The Five Stans of the Silk Road - Turkmenistan - 2019
18th July 2019 - To Almaty
Getting a flight from Bangkok to Ashgabat where my tour starts is an expensive and complicated business probably involving two stopovers so after much searching I stumbled upon a much better option; a round flight to Almaty the finishing point and an extra single to Ashgabat. So today Almaty, or a hotel fairly close to the Almaty airport anyway.
Almaty sits below a range of snow capped mountains, they eat kebabs and lots of different types of salad and that's about all I got from my night here. I'll spend a few nights here at the end of the trip so I'm sure I'll have more then.
19th July 2019 - To Ashgabat
Transfer to the airport and then the 3 hour flight from the end point of our trip to the start. Looking out the window all I saw for the three hours was lots and lots of barren desert and some mountain ridges. Apart from Bishtek which we flew over I hardly saw another settlement. I know we will travel further south than the plane route but I think my expectations of mountains and desert and going to be met.
Getting through Ashgabat Airport took nearly 1 1/2 hours. First queuing and getting my visa and paying the $99 to get it. Next up a machine which took my finger prints, photo and iris scans to link to my passport. Then immigration. Next up collect my bag and head to the exit. £0 minutes waiting in a queue as they were scanning bags on the way out. For most locals who were carrying lots of goods that I guess they planned to sell this meant emptying everything out of their bags and boxes to get separately scanned, thus the long queue. When I finally got to the front the bags went through unopened in seconds.
In the evening we went to a restaurant serving traditional Turkmen food. The restaurant was actually a dozen or more yurts so each party had their own where they ate their meal. The menu contained lots of salads and lots of soup like meals. I had the dish above chicken in a thick soup of tomato and onion. it was good, and very tasty once I added pepper and some spice. I also ordered some meat dumplings which were heavy and tasty and it all came with some lovely heavy bread.
After dinner we went for a drive around the city to see Ash-vegas, Ashgabat lit up at night.
Ashgabat is a weird place. Not that many people around, big wide open streets with very few cars. The country is rich with natural gas and the leader is spending that money keeping the population happy and on a huge building program. Ashgabat has more white marble buildings than any other city in the world. It's marble-ous! We stopped off by the stadium which was built for the Asian Games to take a few photos. Within a minute someone came up to tell us we couldn't take photos, a minute later two cars had stopped and our guide was in heated discussion with them. Turns out any photo taking in Turkenistan is basically not allowed. All these amazing buildings and for some reason they don't want anyone to photograph them.
20th July 2019 - Ashgabat
Free day today so I took it easy, just a wander around the local markets. I followed a similar route to one I took when I was here three years ago. So first up I wandered through Inspiration Park to look at the statues. The long thin park with lots of water features is lined with statues of historic figures. A nice park, great statues and no one around.
Next up the Russian Market which thankfully unlike when I visited a few years back was fully up and running. Rows and rows of stalls selling local produce. Rows and rows of watermelons, melons and squash. Lots of other fruit and veg, nuts and piles and piles of biscuits. I went up to the first floor to take a couple of photos, but no sooner than I'd taken my camera out someone came over to stop me. "No photos, this is Turkmenistan!" He wanted to see my photos, of course they were just innocent tourist photos and he just said don't take any more. Someone else on the tour was told to delete all photos on their camera. I decided enough was enough and wandered back to the hotel. This really is a strange country.
In the evening we headed out to a beer garden near the hotel for a local brew and some BBQ. Beef kofte kebab and chips. Lovely.
You can check out my last visit to Ashgabat here. Ashgabat to Istanbul via Iran - 2016
21st July 2019 - Explore Ashgabat
Late start today as the rest of the group landed at 4am this morning. By the time we'd got together and done some paperwork it was well after 11 before we left the hotel. We took in the sights as we drove around the city and made a few stops where we were allowed to take photos. The Monument of Neutrality, Independence Monument, the Ashgabat Wheel and ended up at the National Museum. And of course along the way we saw a lot of white marble.
