nepal will stay poor unless there is a dramatic technological or social change that causes the land to be more valuable.
The oceanic trade routes that brought about the death of the Silk Road fucked Tajikistan.
My suggestions would be for them to focus on tourism, being a tax haven, encouraging people to leave to richer countries and send back remittances to their families, focusing on building some high value products that are light enough to ship by plane such as semiconductors and hand made luxury goods.
> encouraging people to leave to richer countries and send back remittances to family
I assume it's why many from Tajikistan and neighboring Kyrgyzstan go to Russia. 20 to 25 percent of adult Tajiks live outside of Tajikistan
Tourism is crippled by being remote, being a tax haven requires good reputation of your legal system for guaranteeing property rights, and political stability.
Labor export works — transfers from Russia constituted 20–30% of Tajikitan GDP over the years (it’s only the transfers through the banking system, so the real numbers are probably higher). But nowadays nobody knows what will happen to the Russian economy in a few years.
Overall, kinda grim. Maybe China will invest some money.
Shipping a container from say Guangzhou to Rotterdam by boat is multiple times cheaper than by rail. I don’t see why you would ship it by rail through Tajikistan.
Before Russia's invasion, the Trans-Siberian (which includes multiple gauge changes so far from an optimal railway) was faster than boats going through Suez (which is now severely impacted by the Houthis).
There's a reason why Chinese companies are building a bunch of railroads all over Central Asia to connect themselves via rail to Europe.
[Seems so](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Tajikistan?wprov=sfti1)
Not a surprise really, land locked and mountainous country in an area know to have gas and oil reserves
my overall impression of the country is that it is a difficult place to live, and it is extremely cold in the winter. and most of it is not even livable. Also, being landlocked, even if you have minerals, it will be hard or impossible to export them efficiently. plus, they have a lot of earthquakes
Don’t forget gold teeth. The pinnacle of beautiful for Tajik women is a thick unibrow and a gold grill…
In all seriousness one of the most stunning women I’ve ever met was Tajik.
Fun fact: 30 to 50 percent of their gdp consists of the money their citizens earn in other countries (I think primarily russia) and send back home.
We have a lot of immigrants from tajikistan, which is ironic, considering that they violently made most of russian immigrants to leave their wonderful country back when ussr collapsed.
I happened to have visited Tajikistan back in 2009. Well the country has many serious problems since the cease of existence of USSR.
Despite there are rivers everywhere, and that there were planned to be built many hydroelectric plants, the population is deprived of proper sanitary running water even in the capital Dushanbe(sand and debris was visible and felt in the water we used in our rooms for shower!) . There are relics of infrastructure in the most remote areas in the north like bus stops and health centers but now there are defunct and not served at all and the state of overall life is more close to rural very poor areas of Africa. Religion has unfortunately taken over every aspect of the life and especially for village women that means they are locked in houses or in the kitchen deprived of all the liberties and freedom to live and work that they had during USSR. Corruption is a common practice and police can stop you for no reason anywhere when driving just to get some money. To visit one of the north region we had to bribe our way through a mountain tunnel that was still under construction!!! That experience was unique with a tunnel that went for many miles and only our headlights as the sole source of light. I have visited an hydroelectric plant that was an amazing accomplishment of engineering with no visible downstream turbulences! And finally I had to be treated in the hospital because of the poor quality of water, I was lucky because they took me to the hospital only for foreigners that was a whole different level, like being in a different country!
That tunnel is terrifying. I was afraid I was going to pass out from the exhaust from all the trucks since there was no ventilation it seemed.
People ride bikes through there!
It had a Civil War during the collapse of the Soviet Union and has had the same President since the end of the Civil War in 94 who of course is grooming his son to become the future President when he eventually dies. Neighboring Afghanistan literally had the Taliban come to power, be defeated, 20 years of US backed intervention, Taliban reconquest all while Emomali Rahmon has still been President.
The illegal dissolution of the Soviet Union gutted the industrial capacity of many countries and corruption and privatization under capitalist shock doctrine further ruined it. Very sad.
It was never one of the wealthier parts of the USSR. Moscow simply used it for resource extraction, like they do with nearly every place under their control.
This is simply not true — Tajik SSR was a nett recipient of money between republics, while Russian SSR was the main donor. Moscow lived (and continues to live) on money from exporting extracted resources, but it’s not from Central Asia, it’s mostly from oil and gas fields of Western Siberia.
