I've arrived safely in Dushanbe. Largely uneventful flights except I had a man with truly remarkable-smelling breath sitting behind me on the route from Riga to Dushanbe. So powerful was the emitted odour that it prevented me from sleeping at all, for the duration of the 6 hour flight.

The centre of Dushanbe very much resembles the new parts of Tashkent - (mostly) ugly soviet architecure, and wide tree-lined avenues. The main difference being the snowcapped Fan mountains which provide the backdrop.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to head to the car bazaar at the south of the city to see if I can find a motorcycle suitable for the Pamir Highway. Things don't look good so far though, as I haven't seen one motorcycle on the roads yet. I also need to get registered with the OVIR here, which means I'm likely to be here until Monday or Tuesday.