Turkmenistan. Part V. Ashgabat

May 26...31, 2014

The current historical period is called the “Era of Might and Happiness” in Turkmenistan. It’s particularly interesting to visit the capital during this era.

Ashgabat

Ashgabat is a fairly small city, but it consists of two different parts.

One part is traditional, old, Soviet and homey.

There are lots of satellite dishes here.

Lots and lots of satellite dishes.

Apartment buildings have no front doors here, because there’s no crime, either.

The most valuable thing here is an apartment on the ground floor. Because you can build practically anything onto it. A shed, a veranda, a couple of rooms—whatever your heart desires.

People celebrate holidays and bake flatbread in the courtyards here.

Typical courtyard decorations for a wedding. The plates for guests are already set up on the ground.

This is a place for normal life and strolling in the streets.

The old city is gradually being painted white, the color of the new Ashgabat.

The second part of the city, the new Ashgabat, is neat, orderly and white.

There are no satellite dishes or air conditioners on the facades here. The new buildings are very nice inside: marble finishes everywhere, cool air, incredibly high ceilings, modern elevators, large apartments with many rooms. Naturally, this is where the top brass live.

It’s considered inappropriate to spoil the beauty of the streets with your presence here. You’re supposed to get around by car.

And you can’t even drive onto the street where the president’s palace is situated, despite the fact that it’s one of the central ones.

This street has road surface markings that glow in the dark. Where else in the world would you find something so beautiful?

Then again, the entire city turns into a magical (although totally tacky) light show at night.

Ashgabat has the world’s most beautiful lampposts. Right after I took this photo, a policeman came and shooed me away. Not because you’re not allowed to photograph the lampposts, but because I was ruining the idyllic deserted view.

The lampposts light up at night. They don’t just illuminate the road, they’re illuminated themselves.

It makes you want to walk around the city all day long and take endless photos of lampposts.

Or traffic sign poles. They’re not just the most beautiful in the world, they’re also different on different streets, so that they don’t get too boring. Plus this helps you figure out what neighborhood you’re in.

The simplest, most common traffic light pole is made of chrome-plated pipes and decorated with eight-pointed stars.

And the new pretty streets also have incredibly pretty traffic light poles.

They’re not pinching pennies here. The city is fit to host guests of any caliber. Most of the new buildings are being built by the French under the pretext of the upcoming Olympics. All the locals speak of the impending Olympic games with pride. In reality, Ashgabat isn’t about to throw open its doors to ordinary foreigners—the event the city will host in 2017 is nothing less than the Asian Indoor Games.

The payphones are the prettiest in the world. Each one matches the style of the street it’s on.

The bus shelters are opulent pavilions with air conditioning and motion-sensor doors. There’s a TV inside.

Even the simple bus shelters (without AC) on the outskirts of town are clean and well lit.

There’s a large police presence downtown. The policemen sit in booths marked “02” (the police emergency number). During the morning and evening rush hours, there are more policemen on the main highways than there are lampposts.

The deserted city center is part of the etiquette. Why let such a grand creation be tarnished by the sight of some poor soul shuffling down the street? Here’s a university on a weekday. Where are the students?

And here’s a ministry. The fountains are working, but there isn’t a single living soul or car to be seen. This is the middle of the workweek.

The explanation for this is that only one person is allowed to use the front entrance: the president. And since it’s usually not the president going to see a minister but the other way around, no one ever uses these entrances. In Turkmenistan, the entrance for entering is usually located in the back of the building (this applies to residential buildings as well). That’s also where the throngs of people and the cars are. The majestic facade should always look postcard-perfect.

The gold statues of the first president look quite appropriate in such a beautiful city.

The tallest statue, for instance, rotates with the movement of the sun, so that the first president and the sun are always facing each other.

Driving through Ashgabat, you realize that the man deserved every last bit of this.