The roads in the small villages are unpaved. Fragments of scenes seen on the drive. Old men wearing slippers with oversized galoshes shuffle along the muddy thoroughfares. The driver of an old, squat Soviet era bus stands in front of it trying to get it started with an iron hand crank. A woman rides sidesaddle on a motor scooter sitting behind her husband.
Donkey pull overfilled carts with what looks like mulberry branches.
Goats eating the thatched roof of a barn. Much of the landscape is torn up with trenches for gas pipelines and irrigation. We arrive in the main village of Turkmenbashi Entrap. After lunch I m taken through a full afternoon of meetings. The mud roads require a stouter vehicle.