Exploring Turkmenistan: Part # 3 - Things I do

Assalamualaikum and Good Evening- Turkmen time :)

For this entry, I would just like to share a few of my hobbies that I have developed while I'm working in Turkmenistan. Simple aje hobby Cik Putri ni:

1. Shopping kain
2. Shopping lagi..
3. Minum chai ( tea )
4. Makan.
5. Hantar kain pg tailor buat dress. Jeng-jeng...

Hikhik, nak jugak. :)

Ha..see..simple kan hobby masa lapang. To be honest mmg tu je pun acitivities yang menarik pada I throughout kerja kat sini. In the weekends, when I have time and when I don't need to be in the office for my work, I'll go hang out in a place call 'Tolkuchka'. Tolkuchka is a BIG place ala-ala tempat borong/expo or pasar besar about 30 to 40 minutes drive from Ashgabat and located in the middle of the desert. There are many buildings and they sell all sort of things kat sane termasuklah unta. From carpet, kain, veges, kitchen ware, households and camels juge. Cookware mcm tefal, luminarc and other sort of cookware pun banyak and way cheaper than Malaysia because there's no tax charge.
Time nak dekat raya or what they call Bayram, org ramai ala-ala pesta cmtu shopping.

Simply said, some of the buildings jual kain aje, mcm gedung kain dekat nilai tu kot I guess. Their material mainly come from China, Turkey, India and local textile. Tu je yg I smpat nmpak, x taula if ada from other countries too. Turkish cotton are extremely nice in terms of material and comfortability. Memang sgt sedap pakai but most of the designs are very old fashion. They are mostly in earthy colours and design pun mcm very oldies but nothing beats the comfy-ness of the material.  Sejuk je kain die, nice :)

Lepas shopping2, me and my girlfriends would go and have 'chai-nik-chai' moment. Chai is so cheap here, about 1 manat per teapot : lebih kurang MYR 3 kot. And paling classic sekali is that we drink it from small cute bowls cmni:

Cute kan, classic sgt.:)

My  chai-nik-chai. Winter is the best time to sit and drink hot chai kat sini.

One more drink yang I kinda like too is called Glise. It's actually the what we call 'float' back in Malaysia but it is coffee with vanilla ice cream. For coffee lovers, you will enjoy this very much. I am not  a coffee drinker but since I like the vanilla ice cream, I enjoyed it too. hehe.

Glise~

From time to time, I will go and send the material Ive bought to my tailor kat sini. I call her Lena/Liyana. To be honest Malaysians tailor are more skillful actually, but my tailor kat sini charge murah. For example, skirt chiffon yang I hantar buat she will only charge about 20 manat aje. Diorang jahit baju style dulu2 lagi, in which there is a fitting session where they will sew the dress to fit your body. Turkmen ladies mmg suke pakai baju fit2. When we asked for loose dress aje mesti my Tailor will tanye why. Hehe.

One of my many dresses. Hikhik. This just cost 30 manat aje. :)

Okay, itu sahajelah hobby2 Cik Putri di Ashgabat. Yup, that's the only entertainment I have, kain and makan sobs. But I am quite happy cause I bought some cheap cookware for my future house nanti. Ceh, bangan nye kawen pun belum. :)

That is all for tonight. Good night darlings!

Nah, kucing my Tailor lagi!:

Awwwww..nyomelkan!!

Exploring Turkmenistan: Part # 2 - To the Gate of Hell

The Gate of Hell, Darwaza Turkmenistan

Salam and Hi,

Introducing my 'selebet' picture kat bawah taken when I went to the Gate of Hell, at Karakum Desert Turkmenistan. Please ignore the 'mok-mok-ness' of this human being, but instead nikmatilah kawah api yg we all called the Gate of Hell tersebut. ngee.

So, that's the teaser. But this is mainly to share my adventure travelling to Darwaza where the Gate of Hell is located. Should you visit Turkmenistan later in future, you might want to have a day trip journey  to visit this place. It's not the best adventure ever, but I'd say rugi if you are 'ady' in this country but never get to see it for yourself, kan..kan.

I seriously forgot the date we traveled to this place but it was somewhere last month. We traveled as a pack with 7 jeeps from Ashgabat to Darwaza passing desert all the way. 'We' in this journey termasuklah my boss and his family, my seniors and colleagues from my department and in my Jeep are my girlfriends dekat Ashgabat :). Kitorang dapat jeep yg paling buruk sekali, ade ke patut. Tapi sokay lah, adventure kan!  From time to time throughout the journey, we could see camels! Jakun gile nmpak camels real time, mcm comel je jalan dlm barisan. Slow and steady. Sempat capture satu gambar dr dlm Jeep :)

A shallow lake/pond in the middle of the dessert. Not sure if it's natural or man made though. Nevertheless it's stunning to me.