I did a similar tour around Ashgabat when I was here three years ago (see the link above) so today felt a bit like treading water waiting for the real tour to start tomorrow. When you first see Ashgabat it is amazing in a strange kind of way, so many weird and wonderful gleaming white buildings but soon all you see are white elephants. Why were they built, it obviously isn't to attract tourists, can't be for the general public, it can only be because they have so much money to burn through.
As the day went on it got hotter and hotter, just 36 in the morning but by 4pm it had risen to about 45 degrees. But it still feels much more comfortable than Bangkok at a hot and humid 35.
22nd July 2019 - Nisa and Darvaza
First up today the ancient Partian capital of Nisa. Nisa was at it's height around the time of Christ. Not much remains now due to Mongol hoards, weather erosion and what was left being destroyed in the 1948 earthquake. It is now an archaeology sight which is only partial excavated. It was interesting but all mud brick ruins sorta look the same and as this hasn't really been developed for tourism yet; you really have to used your imagination and that's not my strong point. The setting surrounded by hills, the early morning sun made this a very pleasant spot though.
From Nisa we headed to somewhere I visited on my last trip the Monument to the former president's ego that is the Turmenbasy Ruhy Mosque. The mosque was built by the previous (first ) president of Turkmenistan at the place of his birth 15 km from Ashgabat. At the mosque they study both the Koran and a book of the Spiritual Guide to Life written by the president. Many of these personality cult buildings have gone out of favour with the locals and the mosque is very rarely used. You can see the mosque in my Iran blog so here is an internal picture.
One thing I do like about mosques is the geometrical art work. So many beautiful repeating patterns. This is a part of the door to the mosque and the door knocker. Beautiful.
Our last stop this morning was the main mosque in central Ashgabat. This is a proper working mosque frequented by locals. Unusually for Ashgabat the building isn't made of marble and is all the better for it. It looks like a classic mosque a smaller version of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. Inside the artwork again was great, stained glass windows, huge beautiful carpets, geometric designs on the arches and the doors. I guess we'll see quite a bit more of this in the next few weeks.
After a bit of time to chill in the hotel we all jumped into 4x4s and headed up through the Karakum Desert to Darvaza. The whole drive is about 3 1/2 hours along a big and pretty empty road through the desert. There was sandy scrub land either side of us and the little settlements became less and less frequent the further we got from Ashgabat. About 3/4 of the way we saw a herd of camels just off the road so we stopped to take a look. A farmer and his two young sons were herding camels and sheep to a series of wells for them to drink. Each well had a generator which drew the water up for the animals. There were 30 or 40 camels and more kept appearing. It was quite a sight.
Next stop was just a few kilometres short of Darvaza at another huge crater, a sort of warm-up act for the main act. This crater was also a result of drilling for natural gas that went wrong. It is thought the drilling rigs collapsed into an crater when it all fell into an underground cavern. This crater had some bubbling mud in the bottom and the odd gas flame and if we didn't know what was to come would've been worth the journey on its own.
From there it was a short drive to the Darvaza Gas Crater itself. We arrived well before sunset and even in daylight it was quite a sight. The huge crater is 69m across and 30m deep and full of gas flames. I walked all the way around, even standing up wind it was hot but when I walked around the other side the heat really hit me. Any gust of wind was enough to force you to turn away, one particularly strong burst almost took my eye brows off.
There are varying reports on when Darvaza was discovered and when the fire started. Some say it was found and lit to quickly burn off the gas in 1971, others say it was discovered in the 60s and not lit until the 80s. Either way the plan to quickly burn off the methane gas didn't work out. Over the years they have been plans to try to extract the gas to stop the fire but none have happened and I think the Turkmens have now embraced it as a tourist attraction.
