Our boat trip across the Caspian could have been fraught with difficulties. All the books had said there was no timetable, the boat just left when it was full. Our instructions were to meet at the ferry at 11.45 am with food and water for the next 16 hours, there were cabins but they were said to be really smelly and unpleasant, I bought some room spray just in case.
Everything though went really smoothly. The boat was huge; we later discovered there were about 20 train carriages on board along with various cars and our trucks. We each got a cabin which not only didn’t smell but had a full shower-room on suite. There was also a full kitchen and a cook who make supper for some and eggs for all for breakfast the next day. For someone who hates boats and imagined spending the whole 16 hours on deck being sick the crossing was a real joy, dead calm the whole way with beautiful stars and twinkling oil platforms on the horizon. An added bonus was not arriving at 2.00 am to disembark as promised but 7.30 am.
We arrived in Turkenbashy, Turkmenistan at 7.30 am on Tuesday 28th August but didn’t officially enter the country until 3.00 pm when all the formalities had been completed. A lot of waiting around, Mike warned me to get used to it. Henry’s original plan was to cycle for 15 km out of the town to the desert and then camp but as we had no food we stayed at a hotel instead. Not the 5 star our local tour guide wanted to force us into but an unspeakable Soviet style dump. You can’t begin to imagine how awful the bathrooms were, bare concrete floor, brown water from the taps and cockroaches (very distracting when you are perched over the loo). The only mitigating features were the sheets were clean and the air con worked. We met some local boys who showed us to the local restaurant and had a great meal of kebabs and manty (ravioli/meat dumplings), it was then two episodes of the Sopranos and dreams of one star hotels.
We rode the next day into the desert up the only promised hills on the road through Turkmenistan. The lovely springs of Turkey were gone but there was the occasional leaking irrigation junction where you could get cool if you ignored the muck on the ground, you’d be amazed what you can put up with to cool down for a few precious seconds. We also saw our first camels which wander around at random, apparently there are more camels than people. Anything would have been a paradise compared to the last hotel but the next hotel was heaven on earth by comparison, a glorious hotel with air con, new clean bathrooms.
After paradise the hell of desert camp. I cycled half way from lunch and made a brilliant choice as we had a tail wind the whole way so screamed along at about 30 km an hour, stopping at the few local stops for long drinks as we didn’t want to beat the first trunk to camp. Mike by contrast did double the miles of which the first half was into a 40 mph head wind. Camp was by the side of the road with the truck canopies providing the only shade. People drifted in over the afternoon as we shuffled around the shade on our therma rests. When Henry asked for volunteers to get a drinks run I jumped up and then spent the next 2 hours in an air conditioned car, and shop and inside a walk in fridge getting beers, water and coke for everyone. It didn’t get cooler all night which was spent sweating naked trying not to touch each other.
I had really had enough the next morning and with nine others we got a taxi at the next town into Ashgabat. Doug was asking at the local petrol station where the taxi’s were and this guy overheard and said he would get his friends to take us for $10.00. So he and two friends drove all of us 350 km into town for $30.00, we would have paid him $10 per person but he seemed happy. We checked into the best hotel in town for $60 per room and soaked up the air con, pool and cold running water ensuite. I did feel guilty when Mike said it reached 52 degrees in camp that night while I got so cold I had to use a blanket. He had encouraged me to leave though.
Mike had come up with a brilliant idea in camp though. He persuaded Henry to buy a truck of water, 2000 litres for $25.00. Everyone gathered around with buckets and red boxes which they filled with cool water and had impromptu showers and baths, the beer then arrived and everyone started to almost have fun.
We met the next day at the Vegas hotel strip in Ashgabat a group of 30 odd hotels in a district just out of town, built and now waiting like ghosts for visitors, a very surreal place. The President has just died but before that he had indulged in a monumental rebuilding project, which consisted of large numbers of huge marble clad buildings, dozens of fountains and monuments of himself. These are on vast wide avenues with no people and few cars. Very impressive but so sterile and odd.
The best part of Ashgabat, apart from the air con in our room was the local market just out of town where you could buy everything: camels, cars, fridges, doors in frames, fur hats, jewellery and even bike parts. It was wonderful. There was a section for carpets and puff ball hats made from wool, fox, wolf and black caps made from mink. We heard a buzzing and around the corner were the gold sellers, dozens of women gathered around small tables picking up jewelry, trying it on, chatting with friends and the traders and eventually getting the piece weighed on a tiny scale before handing over the cash. We saw one family load a fridge freezer onto the back of a bus having just come out of the back of a car. The saddest area was the flea market when people spread a sheet on the ground and sold what they had. One guy had a one legged doll, some dirty children’s toys and two calendars one from 2000 and one from 2001. It really was very moving.
The market as a whole was a real joy, buzzing with wonderful colours and people such a contrast to the sterile streets of the capital.