The journey is just a day trip. We had to depart from Ashgabat in the afternoon around 1 pm cause the Gate of Hell's view is magnificent at night compared to the day. The journey took about 4 hours one way. Before arriving dekat Gate of Hell itself, we had a few stops. One of it is a water crater ( big hole with deep blue water):

I love this picture. Nampak all the bed layers! Geologist sgt, bwekk. kikiki.

Water is bluish green in colour. Tp byk rubbish inside, sayang.

Excited me!

Another stop is I guess part of the tour punye effort to provide us with some Jeep adventure kot. They just suddenly went out of the main road and drove through the dessert until hilltop area. Best, I really enjoyed the bumpy-ness of the ride. Seronok cause lame x buat bnda2 extreme (ceh konon) cam tu.hihi.

Lalala-sonok!

Floating attempt, berjaya! Walaupun struggling gile nak dpt picture ni.kehkeh.

Lemme just briefly share some history of  the formation of this Gate of Hell. Mesti korang nak tahu kan more than nak tahu apela si 'mok-mok' ni berleter, huhu. Okay, actually the Gate of Hell ni is just a very biiiiiggg 'kawah api' which has been burning  most probably since the 1940s. It's not like the volcanic crater though, there is no molten magma inside or whatsoever. It is just like a big fire inside a crater. Besar tau, I think almost a size of a football field kot. I am sure it's much bigger than dua gelanggang futsal. Tgk ni, dari jauh org kecik2 aje mcm semut, kan!

Huge thing.

Cik Putri bam-bam posing once in a lifetime. 

The fire is burning non stop for many-many years due to gas seepage at this particular area. Tapi, according to tour tourist guide, even the locals could not really say for sure when  the fire officially starts burning and due to what reason. There was no recorded and justified explanation on the existence of this big burning crater.

View from on top of the hill.

There are many versions on how the fire actually started. Nobody can confirmed which story is true until today. One if it as being told, was that some local guy thrown out a burned tyre into the crater and because there's a gas seepage, the whole crater pun was burnt up la smpai today.

Gate of Hell's Core, ni je paling dalam dpt amik sbb tourist guide x kasi dekat2 takut jatuh jadi sate.ngee.

Some people also said that this crater was actually the location where a gas well was drilled many years ago. The well collapsed forming the crater and the gas seeped up to the surface. A few years after it happened, it was told that a gypsy family travelling in caravans stopped by for a rest. Due to the gas seepage which is harmful in composition as the gas seeps in big volume, they gypsy family died sbb tersedut terlalu byk gas. In order to avoid more deaths, the locals then decided to burn the gas. Since then, the fire never died even during winter or rainy season. So it has been almost 50 years now kononnye although the existence of Gate of Hell ni x dpt di pastikan, Wallahualam.

Okay, now back to the adventure. There are some other activities going on too selain dr pg tgk kawah ni. Posing and jadi model jadian of course la kan, ngeh ngeh. We also had some barbecues activities too, and this is the best part of it! Besela, Cik Putri kalau pasal makan mmg the best part of everything! Part of the package is having local style barbecue. Sedap sgt! Freshly grilled using kayu pokok special ape ntah I lupe sgt name die; which give out the original taste of shashlyk! Shashlyk is mcm barbecue or local meat sate. I have never preferred shashlyk whenever having meal at any of the restaurants in Ashgabat but back in Darwaza the taste was just perfect, juicy and tasty! I x snap picture pulak to show u guys kat sini :( . But here are some snapshots during our camping trip :)

Tourist guide bersemangat cerita kat my big boss, En Ramlee. Behind were our jeeps :)

Waiting for our shahslyk, freezing cold time ni that's why everybody is staying close to the fire.

Getting Ready for barbecue. Note the ranting pokok kayu special yg I mentioned tadi kat atas, I forgot the name but these kayu mmg jumpe kat Karakum desert ni je and mmg locals will only use these pokok kayu to grill their shashlyk. Tourist guide ckp, without kayu ni rase shashlyk xkan sesedap yg kitorang mkn kat sini, which I believe is so true!

Climbing the hills to get a better  view of the crater.

Our camping side from the hilltop.

My girlfriends :)

All in all I had a really great experience and great Jeep ride! We arrived home  midnight. It was  really fun, an experience I'll remember throughout my lifetime. ;)

Exploring Turkmenistan : Part # 1

Haloha~...

Semoga semuanya di dalam rahmat ALLAH SWT.

