Blogs from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Asia - page 2

Mit diesem Titel wollen wir der nervigen Rubrik aus einer Schweizer Gratiszeitung nicht Referenz erweisen. Uns ist jedoch vieles in Turkmenistan (schreibt sich selbst übrigens "Türkmenistan") spanisch oder eben ziemlich absurd vorgekommen. Hier folgt nun eine Sammlung aus Fakten, Beobachtungen und Vermutungen aus einem Land, das auf der Topten-Liste der Despotenstaaten zwischen Nordkorea und Weissrussland liegt. Einiges über die Wirtschaft Ausserhalb der staatlich gesteuerten Wirtschaft, gibt es kaum nennenswerte wirtschaftliche Aktivität. Nach dem Öl- und Gas-Sektor folgt die Textilbranche an dritter Stelle. Auch diese ist staatlich kontrolliert und primär exportorientiert. Interessant ist übrigens, wer sich so um Gas und Öl tut. Öl wird primär von Petronas abgebaut, der staatlichen Öl-Firma aus Indonesien. Gas geht primär in zwei Pipelines – eine nach Russland und eine na... read more

If you want to know what Ashgabat looks like and how Turkmenistan is run it would be wise to read the following section I copied from the book that every dictator has on his bookshelf: A handbook for megalomaniacs: Build yourself a new capital, either by: a) Starting from scratch, preferably in a desolate and unsustainable location, and forcebly moving the entire population from the old to the new capital. or: b) Bulldoze entire sections of the old capital to make way for your new centre; in this case you certainly shouldn't provide for alternative housing for those who have been dispossessed by this. Your new capital should be made up of huge new buildings, entirely out of proportion with the needs of the administration or the people. It needs to be made out of expensive ... read more

Having left Esfahan behind, visiting mosques, wonderful bridges straddling a river with no water and having eaten some traditional Iranian food (apart from the ever present kebabs!) we headed south to Shiraz of grape fame - isn’t it odd that they are a nation of teetotallers. Although we were spending two nights there we only had one full day to explore and half of that was spent at the Iranian Department for Aliens (yes really) extending our visas as we discovered they were due to expire a few hours before we were due to leave the country - a hefty fine for breaking this law! It was another beautiful town and we spent the afternoon in the most brilliant bazaar which was heaving with locals buying very sparkly and exotic fabrics - one wonders what goes ... read more

I am a bit behind with this journal as Turkmenistan was pretty tight with internet access. I couldn't get phone access as well. After Bukhara we went to Khiva - wandered around more amazing buildings and bazaars. From there we travelled across the border into Turkmenistan. The Border towns had not seen many tourists so we had a lot of attention as we were changing money and shopping in the bazaar. We had a couple of days of bush camping as we made our way through the Turkmen desert. We drank our last beers as we were just out of Ashgabat. The highlight of the Turkmen desert (seeing camels roam free is so old hat now) was jumping onto a local contractors truck and making our way further into the desert one night. We went to ... read more

After the hellish border crossing experience we drove almost all day then finally getting to our bush camp near the Kow Ata underground thermal pools. i noticed there are many checkpoints everywhere we got stopped so many times I lost count, when we stopped at a market to shop for dinner, I was surprised to find out there are pork sashylik here, and our guide Ata said they are not really strict here, they are a secular country. It was very windy at the camp and took lots of effort to set up our tents. The next morning we went to the KOW- ATA underground thermal pools, it wasn't really super but a nice experience nevertheless, and we were befriended by a lot of locals and one even warned us not to go so far ... read more