Here are a few photos from Turkmenistan. It is a very strange country – essentially a dictatorship under the president. The government spends there massive oil and gas revenues on the tons of white marble buildings in Ashgabhat.
Most buildings are covered with hundreds of satellite dishes.
One night, we said at a horse racing track. Like most big buildings in Turkmenistan, it had a giant picture of the president on it.
I don’t see a large number of people in any of the pictures…in fact it looks pretty deserted.
There are some people around, but I got the impression that most of the 400+ white marble buildings are actually empty.