We
spent the first night in Turkmenbashi as it was too late and we were too tired
to drive at night. Early in the morning we drove to Ashgabat were
we arrived only late at night. The road from Turkmenbashi to Ashgabat is ridiculously bad and it was the first real test for the car. Some of the bumps were so
crazy that one the rear wheels literally took off a couple of times.
Checked
in in a nice hotel in ashgabat and went out with another team to get some food.
Unfortunately everything shuts down at 11pm because of the curfew imposed by
the president so we had to return to the hotel and get something to eat there together with another team.
Ashgabat
is an interesting city and I feel we have only scratched the surface of it. There is an incredible number of policemen and the image of the
president is on every single government building, office, hotel, street. He is
everywhere. In some pictures he is dressed in a camouflage suit making war
plans, in others he is surrounded by children, in others he is praying and so
on. You are also not allowed to take pictures of his palace or other gov
buildings. There is a new part of Ashgabat with only marble buildings, fountains, statues and an army of people washing the streets and even the street lamps every single day. All the people we met were incredibly happy and cheerful. They all asked where we were from and where we were going and helped us every single time they could.
We had to wash the car in Ashgabat as we were told that the police would fine dirty car driving in the city so we borrowed a mop from the cleaning lady and used the water from the fountain in front of the hotel.
After Ashgabat we drove to Mary, spent the night there and the following day at 5am we left directed towards Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
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