Turkmenistan by far the strangest country I have visited on this trip.
Ashgabat, (city of love in Arabic) strange and beautiful Ashgabat, built from oil and gas revenues, expensive looking, my last stop.
Every street corner turned in Ashgabat presents you with a sight to be hold.
Fountains and white marble everywhere, golden domed palaces, a golden giant statue of the Turkmenbashi (leader of the Turkmen), a massive book sculpture of the Turkmenbashi's book Ruhnama (The Book of the Soul) that used to open it's pages, "the engine is broken" a rocket ship thermometer, golden 5 headed eagle statues, the worlds largest enclosed Ferris wheel "the engine is broken", 5 massive golden stallion Akhal-Teke Turkmen race horses, a golden baby Turkmenbashi balancing on the horns of a giant bull, the worlds largest 7 point star doubling as a TV station, a giant Turkmenbashi statue that follows the sun "the engine is broken", buildings shaped like books, 
a giant sphere in a cube that doubles as city hall and changes colour at night, the world's 4th largest flag pole, the arch of neutrality where Turkembashi looks like Batman...I could go on, the list is endless!
Grandiose some would say, Las Vegas esque others would say, like a child's (who has too much money) playground, but in between the sites the city is like a ghost town, where are the people walking the streets?
Police everywhere, on the streets, stopping traffic, guarding the monuments in glass boxes, at the airport telling us off for playing a card game with Gnomes. "in our country it is forbidden to play cards in public"
We did a day bus tour of the sites, for to walk between would have taken ages. Then we did a similar night tour of the same sites which was shorter, part fuelled by vodka and included drunken handstands outside the the worlds largest enclosed Ferris wheel, which the guide alleged was disrespectful because it was a religious site!!! Honestly!
So we managed to hit the top 3 sites in Turkmenistan, including Ashgabat.
Minarets and turquoise -tiled mausoleums in Konye-Urgench camping right next to a UNESCO world heritage monument was the 1st.
And then one of the highlights of my trip. The Darvaza gas crater in the lunar landscapes of the Karakum desert.
AKA The Door to Hell. If hell exists the gateway has to be in Darvaza.
We approached at night, in large part due the 5 hours it took us to cover the last 7km, where for the 1st (and possibly last) time we took the 2 wheel drive, 18 ton, truck to the crater with us. Working in 2 teams of 8 with 6 sand mats we sweated, laboured and toiled, digging the wheels out, bending the mats back in to shape, gradually progressing through the sand dunes.
Was it worth it?! I'd have done it twice over and more.
Magnificent, stunning, absolutely amazing, we rounded the corner in the truck and the cone of light radiating upwards is the 1st thing that catches the eye. Then as you get closer you see the flames and can feel the heat radiating from below, then the sound of gas escaping and the smell of ever so slightly noxious fumes.
In 1971 a soviet gas exploration drilling rig collapsed leaving a crater 70m wide. Worried about the poisonous gases the bright idea was to burn the gas, believing it would take days to burn it self out. So in went the match, up went the flames and almost 50 years later it's still burning!
3 Geocaches at Darvaza, including a "First to Find" that was published 2-3 months ago. Not many Geocachers come to Turkmenistan and less to the gas crater, it seems. The 5 hours through the sand definitely meant I had to earn this one.
So what did I miss the most?
Well toilets for sure and when we had them, being able to put paper down them.
Drinking tap water, I missed being able to do that and having to rely on bottles.
Supermarkets, I'm stunned by having a selection of the same product, various sizes and brands rather than just 1 size and 1 brand.
Of course, fast wifi, wherever you go.
Through mountains and deserts and to the old shores of fast disappearing seas and the old cities of fallen empires, the silk road was awesome!
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