Everything though went really smoothly. The boat was huge; we later discovered there were about 20 train carriages on board along with various cars and our trucks. We each got a cabin which not only didn’t smell but had a full shower-room on suite. There was also a full kitchen and a cook who make supper for some and eggs for all for breakfast the next day. For someone who hates boats and imagined spending the whole 16 hours on deck being sick the crossing was a real joy, dead calm the whole way with beautiful stars and twinkling oil platforms on the horizon. An added bonus was not arriving at 2.00 am to disembark as promised but 7.30 am.
We arrived in Turkenbashy, Turkmenistan at 7.30 am on Tuesday 28th August but didn’t officially enter the country until 3.00 pm when all the formalities had been completed. A lot of waiting around, Mike warned me to get used to it. Henry’s original plan was to cycle for 15 km out of the town to the desert and then camp but as we had no food we stayed at a hotel instead. Not the 5 star our local tour guide wanted to force us into but an unspeakable Soviet style dump. You can’t begin to imagine how awful the bathrooms were, bare concrete floor, brown water from the taps and cockroaches (very distracting when you are perched over the loo). The only mitigating features were the sheets were clean and the air con worked. We met some local boys who showed us to the local restaurant and had a great meal of kebabs and manty (ravioli/meat dumplings), it was then two episodes of the Sopranos and dreams of one star hotels.
We rode the next day into the desert up the only promised hills on the road through Turkmenistan. The lovely springs of Turkey were gone but there was the occasional leaking irrigation junction where you could get cool if you ignored the muck on the ground, you’d be amazed what you can put up with to cool down for a few precious seconds. We also saw our first camels which wander around at random, apparently there are more camels than people. Anything would have been a paradise compared to the last hotel but the next hotel was heaven on earth by comparison, a glorious hotel with air con, new clean bathrooms.
After paradise the hell of desert camp. I cycled half way from lunch and made a brilliant choice as we had a tail wind the whole way so screamed along at about 30 km an hour, stopping at the few local stops for long drinks as we didn’t want to beat the first trunk to camp. Mike by contrast did double the miles of which the first half was into a 40 mph head wind. Camp was by the side of the road with the truck canopies providing the only shade. People drifted in over the afternoon as we shuffled around the shade on our therma rests. When Henry asked for volunteers to get a drinks run I jumped up and then spent the next 2 hours in an air conditioned car, and shop and inside a walk in fridge getting beers, water and coke for everyone. It didn’t get cooler all night which was spent sweating naked trying not to touch each other.
I had really had enough the next morning and with nine others we got a taxi at the next town into Ashgabat. Doug was asking at the local petrol station where the taxi’s were and this guy overheard and said he would get his friends to take us for $10.00. So he and two friends drove all of us 350 km into town for $30.00, we would have paid him $10 per person but he seemed happy. We checked into the best hotel in town for $60 per room and soaked up the air con, pool and cold running water ensuite. I did feel guilty when Mike said it reached 52 degrees in camp that night while I got so cold I had to use a blanket. He had encouraged me to leave though.
Mike had come up with a brilliant idea in camp though. He persuaded Henry to buy a truck of water, 2000 litres for $25.00. Everyone gathered around with buckets and red boxes which they filled with cool water and had impromptu showers and baths, the beer then arrived and everyone started to almost have fun.
We met the next day at the Vegas hotel strip in Ashgabat a group of 30 odd hotels in a district just out of town, built and now waiting like ghosts for visitors, a very surreal place. The President has just died but before that he had indulged in a monumental rebuilding project, which consisted of large numbers of huge marble clad buildings, dozens of fountains and monuments of himself. These are on vast wide avenues with no people and few cars. Very impressive but so sterile and odd.
The best part of Ashgabat, apart from the air con in our room was the local market just out of town where you could buy everything: camels, cars, fridges, doors in frames, fur hats, jewellery and even bike parts. It was wonderful. There was a section for carpets and puff ball hats made from wool, fox, wolf and black caps made from mink. We heard a buzzing and around the corner were the gold sellers, dozens of women gathered around small tables picking up jewelry, trying it on, chatting with friends and the traders and eventually getting the piece weighed on a tiny scale before handing over the cash. We saw one family load a fridge freezer onto the back of a bus having just come out of the back of a car. The saddest area was the flea market when people spread a sheet on the ground and sold what they had. One guy had a one legged doll, some dirty children’s toys and two calendars one from 2000 and one from 2001. It really was very moving.
The market as a whole was a real joy, buzzing with wonderful colours and people such a contrast to the sterile streets of the capital.
2 comments:
Great to hear how you are getting on...really exciting. Oliver has gone back to school and I dropped Emily and Charlie back at Cargilfield today so can start to get organised again now.
Take care
Love Katherine
Knew you were keeping a blog somewhere so i googled you. Seems you're having a fab time and i loved the pics. Keep meaning to go next door and say hi to your housesitter; i see her walking Figgo now and then. All here is well. The house next door sold; rumour has it for 3.5m. The weather has been fab so we're busy soaking up the last of the 'summer' rays. I'll be checking up on you now i know where to find you. Love to you both. Be safe. Anna xx
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