I thought there was some great stuff in Ashgabat, a few monumental statues built as an homage to Turkmenbashi (although he was still alive when I was there, might have changed a bit). There's a decent market and an amazing amount of white marble and gold on the state buildings - funny choice for a desert.
Darvaza is an absolute must, nothing else like it on the planet!
As for Ashgabat to Turkmenabat (the port on the caspian, right?) I left Turkmenabat at around 9 am, went to a market to get some food, then absolutely hammered it to Ashgabat and arrived in the dark, maybe around 9:30 pm?? I don't recall the distance but it was a long day, did stop to visit some ruins along the way though.
I left Ashgabat for Darvaza at around 4pm (bike wouldn't start!) and got there at around 1am after a few crashes (there was no road to the craters, did about a mile of deep sand in the dark which killed my time a bit).
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