Ahhh, so great to see your photos of the gas crater, brings back amazing memories. And I have to concede that the night we spent camping there was not the most comfortable I've experienced (between the vast hordes of camel spiders the size of your palm and the endless wind-blown sand getting into our food), so you probably made the right call. It really is quite the surreal spectacle though, huh?
Originally Posted by
Fredrik74
I can't help thinking about what the money spent on these projects could have done to help ordinary citizens instead.
But clearly that was never the intention.
Ain't that the truth! The amazing marble architecture / gilt domes / fountain-lined boulevards / multi-lane highways all come to an abrupt halt about 2km out of town... where the highway becomes a randomly potholed basic two-lane strip of blacktop stretching into the screaming desert. The whole thing is just a weird display of some eccentric despot's dream of what a wealthy, prestigious capital should look like.