My little sister asked me to describe some of the buildings in the city, since they're different from the States.
I have to add a little bit of context here. Turkmenistan had a Head of State for over ten years, President for Life Niyazov, who had a very particular idea of what the city and Turkmenistan should look like. He built many, many monuments and specific, grand buildings.
The city of Ashgabat is big-- requiring some form of vehicle to go back and forth. The center of the city if focused around a presidential palace that is made entirely of white marble and has gold domes rising from the main, majestic body. Surrounding this palace are green gardens, which is a challenge and expense to maintain in a desert country.
The entire section (or so it seems) surrounding the palace is devoted to government buildings that are made of white marble and are tall, kind of like the palace in Shrek. As you approach them, they rise many stories above you as you step into marble clad grand entryways. As you walk into one of the government buildings, you enter into a marble hallway that is filled with designs all over the floor and walls. You pass behind a glass section and proceed to one of the three elevators that it contains. Then you realize that one of these things is not so reflective of the grandeur of the building itself. Of the three elevators, only two work, and you hold your breath as you go up in it, hoping that it won't stop as it can be rather stuffy. The insides of the elevators are beautiful, with pretty paneling, but it slowly rises to the offices. Stepping off the elevator to one of the working levels reminds me of most U.S. government offices-- pretty in the lobby and on the outside, but very functional and almost sparse on the inside. Nice to see some similarities.
I live in one of the new luxury apartments that is made of white marble and towards the outskirts of the city. They are very nice apartments, but they don't reflect how most of the city lives. I've not yet seen the inside of a Turkmen home, but the outsides remind me of a log with many mushrooms growing out of it. Everyone seems to own a satellite, and they protrude from buildings like many white mushrooms, mostly pointing the same directions. The homes themselves seem to be mainly block houses that are either white, pink, or another neutral color and line the streets. These homes can range from four or five stories to much bigger, but I don't think I've really seen any single family homes. Keep in mind I have not been here for very long.
The shops are another unique experience. Though they can be in some of the white marble constructions (which I've been to, a music store, actually), many times they are in the neighborhoods near some of the bazaars. I love walking through these neighborhoods, as the area near the apartments doesn't really feel alive. In fact, the first morning I walked out of my apartment building, I felt like I was in a horror movie as there were no cars moving, no people walking, no kids, no sound, except for the bugs just kind of buzzing along.
Once you enter one of these neighborhoods (I walked through one about a week ago), you pass through parks and streets that are half sand, but the kids are building sand castles. Colorful fabrics and clothing are hung to dry on the various window sills and flutter as the wind cuts through very crossways. The roads are straight, but lined with mothers watching their children, children running through the streets, the occasional stray dog, and men watching everything happen. It's like being in a old neighborhood in the States in movies portraying earlier times, just with women in long dresses.
There are also outdoor cafes that seem to be spots for hanging out for hours that line some of the older parks. Hundred fountains, which seems to be in an older neighborhood (keep in mind, many neighborhoods were torn down to make space for monuments and government buildings) is alive and lined with small cafes and reataurants that serve drinks, ice cream, and sometimes full blown meals.
I'll end with a quick run down of some of the monuments that I've seen while driving around the city. They range from the Arch of Neutrality, that contains a gold statue of Niyazov that rotates on the top of this giant, three legged arch. There are also huge parks with fountains and even one that was built after former President Niyazov's vision of what Disney World looks like (completely surreal). Again, I don't have access that I can use to add pictures, but will do so as soon as I regain it. They are all unique monuments that collectively make quite the statement about Ashgabat, but my favorite part of the city is the neighborhood I visited.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Talkuchka
Last Sunday morning I went to the oldest (or so I have been told) open air market in Central Asia. I think it's spelled, "Talkuchka". I already got some souvenirs that are quite nice. It was important to have someone who could list numbers along, though calculators are my and the women in the market's friend when it comes to price negotiation. It's amazing walking through the market, as you walk through tiny aisles and dodge the men walking through with carts to collect goods to take home. You pass from women selling hand stitched handbags to vendors hawking Disney plastic bags and Barbie knock offs to traditional wedding headdresses and scarves.
