Ashgabat. Day 7
A civilised, 10am start for our last day in Ashgabat. We were bundled into the bus and driven an hour or so to a horse stud. On the way we passed a couple of satellite towns - mostly 4 storey apartment buildings but also some individual houses. They are very proud of these horses. Akhar-teke or golden horses, some of which do have a legitimate golden colour. I'm not much of a judge of horses but they seemed quite pretty. They were held for us to admire and pat, lunged, and for an extra fee you could ride one about 20m in a very supervised and controlled way (which we didn't do). On the way back into town we stopped at a large mosque, built by the first president in his home town, and the adjacent tomb he built for himself and his family. It was austerely impressive. Then we continued back into town and went to another decent restaurant in a fancy shopping centre. Like yesterday the shops were smart but there were few customers and we're increasingly getting the impression...