Health Walk

Former Turkmen President Niyazov decided that citizens of Turkmenistan need to be healthier, and he created a long, paved path with railings that goes for miles, is lit, and is called the health walk. Let me preface this entry by saying that I have not been on most of the health walk, nor do I know exactly where it ends up. This, instead, is about my small experience on it and my amusement with some of it, and me talking about the Hash. But there is, actually, a health walk created for the citizens and visitors to Turkmenistan.

I went to the Hash on Saturday, and we walked from a small, walled community to the President Hotel area. We were told that this would be about a thirty to forty minute walk. For those reading this not familiar with a Hash, it is a running or walking activity where someone lays a trail for people to see parts of an area that are usually not explored by the group, and it ends at someone's house or a restaurant/bar where people enjoy a drink or two. I really enjoy it and the people who participate are really nice.

So we started out in a small community and were directed onto the walkers' trail. We went around the block, and then lost the trail, which is marked by bits of shredded paper. In the two hours since the trail was laid, busy workers had laid down more of a block of new road-- right over the trail. So. . . we ended up a little lost right off of the bat. Only here would a new road be laid between 3 and 5pm on a Saturday. So we went in another circle and refound the trail.

Did I mention that there are two trails? And a longer one is for runners? Yeah. . . so we missed the walking trail and our brief, three mile, forty minute walk extended for more than an hour and a half. It was a nice walk, but in the heat at midday, a little warmer than we were expecting. We followed a dirt road through the middle of a field that felt more like the desert than anywhere else I have been in Ashgabat. It was towards the outskirts of the city, and we were quite distant from buildings for most of the time.

On my left were the mountains, and as I walked through a stone strewn road, it was nice to see something that was not artificially maintained to be green and with fountains, unlike the majority of the city. I walked along this road until I reached a paved walkway. I climbed over the railling, and the person with me told me that it was part of the health walk that was built some years ago. It could hold about eight people walking abreast, and was paved with marble insets that list years every so often. It's kind of weird. It apparently goes for miles up into the mountains and is supposed to be for people to work on physical fitness. Someone told me that it's the long tail of lights that you can see on the side of the mountains at night, but really, it goes for miles.

Anyway, we walked along this path for about a mile or so, then we finally got back to the main road and headed in for the ending part of the Hash. I've since realized that this entry isn't as interesting, more just me being like "I went on a very long walk in the desert and was an idiot and didn't bring water", but oh well. It was a nice walk-one I enjoyed very much, and now I can say that I've been on part of the health walk.