Finally got the 5 days transit visa, but as soon as I was out of the Turkmen embassy, I noticed that they made a mistake on the visa and wrote 1962 as my birth date year (no I m not 46). Not really time (and patience) to reapply for the visa, I went just like 'whatever, let s see at the border'.
The days after at the border, of course they noticed ther was a mistake and let me wait for about an hour in order to sort it out (At this time I was already stamped out of Uzbe..soooo they didn t have much of a choice but let me enter their country). Those kind of countries are quite flexible for those kind of mistakes (I wouldn t have tried that for the US of course...but erm, Tuirkmenistan...really).
Anyway, it wasn t that hard finally to enter this country, bit of a pain in the ass to wait 2 weeks for the visa though.
I m taking a cab right to Ashgabat, my only stop in this country as I only have a five days transit visa and I don t realy want to spend to much time there anyway...can t wait to go to Iran !!!
So the city is really weird yes, I have to say. As all the 'stan' countries, the counrty is a democracy, but as all the 'stan' it has nothing to do with what we,westerners, call a democracy.
The former president was, let s say it, a bit of a crazy megalo guy... all the buidings of the city have his face on a big poster, hanging out above the main entry door. Some statues with is face are all around the city..and, best of the best, his 12m high golden statue, standing up high, at the top of the weirdest monument I have ever seen, is rotating 24hours a day in order to face the sun at any time of the day.
So megalo or not ?
Ok, so now for the crazy side, this guy has built a real weirdo city, hard to describe and even more harder to show you the athmosphear with pics (mostly because buildings are mostly governments buildings and I was not allowed to take picture of them...guards were litteraly all around the corners for the Holy City protection).
Let s say to put a picture on it, that a guy decided to make a Sim City game but at a 1/1 scale with cheat code that allows him an unlimited budget...the result is Ashgabat.
The former president also rewrote the history of the country in a book that all of the citizen have to read and to know to pass some exams (driving licence is one of them), reading the book a hundred times assures you a seat in heaven (apparently).
So, crazy or not?
The all town has monuments (the monument of independence, the monument of fairness, the steps of Health, the monument of whatever) in a beautifuf post sovietic style that would be awsome in the middle of the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
So yep, I decided to spend one day in this city just to catch the athmosphere, so not a lot of pictures of the country to show you, sorry guys....
I had a quick view of the countryside while going form the Uzbek border to Ashgabat, let s say that this 5 milions inhabitants country is more or less nothing but a big desert, small villages here and there...and the big Ashgabat !!!
The next morning, taking a cab to the Iran border, quite happy to leave Central Asia...but mostly happier to enter Middle East...persian history here I come !!!!
Cheers ;-)
