Visiting Turkmenistan - 5 things I’ve learnt

Last week I spent a bit of time in Ashgabat, capital of the former Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan. Here are a few things I discovered during my visit:

The citizens love their president

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow has been in charge of the country since 2006. From speaking to my guide everybody in the country sees him as a god-like figurehead. Portraits of the leader can be seen everywhere in Ashgabat, including in the hotel where I stayed.

Forget the night life, there is a curfew here

Ashgabat enforces a strict curfew where citizens are not allowed onto the streets after 11pm every night. All bars and restaurants close beforehand so nothing is open anyway. Special dispensation is given to those who are travelling to or from the international airport.

The streets are wide and spotless

The roads in Ashgabat are huge and mostly quiet of traffic. But the thing that impressed me most was how clean the streets were with no litter at all. Perhaps this is due to the presence of police everywhere (see point 5).

Marble!

Ashgabat features in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the most white marble-clad buildings in the world. Everywhere you look in the city there are buildings, statues and monuments all built in the material. For example there is the Alem Cultural Centre, which also has a World Record for the largest indoor ferris wheel.

Police presence is everywhere

As explained earlier, the police are everywhere in Ashgabat. Cops in their distinctive Soviet-style military hats can be seen for example at every set of traffic lights and at all the monuments of the city. Some can be particularly moody and didn’t really like me and my camera being around in their presence.

Despite the hassle of getting a visa in the first place (having to wait nearly a month to receive a fax from the foreign ministry granting me permission to enter the country) I enjoyed my visit. It’s certainly a bizarre and unique country.

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