Woke up around 8am to have breakfast with my teammates at 9am. This was my breakfast every single morning I was there – two sunny side up eggs, assortment of hams, sausage and cheese, croissant, coffee, fresh juice and fresh plum, peach and grapes.
After working, we then went out for our super late lunch/early dinner at a local restaurant our colleague recommended called Toqi. Outside, it looked like a boring building with some camel statues but inside, there were artificial trees decorating the place.
Plus, we had to eat in a small stone room on a low table and sit on the floor with their carpets and plush pillows, making us feel like locals.
My colleague ordered some bread, salad and pilov for us. Pilov is like their version of biryani – flavored basmati rice topped with spiced beef, fish and quail egg. Ended with some fresh watermelon and cantaloupe.
We still had some time to spare before our next meeting so we did a quick stop at this huge building (again, yes they love huge buildings) with tons of columns.
Inside they were selling.. Every kind of nuts and spices! But as you can see, the place was huge but empty. It’s a new building so there weren’t a lot of merchants yet. Still, I can’t imagine the place being filled with sellers and buyers and being a hustling and bustling market place. Perhaps in 10 years or so. 
We then went to our scheduled meeting which was with the venue for our upcoming conference in October. They call it the Kokhi Navruz or the Navruz Palace. They had extra large roses all over their gardens.
We did an ocular of the place and again – the building, or should I say palace, was over the top! Think carved wood, glass filled rooms, chandeliers, huge round tables you only see in movies or in international media, tons of columns, hand painted walls and ceilings, all in all giving it a grandiose feel. Kinda weird for a developing country, if you ask me. I’ll let the photos do the talking, though they hardly do any justice.
Worked again until I fell asleep on the bed.
The next day, all our other colleagues including the bosses started arriving so we were definitely on war mode. Again, we had our super late lunch/ early dinner at Rokhat Teahouse since our other colleagues haven’t been there. We walked going there from the hotel which was a bit far (and too hot under the afternoon Tajik sun) but my Spanish colleague really wanted to walk. We passed by this almost dry lake (?) with the second largest flag in the world (the largest one belongs to Pakistan).
Good thing my friend was with us since he interpreted and ordered for us. If we didn’t have a Russian speaker with us, we’d be lost with the menu! By the time we got to the restaurant, we were famished. We ordered a variety of salads, flat bread, soup, huge dumplings with meat inside and sour cream sauce and of course, shashlik. My favorite salad is the beets with Japanese mayo. For 8 people, we each shelled out TJS50. Not bad at all.
The rest of the day was spent working and the night was spent chilling with my friend.
jlapis 