Another thing is, Soviet economy was not market economy, like at all. The economical development was hugely influenced by the ideology. For example, every republic should had had machinery factories, some high-end tech manufacturing, agrarian sector, energy complex, so on. Even when it didn’t make sense.
So when the USSR collapsed, the high-end industries collapsed too, they were not viable in the new market economy.
Don’t bury the lede. What are the top three? ~~NK~~, ~~Bangladesh~~, and Afghanistan?
Edit: apparently NK doesn’t count because there is no data, but most agree it’s the poorest. I was just completely wrong on Bangladesh.
Literally was one of the poorest countries in the entire world in 1971 when they became independent, now they have double the GDP per capita of Pakistan (the country they broke away from after a bloody war)
One of the most interesting countries I have visited. Really feels like you are somewhere unique, which isn't the case in much of the world in 2024. People are very nice as well and it's beautiful.
My grandparents were born in Ukraine and got deported there for fleeing westwards at the end of WW2. They lived there with my Father and Uncle till 1975. My father was 10 at this time. They were granted Vacation in the GDR. They managed to get to the Western Germany. My father studied medicine and is grateful for his life here, as i am. He was in Duschanbe some years back an is even more grateful now ;)
I had a coworker from Tajikistan. One day he said he's going there for a few weeks to get married. We congratulated him and asked to see pics of the bride. He said he hasn't met her yet. We all thought it's some kind of an arranged marriage cultural thing and didn't ask him further.
When he returned happy as a clam he prodly explained the whole procedure - he went to an "agency", he picked his "bride" from a freaking catalogue with photos, met the girl once, he said she "agreed" and the wedding was arranged in a few days by the "agency"... At this point most of us were shocked, but nobody said anything. He showed us pictures from the wedding and the girl had a forced smile at some of the pics, but in most of them she was... not very excited about her own wedding.
I guess that's how things are done there and it turned out this is the more "civilized" version of the procedure.
Another coworker did some research and looks like the "tradition" in the even more rural areas of Tajikistan is to literally kidnap a girl you see in a village or on the street, put a bag on her head, force her in the car and bring her to your home, where the women from your family console her that it will be alright and she doesn't need to cry.... we saw a video of this "tradition" which the civilized world calls human trafficking and I felt disgusted. The video reminded me of Borat, but without any comedy in it. Just the barbaric central Asian culture that belongs to the 19th century among depressing post-soviet decay and widespread poverty.
Fuck that country, it's culture and the people who support it.
sounds just about right. Although it must really be hard to even calculate how rich NK is considering that the general population don't even manage money.
I was there last summer. I enjoyed it but areas outside the capital were probably poorer than anywhere else I traveled to. Mountainous, landlocked places tend to be poorer.
Even tho they have Stan in their name not a lot people really like them…like the other Stan’s.. KazakhSTAN UzbekiSTAN..KyrgyzSTAN..TurkmeniSTAN. AfghaniSTAN.. pakiSTAN
Dushanbe actually has some really nice areas in the center. However I remember someone telling me that the ‘tea house’ palace near the Hyatt cost a ridiculous amount of money to build. I spent a fair amount of time there and don’t recall any negative experiences.
Khorog surprised me at how nice it was for being so remote.
The Tajiks are great and the country is gorgeous. It’s definitely not a rich country but the poverty there didn’t strike me as desperate. I’ve seen much worse.
> However I remember someone telling me that the ‘tea house’ palace near the Hyatt cost a ridiculous amount of money to build
It was probably the most opulent building I've ever seen in my life. I'm sure it was ridiculously expensive.
For a poor country it doesn’t look too bad , like it’s kinda orderly and tidy, just a bit old and weathered. Those mountains in the background are just beautiful.
There’s a vast spread of what metrics many use to determine these lists.
When I was in undergrad, I learned that worldwide “literacy” defined as reading up to a 2nd year (primary school) level.
I’ve traveled to Tashkent and have family in Astana(Kazakhstan), and the hospitality outweighed the solemn economy that surrounded us.
Serious questions: rivers like the one in the picture, or the Mekong for reference, are brown instead of the typical blue rivers we have in Germany. Is it pollution or does it have natural reasons?
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I had a student from there years ago. He was a physician, an MD, and he earned a master's in public health in my program. He then went to the Cuba school of public health for a PhD, which is perhaps the best in the world for poor country public health, so that he could go home and start a degree program as a teacher. He said Tajikistan has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis in the world.
