Nurek

Though I would classify myself as a city girl, this is the first time I’ve really lived in a city. I’ve always been in the suburbs or in smaller towns like Madison or Annapolis. It’s interesting to live in the center of things, but it’s also a bit draining. Most everyone I’ve talked to at the Embassy has stressed the importance of getting away every once in awhile.

The Nurek Dam is about an hour away from Dushanbe on the Vakhsh River. The reservoir is simply known as Nurek and it’s currently the largest in Tajikistan. On the bight blue waters of the reservoir is the Aqua Club house boat that has become my current favorite place in Tajikistan.

The crystal clear blue waters were a little cold but in the 100 degree heat of the day the chill was soon forgotten. The drop off the boat was about 60 feet so while there was no bottom in sight it was perfect for jumping and diving off the docks. We spent hours floating around and soaking up the sun.

Some of the more adventurous in our group rented jet skis and took out the boats. I stayed far away from the jet skis. If know you my history with motorized vehicles (the vespa incident for starters) you’ll understand why.

As we departed the sun was just starting to dip below the mountains surrounding the basin. It was truly breathtaking and almost made me forget we were in the middle of Central Asia.

Then, of course, we piled into marshrutkas and it was back to business as usual.