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Message: <blockquote data-quote="imhotep" data-source="post: 31403258" data-attributes="member: 562115">A few shots taken just a couple of days ago in Darvaza. It's located in Turkmenistan, Karakum Desert. It's about 4 hours drive from Ashbagat which is the capital city, also refereed to as the White Marble city. Every building in the city is white marble and also all cars are white.  Only the Diplomats can have coloured vehicles.The road to Darvaza is pretty bad and hence only accessible by 4WD vehicles. It's a very bumpy ride and quite often the drivers drive on the desert sand to avoid the potholes.There are no hotels to stay. We stayed in a Yurt (their traditional hemispherical home made of wooden sticks and covered with animal skins. Quite comfortable. Shared toilets with luke warm water. Electricity cuts off at midnight (generators) and swiched on again at 5 AM. Battery powered LED lights run in the compound and toilets overnight.The drivers take meats/bread from the city and provide food (BBQ) which is of restaurant quality.When we drove in there was a sand storm and the sky was very hazy. But when we reached the site it was clear, less windy. But again I woke at exactly 2 AM due to another severe sand storm. It subsided after an hour.The crater was formed in1971 when Soviet geologists accidentally collapsed a natural gas chamber while drilling. Fearing the release of poisonous gas, they set it alight, expecting it to burn out quickly. But their plan didn't work, and the crater has remained lit ever since.For over 50 years it's still burning and the guides said they filled it with sand to extinguish but that didn;t work either. Since the arrival of tourists they let it burn but the size as been reduced to 1/3rd the original.you can stand on the edge of the crater and considerable heat can be felt even when the surroundings are quite cold at night.<a href="https://imgbox.com/woaDHEeI" target="_blank"><img src="https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/06/cd/woaDHEeI_t.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a><a href="https://imgbox.com/H2Cqr7jR" target="_blank"><img src="https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/dc/84/H2Cqr7jR_t.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a><a href="https://imgbox.com/iEn7yill" target="_blank"><img src="https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/93/e6/iEn7yill_t.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a> <a href="https://imgbox.com/jlOsoSeG" target="_blank"><img src="https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/b1/45/jlOsoSeG_t.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a>PS: We finally finished touring Kyrghizstan , Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan. It was quite a long trip, quite tiring too. Walked at least 8 - 10 kms a day on sight-seeing.Fabulous food, relatively cheap. Local Vodkas and Cognac very cheap. Nice sceneries and a lot of history.Just arrived back. Flew out home from Tashkent, Almaty and via Delhi.  (Emirates fully refunded our previously booked tickets as they no longer flies regularly)</blockquote>

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