No Photos Please

Rest Day in Ashgabat
August 27th
0km

Turkmenistan is the most different country we've been in...by a wide margin. It is really not set up for tourists at all:

There are police and military EVERYWHERE. We happen to be staying near all of the government buildings, so it is probably more pronounced here, but you can't walk 500m down the street without seeing 6 different police officers.

They won't let you take photos of the government buildings, which is a real shame because they are amazing. Huge, elaborate white marble buildings with fountains and gardens. There are dozens of them down the main street. Even the banks and university buildings are impressive, and collectively they give the place a real “capital city” feel.

Its almost impossible to get cash, since there are no ATMs. (I wish that the tour company had mentioned this in Baku). There is one bank that gives cash advances on Visa cards. Another bank gives cash advances on Mastercards. A third bank will exchange our left over Azerbaijan currency for local currency. These banks are all miles from each other.

There is no internet access. The hotel has one terminal with slow dial-up access. It worked fine for e-mail but I can't add photos to the blog until I get a faster connection. Access outside the capital is almost non-existant.

There are little old ladies in traditional clothes plus constructions vests that sweep the streets using handfuls of straw as brooms.

The local currency is valued at 14,000 manat per US dollar. However, the largest bills are 10,000 manat. Their entire economy runs on 71 cent notes. Since credit cards are rarely accepted, everyone is walking around with huge fist fulls of cash. Changing $100 US gets you 140 individual bills!

The barbers here take their jobs seriously. After 2 types of clippers, 4 types of scissors, and a straight razor, mine used a large flaming Q-tip to burn off the tiny fine hairs on my ear lobes...something that I've never had done before.

Tomorrow we are back on the bikes for three days of riding to Mary.

Had to laugh at this. The strange thing is that all the words on the package are in English!

One of the impressive non-government buildings:

Rows of white marble buildings...many still under construction:

The golden statue of Turkmenbashi himself. In front, the mountains of Iran:

Another huge marble building: