Eurostan

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This was the exterior of the Museum and some other nearby elements of Amir Temur Square.





I was planning to return here the next day when it was open.





Temur (also known as Timur or Tamerlane) was considered the founder of the Termurid Empire and Uzbekistan seemed to incorporate him and his empire in their official history, I guess as part of their ‘greatness’. All countries do it; seeking to use events from their past, or which they can reasonably well corrupt as being ‘their’ past, to make themselves feel special.

The wiki entry on Temur/Timur is interesting,

Timur - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

not in the least because whilst it describes his vast empire and conquests, doesn’t pull any punches in describing it in what we’d now consider a mass genocide. Genghis Khan was the same, as realistically were the ‘holy’ crusades. (My generic view of the world pre-enlightenment is a bunch of men roaming about saying ‘submit to me and my beliefs or you all die’) The modern world, especially some countries right now, would do well to remember the difference between barbarism and enlightenment!

Enough darkness; there was some more light on the walk back to the hotel.




They went on for maybe 6-800 metres with some sideshow style games, food stalls and and street sellers along the route.

 

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Next was another one of those wonderful serendipitous moments in travel: I was just heading back to my hotel in the general direction I knew it to be; choosing which way to go or which streets to walk down by whether they looked interesting. I saw some people dressed in interesting outfits and so headed that way and came back around the Navoiy Theatre building.



Ohh, this looks interesting.
So instead of heading back to the hotel I grabbed a prominent spot along the fence and enjoyed a couple of hours of free concert. You needed a ticket to go in and sit on the supplied seating and I couldn’t get one there so watching from all of 20m away it was!

Local horns and drums welcomed the orchestra and conductor.


I’m not an opera or orchestra goer so excuse any mis-terminology!


Local bloke gets standing ovation on arrival.
Also, there must have been a large ‘jumbotron’ TV setup at the front of the theatre as they played not just shapes but pictures, songs and clips on it.







It was a really interesting mix of classical music, classical singing, what must have been local cultural music and songs, mixed with Abba, Queen and they even had a go at Evanescence - Bring me to life. Ballet dancers, Cossack dancers, and that guy who looked like a Mongol warrior and rode up on a really large horse!

Amazing evening. The crowd was probably 20 deep behind me during the event and everyone just seemed to be in good spirits and enjoying it.

The next afternoon I passed by again and it was all cleaned up with the last prices of equipment being taken away. Bravo, Tashkent!

 

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Inside the State Museum of the Temurids were mostly replacement pieces of cultural interest, the real pieces having been appropriated by other more well known institutions!








“for some reasons…they were taken abroad”


I should have this inscription as part of my email signature block!


Seeing this painting reinforced the idea that I really should have gone to Samarkand. I have seen photos from others (including AFF trip reports) who have been there and it looks spectacular.


At this point I refer you to my AFF avatar image…

 

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In the evening I walked over to Tashkent City Park where they have an hourly water fountain show and plenty of people go to meet up, hang out etc.

It again felt completely safe walking around and most of the roads, footpaths etc were clean and in good condition.




Fields of lights again.


The Hilton was an ever changing billboard for the large US fizzy drink company.


The water display was good, ran for about 15 minutes and got the crowd going by concluding with Gangnam Style blasting out over the park speakers.


Hard pass on the polonium tea flavoured ice cream.

Rather than walking back to the hotel I caught the metro. Paid the lady at the booth my 3000 som (~40c) for a ticket and waited all of two minutes for the next train.






Each station apparently has its own theme. This one I was alighting at was named Kosmonavtlar, and celebrated Soviet cosmonauts.

 

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Of course I don’t just come to Tashkent ‘for make benefit cultural understanding’ (yes, I know it’s not Kazakhstan), but also for the single golf course in the country: developed by and mostly played by expat Koreans.

Tashkent Lakeside GC






The clue is in the name! Nice enough course but probably too over-watered.

My compulsory caddie was a Korean-Uzbek named Victoria. She also spoke fluent Russian and was okay with English too.

 

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After spending time in enjoyable Tashkent, I needed to get to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Surprisingly for neighbours, there is no direct flight between the respective capitals! Options were overland via train/taxi/train/bus which would’ve taken over a day, or to fly and to transit in one of Moscow (no), Middle East hubs (mostly DXB with FlyDubai), or back to IST. The points cost was more expensive than the other one way tickets I’d booked so I went with a cash fare in whY TAS-IST-ASB. Subsequently, I upgraded the first leg paying $400 for the scheduled five hour flight on an A330.

TK369 TAS-IST
A330-200 J
TC-LOH
On time

The hotel front desk had recommended I not bother with the scheduled 0700 transfer for the morning flight, as they could just call a taxi for me for half the price. So we did that. 15 minute easy journey to TAS, minimal queue for business check-in (but a long line for the general queue) and then easily through outbound immigration.