The "parking lot" is a dust filled bowl brimming with buses that come in from villages around the country and cars of every make and model. There is no rhyme or reason to parking or driving, with the painted divisions and pedestrian crosswalks little more than decoration. I think it took about an hour to park, with me laughing at the "direction" that pedestrians would offer the drivers in the parking area. Heaps of good are being loaded into the buses and press against the windows as villagers line up to get onto the buses that have little signs hanging in the window indicating their destinations. After almost being hit with buses backing up and cars shooting into too small lanes, we finally park and get out. We orient ourselves to where our parking spot is: kitty corner to the main gate, across from the blue glass building, near a retaining wall, and before you hit one of the sand dunes.
When you start walking into the market, you pass vendors offering soda, honey out of Cola bottles, women selling bracelets, and a continuous stream of people coming in and out of the main gate. Traditional dress continues to be well respected, with me wondering how the men are not dying in the fur hats a good chunk of them continue to insist on wearing, layers of robes, and pants. You can taste the dust as everything is so dry and the dust is everywhere.
Once you enter the market, you are immediately immersed in small stalls that are roughly divided by different womens' carpets that they display their goods on with aisles that are almost two small for two people to walk abreast. Women in traditional scarves and beautiful long dresses with embroidery around the collars offer goods that range from tourist souvenir sales to ancient neck wraps and carpets. As you move down the aisle, men hauling carts, both empty and brimming with goods, come by, pressing you to the edge of the walkway as chatting Turkmen women wander to stalls alongside the foreigners. As you move further into the market and away from the tourist areas, it becomes clear that this is the main way to purchase goods in Ashgabat.
Turkmenistan has a lot of strange laws, especially about antiques and valuable metal (anything over ten years old is considered an antique, and thus a national treasure and cannot be brought out of Turkmenistan), but it doesn't really strike one in the market. It's evident that it is completely different from anything I've been to before, but children dart in and out of the crowd, sometimes shoving too roughly, and continue racing forward through the stalls.
When a shirt grabbed my eye (not going to describe it too much as it's a gift for someone who may be reading this), I stopped and this little old woman began bargaining. She offered it for 450,000 manat. I countered with 250,000 using her little calculator, and she agreed, "Da!". Hmmm, maybe I could have gotten a better deal, but for about $18 for a shirt that would easily have been $30+ in the US, I wasn't going to be too annoyed. She smiled, let me take a pictures with her, and kissed me on the cheek after insisting on looking at the photo I took. I had to carefully remove my sandals before stepping onto the carpet to take the picture.
I also bought "evil eyes", which are meant to protect someone from bad forces. These beliefs are alive and well in Turkmenistan. From leaving a longer strand on the end of carpets to wearing certain bracelets, men and women use various symbols to ward off bad things. Some of these are very beautiful and are hung at entryways to ward off evil.
We continued to move deeper into the market, eventually ending up in the fabric section. It's rather surreal, going straight and walking through one curtain after another of cloth that separate each vendor's booth from another's. Fabrics range from polka dots to beautiful velvet that are used to create the long dresses that are worn around the city.
We continued looking around the market for about another hour before the heat and the sun got to all of us. We started to head out and extracted the car from the parking lot. As we were driving out, we saw a string of camels with baby camels being led along the road. There were sheep and goats wandering, with a goat examining our car over the back of the truck ahead of us. I can't wait for my next trip out there.
The "parking lot" is a dust filled bowl brimming with buses that come in from villages around the country and cars of every make and model. There is no rhyme or reason to parking or driving, with the painted divisions and pedestrian crosswalks little more than decoration. I think it took about an hour to park, with me laughing at the "direction" that pedestrians would offer the drivers in the parking area. Heaps of good are being loaded into the buses and press against the windows as villagers line up to get onto the buses that have little signs hanging in the window indicating their destinations. After almost being hit with buses backing up and cars shooting into too small lanes, we finally park and get out. We orient ourselves to where our parking spot is: kitty corner to the main gate, across from the blue glass building, near a retaining wall, and before you hit one of the sand dunes.