So I have this long dream of sharing my experience of working in Turkmenistan for almost 5 months plus now, so here it is, semoga dpt la menjadi sharing2 knowledge session utk anybody yg mane tahu kene  keje kat negara ni pulak in future? ;)

Here are some views of Ashgabat from my office. If you notice, there were clouds of sandstorm coming from afar, nampak x yang browns shades behind the buildings tu. The locals said it's just minor though cuma I je jakun lebih sbb x pnah tgk sandstorm. hikhik.

Close Up View:

I landed in Ashgabat/Turkmenistan  on the 10th of July 2012 noon..and it was  blazing summer at that time so twas very very terribly hot bout 36-40 degrees. First2 time smpai mmg mcm tekejut sbb asal la panas sgt negara ni..kehkeh ceh konon mcm la Malaysia sejuk kan..teehehe.

Anyhoo...my colleague da ada tunggu kat 'aeroport' (just how airport is spelled in Turkmen language) so lega la cause driver sume dah ade waiting. I just dragged along 2 of my big baggage and masuk 'machina' (means car in Russian language) and straight away hantar I pg Petronas staff house. Building rumah I name die Tolkun (dunno what it means located in Garashyzlyk area). First impression of the house was wallah and Alahmdulillah..not that the house is 'oh-sem'  sgt ke ape but I don't expect  dpt rumah yg okay and selesa mcm ni since I kinda expect that negara ni mcm just camels and desert. I know, so teruk my expectations. (Well actually 80% of the country mmg  padang pasir but Ashgabat itself is mcm Putrajaya with white marble buildings all over). So thank you Petronas! ;8)

Ni lah my apartment building, nampak cikeett je tapi. Haha. But what I want to show you guys ialah, my house is located very near to that mountain kat blakang tu. And exactly right  on the other side of the mountain is Iran. Iran is very close by je! Tapi until now I don't have the opportunity to travel there yet, to be honest x brani nak pg to the border pun. Here's the zoomed in view of the mountain. From the top or aerial view which you can see from the plane, it's quite enchanting in its own way. Boleh nmpak banyak alluvial fans. :)

 And the following figure is scenery di waktu pagi, it's approaching winter time now so it's really cold. Oh yes, I forgot to tell you that Turkmenistan is a seasonal country. So I have experienced Summer, Autumn and now almost winter time. ;) In the morning, temperature could reach up to -2 degree, according to my 'samseng note' ni.Kikiki.

Ashgabat city is actually pretty neat and kemas la..and yes mmg Ashgabat city is very clean..compared to KL. You imagine lah diorang ada truck cuci jalan, kinda like berus jalan tu and makcik2 sapu jalan religiously ..even until late night , I belive diorang work on shift basis just to make sure that the roads are 'spick and span' all the time.

And FYI,  most buildings in Ashgabat are only limited to 12 stairs only . The way they build their buildings pun is they claim as being seismic prone , i guess mcm the material they use utk build up their buildings tu ada different sikit with Malaysia.

Sebab historically during 1940s kot,( i x sure and x ingat sgt the actual date historically, jd dont quote me but quote wikipedia instead, hehe)..they had this very big earthquake which caused 50% of the population died..and semua mayat2 tu ditanam kat kubur besar belakang my dedicated house in Ashgabat..hew heww....

Masa i mula2 dtg pun diorang ckp my house area is haunted by the souls of the dead, tapi alhamdulillah I x dela experience ape2 yg pelik throughout my stay so far except bunyi2 yg i ignore je..I believe sume ni psychology jugak kan..and byk2 doa..insyaALLAH tade ape2 la hopefully smpai I balik Malaysia nanti. eh?

And we all ade jugak earthquake drill kat office which I sempat la join, bile cam konon ada siren earthquake tu terus masuk bawah meja..hehe. And then turun bawah gather dekat muster point. Part of HSE awareness & new experience, sebagai employee yg cemerlang I pun joinla tanpa segan silu. ^_^. Senanye if x join cam konpem kena mark dgn boss, ops hehe.

Oh, the following 'imaji' tidak kene mengena dgn earthquake but just me hanging out after lunch. ;8D

This time it was still summer to autumn so at noon the weather was temperate and nice, a bit on the chilly side though but I still can survive with just my leather jacket. To think of it, even dah winter pun I only have my leather jacket ni je pun to survive the cold weather. HUrmm..tiada duet nak beli winter jacket da, sobs. 

 Did i mentioned that driver seat is on the left so most of us x drive kete kat sini. If driver seat is on the right pun I x drive jugak sbb penakut. teehehe. Sigh, bile la nak berani drive kat KL ni.

