Ken Powell a seasoned globe-trotter and experienced photographer (powellphotography.ca), blogs (powellponderings.com) about his journey with Adventures Abroad’s 21 Day Five Stans Tour, which covers Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. His insights, images, and expertise offer a wonderful glimpse into this extraordinary tour.

Travel is a sense of wonder to see the world around us and appreciate what is beyond our borders. Our Turkmenistan stop was an eye-opening experience that allowed a glimpse into the mind of an idiosyncratic leader of the once closed-off country. The following is a memorable experience that will leave you in wonder and awe at the same time.

OK, so what is this quirky white car affectation the president of Turkmenistan had? I’ll explain in a sec. Since its severance from the Soviet Union in 1991, the country has been ruled by two “presidents” (read “dictators”). Plus the second dictator’s son. Remember, the country had more or less been closed to the outside world. These men have put in place some of the most bizarre and self-centred edicts imaginable. Remember also as you read, that the country has the fifth largest reserves of natural gas in the world. That’s quite a bit of cash flow.

The first president styled himself “Türkmenbaşy” or “the father of all Turkmen”. He wrote an autobiography called Ruhnama, containing his thoughts on Turkmen identity, history, and destiny. He then made the book mandatory curriculum in the schools. New governmental employees were tested on the book at job interviews and an exam on its teachings was a part of the driving test. He even had a copy of his book launched into space to orbit the Earth, and of course made a public statue of it, as you can see in the photo.

He renamed the days and months after himself and his family members. He banned opera, ballet, and circuses for being “insufficiently Turkmen”. He closed down all rural libraries and hospitals outside of the capital city Ashgabat, in a country where at that time more than half the population lived in rural areas, once stating that “If people are ill, they can come to Ashgabat.” He commissioned a giant, rotating gold statue of himself. The boulevards are broad and eerily empty of traffic, and spotless. Women with brooms sweep like there is no tomorrow.

After his death in 2006 the next president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, (I’ll call him GB), brought in some other delights. And this gets me back to the car colour issue. GB’s first edict was that all cars in the capital must be white. He continued with the buildings too, so there is a lot of white marble. Lavish monuments are prolific. There is a huge monstrosity of a building that’s called the Wedding Palace as it was built only for weddings. He has some unusual firsts. The country has the highest flag pole in the world (complete with a jet engine to push the flag out so its flutter can be appreciated). Ashgabat has the most fountain pools in a public place. GB wanted, and got, the world’s largest and only indoor, i.e. enclosed, Ferris wheel. Here is a photo of it.

We visited a horse stable, where we posed with their revered Akhal-Teke horses so loved by Türkmenbaşy. They have a reputation for speed, endurance, intelligence, thin manes, and a distinctive metallic sheen. One of the city’s monuments commemorates Turkmenistan’s horses.

We exited the city (and headed to Mary which is located near the famous Silk Road city of Merv) flying out of their new airport which was built in 2016. (I expected the flight to be one where everyone cheers when you land – remember that in the old days; they didn’t, although the plane was a nearly 30 year old Boeing 737-700!) The airport had an unusual terminal design – the shape of a falcon. It has the capacity to serve 14 million passengers per year at a rate of 1,600 passengers per hour. (Total country population amounts to around five million.)