Some more photos for you all. After seeing the machinery, we went up to the top of Nurek Dam and got on an old, rusty, but brightly painted boat that plies the reservoir.
Our trusty "steed"
The ride out on the reservoir lake was tremendous as the hot weather (36 degree celsius) was totally counteracted by the breeze as we were splayed across the boat.
Riding on the boat across Nurek reservoir
Our destination was a house boat on the reservoir, which is apparently owned by the muck-a-mucks of one of Tajikistan’s biggest banks. These house boats are not “officially” for rent; of course, they don’t “officially” exist either, so we found a way to rent it out for the day.
It was simple, but the house boat certainly did the trick.
Once we got to the house boat, we swam and swam in the beautiful turquoise water (which, incidentally and anecdotally, is the drinking water for the city of Dushanbe — oops), had two meals of traditional Tajik delicacies (yum, lots of gristle and lots of excellent apricots), talked about the good ol’ days of the Soviet empire with our host, and soaked up the sun. A pretty gosh darn good day all around.
The view from the house boat facing towards the dam
And, at the end of the day as we were all in food and sun comas, we went up to the viewing platform that was constructed for Brezhnev to see the dam upon its completion. A group photo:
A very international group, a Peruvian, two Germans (east and west), two Italians, two Tajiks, an Englishwoman, and me.
All in all, a terrific day, and apparently, quite a rare one as not many people get to actually go out on Nurek reservoir, so a lucky day too.
