Part Three: The city of Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

We flew back to Ashgabat and drove to our hotel.

Since Ashgabat is on the edge of the Kara Kum Desert, there is a lot of dust floating around town. The desert wasn't really sandy, but dusty.
You can see the Kopet Dag* in the background, through the dust in the air!

*The mountains that form the border between Turnmenistan and Iran are called the Kopet Dag. Since "Dag" means "mountains," they should not be called the "Kopet Dag Mountains."

We checked into the Hotel Nissa. It is a new and modern hotel that mainly caters to foreign businessmen. There are a couple of shops in the lobby and a nice pool in the back. we had a buffet breakfast every morning that was very nice (they had eggs, pastries, bread, cheese, vegetables, coffee and juice). We had a very nice view to the south of the Kopet Dag. After a quick dip in the pool and a nap, we went to the Robinson's host family's house for shashlik dinner.

Shashlik is like shish-kebobs, they grilled them in a pit in the front yard. On the right is Mike with Uncle Damnshit. Yes, that was actually his name! But, in Turkmen there is no real "D" sound, so his name was pronounced "Jam-Shit". We ate shashlik, bread, tomato & cucumber salad, garlic grated carrots, potatoes, and homemade cherry wine. We also had "real" Fanta and Sprite. Some enterprising counterfeiter in Mary figured out how to put the sealed caps back onto pop bottles so every bottle of Fanta we bought there was actually "Orange Yupee" (a.k.a. Kool-Aide) with not enough sugar and no carbonation.

We had many toasts during dinner. Tradition says that the eldest male should make the first toast and then the next oldest all the way down to the youngest male. Then the eldest female says a toast and then the next oldest...

After dinner we were treated to a musical performance! Then some of us went out for a quick dessert.

The next morning we set out to explore Ashgabat.

Walking along the road from out hotel there were some interesting sights...
The road was on the route that President Turkmenbashi takes from his home to his office. Apparently, he didn't like the look of these older apartment buildings because he covered the front of them with glass and steel! At night you could see the old windows shining through the glass!

All around Ashgabat there are little canals to irrigate the gardens along the road

Be careful where you walk! There were holes in the sidewalk everywhere and not all of them were covered up! You also often had to jump over the little canals to cross the street.

At the center of town there is a long park with several water fountains, monuments and memorials.

Here are two war memorials.

Here is the Neutrality Arch and the 1948 Earthquake museum.

We took the elevator to the top of the Neutrality Arch to take in the view! Here is the Presidential Palace and the new Parliament.

Looking to the Northwest you can see: 1. The Sheraton 2. The Carpet Museum 3. The Florida Cafe and 4. The roof of the Russian Bazaar.
You can also see that the government is covering all of the government buildings with imported Italian marble.

While walking towards the Russian Bazaar, we passed a shop with a "KSEROKOPIYA". If you sound it out, you find this shop has a "Xerox Copier"!

We stopped into the Florida cafe for a little lunch. We all had some very nice hamburgers. They now have Internet Access at the Florida. Many of the Peace Corps Volunteers checked their Yahoo! e-mail accounts at the Florida.

The Russian Bazaar.

Before Turkmenistan became independent from the Soviet Union the ethnic Russians all shopped at this market. There is another market, the Tekke Bazaar, where the local Turkmen shopped. Now both markets are full of all kinds of people.

The Russian Bazaar was a busy and VERY colorful place!

You could buy just about anything at the Russian Bazaar. Everything from vegetables and spices to carpets!

Here I am by a big Barf advertisement. We got around town most of the time by hiring a "taxi". It was more like paying for hitch-hiking.

In the evening we visited a shopping center that had waterfalls all down the sides. There was quite a roar from all the water, you could hear it from half a mile away! There was a full moon in the sky.

There was a very nice view from the bar/restaurant at the top. We could see a brand-new monument that was just lit up a day or two before, and it kept changing colors! There was a very odd mannequin in the restaurant that had a gas mask attached to a bottle of Bacardi rum... Hmmm, strange...

One morning we went to visit the Peace Corps office in Ashgabat. It was near to the Benneton store.

We went out to dinner at the "Turkish Restaurant". It wasn't called "Turkish" because they serve Turkish food, but because it was owned by Turkish people.
There was a singer who entertained us. Everytime you paid for something in Turkmenistan you paid with a HUGE wad of money.

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

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