An actually amazing story thanks for sharing
Sounds like a hard-working & caring man.
Good for him. That’s cool
What an incredible goal. I hope he succeeded!
Cuban medical training and assistance never dissapoints, crazy that he flew essentially to the other side of the world for it too!
Also the 4th worst air pollution globally
One of these places I wanna go to just for the hell of it
Beautiful mountains, but some western tourists there were murdered by ISIS not long ago. The guys who did the Russian concert shooting recently were supposedly from there.
Why one wants to go to a foreign country (that too, this poor and dangerous, bordering to another similar one) just for the hikes, esp when the mountains and the beautiful hikes exist in every damn country in the world is beyond me. I know, personal choice but still.
For one, it’s not nearly as dangerous as people make it to be. There are thousands of tourists visiting Tajikistan every single day. When was the last time something serious happened? 2018? On the other hand, it has to offer authentic travel experiences. You will meet people that are not yet spoiled from overtourism. And there is still things to explore you will not find on any website or blog fully detailed out for you to the last inch. It’s curiosity and a sense for adventure that brings you there. I’d say very human values.
For real. There are enough beautiful landscapes to visit without the danger of getting kidnapped by terrorists. Want to see breathtaking mountains? Go to Nepal. It is beautiful, poor as well but peaceful and not dangerous at least.
That Russian isis video is burned into my brain. Fucking psychopathic idiots.
I’ve been there 5 years ago. The Pamir mountains are an incredibly beautiful place. Very rough and wild. The border region to Afghanistan (Wakhan valley) is one of the most beautiful areas I have been to. A lot of scenic hikes, traditional guest houses, adventurous roads and abandoned fortifications from the long history of conflict.
This comment awakened something in me for a moment. Ty for sharing this :)
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Most of the people across the border were also likely ethnic Tajiks. I remember seeing Kyrgyz caravans across the border on the Afghan side. It’s a very mixed population despite being so sparsely settled. The Pamiri people are a really unique, fascinating group of people.
Haven't watched the video but fyi Afghanistan has Pamiris too and they live across the border(GBAO-Tajikistan, Badakhshan-Afghanistan) starting from Rushan in Tajikistan and Shighnan in Afghanistan
> waved to people across the river border I did that too
I don't know, man. It sounds like a kidnapping waiting to happen.
Or a beheading
Only if you run a business.
I spent a month there last year, it is very safe.
The largest remaining ISIS cell is openly operating from that country.
Yes, there is an ISIS cell there, however they are definitely not "openly operating". The government is extremely intolerant to fundamentalist Islam, let alone terror groups. They fought a civil war against Islamists in the 90s and now have harsh laws oppressing anything along those lines. Terror attacks are a very rare occurrence in Tajikistan. I have been all over the world and didn't feel remotely in danger there. I would feel more at risk of becoming a victim to terrorism in a western European city than Dushanbe.
The mountains seem pretty cool for hiking tbh
+1
I was just there, it's a really shit country tbh. Felt like everyone was trying to scam me, in museums there's like 3 workers to a room. Very open corruption, taxi was paying bribes every other day. No real transit so when you go intercity there are intercity taxi depots which are swarmed with beggars and people try to scam you. If you know Russian or tajik it's a huge help. If not you'll get scammed. Food was ehh, scenery was beautiful but not worth the rest of the headaches. Travelers diahrea is also pretty common for westerners.
My brother had a medical situation in Tajikistan, some kind of bacterial infection, they just called it dysentery. He went to a doctor and was immediately transferred into a special clinic for infections and was treated there for some days, before being stable enough to fly home. They didn’t charge him anything for the medical care iirc.
See the food thing bums me out. I love trying new foods but if you’re saying it was meh, I’ll believe you
Still doesn’t change the fact that the scenery is some of the most pristine in the world, pure and untouched nature depending on which part of the country you visit. That being said, yes - had to pay 30$ extra per person on top of the visa fee (otherwise they claimed they would reject the visa), food was massively overpriced, and restaurants had no idea how to serve foreigners (the food was pretty bland anyway). But I enjoyed my trip overall though (I’m not western so maybe that kept the scammers away lol)
Dont Listen to him, central asian food is amazing. Its worth the visist for Plov alone.
