The good thing of a country like Turkmenistan is that we know little or nothing about it so everything is a surprise. If you go to Venice you know that you are going to find channels and bridges, is one of those things that everybody knows like that it’s cold at the pole, that kiwis come from New Zealand  and that snots don’t smell.

I’ve read about Turkmenistan to prepare for the trip, but I haven’t been able to manage an image of how it would be. They have money from gas reserves, but even with this it’s not a modern country. They’ve got one good thing and that is they are a democracy, the bad thing is that they have only one political party since they became independent from USSR and that means they have had a dictatorial regime for 20 years. Here you have the pictures from the capita, Ashgabat.

Coming from the border with no traffic, Iran is just a few kilometres away. For being such a restrictive country I was stunned by the fact that policemen had a canteen on their belts instead of weapons.

The university library just opened. This is how all the governmental buildings look like, new, with copulas and columns, golden and a bit exaggerated

White marble in an apartment block. The white, “ak”, means good.

During the night they light up everything even the apartment blocks. If you have money to light up all that you don’t need to light up, why don’t you do it? They generate electricity burning gas, the excess is sold to nearby countries generating 8% of the PIB.

Ashgabat had no river but the previous president Nizayov visited Europe. London had the Thames, Paris the Seine, Rome the Tiber so he decided expending 63 million dollars and building a river in the middle of the city with lions at the entrances of the bridges. The river walls… guess. In white marble.

A hospital on the left hand side. On top there is a golden face of the old president.

I don’t know how many times a day you see the map of the country.

This is one of the best monuments, a pity it is being fixed. The arch of neutrality. It had a golden statue of the ex-president. It was 12 meters high and turned with the sun 24 hours a day. This is not just being megalomaniac, it is also having imagination. In 1998 it decided to become neutral. Not to have conflicts with the neighbouring countries. It’s an intelligent position, as with the money they have, if they have no conflicts they just need time to progress.

Soviet war memorial with an eternal flame.

Earthquake memoriam. In 1948 a 9 in Richter scale demolished the city killing 150.000 people, only two buildings remained standing. The city was closed to foreigners for five years while rebuilding. I don’t know what the bull means, neither the earth, no idea about the mother meaning, but the golden baby, guess, baby Niyazov.

This is the statue that represents how women are, most of them have looooong plats hanging. They don’t have the horse.

I spent the last day in Ashgabat with Richard, an English guy that has been living five years in Dubai. He’s been impressed by the buildings, the lights and the streets, and taking into account that Dubai is an exaggerated place made to impress.

Ashgabat is a ghost city, seems they’ve build it recently and no people live there. The streets are wide and nearly empty and the buildings are separated by gardens and monuments. Not even downtown are there people, it has no atmosphere at all.

Tolkuchka bazaar on Sunday.

Here you see the traditional dress, with a brocade in the middle and strong colours.

I had shorts, flip-flops and t-shirt.

She’s got a nice face.

The current president. It’s difficult to imagine the Spanish president on merchandising products.

The health stairs. Another great idea from the former president. Two circuits, eight and 37 kilometres of concrete on the mountain. He also made a cable car nearby.

We should make a SpainCola.

The former president was self named Turkmenabashi that means Leader of the Turkmen’s. Ataturk had his name from other people not from himself.

The huts are great.

The Ruhnama is a book written by Turkmenabasy talking about the Turkmen’s and it’s history. He translated it into 52 languages(Turkmenista has only five million people). It was compulsory to study in schools and universities and there was an exam to become a civil servant. He wrote a second part and there was a moment in which English books were forbidden as they were a menace for Turkmen culture. The book can be opened to project things on to it during celebrations

The biggest fountain in the world, that doesn’t mean it’s beautiful.

Over the fountain, enjoying the waste of electricity that happens in the city.

The plan is to have a million trees in the next year. It’s going to become a forest with buildings.

Are all those lights needed?

Ashgabat is not a place to come if you are looking for interaction with people. They don’t look or talk to you, they have a total indifference. Being a country isolated for so long it seems that they have to have curiosity towards the little amount of tourists(around 15.000 a year), but no, they have a no interest. If you talk to them they don’t know whether to  reply or not. In the shops they make an effort to answer, seems the isolation has affected their capacity to have social relationships.

Ashgabat has been a pleasant place, but at the same time somehow disturbing. I’ve loved having been here. Walking by the city I’ve got jiggling a lot of times when looking at the buildings, the indifference of people or the total waste in each corner. With this memory I leave, jiggling with no meaning.

Soon more from this country.
Fernando