Turkmenistan is another fascinating country that I was looking forward to explore. I got a dose of the Turkmen culture while I was at Istanbul Airport waiting to board my flight to Ashgabat. I saw really tall, big build women; this was mainly from the head up. They wore beautiful colourful long skirts and tops and the most amazing of this was their head gear. They wore a very large almost beehive like bun covered in the brightest coloured scarf. This made them nearly 7 feet tall.
A few of the women approached me and asked if I was going to Ashgabat. I said yes and they promptly started giving me their hand luggage to carry for them. I panicked and politely refused several times. As we all know, you are never to carry things onto a plane for other people. They kept reassuring me that it was fine but I still refused. They asked a lot of people and some even said ok. I later found out when I talked to one of these ladies in the waiting lounge, that they buy tons of clothes and make up and shoes in Turkey because it is a lot cheaper. Apparently items such as these are very expensive in Ashgabat. I saw one of the ladies smuggle the items under her very long skirt. She had two plastic bags strapped to her thighs and one in her belly. She removed them when we got to the lounge. I couldn’t help but laugh. At least it’s not drugs.
I learned alot more of the Turkmen culture after just one day. The Turkmen people are predominantly Muslim but as I see it they are Russian first. Their Russian culture and heritage is strongly represented in their surroundings and behaviour. They drink a lot of vodka and the women are quite liberal in their attire. Don’t get me wrong, women’s movement here is pretty much prehistoric and it will be a while before they are ever at the forefront of the government.
Ashgabat is an amazing marble city. All their buildings are made of marble and it’s big and bold and eerily very empty. There were no traffic on the roads. We could see no one in the buildings or at the monuments. In fact, the only people we saw were the ladies who were cleaning the monuments ready for the Independence Day celebrations. We saw a couple of military men at some monuments but that was it. No local people at all. I don’t think the local Turkmen people could afford the big marble apartments. When I asked the guide about this, he said foreigners bought the apartments.
In between some of these wonderful marble apartments, there are much tinier housing complexes tucked away with graffiti and rubbish strewn around. I don’t believe these will be here very long as on the horizon there are many giant cranes ready to bulldoze these unsightly buildings and make more marble ones. Not sure where the people who still live in these run down apartments and houses are going to go. I doubt if the Government cares.
In some ways you may think that the government must care for its people if it is spending all this money to make their city beautiful and pristine. Do you know they have heated roads so that when it snows, the roads never get icy? Their bus stops are heated and air conditioned. The bus fares are nominal, their domestic flights are all $5 per person and petrol is so cheap. So I guess in some ways they are good to their people. What do I know? They seem happy enough and I guess if they weren’t maybe they would do something about it.
They definitely are a friendly bunch and they love Indians and Bollywood. I can’t go into the market in town without some comment or someone yelling “Namaste” at me. One time I didn’t have the correct change to buy some plums and a nice man paid for me. I didn’t even realise as I was putting it away the lady kept giving it back to me but didn’t take my money and eventually I figured out the guy paid for my plums. Don’t get me wrong I could afford it but the lady didn’t have change to break my note. What a nice guy and I hope he didn’t think I was some destitute Indian lady on the scrounge for some plums.
On the other hand some of them are not as friendly, those pesky Policemen. I found this out while trying to take a photo of those lovely buildings from the bus. A police car drove up to the bus and said something very loud on his loudspeaker. The guide translated it and apparently, the Policeman wanted me stop taking photos. That is definitely a first for me. It wasn’t a military building at all just one of the large marble architecture found all over Ashgabat. It was a cheek. Obviously I obeyed as he followed our bus most of the way.
I didn’t rate the food much. It was all kebabs cooked on a barbecue and when I did ask for vegetables, they were skewered and cooked on the barbecue too. No sauce or seasoning and too meaty for me. I even tried to convince the “cook” to make my kebabs well done much to his dismay. It was so well done, my meat shrunk to half its size but at least I could eat it. I like my meat very well done but these guys like them very juicy and bloody. Luckily at the market I found some pastry shops and cafes that did some nice sautéed vegetables and chicken in a sauce with rice. Not the best but better than barbecue meat again.
Turkmenistan is a very rich country as it has a lot of oil and gas. They have so much gas that the Darwaza Gas Crater has been burning for over 40 years. The gas tower blew up and huge crater was formed in the 70s. The gas was escaping from the ground and it caught on fire. They have never been able to put it out. They were trying the fill up this crater a couple of years ago, luckily the tourism industry convinced the leader not to. With the news of the filling up, more tourists flocked to the crater and they had the most visitors ever recorded. In fact it was due to the possible filling up of the crater that I eventually visited this country. The flames are not as strong as years ago but it is still burning and it’s even more spectacular in the night. It was certainly the highlight of the trip.
We had one night of camping at the crater and were about 200 meters away. I wished we were closer as the flames from the crater could have kept us warm in the night. The guide brought us summer sleeping bags and obviously we were in the winter season. It was the coldest night I have ever experienced. I wished all night I had my own lovely warm sleeping bag. It was so torturously cold, no one got to sleep. I guess they didn’t want us too close to the crater just in case the wind blew our tents in.
The next morning it was Independence Day but we missed it as we had a long drive back to the city. We saw the remnants of crowds as people were leaving the square and were on their way home. I figured this was done on purpose by the guide. He obviously didn’t want us to be at the celebrations. Not that we could have taken photos anyway with so many military around. It’s strange in a way that they want people to come and see their country albeit controlled but in some way they don’t want us there either. It would have been lovely to spend time with the crowds during the celebrations but I guess that’s the way things are. Turkmenistan is a very closed off country and they only want you to see what they allow you to see and that’s that.