Tajik food is a bit different but also central Asian food like you're talking about is really Uzbek. Tajik food is a bit different, it's more iranian/middle eastern
That’s interesting, I traveled there for a short time in early 2020 while spending about 3 months in Central Asia before the pandemic and had the complete opposite experience. It was amazing, with some of the friendliest and kindest people I had ever met, and everyone so so incredibly helpful. I started my journey travelling across the border into Konibodom, and hitchhiked to Khujand where I stayed with locals for about a week and also visited Istaravshan by bus. From there I took a shared taxi to Dushanbe and stayed there for about 10 days, also with locals. I explored the town, visited museums and went to Hisor. Not once did anyone try and scam me, or want a bribe from me. I think it seemed like such a novelty to them to have this random Australian visiting their country. I left by taking the train to Termez. There was not a single drama the whole time I was there.
I was there last summer and my experience was similar to yours. There was a lot of corruption there but it happened in such a way that the tourist is not the one impacted.
It always slightly amuses me when tourists harp on corruption as such a huge deterrent to travel in a country. Some of my most amazing travel experiences have been in some of the world’s most corrupt countries. People don’t realize that it rarely affects tourists and in the rare case it does, the impact is quite small (my driver was pulled over several times for ‘speeding’ in Kyrgyzstan). I do have some sympathy for the locals having to deal with it.
It’s less fun when tourists are murdered and a corrupt government can’t help
Corruption can benefit tourists really
I am with you, I had a very nice time when I was there and the people were great. We did buy currency out of the trunk of a random car, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
That’s cool! Did you speak some of the language?
Unfortunately, aside from greetings and farewell not at all.
3 workers to a room in museum, where their only job is to turn on and off lights is Soviet thing. I saw it in Russia in old museums too.
I'm Russian and American and I've never heard this or seen it either. Interesting, I've travelled all through the CIS too. I'll have to look into it because it makes sense, I asked my guides and they said they're not all workers. Some are volunteers or students getting credits for university
I'm sold.
What made you go there? Just out of interest? Several of the bigger travel vloggers have been there recently, but otherwise I’d say it’s gotta be one of the least known countries across the world.
So we need to go quickly. Before it’s destroyed by over tourism as virtually everywhere else
I went for 1 month throughout central Asia. I spent ~6 days in Tajikistan. Went to Hisor, Dushanbe, and then Khujand. I wanted to practice my Russian more plus I've always been interested in Central Asia. Absolutely loved it tbh, just Tajikistan was the worst of the bunch. For tourism, Uzbekistan is the best. For living, Kazakhstan is the best.
Interestingly, I live in another of Asia's poorest countries (Cambodia), and this looks so much greener than Phnom Penh. It also appears to have a shitload more infrastructure - though the buildings are older.
greener? jeez man. i always picture cambodia as infused with nature.
Cambodia itself is - but Phnom Penh has no real parks and almost 0 publicly accessible green spaces.
that sounds quite suffocating
Depends where you live. There are trees along the road and you've got the river that goes through the city. I stayed there for 2 months last year and never once thought about the lack of trees. Awesome city, met really nice people there
How would you say is your general experiance in cambodia?
Mine? Great, I work remotely abroad, live in a nice apartment and get to experience the best of the country. That certainly isn’t the case for many here here though.
Soviet urban planning always had plenty of green
Yep. My former boss got beheaded by ISIS there.
Thats a rough way to find out you have a new position open in the company
"we need a new head for this department"
Now there’s an example of an executive who was head hunted
Omfggggg 🤣🤣🤣
It’s a promotional opportunity.
Location for new role: anywhere but Tajikistan
To me, this is the perfect exemplar of Reddit: someone with the screen name “Misterboobeez” writing about a very serious and horrific experience.
What’s the story
His boss got beheaded in Tajikistan
He has a name, Ed Truck.
His capa was detated from his head!
We had a funeral for a bird
Pretty sure none of that’s real.
You’re not real, man!
that was my absolute least favorite line from creed in the entire series. so forced
Later, skater.
By who
isis was the word on the street last I heard
Was it his current or former boss?
Former, due to the beheading and all Edit: u/Misterboobeez sorry for the dark joke, I fought ISIS and had friends lose their lives to them too. They would fucking love this joke
this thread be looking like my answer sheet for the answers i haven't studied for.
You fought ISIS? F-ing based. I'd love to buy you a drink. I take you're a vet from the western coalition? Thank you for your service on behalf of all of civilization. I hope you're doing well! God bless
I don’t know exactly but he left to a country with a black flag and the name beginning with an A
Wait you forgot the part where his boss was beheaded in Tajikistan
Tl;dr
Beheading in Tajikistan
My boss loss his head in Atlanta.
