Adventures with Julia

April 25, 2013

As hoped, Stacey delivered our passports to us on the morning of the 24th, only hours before our departure from SFO. GeoEx, not wanting to trust even FedEx to be on time, hired a courier to transport our documents from Washington DC to Stacey’s home in Oakland. The least we could do was buy her breakfast at Sears, a popular eatery on Powell Street that I remembered from college days in the 60’s.

From then on our trip has been uneventful. At the moment I am writing during our flight from Lufthansa to Baku, Azerbaijan, where we have a short layover, before flying on to Ashgabat.

This adventure is really about traversing the heart of the Silk Road through Central Asia. The ancient highway begins in Xian, China-where the army of terra cotta warriors was buried and ends in Istanbul, Turkey-which was known as Constantinople, one of the bazaar capitals of the world then and now. We have visited both cities on previous trips and now will be connecting the dots. I have traveled through some of the route years ago. In 1967, I visited Tehran and Isfahan, Iran on my own and in 1981, on a Stanford University travel/study tour with my parents, I traveled the Chinese portion of the Road by bus from Xian to Dunhuang via Lanzhou, Wuwei, Yumen and Anxi.

The oasis of Dunhuang sits on the eastern edge of the Taklamakan Desert. It provided us with an incredible, other worldly experience. Built into sheer cliff walls of loess soil were several levels of ledges containing hundreds of niches, many the size of small rooms. Each niche was full of Buddhist sculptures, carvings, reliefs and paintings. Together they formed the largest collection of Buddhist art in the world. All of it was paid for by ancient travelers asking for Buddha’s help in surviving the extremely dangerous journey across the desert or giving thanks for having survived the crossing. We went for a short walk into the desert to get a feel for it and were overwhelmed at the immensity of it. All we could see in every direction was towering sand dunes. Some consider Dunhuang to be the limit of China “proper” and the beginning of Central Asia.

Now we are headed into the heart of the Road, or actually many roads as the Silk Road splits into many routes created to avoid deserts, mountains, high taxation, bandits, natural disasters and regional warfare. Eventually the roads reconnect only to split apart again. There were certain oasis hubs that brought the roads together and these are the places we will visit.

Silk was first developed during the 3rd millennium BC in the Yellow River valley. Empress Xi Lingshi is credited with being the first person to turn the fibrous excretions of a caterpillar into the prized material. It was not many years before silk began to make its way west. The official start of the Silk Road is at the end of the 2nd century BC when Roman and Chinese traders made contact. The road was not just a conduit for silk and trade goods. Many travelers, including missionaries, invaders, pilgrims and merchants spread their ideas, scientific knowledge, languages, inventions, religions and foods from east to west and back again. This made it the first and most important superhighway helping to shape the modern world. Today the road is still important, but the obstacles are no longer physical, but ideological.

We did not see much of Baku on landing as the light was very low and the sky solid overcast. We could make out the Caspian Sea. This is the closest we have come to being in the Caucasus.

April 26, 2013

We arrived in Ashgabat wide awake as it was 11am our time, while 11pm here. Good thing we were alert. We deplaned on the tarmac and were immediately asked to give up our luggage tags and and passports. We agreed to release the tags, but not the passports. Then we got on a bus that took us to a fancy VIP building where our passports were taken away from us along with everyone else’s. Our guide was nowhere to be seen so we looked around for someone who could speak English and connected with a pretty young lady in the traditional Turkmen dress who told us she was a linguist in the local University and came to the airport as a volunteer to greet people and practice her language skills. She spoke fluent American English. We learned that almost everyone in the room of about 50 people were delegates to a horse convention that was starting the next day. We were mistakenly loaded onto the bus with them or we would have arrived at the regular terminal building and been met by our guide. Now, however, we had to chill with everyone else while all the passports were individually scrutinized to the nth degree. At least we had a nice conversation with the young lady and a couple other folks who spoke English. It took well over an hour before our bags were delivered into the VIP room and we received our stamped passports. Finally, we connected with our Turkmenistan agent, Artem, and driver and were driven to our hotel, the Oguzkent Oteli, which turned out to be very new and up scale. The city streets are broad and brightly lit. Large white marble covered buildings, some lit up with colored neon, line the way. The strange thing was that the streets and buildings seemed nearly empty. Artem told us the population of Ashgabat is 700,000 and that most people live outside the city center and come in only during the day to work. It was almost 2am when we dropped into bed.

