Storm and a teacup
New driver to follow today. However Maxim doesn't have any more English than Murat had and he didn't have any.
Only 200km to Ashgabat today and the roads had been fine yesterday - no horrors to collaborate the horror stories. Quite a bit cooler today.
We stopped for petrol about 100km shy of Ashgabat. Maxim made sign that we should leave the bike at the petrol station, as he wanted to show us a site. So we climbed into his 4x4 and drove up to a Mountain village. It was a bit grubby. The stream running down the centre was littered with rubbish and plastic bottles. There is an environmental pollution awareness programme needed here. Nonetheless there was an interesting cemetery to see.
It started spitting in the mountains. By the time we got down to the plain, it was a full on storm. This was not what we were expecting in Turkmenistan. We were soaked putting our waterproofs on. There is a 20 minute rule with all motorcycle waterproof. It was slightly more than 100km, which is significantly more than 20 minutes and it rained all the way. We thought this was a desert?
Like many such countries there is no surface water drainage provision; the sewers would become blocked when it didn't rain and too much maintenance. So by the time we got to Ashgabat not only were we wetter and colder than we had been since Baku, but we were also driving through standing water - beware roundabouts and for goodness sake never think of putting your feet down. The good thing about there being no drainage is that there are also therefore no missing manhole or drain covers at the bottom of the puddles - just potential potholes.
He then pulled up at one. We thought it was for photos but we were actually staying here! The Ashgabat Wedding Ceremony Building. 32 years later?
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