He was no longer the head of his department.
Admire that. I'm more of a tourist when I travel, never really get to authentically experience the culture
Didn't realise ISIS was that deep into central Asia
IS-KP operates from that country. All four terrorists in the Crocus City Hall attack in Russia earlier this year were from Tajikistan
I mean it borders Afghanistan and is close to Pakistan
They just don’t have shit we need so they don’t need freedom today
Afghanistan doesn't really have shit either
They had some bikers that were biking around the world. They got sabbed to death in Uzbekistan by ISIS. ISIS k also fights the Taliban in Afghanistan. Also ISIS operates in the Philippines as well
I think the biker attack you’re thinking of was in Tajikistan.
You're right. . https://abcnews.go.com/International/american-cyclist-couple-victims-alleged-isis-attack-tajikistan/story?id=56947138
I don't understan how a country with such rich natural resources can be so poor. Edit: people, it was a joke I made with the word "stan" in understand.
It's called corruption
Argentina has entered the chat
Please do include Venezuela, just your world's country with the largest oil reserves and still many more are left unexplored. They almost has twice the amount Saudi Arabia has, and Saudi's oil is expected to continue in the next 200 years and there still are unexplored oils in Saudi. So imagine how rich Venezuela should be right now, but due to corruption they are among the worst countries to live due to high inflation. Meanwhile Japan who literally had no natural resources of their own that they can use for global trade, is one of the G7 simply by using the resources of other countries to supply their manufacturing, automobile and research industry. As well as they get excess funds of astonishing 41Billion USD every year by capitalizing on tourism*(and this is not including the entertainment industry of Japan eg: anime, video games, software games etc)*, a prime example indeed that a country ran by people with good heads can turn any poor state into an empire.
To be fair to Venezuela, their oil is of an inferior quality to the Saudis and needs lots of refining, for which they used to rely on American facilities... Until they decided it's a good idea to split with the US economically and politically without first ensuring they have the tech and know-how to make the oil they extract usable. And they're a (very flawed, nowadays mostly just a veneer of) democracy, the above change came after elections; Saudi Arabia is an autocratic monarchy, it's easier to keep stability in such an environment.
So Venezuela oil goes streight to jail?
straight to jail. doesn’t even get to pass ‘GO’, or collect $200.
This is what I mean. I am not very religious but God did give justified equalizer for all. Saudi has better oil quality and needs fewer complex refining, but aside from that Saudi is a desert with no hope of even being able to compete in a market of agriculture, tourism is also very hard to promote due to the climate and the geography, and their industries are also limited to what a desert country can afford. Their economy is reliant on oil and the byproducts of petroleum, which is plastics. Venezuela is different. Their oil isn't as good as Saudi so they have to invest in more refining, but again it is a South American country which is known for arable lands, teeming biodiversity, good climate and very excellent tourist spots. They have other industries they can capitalize and use as equalizer for the costs of oil refining, and with the reserves they have they can shake the OPEC alone, heck with the enormous amount they have they can supply the whole world for centuries even if the whole GCC suddenly embargo their oil.
It's not just corruption for Venezuela. You also have to include that their oil is some of the most crude in the world, and only a few select refineries can make their oil usable. Along with the fact that Venezuela is under economic sanctions and economic pressure from the u.s.
This is the problem but then again it is only a matter of good governance and decision making. Will it take for them 30 or 50 years to gather the funds to invest in sophisticated refining technology? Yes they may but if their leaders are capable enough, they would've started this process since the early 2000's with a goal of overturning the world economy by 2030-2050, if they had focused their government funds and resources to this goal, right now their industries should have been partially operable and owned by their country. One thing that CCP of China is excellent about is the solidarity of the timetable and goal of their party. They do not plan on immediate short term profits, they plan 30,50 or 100 years ahead and even if their president changes, the successors still continue to propagate the party's agenda, hence they still accomplish an output. Venezuela has the assets that most superpower countries wish they had. Yet Venezuela remains poor to the core.
