Ashgabat

Driving down the mountain into the valley and towards Ashgabat, we could immediately tell that we were in a different country. The hills were lush and covered in green and gold shimmering grasses and the road was new, wide, clean and perfect to drive.

At the border we had been given some of the ground rules for Turkmenistan:

• You must always wash your car before entering any major city in Turkmenistan. Just before the entrance gate, you will always find an inexpensive car wash at a petrol station to make use of. Owners of dirty cars will be fined
• There is an 11pm curfew, after which you should not be walking anywhere on the street anymore, or you will be fined
• Should you need to be out after this time, like at ‘the’ nightclub, take a taxi, so that you are not walking, otherwise you will be fined
• Also after this time, should you be found together with a local girl, even if just talking, it will automatically be assumed that she is a prostitute and you will be arrested and, you guessed it, fined.

Armed with this advice and about 50 jokes among all the rally teams, BobOlov and we dutifully drove up to the final gas station outside of the city limits and washed our cars. It was good to see Polly in all of her glory and all of her stickers and decals that bright and clean again.

After this short interlude, we drove into Ashgabat and were immediately struck by the grandness of this city. Built by the late dictator for his son, it was immaculate. All the buildings looked brand new and modern, with whole sides made of glass. We drove by the library and the building was shaped like a giant open glass book standing on a book stand. There were also grand arches like you would see in Greece, interactive and dancing water features and fountains, and buildings shaped like pyramids and other geometric shapes. It was something that you would expect to see in Dubai or Las Vegas, but not in the middle of the desert 20 minutes from the Iranian border where everone throws their trash out their window and by the wayside.

Bewildered and excited, we pulled up to the main hotel, where everyone seemed to be congregating and booked our rooms for the night.

We arranged for our laundry to be done, but instead of paying the official prices, we paid the maid under the table and she did all of our laundry the same night at the price of one shirt.

After a long shower and viewing Fidel Castro’s first speech in 4 years live on the BBC world news service, we went to a pub just 60 meters down the road, had excellent beer and food and were promptly kicked out at 11pm at closing time.

After the emotional day at the border, the early start we’d had and the excellent dinner, it was all we could do to go back to our hotel rooms and enjoy the sweet sleep and air conditioning that made us feel human again and recharged our batteries for the rest of this magnificent country.

Posted from Ulaanbaatar, Tov, Mongolia.

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