Wide awake at 8am, we opened the drapes to scattered clouds, green treeless hills in the near distance with lingering snow caping the ridge tops. The city is built on gentle foothills that have been planted with trees. Tall white marble buildings are scattered all along the roads, which carried some traffic for awhile and and then dropped to nearly no traffic. The center of the city is covered with large government and public buildings, giving way to apartment buildings as you travel away from the center. Most buildings are from 15 to 20 stories high and, although they are each a little different, they look the same as they are all covered with the same white marble, to represent purity. The name Ashgabat means “City of Love”. It is a new city as an earthquake in 1948 totally destroyed the old town. Even the 75 years of Soviet influence has been largely eradicated by the use of white marble.

Turkmenistan is the most isolated of the 5 republics of Central Asia. The land is mostly desert with high mountains separating it from Iran to the south. The discovery of gas and oil has provided great wealth for the ruling class and spurred the rise of a growing middle class. Described as an authoritarian dictatorship, the country is run as a police state. In less than a day we have already encountered the effects ourselves. First was the drawn out passport surveillance, followed by a police check of our car and driver on the way to the hotel. Then this morning, even though wifi is available in the hotel, I cannot bring up my blog as it is not authorized. A request is pending to allow me to use it. However, Facebook and YouTube are definitely not allowed so it is doubtful I will get on. We are also required to have an official minder, who happens to be our guide. The broad streets with no traffic and the minder situation remind us of our experience in North Korea–another police state. Such is our first impression of the country.

We napped and read all morning a it was too cold and windy for much of a walk.
In the afternoon we visited theTurkmenistan Carpet Museum which was spacious, spotless and well organized. We were treated to a delightful and most informative tour with Maya, the Museum’s English speaking guide, who was completely familiar with Turkman carpets. Two of the largest carpets in the world were on display, complete with their Guinness World Record certificates. At the end of the tour she took us down to the basement level where we watched a handful of women making carpets. Most interesting was watching four women setting up a warp in preparation for the construction of a carpet. Having many in our home, it was a pleasure to learn more. It is a good thing there is no more room in our house or we would be shopping for carpets instead of sight seeing.

From there we walked to the exposition building to see the annual trade show on horses, namely the famous Ahal Ticca horses, which are the oldest known thoroughbreds, dating at least to the 3rd century BC, as recorded in Greek and Parthian documents. Known for long distance ridding as well as sprinting, they originated in Turkmenistan. These animals are indeed beautiful. They are very tall and slender bodied with short manes, small heads and long thin legs. N0 wonder they are prized by many all over the world. There was a small paddock outside the hall where we could get close to a few of them. Now we have seen Turkmenistan’s two most famous products–carpets and Ahal Ticca horses. Time to quit and get to bed early. However, as we were walking back to the hotel through a park, we were stopped by government security people who did not want us in the area. No matter where we walked, another one would stop us from going in the direction of the hotel. The problem was that President Berdimuhamedov (no, I cannot pronounce it) and many foreign dignitaries were in the area to see the many horse activities, a couple of which were held in our hotel. We went round and round and I was getting a bit testy with them. Finally, we found a back way into the hotel with two of them right on our tail. Mark thought I was going to get us in trouble and I might have as I was so tired I had no patience for their rules. Fortunately, we found a way in first.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

It is late in the afternoon and we have finished touring with our non practicing Muslim guide, Musa and our almost as non practicing Greek orthodox driver, Alexander. We have driven all around the city chatting away with them and up to the ancient ruins of the Nisa Fortress, built during the First Century BC. From the ruins we could look easterly to Ashgabat and south to the Kopetdag Mountains that form a natural border between Turkmenistan and Iran, only 40 kilometers away. The city and the fortress were built on the foothills of the mountains to avoid the heat and sand of the desert to the north and pick up the cool air and water from the mountains. The area was part of the Persian Empire from the 6th century BC until Alexander the Great conquered all of Central Asia in 333-331BC. In 242 BC the Parthians conquered the region and retained power for 450 years. Nisa was the royal winter residence of the Parthian rulers and the place of their treasury so it was well fortified. Their capital was in Babylon. Sadly, the site, although designated UNESCO, is mostly piles of mud bricks that require a great deal of imagination to discern their once and splendid shapes. We wandered around the place with a local guide, who tried to bring the place to life, without much success. Later we visited the National Museum and saw several objects that had been excavated and preserved, including two large Greek style marble statues, several small bronze figures and a few large clay storage containers.

We had lunch at Minara Restaurant in an office building in the middle of Independence Park, where we encountered two different wedding parties taking photos. Later we visited the Monument to Neutrality and learned that Turkmenistan is the only country in the world to have officially declared Neutrality and been granted that status by the UN as of 2004 when the the first president requested it. The down side of the neutrality status, from the point of view of other countries in the UN, is that Turkmenistan does not participate or help in any military alliance and does not contribute to UN monitoring forces. This explains, at least partially, why the country is political isolated. Musa thinks neutrality is a good thing for his country and is not worried about isolation.

