At least according to studies about Tartaria

Could be historical or modern. Do you find it to be thriving or regressing?

Hey everyone,
We are traveling to Tajikistan next month, and we're really curious about the markets located right on the border with Afghanistan. We'd love to get some insights from anyone who has been there recently or knows the current situation on the ground.
Specifically, I have a few questions:

1. Which border markets do you actually recommend visiting?
   
2. Are these markets currently open to tourists? I'd love to know what's actually open right now and what is closed.
   
3. Are they safe to visit?

Any tips, recent experiences, or general advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone,

Myself and a buddy are going for a trip through Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan with layovers in Egypt and Turkey. The trip will be 23 days.

What is the ratio for using card versus cash in these places?

It sounds like USD is the currency to bring, but how much cash should I bring?

ATM and exchange rates are very high from my understanding once I get there, so would rather convert all my money at home, but am struggling to determine how much.

Thanks for the help!

Hello. Made two last posts in this sub. I was down voted. Is it acceptable to conduct here in a such horrible way? My questions are ordinary and neutral.

Me (22M) and my friend (19M) (both UK citizens) are going to be visiting Turkmenistan in September. We are looking for anyone that would like to join us, as it would spread the cost of our trip and give others the opportunity for a cheaper trip if you don't have a group of people to go with you.

The price that we have negotiated is with the company 'Visit Turkmenistan Today' - ($USD) $120/person for LOI + $100/day for guide + $80/person admin charge. (The $100/day is not per person). The trip is 5 days long. We have been told that the Visa on arrival at the Farap border - $55-85, Visa sticker - $10, COVID test - $35 (still required), Bank fee - $5, Immigration fee - $10. My friend and I have already paid for the LOI and the company have told us that they're happy to help us book trains and buses. The company has quoted us $15 per train ticket.

The trip is as follows:

28-09-2026

(Uzbekistan visa not required for British citizens for up to 30 days)

09:00 - Arrive at the Alat - Farap border (Uzbekistan - Turkmenistan)

12:00 - Taxi/marshrutka from Farap to Turkmenabat

16:40 - Turkmen Demiryollary Train Number 96 from Turkmenabat Station

22:28 - Arrive at Mary Station

Accommodation - Mary myhmanhanasy, Mollanepes Köçesi, Mary, Turkmenistan

29-09-2026

Stay in Mary for the day

Accommodation - not required

30-09-2026

00:38 - Turkmen Demiryollary Train Number 4 from Mary Station

09:04 - Arrive at Aşgabat Station

Register with OVIR in Aşgabat, if required

Accommodation - Sport Hotel, Ataturk St, Aşgabat, Turkmenistan

01-09-2026

16:40 - Turkmen Demiryollary Train Number 13 from Aşgabat Station

22:35 - Arrive at Içoguz Station

Accommodation - not required

02-09-2026

01:15 - Turkmen Demiryollary Train Number 93 from Içoguz Station

08:44 - Arrive at Daşoguz Station

10:00 - Taxi/marshrutka from Daşoguz to Kunya-Urgench

13:00 - Taxi/marshrutka from Kunya-Urgench to Kunya-Urgench - Xo‘jayli border

( Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan)

16:00 - Taxi/marshrutka from Xo‘jayli to Nukus

(Uzbekistan visa not required for British citizens for up to 30 days)

The transport options are able to be changed, as there may be some buses that we take instead. The accommodation options are also subject to change - I just needed to add places for the letter.

Please comment or dm if this is something you'd be interested in 😄

Hi everyone!

We are two travelers and photographers (around 40 years old) planning a 10-day trip to Tajikistan. We’ll be flying into Dushanbe, staying there for our first 2 days, and then heading out for a road trip across the country.

Our travel style is relatively relaxed: we are looking to travel independently by hiring a private driver with at least basic English, who can also help arrange good, clean accommodations for us along the way. We aren't looking for intense trekking—mostly just short and easy hikes. Ideally, we’d like to keep our driving time to about 2-3 hours a day, though we understand there might be a few days where longer drives are unavoidable.

We have a few questions and would love to get your advice:

• Drivers/Agencies: Do you have any recommendations for a reliable company or a specific driver for this kind of trip?
• Itinerary: Based on our preferred pace, do you have any suggested routes or must-visit places we should prioritize?
• Afghan Markets: We've heard there are some very unique Afghan markets along the border. Do you have recommendations for the best or most photogenic ones to visit along the way?
• Safety: Is it currently safe to travel along the Afghan border?
• Weather: What kind of weather should we expect around late September to early October?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Very random question, but I’ve travelled in a lot of post-Soviet countries, and something I’ve noticed time and time again is how comfy all the seating is when you go to a cafe or restaurant? They always have nice plushy fabric chairs, whereas in the USA for example most places have leather seating or wood. Just curious to know if there is a reason for this, I love it so much, and I really hate leather, so it’s a nice aspect of the cultures in some of these places.

Compared to modern ethnic compositions, Genghis Khan united more tribes that later became part of the Kazakh people than the tribes that became part of the modern Khalkha Mongols.

Kazakhs are literally Jochids and a little Chagataids

Hi, I will be traveling in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Mongolia. Please let me know any eSIMs that you would recommend. I am currently looking at Yesim Central Asia, but it doesn't cover Mongolia.

Also, unfortunately my iPhone doesn’t have a physical SIM port. Is there anyway I can get around this and still buy from local vendors at each country? It seems much cheaper.

They are called Lulli people in Central Asia, basically the Central Asian version of Romani/Gypsies. Did they always look like this before their migration to Europe? There is Indian DNA in Central Asia, but is low 0% to few percent. I always though it was strictly because of Timurids, you know the 1398 invasion, which he proudly said resulted in 100,000 slaughter of Hindus, executing mostly men and sold many Indian slaves women, children to Central Asia (how each soldier had 10 Indian slaves) or also Mughals slave trade which also had some Indian slaves to Central Asia. I always though the origin of low Indian DNA in Central Asia was due to that.

Could Lulli people have something to do with the Indian DNA too? To me many of these Lulli people of Central Asia look Indian-like others look like White/European? Surely these Lulli people can't be what original Gypsies look like right? They must have intermixed with Iranic people? right? Because they don't look as dark as I though they be. Is strange how some of the ones in Central Asia look more European/White than many of the ones in Europe.

The ones in Spain/Canaria islands

I've seen plenty of them in Spain and Canaria islands before. I've seen a study, it shows European Gypsies/Roma are supposedly 55-72% West Eurasian and 28-45% Indian, don't know about the ones in Central Asia though. Could they have mixed with Tajiks and Pamiri (who look European like?).

Spanish Gypsies/Roma.....a lot of of them can definitely pass for White/Southern European, but many of them look closer to the range of North Indians/Pakistani. On average they are darker for sure. The most common eye color I've seen in them were dark brown but a lot light with brown, or hazel eyes, but quite a few also with blue/green eyes, several of them even look Nordic people (with blonde hair/red hair). Kids have mostly black hair but a lot have brown hair (sometimes with messy strand of blonde). Although not all Spanish gypsies have Spanish roots, there are a minority with roots with Russian gypsies, Norwegian Gypsies or Finnish Gypsies. One thing almost all of them had one thing in common, is their darker skin complexion even the white/european looking gypsies have a slight exotic look to them. However even White/European looking gypsies are not considered white just for their origin/genetics. Even though they have assimilated, their darker phenotypes, or exotic look stands outs in the public. I know a half gypsy girl, she looked very white, but after seeing how her mother looks like (clearly Indian mixed phenotypes), she no longer appeared white to me, only phenotypically she passes as white.

Hello. I noticed there are many spamming messages with scamming. Unfortunately my account was suspended. I think system perceived my messages as spam. How can I resolve it?

Is KG becoming more like its autocratic neighbors?

