Europe and the 5 stans

Ashgabat is one weird place. I describe it as (cold) beauty with no substance. And it's totally different from the rest of the country.

Most of Turkmenistan is rough and underdeveloped. The roads are absolutely disgraceful. People live in very humble homes.

Whereas Ashgabat is an immaculate city. It is full of white marble buildings and manicured gardens. In fact, Ashgabat has the most monuments in the city than I've ever seen. Ridiculous, over the top monuments. Their president/s have the urge to have the most world records they can. Our guide would just point and say something like 'that has a world record for...blah blah blah'. It's all just for show. It is all very grand but unappealing. To be honest, I wouldn't want to spend too much time there (even though the people are lovely).

It's hard to reconcile the money spent, when 10 minutes out of the city, everything is a shambles.

Both the entry (via land) and the exit (via plane) were the most ridiculous, unorganised systems I've come across.  (I guess it's good preparation for Africa!! 🤣)

We stayed in a beautiful hotel - probably the most beautiful I've ever stayed in. But under the surface, things were unorganised (reception and checking into rooms that haven't been cleaned, passports just sit freely on counter for anyone to take) and broken (I almost got electrocuted, air conditioning not working). As I said, beautiful on the outside, no substance on the inside.

In advance, we were given a list on how to behave while there. You also can't go there independently; you have to go with a registered guide.  Your details are government registered so they know where you are every night. You can't use your credit/debit cards, and there are no money exchange bureaus. You need to get money via the black market ( the rate online for $1US is $3.50 manat. The black market was $19 manat. Huge difference!

Social media, emails, chat programs, and vpns are all banned. I was expecting no connection, but I was more connected than expected. (I seemed to have more connection than others.) I didn't expect to walk alone in the streets, but I was able to a couple of times.

Other interesting things are that the streets are mostly empty. And, the cars you do see are all white, with some light silver.

It's such an unusual place that I'm very glad to have experienced. However, I'm not in a hurry to go back.

* The first photo is the view from my roomLeia mais