At this and most other monuments, guards are on duty in little houses such as we have seen in London, Athens and most recently in Quebec CIty. All the many monuments we have seen here are huge and white with gold trim and lettering–attractive and ostentatious at the same time.

Our last stop of the day was the Earthquake Museum, where we saw many photographs of the city both before and after the quake, which killed 120,000 of the 180,000 inhabitants on October 6, 1948. There are almost no pre-quake buildings left in the modern city.

As we made our way around the city, Musa told us much about the country. The population is 6 million and the land is slightly larger than California. The city of 700,000 was founded by the Russians, when they invaded the area on their march to expand their territory southward toward India, and took over in 1881. The discovery of huge gas reserves in 1960 changed the way people live in this country. It is now the owner of the 3rd largest natural gas reserves in the world–26 trillion cubic meters. The country’s exports are comprised of 60% natural gas, 10% oil, 1o% cotton and rest from textiles and petrochemicals. Most of the natural gas goes to Russia as transportation elsewhere is a problem.

While the rich are getting richer, the middle class is growing and most people in the cities are doing reasonable well because of all the subsidies the government provides. The average salary is $250-300/month, which is not so low when you consider that education and health care are free along with water and natural gas. There is a small charge for electricity, $14/year average, and auto fuel, 25 cents/liter, and almost no taxes. The vast majority of people live in apartments, which they buy from the government on 30 year loans. The average price of a new 250 meter apartment is $350,000, which is too expensive for most people. However, if you work for the government, which most do, the price is cut 50% and is then affordable. Even so, as in other communist style countries, you cannot own the land. With both husband and wife working, there is enough to pay the mortgage and buy food, clothing, household appliances and maybe a car. According to Musa, about 80% of city dwellers own cars. We are hard pressed to believe that as we see so few cars on the roads during most of the day. He also says there are no homeless people. The truth is, we have been here two day and seen few people at all considering the size of the city.

We wondered where all the water comes from as there are several fountains spewing forth around every monument, many office buildings and in every park. Musa told us there is a large aquifer under the city which provides crystal clear fresh water. However, much of the city’s water comes from the Karakum Canal, which diverts water from the Oxus River in the east through Merv, Mary, Ashgabat and north to Turkmanbashi, by which time there is none left to drain into the Caspian Sea. At 1300 kilometers, the canal is the longest in the world according to Musa. Started in 1952 and finished in 1983, it was built by the Russians to irrigate cotton fields planted in the Turkman desert to provide product for the Soviet Union. Ashgabat gets half of its water from the canal and half from the aquifer. Meanwhile, electricity to power all the city’s lights and fountains is produced by gas fired power plants.

Over dinner at the top of a 15 story building, we watched the city lights come up slowly. As it got darker the colored lighting began to take effect. Many many buildings are lit with rotating rainbow colored lights and at least one major street has each building outlined in brilliant neon. The whole down town comes alive in color. Think Disneyland and Las Vegas mixed together. The sight was much more appealing than the food, which so far has been mostly overcooked and bland.

After dinner we drove around the city center looking at the colored and neon lighting on the streets, buildings and fountains. One long six lane street that descends straight down a gentle slope near our hotel, has a wide median filled the entire length with a double row of light standards about every 50 feet. They are only 20 feet tall with 5 very ornate fixtures on each pole. Between each pair of standards is a water fountain. The light from the fixtures is clear white light, while the fountains are lit with revolving rainbow colors. Add the colored lighting on the white marble buildings and you have an effect that is truly magical and only possible in a world where water is plentiful and electricity is powered by unlimited supplies of natural gas.

April 28, 2013

THis morning we visited the Tolkuchka Bazaar, which is 20 minutes outside the city center. It is a huge complex of relatively new warehouse style buildings laid out in a diamond pattern with large walking areas between buildings and even larger parking areas. Each building was generally dedicated to specific products. We saw women’s clothing, fabric and jewelry, food, children’s clothing, hardware and appliances, electronics and auto supplies. Nearby was a whole section for livestock from camels to ducklings. Except for the animal section, every building was spotless and bug free. This facility replaced the old, cramped, uncovered and dirty bazaar that had been in the city center. Photographically, the new one is very uninspiring. It felt to me like the life had gone out of the experience, but that is because I am not interested in shopping, only photography. It is probably a much better experience for shoppers and vendors now.

