My life as an Expat: August 2014

And..... now it's Stan picture time! (more text and details in Part 1/3)

Turkmenistan:

A welcome camel!

Kow Ata Underground Lake, a cave that is 65 meters deep and has water that is naturally heated to 36 degrees.

Hahahahah

Enjoying the Kow Ata Caves

Mausoleum of President Niyazov, built in 2004. One of his many interesting factoids is that he renamed the months of the week after his children. He also had people call him Turkmenbashi which means 'leader of the Turkmen'. He erected gold statues of himself and had posters plastered everywhere. His slogan was " People, Nation, Me". No joke.

He is buried along with his father (ceremoniously because he was killed during WWII), his mother and two siblings who were killed in the earthquake of 1948. Everything is white marble, with gold, green and black accents. The interior of the dome is a beautiful white/blue (no pictures inside, boo).

Strangely, but not strange for Turkmenistan, we had to go to this first before we went to the mausoleum.

-Qipchoq

Turkmenbashi Ruhy Mosque, the largest in Central Asia, accommodating 10,000 worshippers. The minarets are 91 meters tall to commemorate 1991- the year of Independence. Inside, it measures 100 meters long. The dome is 50 meters across and 51 meters high. The carpet was hand-woven by 160 women over 2 years. It weighs 1.2 tonnes. There are individual prayer stalls woven in the carpet, as well as the eight point star, representing the eight gates of paradise in the Islam religion. There were 8 doors in this mosque. The final gate points to Mecca. There were 48 windows in the dome, to represent 1948, the earthquake. 400 vehicles can park underground.

-Qipchoq

Turkmenistan version of dumplings (we had a different variation of dumplings in each and every country).

Typical sovietsky style Hotel (our Hotel). We stayed on the 6th floor, the "tourist" floor which supposedly had the "nicest" rooms. Umm... not so much. -Ashgabat

Our bathroom. Notice there is NO sink. There also wasn't a toilet lid but we made them get one. He got this one from his daughter's room... it didn't even attach.

-Ashgabat

Local women in Ashgabat

Shiny, new, and empty - how I would describe Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The police won't let you walk on the same side of the street for some buildings and also were constantly blowing their whistles at us to not take pictures. Eh? Then why build all these fancy buildings?

Shiny, new, and empty - how I would describe Ashgabat

Typical Ashgabat, clean, white and empty!

At the market - finally some life! Although oddly restrained, clean, and quiet for an open food market.

-Ashgabat

At the market - finally some life! Although oddly restrained, clean, and quiet for an open food market.

-Ashgabat

Shiny, white, new, void of people, and clean - Ashgabat

This was the scenery we drove through for hours and hours... with the occasional sighting of a camel.

A yurt (or home)!

Yes, it's true! Me camping - here is evidence!

The group relaxing while dinner is being prepared!

Turkmenistan is the fourth largest producer of natural gas in the world. This is 1 of 3 Darvaza Gas Craters. They're artificial, left over from the Soviet gas exploration days in the 1950s.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uzbekistan:

Uzbekistan national dish - "green noodles" with usually potatoes and veggies on the side.

-Khiva

National attire in Uzbekistan

Kalta Minor Minaret. It was started in 1851, with the intention of being tall enough to see all the way to Bukhara. Unfortunately, the Khan died in 1855, before it was finished.

-Khiva

Camel in Khiva

Wedding in Khiva

Juma Mosque has 218 wooden columns supporting the room. The building dates from the 18th century.

-Khiva

Madrassah of Kutlug-Murad-inak and Abdullah-khan. Before was a "school" for learning Islam, however now it is small shops.

-Khiva

Local in Khiva

Islam Khoja Complex: mosque and minaret.

-Khiva

Khuna Arc, "summer mosque."

-Khiva

Khuna Arc, "summer mosque."

-Khiva

View of Khiva, Uzbekistan on the walls of Ichan-Kala Fortress

Locals were friendly and nice, wanting pictures of us and us of them!

-Khiva

The father of algebra: Abu Jaafar Mohammad Ibn Mousa Al Khwarizmi. Per someone who read this "somewhere," he invented the number "0"

-Khiva

View of the walls of the Ichan-Kala Fortress

-Khiva

Local foods, stuffed pepper, cabbage, pumpkin, beef, and ... who knows what else?

-Khiva

Our bill for 6 people, ha. Actually, it just came out to $10 a person!

-Khiva

Madrasasi of Ulugbeck, Central Asia's oldest madrasasi, built in 1417.

-Bukhara

Local ladies in Bukhara

Carpet making. Bukhara is known for it's handicrafts (I bought a few things! Not carpets though, unfortunately).

-Bukhara

Bukhara

Chor Minor - 1807. Each of the four minarets is of a different shape. The towers’ décor elements are believed to reflect the religious-philosophical understanding of the world’s four religions. At least, it is easy to see that some elements look like a cross, a Christian fish, and the Buddhist prayer wheel.

-Bukhara

Bukhara

Mir Arab Madrasa, a still working Islamic school. Students attend for 4 years and can specialize in the Islam religion or Iman and Arabic languages. Graduates are usually sent as imans to mosques around Uzbekistan.

-Bukhara

Bukhara

Khazret Khirzr, one of the oldest Muslim religious buildings. Built in VIII and was on the hill at the entrance to the city, according to legend, there are seven levels of graves and bodies at each level of the saints or prophets.

The mosque was destroyed in the XIII c. by horde of Genghis Khan. It was later restored and rebuilt several times, and its today’s appearance in the XIX century.

-Samarkand

Shah-i-Zinda, probably the best sight of all of Central Asia (for me), means "living king" and consists of eleven mausoleums, which were built one after another in XIV - XV centuries and is the burial place of nobles and royal persons.

This avenue of mausoleums contains some of the richest tile work in the Muslim world. They say that the cousin of the Prophet Mohammed is buried here. He is responsible for bringing Islam to this area in the 7th century.

-Samarkand

Shah-i-Zinda

Samarkand

Registan, the center of Samarkand for centuries. Consists of three Madrassah (educational schools of learning Islam): Ulugbek Madrassah (15th century), Sher – Dor Madrassah (17th century) and Tilla-Kari Madrassah (gold covered)(17th century).

-Samarkand

Registan

Inside the mosque, lots of gold to symbolize Samarkand's wealth when it was built.

-Registan, Samarkand

Samarkand

Gur Amir Mausoleum contains the tombs of Timur, his 2 sons and 2 grandsons.

-Samarkand

Gur Amir Mausoleum contains the tombs of Timur, his 2 sons and 2 grandsons.

-Samarkand

Gur Amir Mausoleum contains the tombs of Timur, his 2 sons and 2 grandsons.

-Samarkand

Registan - Sher Dor Medressa was finished in 1636. There are lions on the front but they were meant to be tigers. This also flouts the Islamic prohibition of using animals in decoration.

-Samarkand