COUNTRY GUIDE

  HIGHLIGHTS - Gold, Marble & FIRE

Darvaza Gas Crater 1N

(Kow Ata)

Ashgabat 3N = 4N

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• ​Free Gas

• Personality Cults

• Vodka Terrorism

• The Ruhnama

• Odd things banned

• Dental Dictator

• The Gates of Hell

• Neutrality Arch

• Ashgabat Circus

• Turkmenbashi Cableway

• Theme shaped buildings

• Largest architectural star

• Jack Nicholas golf course

• Kow Ata Underground Lake

• The Walk of Health 36 km path

• Ahal Teke the world's rarest horse

• World's largest enclosed Ferris Wheel

• Most fountain pools in a public place

• Largest hand-woven carpet in the world

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• This trip is for a custom made short tour of Turkmenistan coming from Nukus in Uzbekistan and flying out of Ashgabat or crossing into Mashhad in Iran. If you can get a Transit Visa (50% get rejected and it will take 2 - 4 weeks to get from the Tashkent Embassy) it will still be difficult organising transportation and accommodation. The visa process for this country is notoriously fickle. If you come in on a Tourist Visa with a tour company you are much more likely to get a visa but it can be expensive. There's no hard and fast rules, it comes down to a matter of luck on who's processing your visa and how they feel on the day. See the VISAS section above.

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• Turkmenistan comes in 2nd on the weirdness scale after North Korea so you have to expect a few visa dramas. Get the tour company to pick you up at the border for Konye-Urgench and have you booked in at the yurts by the Gates of Hell for one night. The next day go to Ashgabat where they can organise your accommodation for a few days. You could do a city tour with them and also a side trip to Kow Ata. You might even do a trip out to Yangykala Canyon. The weird city of Ashgabat is the star and you want to make sure you have enough time here.

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• ​Your first stop the Gates of Hell at Darvaza was caused by a Soviet drilling crew  setting up a rig looking for oil here in 1971 (see tour below ⬇️). They punctured the roof of a large underground cavern and the entire rig fell in. Poisonous fumes and gasses started escaping at a worrying rate so they set them on fire fearing they might reach the nearby town. They thought it would burn out before too long but over 50 years later they are still burning. In fact it's their number one tourist site. It's best to get there for sunset  and see them at night for full effect. Being out in the middle of the desert means the star gazing is fantastic as well. The combination of the two is quite magical and completely unique. There are yurts nearby that you can stay at with a BBQ dinner. The current President is talking about closing the site down so get their soon. 

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• If you had flown into Ashgabat one of the first things you would have noticed was that the airport was shaped like a bird. This is a technique they use with many other government buildings around the city. The Ministry of Education is shaped like a book, the Ministry of Gas is shaped like a cigarette lighter, the Ministry of Dentistry is shaped like a tooth, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a globe of the world on top, the Central Bank has a large golden coin on top, the Wedding Palace has a huge mirror ball and another building has been likened to a toilet plunger. And we haven't even started on monuments, statuary and other bizarre edifices.

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• There are more white marble clad buildings here than any other city in the world. The city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1948. So gleaming white marble and gold is everywhere. Streets are wide and free of people, litter and advertising. Old Ashgabat is a lively Soviet style town. It was a former part of the USSR until that fell apart in the early 1990's.

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• The original leader Niyazov a school teacher / soldier changed his name to Turkmenbashi which means Father of all the Turkmen. He also changed the names of months, days of the week and even bread (which is almost sacred) after himself, his mother and family. He created a cult of personality with gold statues of himself everywhere. He also banned an extraordinary range of unusual things. Such as music in cars, advertising, beards, make up on TV hosts, long hair, lip synching, smoking in public, the opera, the ballet, the circus and gold teeth. The weirdness goes on and on.

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• He died in 2006 and was succeeded by his dentist Berdimuhamedow who is just as strange and into creating a personality cult too. His portraits can be seen everywhere and he sees himself as a sportsman extraordinaire often with comical results. Nobody at the events are laughing though as Turkmenistan remains a tightly controlled police state. ​