When you start walking into the market, you pass vendors offering soda, honey out of Cola bottles, women selling bracelets, and a continuous stream of people coming in and out of the main gate. Traditional dress continues to be well respected, with me wondering how the men are not dying in the fur hats a good chunk of them continue to insist on wearing, layers of robes, and pants. You can taste the dust as everything is so dry and the dust is everywhere.
Once you enter the market, you are immediately immersed in small stalls that are roughly divided by different womens' carpets that they display their goods on with aisles that are almost two small for two people to walk abreast. Women in traditional scarves and beautiful long dresses with embroidery around the collars offer goods that range from tourist souvenir sales to ancient neck wraps and carpets. As you move down the aisle, men hauling carts, both empty and brimming with goods, come by, pressing you to the edge of the walkway as chatting Turkmen women wander to stalls alongside the foreigners. As you move further into the market and away from the tourist areas, it becomes clear that this is the main way to purchase goods in Ashgabat.
Turkmenistan has a lot of strange laws, especially about antiques and valuable metal (anything over ten years old is considered an antique, and thus a national treasure and cannot be brought out of Turkmenistan), but it doesn't really strike one in the market. It's evident that it is completely different from anything I've been to before, but children dart in and out of the crowd, sometimes shoving too roughly, and continue racing forward through the stalls.
When a shirt grabbed my eye (not going to describe it too much as it's a gift for someone who may be reading this), I stopped and this little old woman began bargaining. She offered it for 450,000 manat. I countered with 250,000 using her little calculator, and she agreed, "Da!". Hmmm, maybe I could have gotten a better deal, but for about $18 for a shirt that would easily have been $30+ in the US, I wasn't going to be too annoyed. She smiled, let me take a pictures with her, and kissed me on the cheek after insisting on looking at the photo I took. I had to carefully remove my sandals before stepping onto the carpet to take the picture.
I also bought "evil eyes", which are meant to protect someone from bad forces. These beliefs are alive and well in Turkmenistan. From leaving a longer strand on the end of carpets to wearing certain bracelets, men and women use various symbols to ward off bad things. Some of these are very beautiful and are hung at entryways to ward off evil.
We continued to move deeper into the market, eventually ending up in the fabric section. It's rather surreal, going straight and walking through one curtain after another of cloth that separate each vendor's booth from another's. Fabrics range from polka dots to beautiful velvet that are used to create the long dresses that are worn around the city.
We continued looking around the market for about another hour before the heat and the sun got to all of us. We started to head out and extracted the car from the parking lot. As we were driving out, we saw a string of camels with baby camels being led along the road. There were sheep and goats wandering, with a goat examining our car over the back of the truck ahead of us. I can't wait for my next trip out there.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Driving in Ashgabat
So the following describes daily driving life here, as best as I could explain it. I am greatly amused by it all, and it is even better the further into the city you get. Btw, I am loving my time here in the city.
Ashgabat is a sprawling city that requires you to drive in order to get anywhere. And each time you get behind the wheel, a rather strange and frightening adventure awaits. As a passenger, I get to sit back and watch this, which provides no end of entertainment.
As though the driving isn't special enough, Turkmenistan has unique traffic lights. While in the U.S. there is the red, yellow, green system, they do have all these colors represented in their lights. Green means go, flashing green is the equivalent of yellow in the States, either slow down or get through the light, yellow means the other way is about to start going and you'd better be stopped, and red means don't even think about moving. When a yellow light appears below the red light after you've stopped, it's time to start moving and you will be honked at if you don't hit the gas.
Ashgabat is a sprawling city that requires you to drive in order to get anywhere. And each time you get behind the wheel, a rather strange and frightening adventure awaits. As a passenger, I get to sit back and watch this, which provides no end of entertainment.
