Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is like no other country on Earth. After crossing the border we headed straight to the capital of Ashgabat. The city is full of gold statues of the former leader and every single building is covered in white marble. The street lights are also ornate, at night every building is lit with with changing coloured neon lights. It is the surrealist thing I have seen. It could be the set of a futuristic science fiction movie.

This is a wedding scene in front of one of the many hundreds of public squares with monuments to the former leader. The entire city looks like this. After a couple of weeks of tee-totalness, a couple of passengers were looking forward to having a drink or two in Ashgabat. The joy did not last for long when it was realised that the bottles of budweiser were US $15 per bottle!

We were only in Turkmenistan on a transit visa so we could only stay 5 days. Apart from Ashgabat the other place we visited was the gas crater at Darvaza. This was an amazing spectacle. It must be about 100-150 metres across and it is continually burning.

It was caused because there was a drilling accident, they were exploring for gas. Everyone died but the Russians covered it up for years. (They also said no-one was killed in the 1948 earthquake that hit Ashgabat - it wiped out over 90% of the population!) The gas that was released as a result was incredibly toxic, so it was decided to light the crater. The continually burning crater only gives out a fraction of the toxic fumes than the unlit crater. The heat if gives out is intense. I could not get that close and when the wind changed we all moved incredibly quickly! It is a sight though that I will never forget.