Trips

Mon., 9/24/18 - Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

We arrived in Ashgabat at 4:30 AM and proceeded through five checkpoints to enter Turkmenistan. We paid $14 crisp, new US dollars, entered data into a kiosk, had our passports checked and stamped, found our luggage, and passed it and ourselves through another scan. We all got through without more intense searches.

We arrived at the Grand Turkmen Hotel that has a beautiful white marble exterior and entry. The rooms, however, are ratty Soviet era. At least our bed has box springs and a mattress. Two of the four double rooms in our group have only box springs! Our bathroom is ratty old with chipped tile but the rest of the room is manageable - just old and well worn. We have ants in the bathroom.

Breakfast began at 7 AM so Marge and I stayed up for that. Breakfast was the pits. Only hard boiled eggs, day (or 2-day) old bread, no fruit but watermelon and casaba. We had to stand in line to get a cup with instant coffee and hot water. One unsmiling woman manned the hot water urn. I could not identify what was on the other buffet platers.

Flag of Turkmenistan The flag features a white crescent and five stars representing the five regions of the country. The five traditional carpet designs along the hoist represent the five major tribes or houses, and form motifs in the country's state emblem and flag.
These are the motifs or symbols of each of the five major houses or tribes of Turkmenistan. These Turkmen tribes, in traditional order (as well as top to bottom on the flag), are:  Teke, Yomut, Saryk, Chowdur, and Arsary. The middle design may also represent the Salyr, a tribe that declined as a result of military defeat before the modern period.	Teke
Yomut	Saryk
Chowdur	Arsary
At 12:30 we had lunch and started our city tour. In 1948 an earthquake destroyed Ashgabat and killed two-thirds of the population. The city was rebuilt in the Soviet style and was typically ugly, plain block buildings. After independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the president, (elected by a 98% affirmative vote - fake) who was the previous head of the Communist Party selected by Gorbachev, began to rebuild the city. He was a dictator who named himself Turkmenbashi, “head of the Turkmen,” so no one could question the 100-plus white marble high rise, elegant (outside at least) buildings that he had built. The city gleams white and is sterile clean. There are no people out walking around. All cars have to be white or silver. There are no street signs or house numbers. Wait, we have seen no houses! Government officials live in large white marble palaces and work in huge, fancy white marble official buildings, ordinary people live in white marble high rises in flats. It is eerie to drive around the capital city and see no people, kids playing, or more than a few cars. Turkmenbashi died in 2006. He had named his prime minister as his successor. He is the present dictator, Berdimuhamedow. Men and boys wear white shirts with black ties and black trousers. Women wear full length velvet dresses with embroidery on the bodice and lots of gold jewelry. Female secondary school students wear green full length velvet (temperatures here can often reach above 115 deg. F!) dresses and university women wear bright red velvet with embroidery. Boys and girls in university wear skull caps. Married women wear head scarves wrapped around a sponge to make the top look big. The place is just AMAZING!
White marble high rises - from our hotel room	White marble government building - from our hotel room
White marble monument to the 10th Anniversary of the Republic	Red velvet dress
White lamp post	White marble building
Meteorological Tower	White marble high rises
White marble sports venue	White marble sports venue - site of the 2015 Asian Olympic Games
University students in their red velvet dresses	Constitution Monument
We stopped at the Monument for Independence built in 1991 - white marble, of course. It houses the Museum of National Values, which is closed for the next eight years! We stopped and walked around the Central Square. We walked down a path with trees planted by various national leaders. Each has a plaque stating who, what, and when. At the center is a marble structure and statues of important past Turkmen. They were mostly Nomad warriors from Turkmenistan history. We stood in front of Oguz Han, the 3 BC Father of Turkmenistan. There were pools and fountains all over the place and green grass and marigolds. A dozen workers were mowing, weeding and washing the steps and paths.
At the Monument for Independence	At the Monument for Independence - statues of nomad Turkmen
Top of the monument	Detail on the spire
Turkman heroes	Statue of Saparmurat Niyazov, former President for Life of Turkmenistan
There is a UN building here and in 1995 Turkmenistan declared its neutrality. So we went to visit the Monument to Neutrality. We rode the outside slanted elevator up to the viewing platform and looked out over Ashgabat and the Kara Kum Desert. The president has ordered a million trees to be planted at the edge of this desert. The trees are irrigated from a very long canal (termed a river for legal reasons) - the Karakum Canal - bringing water from the man-made Altyn Asyr (“Golden Era”) Lake – also known as Lake Turkmen –and the Amu Darya River (ancient Oxus) to all of the fountains and greenery. (Link to an interesting article on the subject.)
Monument to Neutrality	Monument to Neutrality - elevator goes up the leg
Monument to Neutrality with the symbols of the 5 tribes	View from the top of the Monument to Neutrality
View from the top of the Monument to Neutrality	View from the top of the Monument to Neutrality
Monument to the Constitution of Turkmenistan	View from the top of the Monument to Neutrality
View from the top of the Monument to Neutrality	View from the top of the Monument to Neutrality
View of the grounds from the top of the Monument to Neutrality	View from the top of the Monument to Neutrality
Pretty sign	Eight-pointed star decoration on the lamp post
Woman with large head scarf	In 2015 Turkmenistan hosted the Asian Olympic Games. They spent five billion to build the venues and athletes’ apartments - all in white marble including the stadium. The stadium roof is in the shape of a horse’s head and the flame is lit above the group of rue (an herb and ornamental plant) rising from his neck! Strange.
Site of the 2015 Asian Olympic Games	Celebrating the 2015 Asian Olympic Games
Bridge to the site of the 2015 Asian Olympic Games	Bridge to the site of the 2015 Asian Olympic Games

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