Wow! What a strange City, being the capital of Turkmenistan I was very surprised that they have made it so Bizarre looking. I honestly felt as if I was on a different planet and I’m not exaggerating! You would have thought this is where the Russians would have wanted to rent the land for their Space station! What a strange place and even more bizarre, there are no people! Considering there’s five to five and a half million Turkmen citizens, it was very odd not seeing the people of this country in their capital city! Vast spaces with extraordinary designs such as a space rocket in the middle of a round about, a building for medicine built as a needle, a book shaped building for economics and what I thoroughly loved seeing…a building with laser lights of moving horse’s for the Association of Turkmenistan horses! Its known as the ‘Las Vegas of the Kara Kum’. Situated between the Kara Kum desert and the Kopet Dag mountain range, Ashgabat is a modern city built on the ruins of the Silk Road city of Konjikala and the Soviet city built after the devastating earthquake of 1948.

What else I was surprised about was our guide explaining to us that they have a whole day off for ‘mellon’s’! Seeing as this country has over two thousand different kinds of mellon’s, the country takes a whole day off work to share the day eating the vast rang of mellon’s with their family and friends. I didn’t believe our guide at first but after asking the other guides, its true!!! Another bizarre thing I saw was when someone has a new born they dress their cars up with big teddy bears, ribbons and some sort of bright paint to celebrate. This goes on for three days to celebrate the child coming into the world.

Here in Turkmenistan there are 24 different tribes based in the dessert, having picked 5 of their best tribes designs, you can now see their favourite and most famous on the green flag of Turkmenistan.

Driving along, stopping at some of these extravagant fountains, golden domes and towering modern buildings of this desert setting. Our heads were tilted like dogs that don’t quite understand what their owner is telling them, we sure were speechless!

Instead of going with the rest of the crowd, Mrs G and I went to have dinner on our own. It was at the best hotel they have in the city, being the Sofitel. Fifteen floors up, we wanted to get a view of the city at night. Of course we were the only ones dining. A pianist all to ourselves, we reflected on the day. Starting from five a clock, before reaching Ashgabat, we went to a place called Darbaza. We drove 10 km off road to the ‘creator’ that was lit in the Soviet union days. In 1957 it was lit with the assumption that it would deteriorate and disappear. Well its been 59 years burning now, bringing many people from all over the world to see yet another bizarre site in Turkmenistan.