Turkmenistan Part 1 - Ashgabat

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan 12 & 13 May Pt 1: Turkmenistan has an isolationist policy and is hard to get into, they have only opened up to tourists in the last 3 years. Only 10,000 tourists visited last year, so our Intrepid group of 11 is a relatively rare sight in Turkmenistan. 

Getting in was a story in itself.  You have to have a letter of introduction to get a visa on arrival, and have to do a PCR Covid test.  Well.... the day Christina and I arrived, we weren't sure which queue to get in first, so went to the visa queue.  The PCR testing was going on in another direction. We gave in our LOI and then queued up to pay for the visa.  USD$130!  That included the PCR test and the visa.  Then we walked out  We had paid something like $35 for a PCR test that they nev er did.  Maxine Harrower who arrived the day before, paid USD$99 and had no PCR test, but the person who arrived before her just had their noise nominally swiped, not even properly and didn't even wait for a result!  The guide told us that if you test positive (which is unlikely as they don't even do the test properly) you just pay an extra $5! It seems the cost to come in varies day by day!

We had been told that we could not go out of the hotel without our guide, but that wasn't correct, as we could walk around, but just not go into any tourist type buildings or sites.  It was too hot to walk around too much though!

Ashgabat is the capital city of Turkmenistan.  It is a relatively new city, founded in 1881 and made the capital of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic.  In 1948 there was a 9 earthquake which destroyed most of the city.  It was rebuilt societ style and after 1991, when it obtained independence after the fall of the USSR it was refashioned by the then autocratic president.

It is known as the 'White City' as most of the buildings are covered in local white marble, there are only white cars and buses, and it is manicured and immaculately cleaned.  The architecture is amazing, with buildings in fabulous shapes, such as a dental clinic in a molar tooth shaped building, the deparmtent of medicine and pharmacy in the pharmaceutical symbol.

At night it comes alive, with the most amazing lights on the buildings. 

It actually doesn't feel real, as if the buildings are just facades and no-one lives there as we saw very few people out on the streets. 

The cost of living is very low for the Turkmenistan's, petrol about 15c a litre, and food and restaurants were cheap. 

We stayed in a very posh looking hotel, which housed the Asian olympic athletes from the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games held in 2017. Posh on the outside, but a lot of things didn't work or weren't up to Western standards.  (It was fine to stay in though).