Whenever I see a lot of portraits of a president or leader around, I know it might be a good time to pay extra attention to what is happening in a country, and there are a lot of pictures of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow. Smiling, with one hand raised. Walking with purpose.
We started the day with a visit to the first presdient's mausoleum. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow is the second president, who took over after the first president, President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov who died in 2006. Niyazov had designed his own mausoleum before his death, near where he was born, in a town called Gipjak.
There are many places in Turkmenistan where photos are not allowed. There aren't any signs or anything, a policeman will just magically appear and let you know that you are straying into messy territory ("No pictures!)". Sometimes just backing up worked ok, but often pictures were not allowed inside buildings. The mausoleum is one such place. It is cold and marble inside, almost sterile. Ladies were wiping down the handrails and floors and door jams as we went in. Niyazov had lost most of his family during the October 6, 1948 earthquake that shook Ashgabat. He was eight at the time. So there are memorial gravestones for his mother and two brothers. His father was killed in WWII, and there is a symbolic grave there for him as well.
The mosque next door is one of the biggest mosque in Central Asia. It can hold 10,000 people - but they have yet to fill it up. Less than a million people live in Ashgabat - and you feel it on the empty streets, empty parks and sidewalks. It was a work day, but nobody was out. The mosque only took two years to build and was completed in 2004. Inside ("No pictures!"), it isn't Koranic text that fills the walls, but sayings from the book the President for Life wrote called The Ruhnama or Book of Morality. Quotations from this book also rind the minarets outside. Our guide said that they are good sayings, things along the lines of being a proud Turkmen, being honest and working hard, that kind of thing...but I had never seen anything except the Koran quoted in a mosque before.
We then drove out to Old Nisa, an ancient fort and palace from about 247 B.C. We are about 50 km from Iran, with a mountain range to the south making up the border. As we got closer to Old Nisa, we could see the Health Walk path snaking along a ridge in front of where the mountains start. The former president thought walking was especially good for everyone, so on "Health Day" he made people walk up this "Health Path" for their own good.
The Health Walk can be seen in the distance.
The population of Ashgabat is 700,000, and the whole of Turkmenistan is about 6 million. This in a country that is exactly double the size of the U.K. But 80% of it is desert.
Average monthly salary is $350. But utilities are free and a gallon of gas will cost $1. The government subsidizes housing with 2% loans for those who want to buy in the "new" part of town....where the government seems to wants them now.
It was time to see downtown Ashgabat. The city holds the Guiness World Record for the most white marble in one city. It is blindingly white. And sterile. There is no garbage, not even in the garbage cans. While the buildings appear at first glance to be impressive, it starts to feel like a wedding cake exploded or something. The marble rows and rows of apartment buildings are being replicated at amazing speeds. Everywhere we went, there were more and more of them popping up - at night we drove through, and saw only a few lights on in these new buildings.
We stopped by the mall for lunch, and all the ladies were in their traditional clothes - beautiful, colorful long dresses with some blingy decor on the chest, and these amazing head coverings. We found out later that they wear a cardboard "hat" under there to achieve the optimal height and shape. Then they wrap the scarf over it. We also discovered that you can be fined for having a dirty car in Ashgabat. The police can pull you over and issue you a ticket if your car is muddy. That must be how they keep these streets so incredibly clean.
Then it was on to the carpet museum. Ashgabat boasts the world's largest handmade carpet, it is hanging in this museum ("No pictures!") along with a picture of the smiling Berdimuhamedow. A really big picture.
There was one great carpet story, though. Part legend, part carpet lore.
There was a village where Ashgabat is today, where two dragons lived in peace with the people in the village. The male and female dragons would have to occasionally come down from the mountain to eat a sheep, but the villagers didn't mind, because the dragons left the people alone.
One day the male dragon slithered into the village and made urgent motions for the people to follow him. They ran after the dragon and he led them away from the village and to the foothills of the mountains. There they saw that the female dragon had swallowed a goat with large horns and it was stuck in her throat. She was in distress because she couldn't breathe. The village people crawled into her mouth and sawed the horns off the goat, so she could swallow again, and she was saved. Then the two dragons made motions, urging the village people to follow them further up into the mountains.
The villagers followed the dragons up high into the mountains, and the dragons brought them to a cave. Inside, the villagers found many precious jewels, which the dragons offered as thanks for their help.
The villagers took the stones back down to their village and financed the building up of the village into a town, and they added a mosque. But to show their appreciation, the people added one decoration of living creatures to their mosque - two dragons above the entryway.
A master carpet maker living in Ashgabat decided to make the most unique carpet in Turkmenistan. She wavered from the traditional geometric patterned, flat wool carpet, and instead painstakingly created a multidimensional, embossed carpet. Little tufts of wool stuck up to create texture and variety in the feel of the carpet. She decided to honor her local mosque, so she added two dragons to the carpet, as well as two snakes in the center. On the very last day, she tied the last knot, looked at her carpet, was pleased with it, and went to bed. At midnight that night, October 6, 1948, the earthquake struck Ashgabat, flattening the entire city and killing nine out of ten people. The mosque was destroyed, and the lady carpet master was also killed, so all we have left of this legend is the carpet.
We also saw Independence Park, with its statue of guess who. In the background of the picture you can just see the Monument to the Independence of Turkmenistan. I didn't bother getting any closer.
Just down the street is a giant, pink tribute to the Ruhnama.
Then there was the Arch of Neutrality. On top of the arch is a 12 meter high gold statue of Niyazov. It used to rotate and follow the sun around during the day. I took one peek, then started examining the gum I'd bought - don't those little spearmint leaves look slightly demonic?
Then there was a monument to a poet. Doesn't this just scream literacy to you?
And finally, there was the world's largest indoor Ferris wheel.
We ate at the Wedding Palace, and were the only people there. At this point, I was starting to get a little angry with this city. Architecture is supposed to make you feel something both when you look at it and when you are inside it. This place made me feel like I was walking through a movie set. It was cold and impersonal. Some were impressed, calling it a mini Dubai or Las Vegas. But Las Vegas has a sense of humor at least. This was just my opinion, others enjoyed it, and our guide was obviously proud of what the country was achieving. The quality of life seemed high, and that might be all that matters sometimes.
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