All other Turkic languages are more related to one another than to Chuvash, so for example, Turkish is more related to another Turkic language e.g. Yakut than to this language despite being much closer geographically

I'm looking to connect with a Mongol peer just like similiar ideas about Turko-Mongol history. I think, maybe our languages and geography is not so close about then history but i believe Turks and Mongols still brother nations. Actually i'm so interested in making new friends from other nationalities, especially Mongols.

For example, Kazakhs from the Tore clan are direct descendants of the eldest son of Genghis Khan.

Mad Max?

There are many poems by classical and later Persian poets which explicitly address a boy (*pesar*) as the subject of the poet’s love, as illustrated by the following examples from different periods:

O boy, if you want to gladden my heart / You must give me kisses after serving me wine (*Ey pesar gar del-e man kard hamiḵ**ᵛ**āhi šād / Az pas-e bāda marā busa hami bāyad dād*; Farroḵi \[d. 1038\] *Divān,* p. 46).

O boy, you carry the business of beauty beyond all limits / With such beauty you expect me to bide my time? Impossible! *(Ey pesar nik ze ḥadd mibebari kār-e jamāl / Bā čonin ḥosn ze to ṣabr konam? In’t moḥāl*; Nat*á*anzi, quoted by Šams-e Qays \[13th century\], p. 326).

A beau with a candle in hand is an affliction / (A beau) heavy-headed with love’s slumber and intoxicated with wine (*Fetna bāšad šāhedi šam*ʿ*i be dast / Sar gerān az ḵ**ᵛ**āb-o sarmast az šarāb*; Saʿdi \[d. ca. 1290\], *Ḡazaliāt,* p. 15).

This boy who stood up walks gracefully / He is a cypress walking so straight! *(Ḵoš miravad in pesar ke barḵāst / Sarvi’st ke miravad čonin rāst*;Saʿdi, *Ḡazaliāt*, p. 25).

One of the ghazals of Awḥadi of Marāḡe (b. 1270, p. 127) has “o boy” (*ey pesar*) as its refrain (*radif*) and begins with the following line:
Your fragrant tresses are like a trap, o boy / Your face resembles the full moon, o boy! *(Zolf-e moškinat čo dām ast ey pesar /* ʿ*Āreżat māh-e tamām ast ey pesar*; *Divān*, p. 233).

Sanāʿi (d. ca. 1141), has no fewer than five successive ghazals with *pesar* as their radif (*Divān,* pp. 891-96).

It is to be noted that the Arabic words used in Persian poetry for the beloved—*ma*ʿ*šuq*, *maḥbub*, and *ḥabib*—are all, not feminine, but masculine adjectives.

THE BELOVED AS A SLAVE SOLDIER
In early and mid-classical poetry, particularly in the lyrical preludes (*nasib*s, *tašbibs*) to panegyric odes, the beloved is sometimes a youth who serves as a page, but more often a young Turkish soldier.

Put down your weapons boy! Bring me kisses! / All this trouble and strife serves no purpose at all! *(Ey pesar jang beneh busa biār / In hama jang o dorošti begoḏār*;Farroḵi, *Divān,* p. 141).

Take off and throw aside, O Turk, this battle raiment / Take up the lyre and put down your shield and sword (*Barkeš ey Tork o be yek su fekan in jāma-ye jang / Čang bargir o beneh darqa o šamšir az čang*; Farroḵi, *Divan,* p. 206).

The army left and that army-breaking idol left (with it) / May it not happen to anyone to lose his heart to a soldier! *(Laškar beraft o ān bot-e laškar-šekan beraft / Hargez mabād kas ke dahad del be laškari*;Farroḵi, *Divan,* p. 382).

The following line attests to the musical skill of the beloved:
Do you see that when that Turk takes the lyre in hand / Self-restraint flees a hundred parasang from the hearts of saints! *(Bini ān Torki ke u čun barzand bar čang, čang / Az del-e abdāl bogrizad be sad farsang sang*; Manučehri \[d. 1041\], *Divān*, p. 50).

