Is Ashgabat on the Central Line?

16th and 17th May 2019

Is Ashgabat on the Central Line?

Paul has a number of 'Life Rules'; shirts are plain and coloured, motorcycles are black, cars are red etc. Turkmenistan, or at least Ashgabat has some similar ones. As Turkmenistan has only existed as an independent country for 28 years, it is not clear who is copying who? In Ashgabat the President, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, has decreed that he likes cars to be white, though there are some silvery grey ones and also some washed out gold coloured ones too. One doubts that the odd yellow taxi will survive. It is strange not to see the blacked out black Mercedes as one does in other ex-Soviet countries. And all cars are to be clean. Not sure whether we will get into the City Centre on a dirty black Harley.... 

As well as the cars, the President has also decreed on school uniform. And ladies dresses, red or green. And the roof of your house, bright red or bright green. And all buildings in Ashgabat are to be white marble, be they bus stops, theatres, apartment blocks of any sort, retail malls, sports facilities or the Presidential Palace itself. All are in white marble. The White City. Except at night when the LEDs and Neons click in. All paid for by Oil and Gas revenues which lead to petrol costing less than 40p a litre and that is the price foreigners have to pay, and free electricity. People have talked about water being an issue but after yesterday we don't get that. Ashgabat was totally destroyed in 1948 by an earthquake with nearly 200,000 people or a third of the country at that time supposedly being killed - hence the rebuilding and search for national identity.

We have taken a couple of days off. Sight seeing in Ashgabat followed by an overnight stay at Darvaza Gas Crater and then finish off the sight seeing.

It would have been nice to think that the Gas crater was a natural feature, but apparently something went wrong with a Russian gas exploration in 1958.  It has been burning ever since. In fact apparently they have had to tap into whatever seam has been leaking, as the flames had got too big and were too dangerous for tourists. They have now been able to turn down the crater. On our way we saw a smaller glugging mud crater and a water one too that was a third covered in plastic bottles.

As far as the sightseeing was concerned,  Francoise was stopped from taking photographs in the Russian Bazaar by security personnel. Nuclear Fruit and Veg? Top secret tomatoes? Our guide says it is because the market vendors are shy. We also went on a cable car to a look out point above Ashgabat. What was strange was that the top was the other side of the border in Iran or more precisely, neutral territory whatever that means.

Not a city for walking despite wonderful pavements and great parks- it is just too spread out. Also no life. We were probably only taken to places we were meant to be taken to. We asked about the old City, but as everything was destroyed in the earthquake, 'old' means Soviet blocks. Who will ever use these parks that are being created - the Olympic Village with its mono-rail, everything in pristine white marble is locked up - it was for the Asian Games in 2017. There are no shop windows because nobody walks, shops are viewed from the air conditioned - and dry- inside. There is no way to cross the six lane wide roads - even though there are no cars on them. The temperature now, in May, is fine - it is crying out for a cafe or chai society with chairs and parasols set amongst the trees - but to serve who? We think that there is only one other room occupied in our hotel. We are heavily outnumbered by staff who must be bored out of their minds. Not sure how the tourist revolution is ever going to happen with getting in so difficult too. We think we are being shown what we are allowed to be shown.

 

We also squeezed in a visit to Nyssa, which was the home of Parthian Kings from the 3rd Century BC to the 3rd Century AD. Despite there being the mountains all around, buildings weren't built of stone; these are mud and straw and therefore there is not that much much left. It was a UNESCO site and perhaps because of this, it was very expensive at a Turkmen level, 42 Manat or 28 litres of petrol. There was no guide, or panels of any detail in any language and some of the mud rendering looked surprisingly youthful. We also stumbled across a couple of guys making mud bricks. I suppose we will never know.

Found out that Tomato and Cucumber Salad is called Choban Salad. Shaslik or Barbecue seems to get us a kebab too. Looks as though we are set for a few weeks.

On the road again tomorrow.