And here's the walkway in front of my house. I'll wait for the van to go to the office every morning at the corner, if I am not offshore. For me it's such a pretty view:

And luckily I belajar some basic Russian with my fiance because Turkmenistan is a non English speaking country. They were part of the soviet union previously so they mainly speak Turkmen and Russian language aje. English is rarely spoken overhere. If nak beli brg and x tahu Russian mmg rasa nak nanges.hehe..I even got to the point where I imitated chicken sound and do 'mbek mbek' sound kat makcik tu sbb die x faham I tanye, jacket  I am wearing kat bawah ni is made from what leather. Be careful when you are buying boots or leather jackets, make sure you check the material properly. 

If ada 3 dots tu, jgn la beli because that's a piggie leather lah for sure.  Also be choosy with your food, not all restaurants here are Halal eventhough they claim that 90% of the population is muslim, if you know what I mean. So just be careful. Most of the time I follow senior Malaysians who have known this place better so confident level tu tinggi la sikit, hehe. For newbies like me, I prefer to have meals at Turkish restaurants cause usually Turkish restaurants are Halal restaurants. Will post a review about the food maybe later. =) Tapi, for spolier, beginilah some of the bentuk makanan kat sana:

The long pizza look alike tu is called Pide. And the other one is just some salad and another one is called 'Towuk Sote' which is a simple rice with kinda curry flavoured chicken. To be honest, nothing beats Malaysian food, REALLY. And now that is why Turkmen people  have nice skin because they eat fresh salad a lot. When I say a lot, it really means A LOT! And their veges are mainly salad type. Xde vege yang macam Malaysia. No' kangkung' whatsoever. I have been surviving on local Spinach ( the only familiar greenies yg boleh di masak, abaikan minyak berlebihan di dalam masakan di bawah, kantoi), cucumbers/zuccinis and tomatoes. 

 Salads are not really my favourite, that explains kenapa kulit macam camel.  They do have cabbages & kubis cina though but I am not a kobis' lover so I don't really feed on them that much. And they also eat meat a lot too. Fishes or seafood are not their favorite I think, compared to us in Malaysia. Probably also because they are really expensive overhere. Fish/prawns/sotong came from Dubai packed in boxes like this or plastic wrapped:

Per box like this sea bass is around 35 manat ~ 40 MYR kot, ada 3 ekor semuanya, mahal kan! Besar2 mcm tgn 'mok-mok' sy ni..hhuhu. They have jugak ikan yang boleh beli potong2 tu but I honestly x berani nak beli because they all look very monstrous to me. More like 'amphibious/reptilious ' creature than a simple descent fish utk dibeli dan dimakan. Ala, no picture to share pulak, sorry. 

People here eats bread like Malaysians eat rice. Only kite je makan rice religiously kat sini. Nevertheless, rice are sold here, all sorts of them. Thailand, Basmati and those smelly I donno what rice. My fav is just the Basmati rice. It's just that rice is a bit on the expensive side sbb it's not their staple food, bout 10 manat per kg. Ape2 pun, try to learn as many basic Russian as you can before coming into any 'Tan-Tan' countries. It will help you a lot, plus dapat ilmu baru. Nasib baik En Tunang pandai Russian, dptla ajar saye yg selow ni sikit2 Russian. ;)

The cakes, all shapes and sizes but sume boleh jadi ubat diabetic, huhu. Considered cheap wrt the size but nothing close in taste to Secret Recipe cakes, from my opinion. When talking about any food, home it is.

And so my life started in Turkmenistan..from time to time I'll go offshore to the rig for 2 weeks and return to the shore. I guess mesti ada yg tanye how is it working offshore? How is life on the rig. How is it sometimes being the only girl on board with all population are men? kihkih..I can already imagine how 'tersembul' will my makciks eyes  if I cakap, yes sometimes, you are the only girl on board amongst all the offshore men especially at Malaysian waters punye rig. Tapi alhamdulillah, I selamat je setakat ni..not to say that you dont have to take care of yourself when working amongst men, of course you do! Pandai2 la jaga diri...Mencari rezeki mcm tulah.. Yang penting niat untuk mencari rezeki. Not everyone can accept the norm of my job, but it is not my job to make everyone happy kan. Doa byk2! =) 

Me in my winter coverall atas rig. Eyebags merata-rata. Camel skin creeping out. sobs. En Tunang, nak SKII please!!.

Tapi actually kat sini the houskeeping crews are all ladies, so there a troop of ladies on the rig. Therefore, not much to worry about pun. In Malaysia, housekeeping crews are mainly male. =) To be honest, I have met amazing friends working offshore and have

gathered many knowledge about many many things. Anyway, if I am to review on my almost 1.5 years life of working offshore, I will need a specific post on just that. Hehe..

Plus I don't think it will excite viewers pun. kehkeh.

So that is all for today. Back to work. hikhikk..=)

Nah, kuceng Turkmen comel utk anda! Suke!! ^_^

Assalamulaikum and have a good sweet night!