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Turkmenistan: a road trip through the eccentricities of the Central Asian state

Surreal presidential vanity projects and Soviet-era debris overlay traditional cultures of yurts, camels and animist beliefs

Among the things banned by late leader are libraries, opera, ballet, circuses, hair dye, nail polish, gold teeth, beards and long hair

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The US$2.3 billion Ashgabat International Airport in Turkmenistan. Built to handle 17 million passengers a year, its annual flow of visitors hasn’t exceeded 10,000. It is one of many monuments to himself the country’s eccentric former ruler had built. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:00pm, 11 Dec 2019Updated: 9:06pm, 11 Dec 2019

There can be few travel experiences more surreal than entering an oversized, largely deserted, marble airport built in the shape of a falcon at 3am. However, it will turn out to be a fitting introduction to Turkmenistan, a country shaped by the whims of its two post-independence leaders.

The Ashgabat International Airport, formerly named Saparmurat Türkmenbasy, was completed in September 2016 at a cost of US$2.3 billion and can process 17 million passengers a year, even though the number of annual visitors to the Central Asian country has never exceeded 10,000. It was designed by and originally named after former president Saparmurat Niyazov, who styled himself Türkmenbasy, or “Father of the Turkmen”, and ruled the country from its independence from the Soviet Union, in 1991, until his death, in 2006.

To describe Niyazov as eccentric would be an understatement. He was fond of banning things: hospitals outside the capital, Ashgabat; libraries, opera, ballet and circuses; hair dye, nail polish and gold teeth; beards and long hair. His chief meteorologist was sacked for predicting weather that was not to the president’s liking and dogs were forbidden in Ashgabat because of their “unappealing odour”.

Like a stinky mutt, I’ve decided to leave the capital and tour the country with a driver. Burat meets me at my hotel the morning after my arrival, his shiny black four-wheel-drive prominent against the gleaming white of Ashgabat’s buildings.

A monument to Turkmenistan’s late president, Saparmurat Niyazov, in Ashgabat. Photo: Chris Taylor

We drive 20km north to the Tolkuchka bazaar, one of the largest markets in Central Asia. This half-covered expanse sells everything from vegetables to carpets and camels. The women shoppers, most with forbidden gold teeth clamped around forbidden gold-tipped cigarettes, are a sight to behold.

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