I'm Still Alive!

ilIf you have been following my progress, you can imagine why I have not been posting regularly. For the past 12 days, I have been in Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan is one of the more desolate places I have ever visited. The area has been experiencing quite a bit of turmoil since the passing of their colorful dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov; more popularly known as Turkmenbashi.

Although I will harp on this country for a bit during this entry, I would first like to say that the Turkmenistan people are outstanding. We’ve been invited into many homes and onto many rugs to enjoy tea and snacks (dried camel yogurt balls). We enjoyed their golden smiles (literally, almost everyone has their entire upper teeth gold plated) and a friendly wave throughout our cycling here. They are very curious about who we are and what we are doing here and are patient enough to watch our gesticulated explanation (which we are getting very good at).

The police have been equally friendly and helpful in always giving us right-of-way and safely directing us through the maze of roads encircling the larger cities. When we were tired on the side of the road or relaxing at camp they always had a bottle of vodka handy to lift our spirits. To that I give a huge Thank You to the people of Turkmenistan.

But first…the Caspian.

We took a trip over the Caspian Sea via a ship. While walking up the gang plank, I was taken back to my days of Semester at Sea. A wave of nostalgia fell over me while watching sunset from the rear deck. In the belly of the ship, our trucks and bicycles were kept company by full-on trains! It was impressive to see our “ferry” carry such a load.

After being on so much water and watching oil rig after oil rig pass in the distance, we ported in Turkmenbashi. Sound familiar? Yes, the city’s name was changed by Niyazov. We were greeted by a long wait at customs and 16 year old soldiers making sure we were not taking pictures. After getting through customs we had our next surprise that would follow us throughout Turkmenistan. The temperature was peaking around 50C in the mid day. We have been battling heat exhaustion ever since.

The deserts here have all sorts of fun things to keep our attention. I’ve seen more camels in the past two weeks than I have in my entire life. They carry the same facial expressions as a cow and their smell is infinity worse. Some riders have their best times when they are downwind of a herd…sprinting the entire way. I’ve kept my eyes peeled for a Zemzen, or desert monitor. They are large lizards that are unique to this area; unfortunately, I have yet to see a full grown one.

There is a surprising amount of agriculture in the desert here. During Soviet times, they used Turkmenistan for producing cotton, lots and lots of cotton. In many places, I felt as though it was cycling through South Carolina in the very middle of summer. How, you might ask, are they irrigating the desert?

During the 1950s the Russians built a canal system to irrigate the area. All of the water comes from the Aral Sea (or I should say what used to be the Aral Sea as it has now become the North Aral and South Aral). The water level has been falling ever since. The Aral Sea is located in Kazakhstan and the areas surrounding the Aral have experienced compounding problems.

The fishermen no longer have any fish to catch. As the water recedes, evaporation happens much more quickly leaving the water much saltier. This has further caused the number of local species to dwindle from 173 to a mere 38. The consequences (changes in seasons, precipitation, airborne salt and dust, to name a few) go on and on. The water level is still dropping and once it is gone there will be a lot of people in Turkmenistan without jobs. When Turkmenbashi was asked about this problem he shrugged and said that everyone else is doing it [destroying the environment, which is very true], why should I do otherwise?

For most of our time in Turkmenistan, we skirted the Kopet Dag Mountains. This is the physical barrier separating Iran from Turkmenistan (The southern border). The ancient travelers of the Silk Road did not have the luxury of a ferry to cross the Caspian Sea; therefore, the true silk road goes underneath the Caspian and across Iran. We cycled a safe 3km or so from Iran during much of our Turkmenistan crossing. We avoided Iran for obvious reasons, but there is a strong possibility of us going through Iran next year. (The ferry was not cheap) Am I concerned? Absolutely not.

Ashgabat is the capital of Turkmenistan and is the work of a mad man (guess who). City planning was a pastime for Turkmenbashi and you couldn’t find a more unnecessarily large and architecturally bankrupt city. Architecture follows a Russian theme—large, white, and faceless. The roads are immense and stretch all over the city. They are deserted to the point that one can stand in a major intersection for a good ten minutes without seeing one car. Guess how fun finding a taxi was.

To break up the monotony of empty roads and the occasional building, fountains and gaudy statues speckle the city. The worst of these being a 10-story high rocket ship-like monument. The top boasts a life-size, gilded Turkmenbashi. The best part…Golden Turkmenbashi is on a rotating platform that follows the sun from dusk to dawn.

In Ashgabat, ironically enough (we’re in the middle of a desert), I ate the most spectacular fish I have ever had in my life. The sturgeon is an over fished species that is on its way to extinction. Caviar is its specialty, but the meat is second to none. It is so delicious, I completely understand why so many people break the law to catch this fish.

The Tolkuchka Market is the highlight of Ashgabat. The market is a gargantuan place where you can find absolutely anything. Many of the goods I recognized from Chinese markets, but the rugs and the local food vendors give this market its charm. I even found some “American Tea” there.

As quickly as we had entered Ashgabat, we were gone again. More desert camps depositing sand in just about everything I own. My eyes glance to the ground more frequently in hopes of discovering a scorpion before he finds my toe. Even with the unfamiliar perils of living in the desert for the past two weeks, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. I mentioned the night sky I encountered in Turkey, but I find the desert affords an even better vista for star gazing.

At first I couldn’t understand our guide’s choice for sleeping. He sleeps outside every night on merely a carpet. This particular desert has many deadly creatures, not to mention the myriad of bugs. Asking him about this, I found out that the carpets he sleeps on are made from goat hair and camel hair. He told me that most of the poisonous creatures scurry away if they get even the slightest scent of this carpet.

It took me a little bit to put this one together. Keep in mind that they herd both camel and goats here. If a little scorpion gets wind of a herd of goats, that means that there are a lot of little hooves that are on their way...it would be impossible for him to defend himself.

Our next rest day was in Mary, a very sleepy town build by Russians in the early 19^th century. The ambiance of the city is not a far cry from Ashgabat. Mary’s claim to fame is the nearby city of Merv—Turkmenistan’s only UNSECO world heritage site. I will not go into the details of Merv, please check the link to find out more about the area as it’s history spans many centuries. I will say that the area is enormous and quite boring. Any archeological expert would find themselves in heaven here since most of the area has not been heavily explored and certainly not restored.

Right now I am in Turkmenibad, a city about 30km away from the Uzbekistan’s border. I was the morning sweep for the ride here. It was very difficult as we had one hell of a headwind. Tonight we are sleeping in a hotel and then cycling to Bukhara, where we will enjoy a rest day. Three more days of desert camping and then we will be in Samarkand. Both cities were very important for the Silk Road and thus have spectacular Silk Road ruins.

All of us are quite excited to cross the border into another country. We will be crossing into Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan over the next three weeks and then into China! Kashgar and the amazing scenery of Xin Jiang still await!

To close, I’ve got a bit of an announcement to make. During a rest stop yesterday, Philip (our German bike mechanic) and I were having quite a long chat with the Tour Founder, Henry Gold. Somehow we got on the topic of Tour d’ Afrique 2008. Henry wanted to know if either of us would be interested in working on the tour. I’m sure you can guess my answer…Africa here I come!