A bonus of joining the Young Pioneer Tours (YPT) group to Turkmenistan was to be able to attend the games that we had never ever heard of. The country promoted the opening ceremony to be greater than the Beijing Olympics one. That got everyone curious for sure. To get tickets, all the tour participants, seven of us, had to select from the the sports those they did not want to go to and those they wouldn't mind attending. Our leaders then chose tickets based on the days we would attend and the events wanted by the most people.We knew we would see the opening ceremony and that we would not be in the country for the closing one but hoped we didn't get tickets for the chess or the E-games!
The staff at our hotel encouraged us to wear our Turkmen hats everyday of the games giving me bobby pins to keep mine attached to my head. The women wear plaits under them so I did the same to look the part as the high school students do wearing theirs.
We left the hotel at 4pm and as before many roads were closed and we took ages to find alternative routes to the games. The security checkpoints were chaotic being the first day. Bags were checked for deodorants, lighters and sharp objects. Our tickets gave us a seating area to go to but no seat numbers. When we arrived at our bay it was full with government workers and university students all dressed the same waving flags. Other seats were full of accredited visitors being coaches, and team supporters and their families so there was no where for us to sit. Nadine, the minder, rang her boss from the Tourism department and she got security to move some of the students so we could have seats. It was chaotic as a couple more tourists and their families arrived and also could not sit down. Eventually they were given seats and the reluctant students wandered off to find another spot.
Waiting for sunset
The locals had been told to be seated from lunchtime. The sun streamed into our bay and it got really hot.
The ceremony started at 20.17 which had some kind of significance but we don't know wha,t other than that is the year. There were thousands of dancers, lots of horses and caravans of camels. What a spectacle! The President sat on the far side of the stadium from us and so the displays were choreographed with him in mind. It has the capacity for 45,000.
Floating above us were these bicycles during the display of all the sports.
The NZ flag but no team!
A giant Turkman hero
The central screen ready to display images of the history of the country
A huge central screen dropped down in the middle of the stadium and scenes were projected on it. A hole opened in the middle of the ground and a oil and gas factory model popped up. A crater opened up and flames exploded representing the Darvaza Crater.
The President loves horses and Turkmenistan has a unique breed of horse. At the Olympic flame lighting time a tower with a spiral path came out of the ground and a beautiful horse and rider reared up with the torch to light the star symbol above and send a flame speeding across the stadium to the cauldron on top of the horses head outside. Amazing stuff!
Check out this link of the ceremony.
Sixty three nations took part and Oceania was invited to take part for the first time. Australia had sixteen participants in four events. Someone carried the NZ flag but we were not in any events so don't know what happened there.
4012 athletes took part.
There were 339 events and 21 sports represented.
Thirty new structures were especially built by a Turkish company at a cost of $5 billion dollars US. they will be used by the national institutes and universities after the games.
Firstly, we attended the indoor athletics venue and saw the start of the women's pentathlon, some hurdles and some middle distance races. In the lunch break we were able to got o the Berkarar Mall for lunch.
Horses at Berkarar
More Berkarar gold and marble
At lunch we met up with a Catalonian Spanish woman who worked for an agency employing production and choreography staff. She told us about the many headaches of getting the opening ceremony together. It was very interesting. After the closing ceremony she was having one day off and then onto another production in Dubai.
It was the first time we have seen Muay Thai and luckily the first bout included the Asian champion. He was so graceful and fearless, swaying in time to the beat of the accompanying band of drummers, a whistler and a bell ringer. It was a pleasure to watch and when other not so accomplished guys fought you could see how cumbersome and lacking in discipline they were.
Loads of fountains around the stadium
In the break some of our group wandered off to check out the rest of the venue and ended up being ushered into the media lounge to help themselves to coffee and food on offer to accredited guests. I guess we all look alike.
We had evening tickets to the men's 750m cycling sprints. They went from qualifying races to the medal ceremony. Other than watching all the goings on, in the teams areas with warm ups and lots of undressing in the middle of the stadium, it was a pretty slow event. Luckily for us Dutch Tom was able to point out some of the more interesting aspects of sprint racing for us.
Everything is lit up at night around the stadium
The booers at the tennis!
The most fun time we had was at the indoor tennis. An Indonesian guy was playing a local and there were no people in the stadium supporting him. Whenever the local scored a point the audience would clap and do nothing when the Indonesian scored. Sporty Andrew decided that we should support Davood Susanto and so we made up chants accompanied by clapping. When there was a pause we stood up and enthusiastically performed. When we finished the whole stadium of Turkmen booed us. Undeterred we continued coming up with more and more songs and chants to egg the losing Davood on. The television cameras came to film our fine moments and the locals got in some laughs and stopped hassling us. In the last few sets a small group of Indonesians came to support him at the far end of the court. Davood won the match so we raced down to the court for selfies and more TV exposure. When we got back to the hotel the staff were so excited to see us on TV.
The women's jiu jitsu event was a strange affair for us and the first time to see the martial art. They seemed to wrap each other up and wobble in a ball of hands and feet for a few minutes and then leap up and hug each other. We didn't get it at all.
The evening event was 3x3 basket ball in a small outdoor area. It was fast and furious keeping us well entertained to the medal ceremony. The small players were fascinating to watch contrasting against the slower moving tall ones, like wind up toys!
