Aşgabat, Turkmenistan

if Mondays seal your destiny for the upcoming week, then mine ahead is going to be screaming by the time Sunday comes....it's funny how tiny things can go wrong one after another that in the end you just end up asking yourself, 'ok, why the hell did i get out of the house at ALL today?'...yup, those kind of Mondays :)

so now, with some chocolate mousse on the table, lets show some great cards (in case you are interested in the mousse - cup of almond milk (home-prepared), spoon of honey, spoon of cocoa, and one avocado) - and you feel the nirvana...no unhealthy sugars or additives or food colours...so you dont feel guilty if you drink a bit too much...damn good!

well, i dont know how it has managed to slipped my mind, that last year I received my very first written and stamped card from Turkmenistan! Yes!! Can you believe it that I can be that lost in space and that I have overlooked posting such a small treasure? So this is why updates should be done more frequently, before Ana gets drowned in that ocean of cards and has no idea if some endangered species have been neglected...
So it's time to give its proper display and show this Aşgabat card that arrived from Sonya and Travis and their trip to Turkmenistan! Click on the link to read more about their adventures, and see some places of the world through their eyes.
As for the card, it says to be showing 'newly constructed fountains'...im not sure if I like them or not...probably the darkness does not do them justice...and probably, in real life, they get much more impressive with the spouts getting much higher...here is a video on which I think you can see probably all the fountains in the city.....I wonder if they have any kind of special contract signed with the Ministry of Water Economy..I mean, that is just too much water all over town!

Fountains of Aşgabat

the city does look beautiful I must say!

the stamp comes from a set of 7 animals' stamps issued in 2009.

Thanks a lot again to Sonya and Travis for finding the time to write some cards and drop them in the mailbox during their trips :)

Aşgabat, Turkmenistan

It's amazing how many nice and kind people ive met in the past few years since i got seriously involved into this postcard exchange stuff and since Ive opened this postcard blog....I dont know if id ever be able to thank them all appropriately enough!

This time the big thank you goes to Alvin, who came across this blog and kindly enough offered me to send me several cards he had from Turkmenistan...and you know me, modesty at those times doesnt seem to exist in my dictionary and I cant say, no thanks...but say, YES PLEASE THANK YOU!!!! And eventually an envelope arrived with not one but FIVE Turkmenistan postcards!! Ahhhhhhhhhh

Alvin says that it was really hard to get cards in Turkmenistan due to lack of tourism...well, Im not surprised honestly...cards and people exchanging cards from Turkmenistan, have always been a real rarity...

This card here show the Mosque of spirituality of Saparmurat Turkmenbashi the Great, in Turkmenistan's capital, Aşgabat. (you read that as Ashgabat)

If im not mistaken, and I might be, this should refer to Turkmenistan's former President, Niyazov....and when I read a few words about him, I must say I was rather surprised...I didnt really expect to come across something which would sort of remind me of North Korea's regime...I extracted a number of examples, which I dont know if I should call bizarre or what....but they certainly can leave one speechless, wondering, what the hell?!!.....

- he was known for renaming renaming the days of the week and of the months to Turkmen heroes, poets, historical events, his family members, and himself, and recoining the Turkmen word for bread by the name of his mother.

- all hospitals outside Aşgabat were ordered shut, with the reasoning that the sick should come to the capital for treatment.

- All libraries outside of the capital were also closed, as Niyazov believed that the only books that most Turkmen needed to read were the Koran and his Ruhnama.

- Dog and cat ownership in the capital is restricted to one animal by a law restricting the keeping of herds of animals in Ashgabat

- Niyazov requested that a palace of ice be built near the capital, though Turkmenistan is a desert country with a hot and arid environment. The palace was never built.

- In February 2004 he decreed that men should no longer wear long hair or beards

- He also banned news reporters and anchors from wearing make-up on television, apparently because he believed Turkmen women were already beautiful enough


Yeah, Im having a number of question marks banging against my head....for the end, here is one BBC video about the above mentioned Ruhnama....




Thank you again Alvin. Apart from getting such a rare country, I also got to learn some totally new things.
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