Day 9

The airport was OK  the flight  was full. The ride to the hotel was impressive. The city (Ashgabat) is beautiful.  All the buildings have the exterior in  marble.  Tons of marble from all over the world. In fact, they are in the Guinness Book of Records for the most marble in one city. There is a Ferris wheel enclosed in marble. We were told that to cover one mid-size building costs about $8 million. The idea came from the first president of independent Turkmenistam, Niyazov. He had lots of other brilliant ideas – planting evergreen trees everywhere, golden statues of himself everywhere, and in his last, crazy period, he wrote a book called Ruhnama, which he made everybody read and memorize like Quran. He had it translated into 40 languages and sent one copy into space. Lots of parks and large squares but no people.  We saw hospitals, universities and dorms but not a single person going in or out. The absence of people was evident to all in our group.  There are extensive archaeological digs of significant size on the outskirts of Ashgabad (Nissa Fortress built by one of the generals of Alexander the Great) from 2 ^cd  century BC. We went to a museum with displays of found artifacts.  The “spiritual” mosque that Niyazov built 2 years before his death (2006) together with his own mausoleum is the largest in central Asia and impressive. It’s not a real mosque because instead of quotes from Quran, it displays quotes from Ruhnama.  They are so rich in oil and gas it is spent frivolously. Niyazov decided it would be a good idea to plant evergreen trees.  This was a dessert but there are millions of small pine trees everywhere. The Russians came in 1924 and changed the country.  They built canals to bring water.  They built hospitals, education facilities and liberated the women. They  taught them how to capitalize on their gas and oil deposits.  And they built apartment complexes all over.  In 1948 there was an earthquake of magnitude 9.  Almost all was destroyed and 200000 people died. Then came massive rebuilding. In 1991 the Russians left and the first president went on a spending spree building monuments and buildings clad in marble, but leaving the road outside Ashgabad in terrible state, not to mention the horrendous bathroom facilities we encountered along the way. The 5 star hotel, in which we stayed looked magnificent, tons of marble everywhere, but you have to wait for at least 5 minutes to get hot water in the shower, and it never really got hot. What is definitely noticeable is that Turkmen horses are very beautiful and so are Turkmen women. Young women are tall and slim and wear traditional long dresses and head coverings, but both with a twist --- the dresses are colorful and form-fitting and the head scarves are more like hats covered with scarves (color coordinated with dresses) and are very flattering.  The official exchange rate is 3.5 Manak to a dollar but our guide exchanged money at 7 Manak to a dollar (the black market rate).