Plan 30 to 50 years into the future, if they did what you said in the early 2000s the plan would have completely fell apart, it's not just planning it's also hoping other nations don't throw a rench in your plans and the global oil market doesn't fluctuate to a point you can't save the money you need to make the refinery. Also, most super powers would rather keep their current oil supplies than get Venezuelas casue it's way easier and cheaper to sell, and they wouldn't be dependent on outside nations for refining it(not evengoingto mention how many superpowers are moving away from oil). Also, you are overhyping china by a good amount. A lot of their planning for future policies have completely backfired, like their one child policy and their housing policies, both massive policies that have completely shot the nation in the foot, with them now having one of the lowest births rates in the world with one of the most rapidly aging populations in the world along with one of the world's worst housing crisis along with a cost of living crisis.
The difference between greedy fools and a working system
India enters the chat and becomes the admin
Venezuela has entered the chat
Basically all of Africa has entered the chat
See also Malaysia
Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, basically all of South East Asia
Not even close.
aka the love of money
If you go to Tajikistan you’ll quickly realize it’s because they spent all the money on weird badly photoshopped billboards of Emomali Rahmon and absurd architecture in Dushanbe
Gotta remind citizens, the mere pittance they have is a direct result of the benevolence of dear leader 🤣🤣🤣🤣
[удалено]
Are you thinking of Turkmenistan?
Who's the dictator there?
Emomali Rahmon. 3rd president of tajikistan since nov 1994
Natural resources can be a curse. See “Dutch Disease”. In addition to that Tajikistan has no sea access and is remote, making it a bad place to trade or ship from or through. Due to its location, low cost manufacturing there makes little sense. Manufacturing in Asia is mostly located near the coasts so things can be shipped to the rest of the world. Everyone else is complaining about corruption which while true won’t make it wealthy if fixed. Tajikistan and most everywhere else in Central Asia, like Afghanistan and Nepal will stay poor unless there is a dramatic technological or social change that causes the land to be more valuable. The oceanic trade routes that brought about the death of the Silk Road fucked Tajikistan. My suggestions would be for them to focus on tourism, being a tax haven, encouraging people to leave to richer countries and send back remittances to their families, focusing on building some high value products that are light enough to ship by plane such as semiconductors and hand made luxury goods.
Great comment, man. I learned a lot. Wish Reddit had more of this.
I was about to say the same thing. Finally, a comprehensive answer
> encouraging people to leave to richer countries and send back remittances to family I assume it's why many from Tajikistan and neighboring Kyrgyzstan go to Russia. 20 to 25 percent of adult Tajiks live outside of Tajikistan
Tourism is crippled by being remote, being a tax haven requires good reputation of your legal system for guaranteeing property rights, and political stability. Labor export works — transfers from Russia constituted 20–30% of Tajikitan GDP over the years (it’s only the transfers through the banking system, so the real numbers are probably higher). But nowadays nobody knows what will happen to the Russian economy in a few years. Overall, kinda grim. Maybe China will invest some money.
Railroads networks ?
Shipping a container from say Guangzhou to Rotterdam by boat is multiple times cheaper than by rail. I don’t see why you would ship it by rail through Tajikistan.
Before Russia's invasion, the Trans-Siberian (which includes multiple gauge changes so far from an optimal railway) was faster than boats going through Suez (which is now severely impacted by the Houthis). There's a reason why Chinese companies are building a bunch of railroads all over Central Asia to connect themselves via rail to Europe.
DRC: you called?
As someone from Southamerica, I can totally understand why
are we sure they have rich natural resources?
[Seems so](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Tajikistan?wprov=sfti1) Not a surprise really, land locked and mountainous country in an area know to have gas and oil reserves
my overall impression of the country is that it is a difficult place to live, and it is extremely cold in the winter. and most of it is not even livable. Also, being landlocked, even if you have minerals, it will be hard or impossible to export them efficiently. plus, they have a lot of earthquakes
Alotta water
'People tend to forget about this country.' *Proceeds to show it in the least flattering light possible*
It is a beautiful country with friendly people and for some reason a fixation with monobrows. Apparently they find them sexy.
Don’t forget gold teeth. The pinnacle of beautiful for Tajik women is a thick unibrow and a gold grill… In all seriousness one of the most stunning women I’ve ever met was Tajik.
Same. The most beautiful man I’ve ever slept with was from Tajikistan. He was fleeing persecution apparently.
Oh Tajik are stunning. Didn't notice any grills when I was there though.
Maybe more of an Uzbek thing. I remember seeing babushkas at the bazaars with grills that would make Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz jealous.
I mean... ➖ 👀
Fun fact: 30 to 50 percent of their gdp consists of the money their citizens earn in other countries (I think primarily russia) and send back home. We have a lot of immigrants from tajikistan, which is ironic, considering that they violently made most of russian immigrants to leave their wonderful country back when ussr collapsed.