While we were out of town, we stopped at the mausoleum of the President Niyazov, who died suddenly of a heart attack on December 21, 2006, and the mosque he had built next to it. The mosque is white marble and gold paint just like the rest of the city center, all of which he orchestrated. It will hold 20,000 people and is the largest in Turkmenistan. There were hundreds of mosques in Ashgabat before the Soviet era. Now, since the Soviets disallowed the practice of religion and the 1948 earthquake there are only 5. While at lunch I asked if there were any Christian churches in existence and our driver said there was a Greek Orthodox Church in an old part of the city. So he took us to see it. Unlike the mosques, where no one was around, there were people praying inside the small church and even the priest made an appearance. The walls were covered with colorful religions paintings and several candles were burning brightly for the prayers of the faithful. It was a warm, inviting and charming church. We learned from the priest that it was so well built that it survived the earthquake with only a small crack. So far this is the only building we have seen that is pre-quake.

Then we visited the Russian Bazaar, which is under one open air roof and much smaller and more appealing than the Tolkuchka Bazaar we saw earlier. This one is primarily for fruits and vegetable and some sundries. We were able to buy a Turkmenistan flag here, but there was a lot of resistance to my taking pictures so I did not have a good photo day. On the way back to the hotel, I asked for a stop to photograph a couple of independent stores as they are so different from my experience at home. Here the upscale stores are each in a separate building about three stories in height, but with only one floor. They are set back from the road and surrounded by grass and trees. To get to each one you have to drive around the back to park. Each one is sandwiched between two tall apartment buildings and they are all too far apart to walk from one to another. It seems most inconvenient to me, but Musa says it is the way people shop here. They know what they want and don’t mind driving to get from one place to another or taking a taxi or bus, both of which are very cheep. The city is incredibly spread out with lots of grass and trees between buildings and many roads everywhere. As there is plenty of land and gas is nearly free, no one seems concerned.

While resting before dinner, we did some research and learned that the first president, Niyazov. created a cult of personality, not unlike Kim Il Sung, which partially ended with his early death at age 60 and that the new president, Berdimuhamedow, who is 57, has improved conditions for the majority of the people, but is building his own personality cult now. No opposition parties are allowed and there is no freedom of the press. It is my sense that as long as people remain comfortable in their life style, they are not likely to revolt or demand more freedom. This isolated police state seems fine with them. It certainly is fine with Musa.

Later he took us to a small neighborhood restaurant for dinner and I had the first meal I have enjoyed since arriving here. It was Indian chicken curry. Go figure. Now to bed. We have to be up at 4:30am for a 7am flight to Mary (pronounced Mar ee) to visit the ancient ruins of Merv, about 30 minutes outside Mary. We will fly back in the afternoon making an otherwise dreadfully long trip enjoyable.

Monday, April 29, 2013

We were wide awake before 4:30am as we still have not adjusted to the time change. So it was no problem catching the 7am flight to Mary. A car and driver were waiting for the three of us and off we went to visit the ancient city of Merv. It was once the largest city in the world during its Silk Road heyday. Musa gave us a great deal of detail about the history of the place, but, although I find the detail interesting, I am sure you will not. Suffice it to say, we traveled back in time to 600BC and forward from there to the 14th century, visiting about 10 different sites. In some case there were only mud brick mounds to see and in other cases there were structures which had been constructed with fired brick and were still standing after 1000+ years. A few of them were very interesting.

My favorites were the two “corrugated” brick structures dating from the 11th-12th centuries. Made of thick walls slanted slightly inward so they would not fall over, the exterior walls did have a partially folded fan or vertically corrugated look. Each side of a fold was about 4-6 feet wide and 40 feet tall. The whole building was originally sided this way. There were no windows and only one door into the building. There were slits on the first level below the corrugated sides, which may have been for ventilation and where several room were found. The second level had no windows and is believed to have been partially open to the sky as an interior courtyard. Musa said it is believed that, as the buildings were outside the fortified city walls, they were homes for wealthy people who could afford to provide their own safety. it is also believed that the corrugation plan was used because it was less heavy than flat, solid and thick walls would have needed to be, while still providing the needed protection. I will try to provide a photo, if I am able to do so. Meanwhile, I think you must be glad that I made this trip so you do not need to.

After three hours we had seen enough of Merv and were ready for a bar-b-que lunch back in Mary. The chicken and lamb were delicious and even the potato salad was good. I must have been hungry. At 3pm we flew back to Ashgabat and returned to the hotel to rest, pack for our departure tomorrow and write. While in the Russian Bazaar, yesterday, we purchased some caviar and crackers. It was a good brand of caviar and so inexpensive we could not resist. That may just be dinner in the room tonight.