Part Four: Around Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Ushayle

We stopped at the Teke Bazaar on our way to "Ushayle". Ushayle is Russian for "valley" and there really is only the one valley that everyone goes to visit and have a picnic so they just call it "valley".

There were several local ladies selling milk out of used two liter pop bottles.

We waited for a little while for a bus at the Barf bus stop, but the correct bus did not come by. So we hired a "taxi" to take us up to the valley. The driver droppes us off and came back later to pick us up.

There were not many other people visiting Ushayle while we were there, but in the summertime the valley is full of people escaping the heat of the city for the shade and cool breezes in the woods along the Firuzinka stream.

We hiked along the road, along the stream and up into the hills a little bit. Then we stopped for a picnic.

The mountains were really amazing. Here we are only a couple of miles from the border with Iran.

The hills were very dry and dusty, but along the stream in the middle of the valley there were lots of plants and flowers.

On the side of one of the hills is a carving of Lenin.

Our driver picked us up along the road and drove us to the ruins of Nissa.

Nissa

Just like Merv, there is no organized park, grounds, trails or information at Nissa, just some ruins! Nissa was built in the 3rd century B.C. by the Parthians.

Nissa was just littered with shards of pottery. There were 2,000 year-old handles from jars just laying all around on the ground!

There were some goats watching us poke around while the driver waited for us.

Goek Tepe

The next morning we went out of town on a minibus to Goek Tepe. Here is the Goek Tepe train station.

There is a large mosque here that was donated to Turkmenistan by the government of Turkey.

They gave us a short guided tour inside, but we were not allowed to take pictures. It was very beautiful.

Goek Tepe is just on the edge of the Kara Kum Desert. We walked out a little way into the sand dunes. The sand was very fine and dusty.

There were all sorts of birds, insects and lizards running all around the sand dunes. Here are two lizards that I found. The one in the shadows was more than six inches long!

Here are some local ladies wearing traditional clothes. They are wearing decorated jackets on their heads... Their arms are not going through the sleeves, they put the arm opening on top of their heads. The arms on these types of jackets are too small to actually put your arms through. No one could tell us how this tradition started.

We went to the house of a friend of the Robinsons', but she was not home. That didn't stop the neighbors from making us tea in her kitchen, though!
Even on the edge of the desert here everyone had a sattelite dish for the TV. They can get Turkish and Russian TV stations.

Around Goek Tepe there are canals that lead back to the Kara Kum Canal. They are used to irrigate gardens around everyone's homes. It's hard to see because it's overgrown, but there is a canal in the middle of the right-hand picture and the water can be directed to the left or right irrigating some grape vines. There were a lot of mulberry trees here to feed all the silk worms in the silk worm farms all around.

Here is a large swing used in the Muslim new year celebration. The tradition is that the higher you swing, the more of your sins are absolved.

We took a bus back to Ashgabat that was full of ladies in traditional dress.

Tolkuchka Bazaar

The Tolkuchka (Russian for "push") Bazaar is outside of Ashagabat a couple of kilometers. It is in full swing on Sundays, but we couldn't visit until Thursday. We were there from about 9:30am until noon. It was about 100 degrees and NO breeze and very little shade.

Once again we crossed the Kara Kum Canal. The closest the taxi could get was still a little ways away. The parking lot looked like chaos.

There is just about anything you could ever want at the bazaar. Everything is for sale. Everything from Leonardo di Caprio chewing gum to camels to shoes! Here's mom buying a fuzzy hat.

Of course, there were a lot of the famous Turkmen carpets. Mike helped me haggle for a small one.

There were lots of pomegranites for sale. And you could get some Plov (Plov is a rice dish made by cooking the rice in oil instead of water!).

There were stands and people just sitting on the ground. Here's the guys selling Leonardo di Caprio chewing gum.

On the way out we had to wade through the chaos of the "parking lot" again.

On our last night we ate dinner at the "English pub" type restaurant. Like usual, we paid for dinner with a giant wad of cash.

We visited the new department store in town. It was very nice and modern. There was even an Internet cafe. They have the only escalator in Turkmenistan!

Before we left town, there were just a couple of more sights to see. Here is the Lenin statue.

And what trip to Turkmenistan would be complete without stopping at the Gay Rat bar for a drink?

We flew back to Istanbul and spent one SHORT night at the Hotel Empress Zoe.

Then we hopped back to Seattle via London and spent $500 developing all of our film!!!

	Part One Istanbul, Turkey
	Part Two Mary and Ancient Merv, Turkmenistan
	Part Three Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

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