Dark desert passage

Map of my travels

As darkness enveloped the Turkmen desert, temperatures began to plummet forcing us to pack up our stuff and begin our three hour journey north to the border town of Dashagouz. The three-hour drive passed slowly with my driver and guide spending the time by watching Persian/Turkish music videos on the SUV’s LCD screen.

When we arrived I noticed a difference in how people looked, how people spoke and just the overall environment. A lot of the contrast was due to the large Uzbek immigrant community who had come over from neighboring Uzbekistan in search of work and a better living. No matter where you go in the world, there always exists an ethnic group that is characterized as the root of all troubles. In Turkmenistan it’s the Uzbeks. In Russia it’s Tajiks, who are blamed for the high crime rates present in Russia’s big cities. In America many unfairly blame Mexican immigrants for taking jobs and in the Arab Gulf states like Dubai, citizens blame Indian workers brought over to work on huge lavish construction projects.

My guide was not a fan of diversity in Turkmenistan, a point he made crystal clear to me in a five-minute diatribe in both Russian and English. He began by saying Uzbeks are not only lazy, but are very difficult to communicate with since they refuse to learn either Russian or Turkmen, the two most prominent languages of Turkmenistan. He continued by noting there are two characteristics that distinguish an Uzbek driver from a Turkmen. The first characteristic is how an Uzbek driver will suddenly stop in the middle of the road for no apparent reason. The second characteristic is the type of car they drive, which is usually an old Soviet car, likely a Lada or a Volga.

Picture of The Hardcore Traveler in front of the ruins of Konye- Urgench

The next day began early with a visit to the ancient monument of Konye-Urgench, a once thriving metropolis and capital of a vast ancient empire ruled by the 14th century conqueror, Timur. I was quite excited since only a year ago I had been on the other side of the border in Uzbekistan visiting the other ancient cities in Timur’s empire, Samarkand and Bukhara.

Ancient Konye-Urgench miniaret

An ancient mausoleum

Although Konye-Urgench was stunning and had incredible cultural treasures, it just could not match what I’d seen the year before. I was puzzled to why Uzbekistan had fared so much better than Turkmenistan. According to my guide, in Soviet days, pre-1991, Uzbekistan received a disproportionate amount of aid from the Soviet government for restoration, whereas Turkmenistan only received a very small amount. However in a bit of irony it is Turkmenistan who has profited the most since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, mainly due to their abundance of oil and natural gas. Uzbekistan on the other hand is one of the poorest ex-republics.

The Gutlug Timur minaret as seen through a tiled window

After several hours of sightseeing our day had finished. However, we had one big problem, our flight back “home” to Ashgabat did not leave until 11 PM and it was barely a few minutes past 11 AM, thus giving us about 12 hours to kill before we left. Sitting around Dashagouz for 12 hours was not an option! You can only go to the bazaar so many times.

Another Mausoleum. Many Uzbeks come on pilgrimages to visit these sights

More ancient Mausoleums, sight of pilgrimages by Uzbeks