October 2007
In some places it's cleaner than Tokyo, with litter free streets, buildings faced in white stone, in some places it's the left-overs of pastel coloured Soviet style construction, apartments that seem to be held together with satellite dishes, lined along leafy green avenues.
In some places it's a more than a little sketchy, in others there is a cop on every corner, sometimes two or three.
People wear traditional garb and suits. I went shopping at a modern Turkish supermarket where I bought Nutella and bread, and later that day I went to the desert to shop at a market made of carpet and corrugated metal.
Yeah. Ashgabat is awesome.
Turkmenistan 
