Hi there.
For longer format blog posts, stick with ‘Frave Things’. If you’re looking to bypass my lack of brevity, head straight to the links on the left.
Thanks for visiting!
For longer format blog posts, stick with ‘Frave Things’. If you’re looking to bypass my lack of brevity, head straight to the links on the left.
Thanks for visiting!
Select the city name to view galleries from each locale.
One of Turkmenistan’s most unusual sights, the Darvaza Gas Craters are the result of Soviet-era gas exploration in the 1970s. The three craters are artificial. One has been set alight and blazes with an incredible strength that’s visible from miles away, while the other two contain bubbling mud and water. There have been rumors for years that the burning gas crater will be put out to enable gas exploration in the area, but so far still burning strong.
With its lavish marble palaces, gleaming gold domes and vast expanses of manicured parkland, Ashgabat (‘the city of love’ in Arabic) has reinvented itself as a showcase city for the newly independent republic and is definitely one of Central Asia's – if not the world's – strangest places. Built almost entirely off the receipts of Turkmenistan’s oil and gas revenues, the city’s transformation continues at break-neck speed, with whole neighbourhoods facing the wrecking ball in the name of progress, and gleaming white marble monoliths springing up overnight like mushrooms.