The only slightly different element for check-in was that the agent wanted to see the Letter of Introduction for Turkmenistan that would allow me to get a visa on arrival at ASB. The LOI had been provided to me by the tour agency from within Turkmenistan. I’d sent them images of my passport and filled in a quite detailed form and then the LOI from the Turkmen migration authority was emailed back by the agent about a week later. At this stage tourist visas still require you to have booked a tour of some sort with an agent from within the country. This makes everything more expensive because they’re all clipping the ticket on every part of the tour. My tour was USD1250 for four nights.

There is a J contract lounge that TK uses at TAS called the Anjir business lounge although you wouldn’t know from this image:

It appears to be a Mastercard lounge but only the upstairs part of the two levels of the lounge. When I came into the lounge the lady noted my J boarding pass and said I could go upstairs. The ground floor is a little larger and both appeared to have the same small snacks and push button coffee machine on offer, so I’m not sure why the difference.



I don’t recall boarding being called in the lounge but did see it in the monitor and it’s a fairly small airport so not far to the gate. Again an older model A330 with 2-2-2 J layout and no inflight wifi available. Instead I made do with sorting out photos onto my laptop, breakfast and watched my first movie of the trip.

Somewhere over the Uzbek/Turkmen border areas whilst eating breakfast: water is life.


Flight was fine, J cabin about 75% full and had a spare seat beside me. Arrived on time. I only had a short transit in IST as the first flight was due in at 1255 and then next one out at 1420. Arriving at IST usually means a 10-15 minute walk just to get to the international transfer point where you clear security again and then go upstairs to the main terminal concourse. I figured by that time my next flight would be boarding as TK print boarding time as an hour before departure on boarding passes. As the monitors did not show that being the case I ducked into the TK Miles and Smiles (Star gold) lounge and grabbed a drink and some pide. Then made the surprisingly short (for IST) trek to one of the first D gates for the next flight.

Every time I have been through the TK IST lounges on this trip they have been very busy. I remember when IST first opened they were quite calm but now there are just so many flights moving through the airport that they’re almost always full. That is both the J lounge and the Miles & Smiles lounge (the two are mostly identical). It might also be that they are doing some renovations so a part of each lounge is closed off. (the ‘library’ style areas)

 

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TK320 IST-ASB
A321-200neo Y
TC-LTE
Departed a little late. Arrived on time.

There is something reassuring about the larger diameter engines on the Neo! They’re also quieter.

I had selected a window seat in the second row of the Y cabin: the bulkhead cost had seemed unreasonable when choosing, plus I prefer having access to my bag in front of me. As TK Elite (*A gold) no free choice of seating. I also note that I’ve never had an op up from TK and never seen someone receive the ‘beep’ at the gate. Plenty of times the J cabin will go out only partially filled so I guess much like VA, if you want the comfy seats up front on TK, you pay the miles or the cash.

The one advantage, planned or otherwise from TK, was that the middle seat remained empty for the flight. The meal was a choice of two hot mains: I can’t remember what I had but it was fine. Unspectacular but fine. Actually this was the flight I watched the movie, not the previous one! No real space to get the laptop out in a whY seat.

I used about half of the free 400MB wifi internet allocation updating this TR and also remember looking at FR24 and seeing just how many long haul flights were passing overhead ASB enroute to various points in Asia.



Noticeable on approach to ASB were the lights on almost every building including each one having flashing colours or a colourful sign. This was the first indication of what one person can command in an autocratic state like TKM.





Off the aircraft and heading toward the visa counter: sterile is a word you’d be hard pressed to underuse in TKM. Sure, it’s clean and orderly, but also a little too sterile. Nothing is out of place. Nothing is allowed to be out of place.



On reaching the bank desk and adjacent visa desk there were quite a few people sitting waiting for some part of the process. I went to the visa guys and asked them whether I gave my passport to them first or went to pay first? Visa first, so I handed over my passport and LOI page. After a couple of minutes they printed out something from their system (using the info from the LOI I guess) and told me to take it to the bank counter next door. There I was relieved of USD130 (cash - clean crisp notes only!) to pay for:
USD85 visa fee
USD10 registration fee
USD31 covid test
and another USD4 in sundry bank fees and conversions from local Manat. Like any good bureaucracy they even gave me receipts.





The covid test was the world’s most token swab, vaguely in one nostril, but done by an official looking lady in what I guess was a nurses gown. I’m sure the tube went straight in the bin, but I was cleared negative and good to go!

I took the receipts back to the visa desk, waited another five or so minutes and was handed my passport back with the TKM visa affixed inside. Then it was the usual airport experience of downstairs to immigration (look at the camera - put fingers/thumbs on the reader), baggage claim and then out to find my tour pick up guy waiting with my name. I think he had spotted me before I saw him: how many people turn up at ASB carrying a golf bag?

He took me out the front to wait for the driver to bring the car around.

ASB airport terminal front view:

Not only is it shaped like a giant falcon, but when viewed from afar the lights under the wings move up and down as though it is flapping!

