Saturday, October 01, 2011

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Ashgabat, city of white and gold

Posted by Hippobean at 11:49 PM
Ashgabat was a big city with long wide boulevards and look much more modern than Tashkent. But soviet style again of course. oh and the apartment buildings were no longer the soviet cement blocks. Instead, they're artificial marble, standalone buildings that has 10 or more stories, with about 20 or more units each. Each was different in design but all were marble white with some color trims. Like their old soviet counterparts, they stood in a row, one after another, lined up. But they were gorgeous to look at. Their white superficial beauty blew the Hippo away. The Turkmenbashi's picture and statue were everywhere. An entire wing at the historical museum was dedicated to him. The president riding a horse, the president having a BBQ, the president playing golf, I just about had enough of seeing his face everywhere and I've only been there for 1 day.

I've wanted to know what the designs on the turkmen flag were. At the carpet museum, I've learned they represented the 5 distinct carpet designs from the 5 regions of the country. Here men and women wore their local hats and they were better looking than the ones in Uzbek. So I bought one too. The girl at the carpet museum wore hers with hair covering the sides and put in place with a pin. She was young, very good looking and looked very turkmen wearing that hat and the traditional costume. I found the turkmen girls the prettiest in all the stans. And I rather like their flag design and color and so during lunch time at the Russian bazaar I bought a turkmen flag. We had this gyro sandwich in flat bread that was so good.

The Independence Park had statues of the Turkmen heroes (omg so many of them statues) and the park was so big, again, it blew the Hippo away. Marble apartments were all around the park. This city is ginormous and everything the Turkmenbashi built was built to impress. The Hippo is shallow so I liked this city a lot. Unlike Uzbek, water is plentiful here, having the Kopet-Dag mountains, there were many fountains and golden statues. Ashgabat is indeed a city of white and gold.

ashgabat

Ashgabat photos

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