Turkmenistan is not interested in tourists. A tourist visa is only available with a tour and a state Travel Guide. That's why I visited this country with a five-day transit visas that allowed me to stay along the main thoroughfares between the border crossings mentioned in my visa. In those five days I was in the cities of Ashgabat, Mary and Turkmenabat.
The capital of Turkmenistan Ashgabat is located a few kilometers from the border with Iran. In this city, the late President Niyasov was born. During his reign he had replaced communism with a sprawling personality cult. He allowed himself to be worshiped as Turkmenbashi.
Ashgabat is formed by two goals. First to sent a modern image of Turkmenistan to the world and to praise Niyasov. I could explain in detail why I felt Asgabat is oppressive and boring, and not as intended by the builders modern and impressive. But I'm trying to restrict myself to a few sentences. Most buildings in the center of Ashgabat are not older than 30 years. Instead of a bold, diverse architecture, they are characterized by an incredible uniformity. Everything is white or marble combined with gold. The only distractions are golden statues of Niyasov. The oppressive impression was produced on the one hand by the incredible number of Ministries. I felt every second building is a ministry, some with adventurous purpose (e.g. the Ministry of fairness). Secondly, the uneasy impression through public land and buildings were struck, whose purpose is to impress people but not to serve them. I had tried to find a public toilet while having stomach issues (Hygiene in food preparation or water) in several parks and had to ultimately use one in a government building.
The impression of a misanthropic, especially tourist-hostile environment in Turkmenistan has shown itself to me in two other situations. Firstly, in the hotel rates, there is an over-priced for foreigners and a modest rate for locals. Attempts to renegotiate failed because the prices are specified by a Ministry in Ashgabat. The second situation was my attempt to leave Ashgabat by train. After an elaborate search for the ticket counter, I found it in an outbuilding of the station, but then it was closed for an hour. When it was re-opened they told me that the next available ticket was for the last evening of my visa. So I left Ashgabat with a shared taxi, whose driver had an insane driving style.
In Mary not much happened. Just the same monotony of overpriced hotels, golden statues of Niyasov and schaschliks.
Until my last evening in Turkmenistan, I found little positive in this country. The only thing that gave me joy was the sight of Sand deserts and camels on the roadside during the taxi rides. I had already closed the chapter Turkmenistan internally and just wanted to find a hotel for a maximum of $ 30. But this was extremely difficult. After the fourth hotel demanded a price far beyond my limit, my taxi driver offered to take me to a private place to stay. Once there, the taxi driver demanded $ 30 for the stay. But the owner insisted that I was her guest.
I was extensively supplied with food and tea. As I didn’t speak much Russian, a young woman was brought from the neighborhood. She spoke German very well, due to an au pair job she had done in Germany and Austria.
In the evening, water and electricity supply stopped to work. Electricity, gas and water are free but not necessarily reliably in Turkmenistan. Dinner was served in candlelight and without air condition. But the bigger problem was that I could no longer avoid drinking vodka.
On the morning of the next day I fought myself out of bed and cursed the person who invented vodka. A hangover at 36 degrees Celsius is really cruel. Nevertheless I managed to reach the border.
The capital of Turkmenistan Ashgabat is located a few kilometers from the border with Iran. In this city, the late President Niyasov was born. During his reign he had replaced communism with a sprawling personality cult. He allowed himself to be worshiped as Turkmenbashi.
Ashgabat is formed by two goals. First to sent a modern image of Turkmenistan to the world and to praise Niyasov. I could explain in detail why I felt Asgabat is oppressive and boring, and not as intended by the builders modern and impressive. But I'm trying to restrict myself to a few sentences. Most buildings in the center of Ashgabat are not older than 30 years. Instead of a bold, diverse architecture, they are characterized by an incredible uniformity. Everything is white or marble combined with gold. The only distractions are golden statues of Niyasov. The oppressive impression was produced on the one hand by the incredible number of Ministries. I felt every second building is a ministry, some with adventurous purpose (e.g. the Ministry of fairness). Secondly, the uneasy impression through public land and buildings were struck, whose purpose is to impress people but not to serve them. I had tried to find a public toilet while having stomach issues (Hygiene in food preparation or water) in several parks and had to ultimately use one in a government building.
The impression of a misanthropic, especially tourist-hostile environment in Turkmenistan has shown itself to me in two other situations. Firstly, in the hotel rates, there is an over-priced for foreigners and a modest rate for locals. Attempts to renegotiate failed because the prices are specified by a Ministry in Ashgabat. The second situation was my attempt to leave Ashgabat by train. After an elaborate search for the ticket counter, I found it in an outbuilding of the station, but then it was closed for an hour. When it was re-opened they told me that the next available ticket was for the last evening of my visa. So I left Ashgabat with a shared taxi, whose driver had an insane driving style.
In Mary not much happened. Just the same monotony of overpriced hotels, golden statues of Niyasov and schaschliks.
Until my last evening in Turkmenistan, I found little positive in this country. The only thing that gave me joy was the sight of Sand deserts and camels on the roadside during the taxi rides. I had already closed the chapter Turkmenistan internally and just wanted to find a hotel for a maximum of $ 30. But this was extremely difficult. After the fourth hotel demanded a price far beyond my limit, my taxi driver offered to take me to a private place to stay. Once there, the taxi driver demanded $ 30 for the stay. But the owner insisted that I was her guest.
I was extensively supplied with food and tea. As I didn’t speak much Russian, a young woman was brought from the neighborhood. She spoke German very well, due to an au pair job she had done in Germany and Austria.
In the evening, water and electricity supply stopped to work. Electricity, gas and water are free but not necessarily reliably in Turkmenistan. Dinner was served in candlelight and without air condition. But the bigger problem was that I could no longer avoid drinking vodka.
On the morning of the next day I fought myself out of bed and cursed the person who invented vodka. A hangover at 36 degrees Celsius is really cruel. Nevertheless I managed to reach the border.
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