TAJIKISTAN // One of the world's great road trips, driving the 'roof of the world' along the Pamir Highway through Tajikistan is a rough- and-tumble experience through one of the last truly remote parts of the planet. Built by the Soviets in the 1930s, the highway was the only thoroughfare into Tajikistan. For the most part, the route is an unpaved, rutted, one-lane road through stark, arid mountains at impossibly high altitudes. Although officially the Pamir Highway refers to a section of the M41 between Khorog in Tajikistan and Osh in Kyrgyzstan, unofficially the route starts in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, and some travellers opt for a detour following a smaller road along the Pyanj River and Afghanistan border in the Wakhan Corridor. Along the way, you stop in timeless Pamiri villages, pass by lost hilltop forts and drink countless cups of tea.