Local women
At the end of the evening a lot of the locals had already left and we wandered about the empty facility. It was a weird feeling being at a huge event and then only seeing security personnel and no other attendees. As all the workers and students were obligated to attend and it was difficult to get visas unless on a tour, there were hardly any people who had actually just come for the games who were not media or supporters.
What is the significance of Mr Park and his accredited pass? Our very clever Andrew worked out that these contained the information needed to access the free Wifi in the stadium. He took a guess at the password being Ashgabat 2017 and everyone logged on as Mr Park.
The gang!
The staff at our hotel encouraged us to wear our Turkmen hats everyday of the games giving me bobby pins to keep mine attached to my head. The women wear plaits under them so I did the same to look the part as the high school students do wearing theirs.
We left the hotel at 4pm and as before many roads were closed and we took ages to find alternative routes to the games. The security checkpoints were chaotic being the first day. Bags were checked for deodorants, lighters and sharp objects. Our tickets gave us a seating area to go to but no seat numbers. When we arrived at our bay it was full with government workers and university students all dressed the same waving flags. Other seats were full of accredited visitors being coaches, and team supporters and their families so there was no where for us to sit. Nadine, the minder, rang her boss from the Tourism department and she got security to move some of the students so we could have seats. It was chaotic as a couple more tourists and their families arrived and also could not sit down. Eventually they were given seats and the reluctant students wandered off to find another spot.
The locals had been told to be seated from lunchtime. The sun streamed into our bay and it got really hot.
Approaching the main stadium with the monorail to the left which was only for athletes and spent most of the time running empty. Note the horse head lamp poles.
This eight pointed star is a national symbol found everywhere.
Floating above us were these bicycles during the display of all the sports.
The NZ flag but no team!
The central screen ready to display images of the history of the country
A huge central screen dropped down in the middle of the stadium and scenes were projected on it. A hole opened in the middle of the ground and a oil and gas factory model popped up. A crater opened up and flames exploded representing the Darvaza Crater.
The President loves horses and Turkmenistan has a unique breed of horse. At the Olympic flame lighting time a tower with a spiral path came out of the ground and a beautiful horse and rider reared up with the torch to light the star symbol above and send a flame speeding across the stadium to the cauldron on top of the horses head outside. Amazing stuff!
Check out this link of the ceremony.
Sixty three nations took part and Oceania was invited to take part for the first time. Australia had sixteen participants in four events. Someone carried the NZ flag but we were not in any events so don't know what happened there.
4012 athletes took part.
There were 339 events and 21 sports represented.
Thirty new structures were especially built by a Turkish company at a cost of $5 billion dollars US. they will be used by the national institutes and universities after the games.
Firstly, we attended the indoor athletics venue and saw the start of the women's pentathlon, some hurdles and some middle distance races. In the lunch break we were able to got o the Berkarar Mall for lunch.
At lunch we met up with a Catalonian Spanish woman who worked for an agency employing production and choreography staff. She told us about the many headaches of getting the opening ceremony together. It was very interesting. After the closing ceremony she was having one day off and then onto another production in Dubai.
It was the first time we have seen Muay Thai and luckily the first bout included the Asian champion. He was so graceful and fearless, swaying in time to the beat of the accompanying band of drummers, a whistler and a bell ringer. It was a pleasure to watch and when other not so accomplished guys fought you could see how cumbersome and lacking in discipline they were.
Loads of fountains around the stadium
In the break some of our group wandered off to check out the rest of the venue and ended up being ushered into the media lounge to help themselves to coffee and food on offer to accredited guests. I guess we all look alike.
We had evening tickets to the men's 750m cycling sprints. They went from qualifying races to the medal ceremony. Other than watching all the goings on, in the teams areas with warm ups and lots of undressing in the middle of the stadium, it was a pretty slow event. Luckily for us Dutch Tom was able to point out some of the more interesting aspects of sprint racing for us.
Everything is lit up at night around the stadium
The most fun time we had was at the indoor tennis. An Indonesian guy was playing a local and there were no people in the stadium supporting him. Whenever the local scored a point the audience would clap and do nothing when the Indonesian scored. Sporty Andrew decided that we should support Davood Susanto and so we made up chants accompanied by clapping. When there was a pause we stood up and enthusiastically performed. When we finished the whole stadium of Turkmen booed us. Undeterred we continued coming up with more and more songs and chants to egg the losing Davood on. The television cameras came to film our fine moments and the locals got in some laughs and stopped hassling us. In the last few sets a small group of Indonesians came to support him at the far end of the court. Davood won the match so we raced down to the court for selfies and more TV exposure. When we got back to the hotel the staff were so excited to see us on TV.
The women's jiu jitsu event was a strange affair for us and the first time to see the martial art. They seemed to wrap each other up and wobble in a ball of hands and feet for a few minutes and then leap up and hug each other. We didn't get it at all.
The evening event was 3x3 basket ball in a small outdoor area. It was fast and furious keeping us well entertained to the medal ceremony. The small players were fascinating to watch contrasting against the slower moving tall ones, like wind up toys!
At the end of the evening a lot of the locals had already left and we wandered about the empty facility. It was a weird feeling being at a huge event and then only seeing security personnel and no other attendees. As all the workers and students were obligated to attend and it was difficult to get visas unless on a tour, there were hardly any people who had actually just come for the games who were not media or supporters.
What is the significance of Mr Park and his accredited pass? Our very clever Andrew worked out that these contained the information needed to access the free Wifi in the stadium. He took a guess at the password being Ashgabat 2017 and everyone logged on as Mr Park.
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