KACH SOLO TRAVELS again..... SURPRISE!!

I just arrived in Dushanbe, Tajikistan (my country 126th) to begin my 2 months of SOLO travels in Central and South Asia. As you guys know, I'm still aiming to visit EVERY country in the world using my Philippines passport and I'm already at 125 countries before arriving here (out of 196 that I'm counting UN + Non-UN). This post is LONG but I hope some of you would read it! HAHAHA🤣😂

I had to keep it quiet while preparing for this big trip that's why the last 3 months was quite stressful for me- selling our sailboat, packing our things to move to Europe with two cats aside from planning my route, booking my flights and getting visa that cost a fortune compared to my travels in Latin America and Africa.⭐️

This trip, I'll be going to 11 to 12 new countries since I'll be returning to Thailand to prepare for my trip to Bhutan while most of these countries I haven't been: Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Qatar (few times at the airport), Pakistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh. I applied most of my tourist visa in advance either online or thru the embassy (like for Iran). I'm still hoping to get granted an Afghanistan visa while here in Tajikistan. With my PHL Passport, only Mongolia is visa-free while Iran is only visa-on-arrival if you'd fly at the airport but in my case I will be traveling by land.🚘

My trip in Tajikistan would bring me to the PAMIR HIGHWAY with Paramount Journey. The trip will start here in Dushanbe and a roadtrip until we cross the border by land to Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

I have a morning appointment at the Afghanistan Embassy tomorrow and I hope they'd allow me to submit my application for the visa because I've heard they are quite strict to solo female travelers. I'm aware of the danger and not st*pid to go to forbidden places (I've previously lived in Iraq and also went to Venezuela, Somaliland and other destinations that some people think are awful but turned out to be some of the best trips of my life)... anyway, wish me luck as I really want to go to Afghanistan!👌

I traveled last Saturday... Jonathan drove me to Dubrovnik, Croatia airport from our home in Montenegro to catch my flight to Riga, Latvia... I had an overnight layover there and will share photos later (the experience this time is so different that my last visit during winter). From there, I flew a 5-hour flight with AirBaltic to Almaty, Kazakhstan... a transit visa is not required for PHL if not leaving the airport. I had a minor issue the day before my arrival because my supposed flight with Air Astana got cancelled and rescheduled the next day which means I would have to wait at the airport for 28 hours to catch the next flight to Dushanbe which is only less than 2 hour flight so I decided to book a new flight with Somon Air... the crazy part is that they don't have online check-in so the only way I could do it is by passing the immigration to check in but that would require a visa that I don't have!❌❌

My flight landed and went to Air Astana's transfer desk who kindly assisted me with my situation.. I sat down there and another airport official took my passport and visa to Tajikistan and returned with my boarding pass (and it's a window seat) and since I was only traveling with handcarry they told me to keep it with me! No long explanations or anything.. they just assisted and smiling at me all the time! One old lady even called me "beautiful and exotic looking" hahaha.. I don't know if I will take that as a compliment!🤣

At lunch, I arrived at the Dushanbe airport and my hotel (Hotel "Shumon") which is only a 15 minute drive and is located at the city center! The taxi driver from the airport turned out to be really nice and after little conversation while driving, he didn't charge me anything (it's actually 2$ only for the taxi ride!) but that was really kind of him! When I arrived, a beautiful business room at the top floor was ready for me... YIPEEE! 😆😆