Hotel Nissa Ashgabat

... while Chris, Damo, and our new friends pushed. Eventually we bumped our way back onto the road, relieved at our success happy to have had some interaction with the Turkmen people outside of corrupt officials.

We drove on to Ashgabat. It's spectacular. Spectacularly bad. It's just horrendous. It is a brand new city, built by the former president Niyazov, the same nutcase who makes his ministers walk up a ...

... gold statues of himself, and plastered pictures of himself everywhere, and turned Ashgabat, the capital, into an all-marble "White City" with palaces, apartments, fountains and enormous statues. Money from the country's vast oil and gas reserves was used for this, instead of education, health etc. He heavily subsidised gas, electricity and water, which has resulted in their over-use. Even now, after price hikes, diesel is ...

Salam, von Mary bin ich nach Ashgabat zurueckgeflogen. Fluege sind recht billig, US$30 hat d** Flug gekostet, US$15 fu** Turkmens. (btw, Benzin kostet inzwischen 3100Manat, 1US$=14000Manat, dafu** bekommt ab** jed** Turkmene 650lit** Benzin pro halbes Jahr umsonst, **st dann muss ** bezahlen...). All**dings war die Kontrolle etwas m**kwu**dig, Fluessigkeiten darf man ...

... un paradis pour skaters, bien que je pense que la police n interdise cette pratique rapidement si elle venait a se develloper et un paradis pour ceux qui aiment le Kistch et du megalomannisme dont la plus belle representation, l arche de la neutralite est surplombee de la statue en or de Niyazov qui suit le soleil au long de la journee. Heureusement pour nous ...

We've spent 3 days in Ashgabat, a heavily manicured town centre of marble buildings and gold domes, which looks rather like it was designed in Sim City. The first afternoon we arrived was spent by the pool, eating great italian food from the hotel restaurant. The second day we went to Ashgabat market, which seemed to sell everything, including flying camels [VID]. That afternoon we wandered round town, chased by the police and army ...

... city, is a unique place. A big part of the city is showcase of the country's wealth (petroleum boom). There are huge government buildings, enormous parks, giant water fountains (world's tallest one is found here) and elaborate monuments and statutes. In sharp contrast to other Central Asian cities, most of the parks here are missing an important ingredient: people - locals or tourists. (As for tourists, there aren't too many of them in Turkemenistan. The government ...

... and internet are controlled, but apparently getting satellite TV isn't a problem (as long as you don't watch the wrong thing!). As in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, to take a taxi you just stand in the street waving, and usually one of the first five cars that pass will pick you up. A fare within the city costs about 60 cents, reflecting another interesting thing: gas costs about a penny a litre throughout the country. The government provides natural ...

... less than a quarter of) the market price, but thats politics for you! On the spiritual side too, Turkmenbashi is 'educating' his country. He wrote and published RUKHNAMA (book of the soul) - compulsive reading for all his nation. In fact, before entering university, first one must pass a Rukhnama test... Turkmenbashi has even ...

... and successful projects. I was worried that I was romanticizing about the success of these projects, but overall, it was true; we are here for two years for a reason. After the initial Turkmen relearning, I was able to really start communicating and feel like I have found a place in such a foreign place. I returned to my host family, who were very happy to see me, but weren't overbearing with excitement. It was perfect. Over one bottle of vodka, all was shared, and ...