A beautiful morning in Ashgabat

Dishes, dishes everywhere...

And this is how the Ashgabaters get their television programs - satellite dishes. Everyone seems to have at least one. Some have two or more of these monsters. One of the pics captured the moment of a dish being either removed or stolen - who knows? It is a very easy target for the homeless and the drug addicts - the dish capsule can fetch about 2 dollars on the street.

Ashgabat

Ashgabat in a very dense fog. The memorial area dedicated to Saparmurat Turkmenbashi (the Father/Leader of all the Turkmens) and the book Ruhnama (now in two volumes) he wrote to spur the spiritual development of the nation. It is now a mandatory subject in every school and college, as well as a must-have item in every company or household. It has been translated into all major world languages by the companies who wanted to win construction or trade deals from Saparmurat.
As you can see, the monument to Saparmurat has a Nestle ice-cream vending booth, and the inscription on the memorial stone at the Ruhnama park claims that the construction was "complited in february 2003" (sic!)



Photos by Valera Meylis

A view from my mom's apartment

The other side of these mountains out there would be Iran (about 20 miles south). The building below (surprise, surprise) is the Iranian Embassy, which used to be the Regional Communist Party Committee. Times they are a-changing.