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| Hotel Tajikistan |
Conference venue: Hotel Tajikistan
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| Map of Central Asia and Caucasus (click to enlarge) |
General information about Tajikistan:
- Background note on Tajikistan
- History
- Climate: in Dushanbe, temperatures vary between a minimum -13°C (8°F) in December/January to a maximum 33°C (91°F) in July/August. Humidity is generally low.
- Exchange rate: in May 2003, 1US$=3.1 somonis
- Food and drinks: Avoid drinking tap water;
Meals: Traditional Tajik meals start with sweet dishes such as halwa and tea
and then progress to soups and meat before finishing with plov. Plov is made
up of scraps of mutton, shredded yellow turnip and rice, fried in a large wok,
and is a staple dish in all the Central Asian republics. The appetising shashlyk
(skewered chunks of mutton grilled over charcoal, served with raw sliced onions)
and lipioshka (round unleavened bread) are often sold on street corners and
served in restaurants: the Vastoychny bar restaurant in Dushanbe (on Prospekt
Rudaki near the Hotel Tajikistan) serves particularly good shashlyk. Manty (large
noodle sacks of meat), samsa (samosas) and chiburekki (deep-fried dough cakes)
are all popular as snacks. Shorpur is a meat and vegetable soup; laghman is
similar to shorpur, but comes with noodles. In the summer, Tajikistan is awash
with fruit: its grapes and melons were famous throughout the former Soviet Union.
The bazaars also sell pomegranates, apricots, plums, figs and persimmons. Little
of the food served in hotels indicates its Tajik heritage: borcht is beetroot
soup, entrecote are well-done steaks, cutlet are grilled meatballs, and strogan
is the local equivalent of beef Stroganoff. Pirmeni, originating in Ukraine,
are small boiled noodle sacks of meat and vegetables similar to ravioli, sometimes
in a vegetable soup, sometimes not.
Tea or chai is the most widespread drink on offer and can be obtained almost
anywhere. Beer, wine, vodka, brandy and sparkling wine (shampanski) are intermittently
available in many restaurants. Kefir, a thick drinking yoghurt, is often served
with breakfast.
Useful links:
UN Human Development Indicators Tajikistan 2002
The CIA World Factbook 2002 Tajikistan
Official news website : http://tajikistan.tajnet.com/english/news.htm
Poverty Reduction Strategy paper of Tajikistan (2002)
Amnesty International Tajikistan
International Crisis Group Report on Tajikistan 2003