After only 5 hours sleep in grotty hotel room in Ashgabat, no breakfast, it is of to the airport for my 40 minute flight to Mary. I feel thirsty but without a headache or hangover. Without bottled water I am unable to even brush my teeth and they are certainly complaining to me at their neglect. The streets are wide and empty and everywhere ther is brand new white marble. There is no advertising and my initial impression is that it is uncannily like Pyongyang that I visited last year. At the airport my efforts to change money come to naught so I check in and wait.
While sitting in the waiting room I am struck by the beauty of the Turkmen women I have seen in my short time here. Invariably they are deressed in what seems to be a national “costume consisting of a brightly coloured sleek full length dress. Around the collar is a colourful ornate strip of embroidery. The dresses are all cinched in at the waist to reveal seemingly perfect hourglass figures. Long hair pulled back beneath colourful patterned scarfs and pretty faces. The faces are a mix in keeping with the racial melting pot that this area is. The rounded mongol faces are the leats attractive but there are exotic Turkic/Persian visages and lots of Russian pretty tennis player look alikes here also. I have just settled into my seat when I am roused by the sound of multiple little bells just like Santa’s sleigh at christmas. I look bak to see newly weds. He is in a suit and tie but she is wearing bright red full length patterned gown with a headdress reminiscent of the flying nun all covered in royal red and her face invisible due to layes of white thread sitting in front like a curtain. The effect is a little bit burkha but rather than looking oppressed she looked beautiful. Little bells were sewn into the dress hence the sound.
Flying to Mary I have the Iranian mountains to my right as Ashgabat is only 50km from the Iranian border. As we approach Mary the countryside flattens to broad fertile plains around the Murgab River a stark contrast to the arid desert and mountain all around. It is easy to see why this area became the centre of successive sophisticated civilisations along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route between Europe and Asia. It is the ruins of two of theses that I am here to see, firstly the city of Merv which flourished in the middle ages and the even more exciting Gonur which was a Zoroastrian city in the Bronze age, some 4500 years ago!