 

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In Ashgabat I’d chosen to stay at the 4* Hotel Sport which is in the part of the city with all the sporting facilities. I chose it because it was across the road from a local mall so hopefully I’d be able to see some unfiltered parts of local life. There were two 5* options offered which I think were about an extra USD100 per night.


The hotel looked flash enough but looks are everything here. Some services were not available, some food was not available and the rainfall showerhead in the room was basically useless.



Outside the window.



The mall is the building on the right above. I was free to wander out of the hotel whenever I felt like it, but only went over to the mall once to go and get some more drinks after my golf game. It’s a mall. A bit sterile but food, drinks and all the normal sort of mall shops you’d find most places in the world.

As Rooflyer has mentioned upthread, note all the white cars. We did follow a pale gold BMW SUV at one point during the tour of the city and I saw quite a few silver cars and SUVs as well so maybe restrictions are being relaxed. Or they’re owned by the ‘right’ people for whom rules do not apply.

 

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After the late night arrival there was time for a sleep in, breakfast included (okay but local and Russian tourist focussed) at the hotel and then it was to be a city tour day. It was actually lucky to do it on this day as there was little wind and therefore less blown sand and haze compared to the other days.

Morning view after breakfast.




White marble buildings as far as the eye could see, hence the name for Ashgabat of ‘The White City’. This view is mostly looking south to south west. Over the mountains in the background is Iran.

 

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During the tour around the city we visited more monuments than I can remember. Rather than explain them all I’ll just put some photos up. Basically, there are plenty of monuments to the presidents (they’re onto their third since independence at the break up of the USSR in 1991). The first guy was the main autocrat and started the cult of personality and the spending of vast sums of money on making everything white, or green, or dictating what people can wear. It’s mostly oil and gas income that has been used on the city and the projects. There were monuments to peace, to independence, to historical figures, to horses, to neutrality and to happiness. It’s probably hard to argue against celebrating peace, or indeed any of the other worthy things, but do they all really need their own monuments?




Not really a monument - this is the wedding palace or officially the Palace of Happiness.


Not a monument, this is one of the 5* hotels.


The indoor (enclosed) ferris wheel - built to get into the Guinness world records of course.


First presidents mausoleum (front right) and mosque he ordered built with it.


Horse head monument on the main sport stadium.





There were very few other people around during the tour (I was not with a group). More locals were at the mall, but around the city you’d only really see them going to work in the giant white marble encrusted buildings in the morning (07-0900) and then going home in the afternoon. Maybe it was still too hot to be out and about during the day: 36degC on the day of the city tour and then 38 the next day.

My guide was an interesting guy and a mix of races so seemed to be pretty open talking about everything, which was useful because as we visited each place I could actually ask him about the why and how of them, not just that they’re ‘a thing’. He looks after local, Russian, Spanish and English-speaking tours, so is quite diverse and quite busy.

Photos were okay from afar for the monuments, but not close up; were prohibited of any of the official buildings (ministries); and weren’t supposed to include any of the guards or military types. No one checked my phone to see what I’d taken pics of so I guess it was okay.

We also visited the National Museum and there I joined with four others for an English speaking tour. Unfortunately, the guide was good at delivering her rote script on various things but couldn’t add extra info to answer questions. As an example, she explained some of the periods of history and that peoples came to be settled in the general Ashgabat area but couldn’t say why they chose that area. What I wanted to know was not just that there were artefacts from the period 3BC-3AD, but why did people choose that location? Especially around the Ashgabat region as it seems very dry and unsuitable for anything but passing though in a basic subsistence manner. Why would anyone choose to settle there and develop a civilisation? It’s a desert environment.






These rhyton were used for drinking wine.

What I did take away was that many different peoples make up the Turkmen. Some came from the south from Persia and came around or across the mountains, Mongols came from the east, Ottomans and Slavs came from the west. It sounded to me that those who lived in modern day TKM had been variously invaded and conquered pretty much continuously for 2000 years. Yet, much like in Uzbekistan, they still lionise some key figures from that history and have made them part of the official Turkmen history.

The Turkmen language is almost completely intelligible with Turkish, not surprisingly based on the names.

 

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We also drove out to the nearby ruined town of Old Nisa. It’s mostly been eroded away now (after being destroyed by an earthquake), but archeological work is still turning up artefacts.

Some areas have been restored to give a sense of what it may have looked like when used 2000 years ago.







From Old Nisa you can look across to New Nisa, which unlike Ashgabat is mostly single story housing, but where every roof must be green! So it has been dictated.

One thing I wanted to know was why wasn’t Old Nisa rebuilt? In many places you find cities are rebuilt over and on top of their historical sites. In this case my guide believed that because Nisa was on a rocky foundation it was too susceptible to earthquakes. So the city was moved (18Km) to become Ashgabat, which is on more sandy based foundations. Smart work ancient geologists!