The streets of the city are crammed with small, Turkmen made cars, Toyotas, and SUVs. Licenses are easy to get here-- I'm told that you just pay the correct fee. Cars can be bought at the used car market at Talkulchka, the largest open air market in Central Asia that is located right outside of Ashgabat.
The roads are fairly rough, with plenty of bumps along the way, but that is not the most entertaining part of the trip. A two lane road typically means you will have four lanes of traffic, with cars freely drifting every which-way in their attempt to get beyond the car in front of them. The painted lines on the road, including lane guides and pedestrian cross-walks, are beautiful decorations with little real meaning. Turning lanes are whoever can get across enough lanes of traffic in order to turn in that direction (no specific lane needed). You swerve around the driver drifting towards you on one side, honk your horn at the person going much slower than anyone on the highway, and then dodge two or three pedestrians on your way to beating the light before it starts to flash.
As though the driving isn't special enough, Turkmenistan has unique traffic lights. While in the U.S. there is the red, yellow, green system, they do have all these colors represented in their lights. Green means go, flashing green is the equivalent of yellow in the States, either slow down or get through the light, yellow means the other way is about to start going and you'd better be stopped, and red means don't even think about moving. When a yellow light appears below the red light after you've stopped, it's time to start moving and you will be honked at if you don't hit the gas.
Pedestrians bring a whole new level of attention to driving through the city. The ubiquitous, orange garbed street cleaning ladies fill the side of the street and often wander into it during their cleaning duties. They don't even flinch as cars pass within inches of hitting them. Then there are the folks who run across the road and pray that they aren't hit.
The last couple of unique things about the roads in Ashgabat are the potholes and the effect sprinklers have on other drivers. You almost need an SUV to be able to not be jostled too much, and sprinklers cause other drivers to do their dangnest to avoid any wet spots on the road, causing them to completely avoid areas where the water from the sprinklers accidentally overflows onto the road. Granted, it's a desert and water is not common to drive in, but it's particularly entertaining to watch this phenomenon.
The last couple of unique things about the roads in Ashgabat are the potholes and the effect sprinklers have on other drivers. You almost need an SUV to be able to not be jostled too much, and sprinklers cause other drivers to do their dangnest to avoid any wet spots on the road, causing them to completely avoid areas where the water from the sprinklers accidentally overflows onto the road. Granted, it's a desert and water is not common to drive in, but it's particularly entertaining to watch this phenomenon.
Police jump out from bushes waving striped sticks, some with lights on top of them, when they feel a traffic law has been violated (though I have not figured out what traffic laws actually exist). They're somewhat effective, causing some people to actually pull over, but as they are unarmed and as I have not seen them chase down a car in an actual vehicle, I'm not sure how many times they collect on traffic violators.
The best advice I received upon arriving was not to drive unless it is an emergency. I am extremely happy to remain a passenger in this city.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Long flight?
For those of you who do not know where Turkmenistan is, it's west of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, north of Iran and Afghanistan, and south of Russia and Kazakhstan.
On May 14, I take off to travel from Minneapolis to Chicago to Frankfurt to Baku to Ashgabat. I'm pretty sure that it is more than twenty-four hours before I land in Ashgabat. I am currently trying to figure out how to fit everything into one bag so I retain one bag for souvenirs. Don't know if it's actually going to work. Currently the pile of stuff that I am planning on packing looks far larger than the bag it's supposed to go in.
I'm torn between terror and excitement as I get ready to leave. Excitement is winning right now. We'll see what happens. I still have a roadtrip to Minnesota and the flight ahead of me.
On May 14, I take off to travel from Minneapolis to Chicago to Frankfurt to Baku to Ashgabat. I'm pretty sure that it is more than twenty-four hours before I land in Ashgabat. I am currently trying to figure out how to fit everything into one bag so I retain one bag for souvenirs. Don't know if it's actually going to work. Currently the pile of stuff that I am planning on packing looks far larger than the bag it's supposed to go in.
I'm torn between terror and excitement as I get ready to leave. Excitement is winning right now. We'll see what happens. I still have a roadtrip to Minnesota and the flight ahead of me.
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