We left Uzbekistan yesterday and made a shortcut to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, skipping the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent. It would have been a long detour, and we have accumulated 3 days of delay already.

Dushanbe is a modern city with multi-lane avenues, modern buildings and lots of greenery.

Since the bonding of our coolant tank never survives for more than 2 days and our consumption of two-component epoxy glue would soon drive us into financial ruin, I spent the morning chasing a replacement tank. Mitsubishi Delicas are so rare here, it is impossible to find an original one. Fortunately the expansion tank of the first generation Hyundai Starex can be fitted into the Delica. It was not easy to find one, but after some hours of searching I was successful. I had very friendly help from a guy who devoted the whole morning to our problem.

And finally we found the coolant tank section (hidden under a 20 foot container)

and with the help of a drilling machine and some wire the new tank was quickly mounted:

In the meantime my friends organized the special permit for the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province where we are going tomorrow.