World Wide Photo Walk: Part 3 - With a Vengeance!

Final post from the 2013 World Wide Photo Walk.

These are a few of the photos I took.

 Loved the "hood ornament" on this car

 Sometimes it takes a change of perspective

Now I know where to do my Christmas shopping... (yes, this is a bucket of coal)

This was very engaging... :-)

If you have gotten to the bottom of this page, please follow my new Twitter feed.  I will be making shorter posts there which will allow me to share in real time while I'm out and about (aboot for the Canadians).

World Wide Photo Walk (part deux)

On Saturday morning, we participated in the 6th Annual World Wide Photo Walk, and had a great time. 

This was the third year that I have led a walk, (first two years were in Bend), and each year I think that Sharon takes more pictures and I end up talking more with participants.

One of the reasons I like leading the photo walk so much is because I get to see people who are interested in photography go out and explore a small part of the city they live in.  This isn't remarkable on its own, but what is great is the way that they start to see the city they look at every day.  

Here's some of Sharon's photos that she felt were her best photos of the day.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!  This is definitely fresh food.

Sometimes a different perspective lets you see things completely new.

Old Russian truck

 Sharon likes this photo the best.

Sharon used Moose to lure these children in for pictures.  

Kind of shameless to use the dog as kiddie bait, but it gets results :)

This is really how the kids looked, but we photo-shopped them to look more normal :)  

Now you know why they were so interested in chasing Moose.

 More photos from the walk coming next blog.

WorldWide Photo Walk

Getting ready to head out for the 6th annual WorldWide Photo Walk.
This year there's over 28,000 people signed up to participate!

This will be the third one I've led (with Sharon's help) and expect it to be a fun day. 

I'll post some of our best photos later. 

Getting cameras & other gear ready to go. 

For The Love of Money

or... Playin' Monopoly* in Real Life!

*Monopoly is a registered trademark of the Hasbro company, we have no affiliation to Hasbro nor Monopoly so please don't sue us for using the name :)

Tajikistan is basically an all-cash country.  I'm sure that someplace takes credit/debit, but none of the places that we frequent :(

It's kind of a weird experience to have to walk around with cash at all times.  Not because we have never done this before, but more because the cost of everything is quite high (relatively speaking) and I never know how much anything is going to cost.

In many respects, it is a lot like Monopoly* money for us because for every 1 dollar, we (currently) get 4.88 Somoni.  The money is different colors and sizes and when I go to the store to buy a Snickers and bottle of water, it will cost me 4.50 Somoni. 

The dollar amounts that are being paid out of our pocket is ridiculous at times so it makes it all kind of not real in a way.

For example, I went to the store yesterday and purchased the following items:
     1 tin of Danish butter cookies
     5 mandarins
     1 candy bar
My total for these items was: 98.80 Somoni!

I plan on shopping later today for some steaks and some potatoes to have for dinner tomorrow night with a couple of friends.  In order to go shopping, I will be taking (just in case) 700.00 Somoni because I have no idea what any of it will actually cost me.

Any given day, I could have anywhere from 100 to 3,000 Somoni in my pocket.  Of course, it makes me feel like I'm rolling in dough.  However, it's also a little irritating when I can't fit it all in my pocket and have to use my backpack to carry my cash...can't decide if this is a first-world problem or not :)

If you're counting, this is roughly 3,500 Somoni - which might get us through a couple of weeks of groceries.
Very colorful, kind of like in a board game...

50 Somoni bills. Largest we've gotten is a 500 Somoni bill :)

Each bill gets a little longer & a little taller. Helps cut down on counterfeiting (can't take a $1 & turn it into a $100 - read Jack Reacher Killing Floor)

She was a day tripper...

Took a day trip to Nurek on Saturday with a local friend that works at Sharon's school. 

We drove up to one of the lakes outside of Dushanbe, rented a small lakeside cabin and had a relaxing time watching the still water of the lake, cooking shashlik (pronounced sha-shleek - which is basically what we would call shish-kebob with only meat on the stick), and having basically a lazy day in a stunning country.

