Central Asia.

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Thursday April 12.
We arrived in Turkmenbashi at 4.30 am. It was to be 8 hours before I competed all the procedures; welcome to Turkmenistan the wierdest country in Asia. In the guide book it is called a Stalinist Dysneyland but I felt it had a large dose of Hollywood. My agent/guide arrived, Oleg, and dealt with the endless paperwork.
That night we stayed in a good hotel to the north of Turkmenbashi.

Friday April 13.
Oleg took me and the bike in his Toyota Surf back to the city and over the mountains behind before I began cycling. As I pedalled he drove about 10 metres behind. We had to cover 600 kms to Ashgabat in three days to maintain the schedule and with the state of the roadsit became apparent that this was not gong to be possible. At the end of each day I finished up in the Toyota to get to the appointed campsite.

Saturday April 14.
We arived at the underground thermal pool, more by vehicle than me cycling. We camped nearbye and next morning Oleg's wife, Antoninia, took over. I had a good run on the bike and we arrived in Ashgabat where I stayed at the Asya hotel some 3 kms from the centre. I was to find out that people in central asia are not familiar with maps. Whenever I stop men gather round and marvel at my map. How could I get such a map in London when they couldn't get one in their country?
It took me some tme to get my bearings in Ashgabat as nobody in the hotel had the faintest idea where it was on the city map in the Lonely Planet guide book.
I had an enforced one week stay in Ashgabat as Antoninia sorted out my visa problems which she did very well.

April 15 - April 22.
Ashgabat and Turkmenistan is the strangest country that I have ever visited (I write this from the safety of Bukhara in Uzbeckistan). It is one of two Stalinist states still remaining, the other being North Korea.
The leader was Saparmyrat Niyazov a soviet aparatchik who took power after the collapse of the soviet union. His face stares down from every building even though he died last December.
There are golden statues of him on most streets including one on top of an enormous neutrality arch in the centre.
There are police and troops every 50 metres or so who look at you suspiciously when taking photographs. I was frog marched on one occasion to an office to explain why I had taken one photogragh of the great leaders statue.
The city has been massively reconstructed on the back of oil and gas revenues. The streets are large expanses of tarmac, six or more lanes wide. These are swept constanly by an army of ladies, one every 50 - 100 metres, even though there is not one speck of dust on these roads as there is so little traffic. In turn they are watched over by a male supervisor every kilometre. The job is a non-job and the women know it. Westerners photogragh them and everbody knows why. They are paid $30 per month.
The buildings lining these roads are 15 stories high and clad in white marble. With few exceptions these buildings including their new massive hospital are totally empty. At night they are lit up but the whole scene is a fabrication, a Hollywood backdrop. Most of the educated population including doctors and nurses have long since fled the country and no-one remains to staff vital services. Even ambassadors to other countries had to stay in Ashgabat because the defected as soon as they got out of the country.
The hotels are empty, except for one or two days I was the only occupant in my hotel. I did discuss the situation with some people but I cant risk identifying them on this website. Life does in a sense survive in the markets/bazaars but the police patrol the perimetres.
The country is unnerving and a salutary reminder ofthe evils of Stalinism.

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Photos

Goosestepping soldiers
Illicit photo

Memorial to earthquake victims of1949
the president's family was killed in the earthquake along with 110,000 others never admitted by the soviet authorities.