On this trip we are accompanied by 'explorer and storm-chaser' George Kourounis. George presents shows on National Geographic and generally does crazy things usually related to forces of nature. 5 years ago he organised an expedition for National Geographic into the Darzava Crater. Yes, into the crater. To cut a long story short and you can only wonder at the amount of planning required he led the expedition to the bottom of the crater to collect soil samples which would be analysed for signs of life. Tripods were built either side of the crater, ropes strung across, he wore a flame retardent suit and was pulled out the the centre and then lowered down to the bottom where he spent 15 minutes. Google 'George Kourounis Darvaz' the videos are amazing.
As the sun went down the real spectacle of the crater became more and more into view. The flames now really lit up the crater and it started to seem like the whole crater was on fire. The crater truly was beginning to look like the 'Gates to hell'. Despite the amount of fire there is very little smell and no smoke, in fact burning off the gas is better for the environment than letting the methane escape unburned.
Climbing up to look down on the crater gave a new perspective and shows the scale of the crater. The people around the edge lit up by the light of the flames give an indication of the scale of the whole thing.
Last year the Turkmenistan President visited and a small fence has been erected around the crater a couple of metres from the edge. Health and safety gone mad. But it really is a small fence and there are no guards around so getting to the edge and looking right in was still possible.
Looking down into the pit of fire is an amazing experience and to be here with George Kourounis and to hear him talk about his expedition made it all the more amazing. Coming to Darvaza is the biggest reason why I chose to be on this trip and it didn't disappoint.
23rd July 2019 - To Mary
Our first two stops today were to ancient Silk Road sights; Anau and Abiverd. Anau comprises of five separate sights; two stone age sites, a bronze age site, an iron age site and a medieval Silk Road settlement. The Bronze and Iron age sites are just mounds of earth that have been excavated. The only real remaining visitor attraction today is the ruins of the 15th century Seyit Jamal-ad-Din Mosque. The mosque stood until the 1948 earthquake reduced it to rubble with a few remaining columns. We were told it is a popular pilgrimage site but today there was no one else around.
35km east, the distance a camel caravan could travel in a day, is Abiverd. Abiverd was another important stop along the Silk Road and in its heyday consisted of a fort and numerous surrounding villages. But as with many other sites it fell foul of the Mongols in the 1220s. This sacking by the Mongols was reportedly particularly brutal with 1000s killed and the whole area destroyed.
Tonight we are staying in Mary the third biggest city in Turkmenistan. It is really a stopping off point for Merv which we will see tomorrow but it is interesting in itself. We spent time in the market where the locals seems much more friendly than in the Ashgabat and checked out the mosque and the Russian Orthodox Church.
In the evening I just crashed out in the hotel and wrote up my blog. Better to save my money for Uzbekistan where my money will go much further. In Turkmenistan the official rate which we got (under pressure from our local guide who I'm sure made a fortune out of us) is 3.5; the black market rate to the dollar is around 18. 3.5 makes things expensive, 18 would make them very, very cheap. This is one of many things that makes Turkmenistan a weird country and very tourist unfriendly. My advice would be that unless you want to see Darvaza to give the country a miss.
24th July 2019 - Merv and to Bukhara, Uzbekistan
We spent the morning exploring the ancient city or we should say cities of Merv. Merv was a major stop on the Silk Road for maybe 1000 years until it too was destroyed by the Mongols. It had 3 neighbouring locations before the Mongols and a couple more after but nowadays very little remains.
The foundations of the cities remain but little else. A few important sites have been restored but otherwise it's all gone. It's good reading and hearing abvout the great history of the place but seeing it adds little to that story except to show the scale of what the city was. Above is the Tomb of Yusuf Hamadani. Below is the Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar. The Tomb of Yusuf Hamadani is the main pilgrimage site in Turkmenistan. Yusuf Hamadani was apparently a Persian who travelled into Central Asia preaching and generally being wise and in the 11th/12th century was greatly revered and in the 13th century the first mosque and building were built on the site. The Tomb of Ahmad Sanjar was built in 1157 and at that time was an architectural marvel with its 5m thick walls and double domed roof. It's still pretty impressive today.