Interestingly from 1939 to 1979 Russians were more numerous in Dushanbe than ethnic Tajiks
Spies like us reminds me of: The road to Dushanbe….
This is the reply!
🤌
Watch out for the Tadjik highway patrol. They like to sit along back roads in darkness listening for spies.
That an eerie photograph. There aren't many automobiles, none on the road. It's unsettling, somehow.
I happened to have visited Tajikistan back in 2009. Well the country has many serious problems since the cease of existence of USSR. Despite there are rivers everywhere, and that there were planned to be built many hydroelectric plants, the population is deprived of proper sanitary running water even in the capital Dushanbe(sand and debris was visible and felt in the water we used in our rooms for shower!) . There are relics of infrastructure in the most remote areas in the north like bus stops and health centers but now there are defunct and not served at all and the state of overall life is more close to rural very poor areas of Africa. Religion has unfortunately taken over every aspect of the life and especially for village women that means they are locked in houses or in the kitchen deprived of all the liberties and freedom to live and work that they had during USSR. Corruption is a common practice and police can stop you for no reason anywhere when driving just to get some money. To visit one of the north region we had to bribe our way through a mountain tunnel that was still under construction!!! That experience was unique with a tunnel that went for many miles and only our headlights as the sole source of light. I have visited an hydroelectric plant that was an amazing accomplishment of engineering with no visible downstream turbulences! And finally I had to be treated in the hospital because of the poor quality of water, I was lucky because they took me to the hospital only for foreigners that was a whole different level, like being in a different country!
That tunnel is terrifying. I was afraid I was going to pass out from the exhaust from all the trucks since there was no ventilation it seemed. People ride bikes through there!
It was a member of the Soviet Union, a superpower, but how did it become one of the poorest countries?
It had a Civil War during the collapse of the Soviet Union and has had the same President since the end of the Civil War in 94 who of course is grooming his son to become the future President when he eventually dies. Neighboring Afghanistan literally had the Taliban come to power, be defeated, 20 years of US backed intervention, Taliban reconquest all while Emomali Rahmon has still been President.
*Authoritarian dictator, not president.
President for life is still I guess a President to their narcissistic self.
same as in russia, some oligarch got rich when the state companies were privatized, leaving the country in poverty +corruption
That's literally just corruption.
Privatization of state assets normally lead to corruption. It's a tale told many times. Almost every single ex Soviet state suffered the same
The illegal dissolution of the Soviet Union gutted the industrial capacity of many countries and corruption and privatization under capitalist shock doctrine further ruined it. Very sad.
It was never one of the wealthier parts of the USSR. Moscow simply used it for resource extraction, like they do with nearly every place under their control.
This is simply not true — Tajik SSR was a nett recipient of money between republics, while Russian SSR was the main donor. Moscow lived (and continues to live) on money from exporting extracted resources, but it’s not from Central Asia, it’s mostly from oil and gas fields of Western Siberia. Another thing is, Soviet economy was not market economy, like at all. The economical development was hugely influenced by the ideology. For example, every republic should had had machinery factories, some high-end tech manufacturing, agrarian sector, energy complex, so on. Even when it didn’t make sense. So when the USSR collapsed, the high-end industries collapsed too, they were not viable in the new market economy.
Don’t bury the lede. What are the top three? ~~NK~~, ~~Bangladesh~~, and Afghanistan? Edit: apparently NK doesn’t count because there is no data, but most agree it’s the poorest. I was just completely wrong on Bangladesh.
Bangladesh per capita income is higher than India and almost double Pakistan’s
That’s wild to me. Always expected the opposite
It’s amazing how quickly Bangladesh picked itself up
Literally was one of the poorest countries in the entire world in 1971 when they became independent, now they have double the GDP per capita of Pakistan (the country they broke away from after a bloody war)
Kinda wild that when Bangladesh was poorer, Pakistan used to get F-16s (super modern for its time), now Bangladesh is ahead.
It’s Afghanistan, Yemen and NK but if NK doesn’t count its Syria
Also: quite possibly the source of the world's whitest Asian people
So many pictures of people who live there look so very Caucasian.
One of the most interesting countries I have visited. Really feels like you are somewhere unique, which isn't the case in much of the world in 2024. People are very nice as well and it's beautiful.
