There’s a reason Turkmenistan is sometimes referred to as the North Korea of Central Asia. The tourist rules are super restrictive, there’s a huge cult of personality built up around the former ruler (Turkmenbashi – literally “Leader of all Turkmen”), the state long controlled most media and nearly all of the resources, and the first city is swarming with Soviet-style statuary.

Though the rest of the country isn’t too different from the rest of Central Asia the capital city Ashgabat feels like more of a Disneyland Central Asia. A city of palaces, full of fountains in a notoriously harsh desert, and so many soldiers and police on the streets that I feared more for my safety of mind from them than from any criminal element. Within one day of arriving in Turkmenistan, two plain-clothes cops had already tried to shake me down for a bribe!

Throughout the country, natural resources are provided to the population at a pittance. Several people told me that pay less than $15 a YEAR for natural gas and electricity, and each year the government provides coupons for months’ worth of gas to every registered vehicle owner. Once the coupons run out, gasoline retails for as low as .54 Manat a liter. Converted to USD, that works out to around $.72 per gallon!

The last thing that struck me as really strange was how reluctant people were to be photographed. Even at markets, generally one of my favorite places in Central Asia to shoot, maybe 1 in every 10 people gave me a positive response when I asked if I could take their pictures.

Still, there were some really cool places to visit in the country and I met some good folks on the way. There’s gonna be a lot of Central Asia showing up on the site soon, and Turkmenistan will be a common sight around here for a while.