We ended up driving through the Norak Tunnel which is a very long tunnel of 2,223 meters long!  

** According to Google, that's 1.38 miles for you Americans not on the metric system yet :) **

We stopped at a small pullout area overlooking the Norak Reservoir where I was surprised to see some small tented eateries that act as a rest stop for weary travelers. 

Unfortunately, this time of year there is quite a lot of dust that blows into the region from Afghanistan so there is a haze over everything in the distance in all of the photos.  Hopefully we can get back up to the area later in the year (or in spring which we've been told is amazing).

You will notice a bridge that we were going to cross... that is until we looked to the other end and saw that it seemed to list slightly to the right :(  

On the way into the mountains

There's a great variety of mountain area in Tajikistan.

It's a bit hazy, but still a great view.

High and dry.

Some great rock formations around almost every corner.

View from the top - looking at one end of the reservoir.

The haze made it difficult to see very far.

Full-service food stop - washing up before eating lunch.

You can get some fresh vegetables.

Enjoying a nice lunch before getting back on the road.  

Not like the McDonald's we're used to seeing at a rest stop.

Here's our cabin that we rented.

View from the cabin balcony - like I said, relaxing.

The water was an amazing shade of blue and green.  

This is the reflection of the mountains in the water from the balcony.

The river was a great deep blue and moving steadily.

Some guys fishing in the river.

Here's the bridge we were going to drive across...yep, that's a few feet down on the right side there!

Walked to the end to see exactly why it was so out of sorts. 

I can't even fathom what could have happened to this bridge to cause this damage.

And we were all astonished to see a local truck driving all the way across!

We were concerned just walking it...Moose didn't even walk it :)

 

It's called fashion, look it up.

The other day, we decided to go out to Korvon (pronounced Core-Von) Market which is the largest shopping area in Dushanbe.  

As opposed to the green market(s), Korvon has basically everything you could want or need (as long as it isn't from the US). 

I took a few pictures inside to show some of what Korvon has to offer.  Mostly, I was intrigued by some of the clothes that the locals wear and it can all be found at Korvon.

Korvon is at least covered instead of outdoors.  There's a nice drain in the center of the walkway (not pictured here).  

Yes ladies, THIS is a shoe store in Tajikistan!  

Not the smallest one I saw this day but also not the largest either.

Skinny jeans galore.  We have noticed this is a style that has been popular in Europe for several years (this is a hipster paradise right here y'all)

Seriously, if the jeans are too skinny to even hook onto the mannequin then you should rethink your target demographic. 

It's an interesting country.  One stall over from skinny jeans and push-up bras is a stall selling head scarves because there are enough traditional Muslim women who still wear this style (from what we've been told the women typically wear the head dress because their husbands want them to)

STOP!  It's Hammer Time!!  (Click on the photo for a treat)

This just might turn you into a vegetarian.  It's funny to talk to the Embassy people about the meat stalls and how "unsanitary" this is but I watched a cow being butchered in the heat and sun of Dominican Republic and nobody thought they were going to die if they ate that meat.

Sometimes it's difficult to tell the Chinese knock-off products from the real ones but I think this one is not an official Apple product, not 100% sure, but I have a feeling that I can't get AppleCare to cover this.

Looking for pure comfort while you sleep?  

Don't like being poked in the eye from those down-filled pillows?  

Here's the solution - Ferret-stuffed pillows!

This one's a little distorted because it's a panorama of the inside of the shared taxi vans.  These are designed to seat up to 9 passengers but this one had 10 at the time.

If you want to see a short video of a taxi with the "money taker" hanging out of the open door while we're driving, click this link:  https://www.box.com/s/mgjtv51vddt6b5kqc07v

This had 11 people at the time of the video (had 12 max at one point).  This is pretty common for the shared taxi's to load as many people as possible since they are making the trip with or without passengers.

If you are still reading and want to know what the post title is in reference to then you can check out this video:  http://goo.gl/wEhkzs  - wait until about 2:54 into the video for the golden moment!