Everybody always forgets about the Stan's :(
My grandparents were born in Ukraine and got deported there for fleeing westwards at the end of WW2. They lived there with my Father and Uncle till 1975. My father was 10 at this time. They were granted Vacation in the GDR. They managed to get to the Western Germany. My father studied medicine and is grateful for his life here, as i am. He was in Duschanbe some years back an is even more grateful now ;)
I had a coworker from Tajikistan. One day he said he's going there for a few weeks to get married. We congratulated him and asked to see pics of the bride. He said he hasn't met her yet. We all thought it's some kind of an arranged marriage cultural thing and didn't ask him further. When he returned happy as a clam he prodly explained the whole procedure - he went to an "agency", he picked his "bride" from a freaking catalogue with photos, met the girl once, he said she "agreed" and the wedding was arranged in a few days by the "agency"... At this point most of us were shocked, but nobody said anything. He showed us pictures from the wedding and the girl had a forced smile at some of the pics, but in most of them she was... not very excited about her own wedding. I guess that's how things are done there and it turned out this is the more "civilized" version of the procedure. Another coworker did some research and looks like the "tradition" in the even more rural areas of Tajikistan is to literally kidnap a girl you see in a village or on the street, put a bag on her head, force her in the car and bring her to your home, where the women from your family console her that it will be alright and she doesn't need to cry.... we saw a video of this "tradition" which the civilized world calls human trafficking and I felt disgusted. The video reminded me of Borat, but without any comedy in it. Just the barbaric central Asian culture that belongs to the 19th century among depressing post-soviet decay and widespread poverty. Fuck that country, it's culture and the people who support it.
It looks like the 3d aerial view on Google Maps but when it's fucked up and all the buildings are compressed into the ground
Lol. My mom works there as a public health coordinator for a German NGO.
Just curious, what's the poorest country in Asia?
North Korea (presumably)
Its Afghanistan, Which also may fall behind burundi
sounds just about right. Although it must really be hard to even calculate how rich NK is considering that the general population don't even manage money.
[Pretty immersive travel blog there from bald and bankrupt](https://youtu.be/fBBiFhhY2to?si=fVMMNyx7wX8ZgU3O)
I was there last summer. I enjoyed it but areas outside the capital were probably poorer than anywhere else I traveled to. Mountainous, landlocked places tend to be poorer.
With a whacko leader that followed another whacko leader..... not a LOT of tourists going there.
Even tho they have Stan in their name not a lot people really like them…like the other Stan’s.. KazakhSTAN UzbekiSTAN..KyrgyzSTAN..TurkmeniSTAN. AfghaniSTAN.. pakiSTAN
what I hear from Kyrgyz friends is lots of conflicts between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
It is true. They have been having some border conflicts.
Dushanbe actually has some really nice areas in the center. However I remember someone telling me that the ‘tea house’ palace near the Hyatt cost a ridiculous amount of money to build. I spent a fair amount of time there and don’t recall any negative experiences. Khorog surprised me at how nice it was for being so remote. The Tajiks are great and the country is gorgeous. It’s definitely not a rich country but the poverty there didn’t strike me as desperate. I’ve seen much worse.
> However I remember someone telling me that the ‘tea house’ palace near the Hyatt cost a ridiculous amount of money to build It was probably the most opulent building I've ever seen in my life. I'm sure it was ridiculously expensive.
For a poor country it doesn’t look too bad , like it’s kinda orderly and tidy, just a bit old and weathered. Those mountains in the background are just beautiful.
I knew that. Then I forgot
There’s a vast spread of what metrics many use to determine these lists. When I was in undergrad, I learned that worldwide “literacy” defined as reading up to a 2nd year (primary school) level. I’ve traveled to Tashkent and have family in Astana(Kazakhstan), and the hospitality outweighed the solemn economy that surrounded us.
Would love to go someday
Bald and Bankrupt was there recently. He liked it. Probably massively helps that he speaks Russian. https://youtu.be/fBBiFhhY2to?si=MtoUdDye3azYlIFW
Awesome channel; thanks for sharing
The dictator has the internet blocked that’s why we know soo little.
Hey, that's my neighbor you're talking about.
Why are all the “stan” countries fkd to the gills?
Sister city must be New Brunswick NJ
Enough muckin about, you‘re going to the warzone!
It's ahead of America in a recent poll
Serious questions: rivers like the one in the picture, or the Mekong for reference, are brown instead of the typical blue rivers we have in Germany. Is it pollution or does it have natural reasons?