In summer 2018, I went back to Turkmenistan - 4 years after my last visit. This was my second time there. The previous time I flew to Turkmenistan was in winter 2013, celebrating the New Year's Eve with my family, cousins, aunts and uncles. Basically, all of my relatives are living in Turkmenistan, except from my parents, my sister and me.
I have a huge family in Turkmenistan. On my mom's side, there are two aunts, and three uncles. In total, they have 11 children, and nearly all of them have already established a family. So basically, on my mom's side, there are probably around 40 people that is countable as my family. And on my dad's side, most likely about the same amount of people. This is just to give you an idea of how big of a family I have there.
When I think about Turkmenistan, I think it is a very special country. It is very different from Norway, in so many ways. I don't even know where to start....
Turkmenistan is very special because it is a closed country - I mean in such way that you would never hear anything about its place. To put it in a different perspective, a Google search on "Turkmenistan" will give you 258 million hits. Google "Norway", and double as much information will come up. Google "England" and it will give you 1.1 billion hits. Generally, there's not much information you can find about what Turkmenistan is like. The only way to actually get a good understanding of the people, the culture, their way of living, politics etc. is by visiting the country yourself and get your own perspective - of the strangest country in Central-Asia.
My best way to learn about my home-country, was to visit it, ask questions and make experiences. Visiting this country was by far the most adventurous place I've been to. I got a really close experience with how to deal with everyday living - without the same privileges that I have in Norway. Norway is a rich country, and people are treated equally - there are no divided groups in the society. Whilst, in Turkmenistan, the country is also rich, but in a different way. Ashgabat - the capital and everyone who lives there are more or less able to own better houses, have better jobs, more free time, more money and more opportunities to live their lives the way they would like to live. Everywhere else, outside of the capital, the people are less fortunate.
Nevertheless, Turkmenistan is the sixth largest natural gas reserve holder in the world. Despite its gas wealth, Turkmenistan is spending a lot of the earnings to make their capital beautiful. And this is clearly noticeable. There are big, white buildings made of Italian marble. This is why Ashgabat is known as The White Capital.
It happens to be the world's largest importer of Italian marble
Even the cars driving in the capital are white, all non-white cars are banned by the president.