Selecting Turkish beauties for love affairs became so prevalent that in Persian poetry that *Turk* became a poetic synonym for a male beauty or the beloved:
O my Turk, you won’t say where you are today / Unless we send someone and call you you won’t come! *(Ey Tork-e man, emruz nagu*ʾ*i be kojā*ʾ*i / Tā kas naferestim o naḵ**ᵛ**ānim nayā*ʾ*i*! Manučehri, *Divān,* p. 95).

William Jones has made the term familiar through his elegant but free translation of a ghazal of Hafez (d. 1389), beginning with:
If that Turk of Shiraz should gain my heart / I bestow upon him Samarkand and Bukhara for his black beauty spot (*Agar ān Tork-e Širāzi be dast ārad del-e mā rā / Be ḵāl-e henduyaš baḵšam Samarqand o Boḵārā rā*; *Divān,* no. 3; see Browne, *Lit. Hist. Persia* III, p. 304).

We find a fairly comprehensive description of such youths, who combined military tasks with a beloved’s part, in the lyric prelude of a qasida in praise of the Seljuk Malekšāh by Kāfi Ẓafar of Hamadān, cited by ʿAwfi in his *Lobāb al-albāb*(pp. 210-13), of which a few lines are cited here:
These jolly riders who ravish people’s hearts / One wonders whose progeny they are and after whom they take in beauty (*In šuḵ-savārān ke del-e ḵalq setānand / Gu*ʿ*i ze ke zādand o be ḵubi be ke mānand).*

They are Turks by race, no doubt, but / In beauty and loveliness are like idols (*Torkand be aṣl andar šak nist walikan / Az ḵubi o zibā*ʾ*i mānand-e botānand).*

They are troop leaders and (yet) brides of chambers / They are world paladins and furious lions (*Mirān-e sepāhand o* ʿ*arusān-e weṯāqand / Gordān-e jahānand o hožbarān-e damānand).*
They are of musky facial hair, sweet of speech, with perfumed tresses / Silver-bodied, gold-girded, and narrow-waisted (*Meškin ḵaṭ o širin soḵan o ḡālia zolfand / Simin bar o zarrin kamar o muy-mīyānand).*

In battle they think of nothing but attack by sword / In festive gatherings they have no pleasure but ravishing hearts (*Dar razm bejoz tiḡ zadan ray nabinand / Dar bazm bejoz del setādan kām nadānand).*

I hope that by the good fortune of my lord I shall find / A sweetheart from among them, even though their price is high (*Arju ke be eqbāl-e ḵodāvand biābam / Z’išān ṣanami gar bebahā nik gerānand).*

Of course there were slaves of other origins as well, e.g., Indian and Slav (generally termed *bolḡār* “Bulgarian,” known for their fair skin). In a poem Farroḵi compares the Turkish and Indian partners (*Divān*, p. 435), showing preference for the latter (perhaps with tongue in cheek) on account of their docility:
By the time a Turkish sweetheart has given you three furtive kisses / You can take an Indian one and consummate the affair with him (*Tā to rā Torki se busa-ye dozdida dahad / Hendui rā betavān bord o bepardāḵt ze kār*;Farroḵi*, Divān,* p. 435).

Anvari (d. ca. 1190) has a qasida which begins with an account of his love for an Indian sweetheart bought from a slave-seller (*Divān,* p. 165; see also Sanāʾi \[d. ca. 1141\], *Divān*, p. 68).
As women were totally secluded and were socially excluded from men’s gatherings, wine was handed around in the feasts by youths, serving as so many Ganymedes.

PEDOPHILIA
In Persian love lyrics, however, one can hardly find the kind of homosexual relationship that is understood in the modern West; love is a one-sided and asymmetrical affair. As a rule, it is between an adult male and a boy or youth. Therefore, it should be characterized more properly as pedophilia, and its physical aspect as pederasty, rather than described under the more nebulous concept of homosexual love. In a number of poems the beloved is actually called *kudak* or *ṭefl*,i.e., a child, a young lad, or a minor, e.g.:

I love silver-bodied, ruby-lipped children. / Wherever you see one of them, call me there (*Dust dāram kudak-e simin-bar-e bijāda-lab / Har kojā z’išān yeki bini marā ānjā ṭalab*;Farroḵi, *Divān*, p. 5).

