ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN: SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND OUR GLAMOROUS HOTEL

So . . . you don't know where Turkmenistan is? In fact, you didn't even know there was a country called Turkmenistan? Don't be embarrassed--until a year ago I didn't either. On the map below, you can see the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara in the pink country of Uzbekistan, the city of Mary in the southeast side of Turkmenistan, and the capital city of Ashgabat in south-central Turkmenistan, just 25 or 30 miles from the border of Iran. Does that help?

SOME KEY FACTS ABOUT TURKMENISTAN:

• With 5.5 million people, Turkmenistan has the lowest population of the Central Asian countries. 

• Turkmenistan was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1925, and gained its independence upon the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

• Jim, the tour company owner who was accompanying us on the trip, said Turkmenistan is a very controlled country. He called it "The North Korea of Central Asia" and gave these two examples: no one is allowed to be out at night, and visiting Russians, including our trip doctor, are kept under guard at the train station and not allowed to leave. (Apparently they hold a grudge against Russia for its former occupation.)

• It has the sixth largest deposit of natural gas in the world and extensive oil reserves. Citizens have been getting free water and natural gas since 1993.

• Since its independence in 1991, there have been only two presidents. The first, President Saparmurat Niyazov, ran unopposed in 1992 and declared himself "President for Life" in 1999. He served until his death in 2006. During his reign he did things like ban dogs from Ashgabat because of their "unappealing odor"; make his birthday a national holiday; outlaw opera, ballet and circuses for being "un-Turkmen like"; rename all the days of the week and months of the year after his family members and friends; close all hospitals outside the capital so that everyone had to come to Ashgabat for medical care; and close all libraries outside the capital to force people to read the Qu'ran and a book he had written himself and made part of the national education curriculum. Niyazov had a Russian wife and one son. Guess where they lived? Russia! They rarely came to Turkmenistan.

• Niyazov's successor was Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow (say that fast three times), who has been president since 2007 and is also "President for Life." He reversed many of his predecessor's more eccentric policies and decrees, but then he instituted a few of his own. For example, two months after we were there, he impounded all dark-colored cars in Ashgabat and ordered them to be painted silver or white. After all, his capital is known as the "City of White Marble" (more on that in the next post), and the dark colors just don't fit in. He is married and has two daughters and a son with his wife and another daughter with his Russian mistress.  His wife lives in the mountains, and our guide told us they NEVER see her, and that no one is allowed to drive within 10 km of her residence. Bizarre.

• Human Rights Watch notes that "Turkmenistan remains one of the world's most repressive countries. The country is virtually closed to independent scrutiny, media and religious freedoms are subject to draconian restrictions, and human rights defenders and other activists face the constant threat of government reprisal."

• Reporters without Borders ranks Turkmenistan as 168 out of 170 countries for freedom of the press, just ahead of North Korea and Eritrea.

With all of that in mind, we were a little nervous about entering Ashgabat, the capital of the country and the seat of government. (The fact that its sister city is Albuquerque, New Mexico, didn't do much to allay our fears.)

Our concerns were soon reinforced when our buses were stopped by a road block on our way to our five-star accommodations, the Yyldyz Hotel, which we could see in the distance, glowing like a UFO in the dark night:

We were stopped for reasons of "national security." In only twelve hours, President Berdimuhamedow was planning on being driven down this very road to dedicate a new golf course in the area. Although it was the next day, the road was closed. Apparently there was no concern for the guests who had booked rooms in the hotel, and no alternative route to get there.

We were allowed to get out of our buses and stretch our legs while our tour directors and local guides negotiated with the police, who had to call in to station headquarters for instructions:

I'm not sure how they did it (or how much it cost), but after about 45 minutes, we were finally given permission to proceed. Even then we had to have a police escort.  Crazy.

But oh my goodness, this final hotel of our Silk Road tour was worth the wait. It is one of the most stunning hotels we have ever stayed in.

Being a group of teetotalers, we were welcomed by an array of juices in the lobby before we were escorted to our rooms:

There is President Berdimuhamedow, watching over the check-in process:

There were beautiful paintings in the lobby, including one of the Turkmenistan landscape and another of the Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar, which we had seen earlier in the day in Merv:

The golden elevators had the image of the hotel embossed on them:

 

Our room, or perhaps I should call it an apartment, was immense. We estimated that it was about 1,200 square feet, quite a change from our 36-square-foot train compartment:

The bathroom alone was ginormous. It comprised several rooms . . .

. . . and included a TV over the whirlpool bathtub:

The bathroom's tiled floor was heated:

The toiletries were extensive (and included condoms):

There were original oil paintings on the wall:

Our room's hallway was much longer and wider than the main hall in our own home:

The view from our window that night:

. . . and then the next morning:

That tall, narrow tower in the center is a 607-foot tall monument to the Constitution, built under the current president's regime between 2008-2011:

There was something . . . bizarre? over the top? almost creepy? about this luxury, especially after what we had seen in the countryside.

We got a better view of our glamorous hotel the next morning as we headed out on our bus to do some sightseeing. It is shaped like an upright iron, but ribbed on one side and bulging where the flat surface should be. Our initial assessment that it looked like a UFO still stands:

Through our bus window we could see the gleaming albino version of the Emerald City off in the distance:

In 2013, the Guinness Book of World Records declared that Ashgabat has the highest concentration of white marble buildings in the world. In a city of about 8.5 square miles, there are over 550 buildings covered with 160 million cubic feet of imported Italian white marble (and that was in 2013). Our guide says the Turkmeni government buys 60% of the world's white marble, mostly from Italy and some from Spain. EVERY building is white. No wonder the current president outlawed colored cars.

Okay, WHAT is this futuristic-looking building? A science museum?

Actually, it is the WEDDING PALACE. Yes, you read that right. This giant disco ball trapped in the Turkmen star is Eleven stories tall. It houses more than a dozen wedding halls, multiple dining halls, a hotel with ten suites and twelve additional rooms, and a shopping center. I've read that all you have to do to get married here is to have your picture taken in front of the current president's portrait.

The Wedding Palace at night:

As we moved into town, the overwhelming WHITENESS of the city was astonishing. Even the SKY was white:

Are you noticing all the traffic and the people milling about? Yeah, this is rush hour is Ashgabat.

Occasionally we would see a splash of color, but the dominant color is ALWAYS white:

I have dozens of pictures of white buildings. They all appear to be empty. We saw only a few other cars and very few people. I swear we were part of an episode of The Twilight Zone.

This picture reminded me that one of the things the current president (he of the unpronounceable name) is doing is planting trees in an attempt to move the desert back from the city.  80% of Turkmenistan is desert. They want to change that by planting more trees, which they have on a drip irrigation system;

So, okay, there is some green sprinkled among the white, but the overwhelming presence of white can't be beat.

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore, and we're not in the Emerald City either.

If you can believe it, this place just got more and more bizarre. Bob calls it "The Disneyland of Weird." Stay tuned.