Photo Presentations in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan

I am so pleased to be able to upload pictures from Central Asia after three weeks of blocked blogs. It is now my final week in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. It is amazing here, although I’m not sure I’ve been able to catch my amazement photographically. I will say that the cliches seem appropriate. For example, Ashgabat as a cross between Las Vegas, Nevada and Pyongyang, North Korea. Or, from my more optimistic perspective, Disney World and the Washington, DC Mall. Regardless of first impressions, I’ve learned from three consecutive years of visiting Tashkent, Uzbekistan that Central Asian cities get better as I get beyond their curiously inhospitable architectural posturing and get to know the people who breathe life into their vast expanses of concrete and marble.