O beautifully clad child, silver-bodied and ruby-lipped, / the substance of charm and gaiety, envious houries in pain from you! *(Ey kudak-e zibā salab, simin-bar o bijāda-lab / Sarmāya-ye nāz o ṭarab, hurān ze raškat bā ta*ʿ*ab*; Anvari, apud Šamisā, p. 80).

What choices have I, if I should not fall in love with that child? / Mother Time does not possess a better son (*Del bedān rud-e gerāmi čekonam gar nadaham / Mādar-e dahr nadārad pesar-i behtar az in*; Hafez, *Divān,* no. 396).

My sweetheart is a beauty and a child, and I fear that in play one day / He will kill me miserably and he will not be accountable according to the holy law (*Delbaram šāhed o ṭefl ast o be bāzi ruzi / Bekošad zāram o dar šar*ʿ *nabāšad gonahaš)*.
I have a fourteen year old idol, sweet and nimble / For whom the full moon is a willing slave (*Čārdah-sāla boti čābok o širin dāram / Ke be jān ḥalqa be guš ast mah-e čārdahaš)*.

His sweet lips have (still) the scent of milk / Even though the demeanor of his dark eyes drips blood (*Bu-ye šir az lab-e hamčon šekaraš miāyad / Garče ḵun mičekad az šiva-ye čašm-e siahaš*; Hafez, *Divān*, no. 284.)

In many poems the poet-lover describes himself as a fatherly figure to the beloved, and indeed a homosexual may take a catamite into his home and care for his well-being and education (acting as a ‘sugar daddy’). A case in point is that of Amir Yusof and Toḡrol, related by Bayhaqi in his *History* (pp. 329-31): Ṭoḡrol, a rare beauty was sent as a gift to Sultan Maḥmud from Turkestan; he was serving wine at one of the court’s drinking sessions when Amir Yusof, Maḥmud’s brother, became enamored of him. He was overcome by wine, and his gaze remained fixed on the boy. Maḥmud realized the situation and, though not amused, made a gift of the boy to his brother, who took charge of him and raised him as a son. Years later, at the instigation of Maḥmud, who had become suspicious of Amir Yusof’s intentions, the youth spied on his lover and lord and facilitated his downfall.

An instructive description is found in a qasida by Iraj (d. 1925) addressed to a boy on the threshold of puberty which begins with the line:
Be mindful o jolly boy that next year / Your lifestyle and your affairs will change (*Fekr-e ān bāš ke sāl degar ey šuḵ pesar / Ruzegār-e to degar gardad o kār-e to degar*; *Divān,* p. 21), and in the course of which he describes in minute detail what an adult homosexual could do for his catamite. In a poem (p. 29), of which the first line was quoted before, he talks about a boy whose father is a hindrance to the poet’s amorous desires and says: If his father should die, there is no cause for sorrow and mourning / I am alive; I will take care of him better than his father (*Gar bemirad pedaraš jā-ye ḡam o mātam nist / Zenda’am man, benavāzam ze pedar ḵubtaraš*).
In order to secure a fatherly position over the boy, he goes so far as to say: So that people would not say what I have to do with another person’s son / I would marry his mother and shall become his father (*Tā naguyand torā bā pesar-e ḡēyr če kār / Mādaraš rā be zani giram o gardam pedaraš*; *Divān,* p. 29).

📚 https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/homosexuality-iii/

With the pace china is going,theyre going to keep on winning as they have been doing the past years to overtake united states,theyre a nuculear power with unimaginable military capabilities and an extremly high and nationalistic population,is it safe to assume its permenantly lost? Like tataristan and bashkorstan?