Turkmenistan's archaeological highlights are vast, hugely unexplored, and poorly publicised. Which is great, because when you get the chance to visit them, you can do so without any other tourists around, meaning you can get a much better impression of the atmosphere. Gonur Depe is a 4500 year old settlement, which practised advanced pottery making, as well as bronze making, and is also thought to be a possible birthplace of the Zoroastrian religion. The site ...

What a city. Ashgabat has taken us by surprise and might be in the running for most enjoyable city, against all odds! The old city was razed to the ground in a huge earthquake in 1948, killing 1 in 3 residents and destroying all bar two buildings. As a result, what is here now is a mixture of surprisingly attractive Soviet-era blocks and brand new, Dubai-esque buildings. But the difference here is that it feels like people live here. There are wide, tree-lined ...

So we knew we were going to be staying at a burning gas crater but we were unsure what to expect, other than a burning gas crater of course. Which is what we got. Imagine having bad wind, incessantly, lighting it and putting it in a huge crater. This is it. Basically Turkmenistan has ridiculous amounts of natural gas. So much in fact that it is completely free to all residents. However as matches and lighters cost money, people tend to leave the gas on day in d...

Nokhur village is the home of the culturally distinctive, and commercially successful Nokhur tribe. And it was also the site of a very pleasant homestay that we had with a local family. As we have learned over the last 5 weeks, not speaking the local language is no barrier to travelling. Smiles, handshakes, ecstatic groaning noises when eating, and taking and sharing photos seems to break down most awkward silences. Whilst Ashgabat has been turned into a glea...

Imagine Gordon Brown renaming Birmingham as Brownsville. Rather self-aggrandising, perhaps? Not for former Turkmen premier, and serial big head, Turkmenbashy the Great, who though that Krasvodosk would be better off as.....Turkmenbashy. Turkmenbashy is on the east coast of the Caspian, and we spent a very pleasant coupld of days exploring the region, which, by all accounts, is pretty back-of-beyond, even by Turkmen standards. The Caspian itself is officially...