Why Ashgabat, Turkmenistan is the World's Most Expensive City
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- čas přidán 27. 09. 2021
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Video written by Ben Doyle
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Canadians don't have to pay for maple syrup at the grocery store. We usually get it in weird cans from an obscur member of our familly who owns a maple grove and who runs a mini cartel of sugary water.
I am curious, in Canada do you have Maple Syrup rehabilitation clinics, because why would anyone take drugs when you have the greatest syrup. I am amazed no Raptors player have had to do a presser apologizing for his excess maple syrup consumption.
Just saying I know I'd be that guy in Canada that friends and family "TRY" and do an intervention 🤷♂️
Can confirm. My dad makes maple syrup in the woods next to his house, I distribute it to my friends in the city. Including one whose husband apparently drinks it straight from the jar.
@@markredacted8547 performance enhancing drug
Fun fact, the government runs a stockpile of incase we ever run out, most countries on the other hand as stupid as to dumb oil stockpiles rather than our glorious stockpile of maple!
I’ve watched some stuff about the great maple syrup heist in Canada, it was pretty wild. I think it’s the biggest heist ever in Canada, and it was literally maple syrup…almost sounds like a stereotype joke but it happened
I once got Ashgabat in Geoguessr, and thought it was Pyongyang because everything was gold and there were no people
Lol! Love that game
All the cars I could find are white, too. Which I thought was odd.
I play Geoguessr too but im surprised Turkmenistan is even on Geoguessr
@@uriah777 Not on the world map. Some custom maps have it, like 198 capitals of the world.
@@foxylovelace2679 You're technically not allowed to drive any other coloured car in Ashgabat
Favorite quote: "But much like a puzzle with only one piece placed, that's only one piece of the puzzle"
Ah yes, the floor is made out of floor
My favourite quote is when i sung Karakum like a boss!
Sam is a boss with words
I'm a big fan of "Captain Brunch"
I swear Ashgabat is like singleplayer Minecraft world with a pro builder
A pro builder with horrible taste
it's like your creative world with the diamond block cubes
It looks like the guy made Ashgabat on a flat world with creative mode on
a really shitty pro builder for the matter. the amount of money that has gone into the construction of building these marble buildings is fucking insane. marble looks like shit idek why you would waste your money on it
@@miffu_ no. Just no. Calcite is pretty hard to get, but some people/servers are INSANE and could probably complete it in less than a month.
As a Canadian I can confirm that the free maple syrup in Canada isn’t an accurate picture. However, paying the $186/month for Internet service … you’ve got a bargain there, Turkmenistan!
You are kidding, right? 186!
Apparently Its actually 500 us dollars
@@zmansadventures Maybe for StarLink, but definitely not fiber, right? RIGHT?!
If they had bell, they'd have increase of $186 every month on their bill.
Just for context, better functioning post Soviet countries internet prices are roughly this for a 100 megabit plan (all in capitals of respective countries, prices converted to usd through Google)
Russia $6.86 (you can also get 300 megabits for the same money)
Ukraine ~$7.52 (but there's an even bigger range, to the point when I've found a gigabit for this kind of money)
Belarus $16
Kazakhstan $11.77, ($12.71 for 200 is available though)
Kyrgyzstan $14.74 but that seems to be "up to 100mbs" not "100 mbps"
Azerbaijan $27.95 with landline plus $17.65 when getting a line
Georgia $32.15
Estonia $24.54 (as with Russia and Ukraine, not every ISP has 100megabits plan, some only have faster options)
Latvia Could only find 200 for $22.78
Litva $15.19, $26.88 for 1000mbps with the same ISP though. Also $58.18 when getting a line, if you chose the latter.
Sooo
$186 a month just some internet connection?
Hella expensive
Because you have to buy 100 portraits of Turkmenistan's President with everything you buy.
The reply above me is a bot
@@Mr-Money01 fax
The reply above me, is also a bot.
@@augustuscaesar8287 no im not
@@The360MlgNoscoper Lmao, I know. I was just ball busting cause the bot said "fax" first, then you did. It *would* be funny if bots commenting "fax" spammed this comment.
Strangest city I have ever seen...
And you're Italian!
No, it’s the best!
@@therealmistermemer no he's Danish lol
So weird, you went in with a transit visa instead of a travel visa
Smart move
...
I lived in Ashgabat around ten years ago when I was still a child. I don't remember much but it was s surreal experience. Most of the cities were empty, and I often heard the rumor that the highrise apartment cleaners turned on the lights in uninhabited units to make it seem like someone lived in them. The entire city seemed abandoned on most days.
It is worth noting that there is no need to use the official exchange rate. I remember that when I got off the boat in Turkmenistan, even the information woman at the port, a government employee, told me to go to the local bazaar and ask around to find a black market money changer. If you do that, things are very affordable. You can have a good meal in Ashgabat for ~US$1 and an overnight train in a 2nd class sleeper ran ~US$5. IIRC a taxi from place to place in the city was something like $0.50~2.00 depending on distance and a bus was much less than that.
Hotel prices for foreigners are fixed at a rate ~10x higher than for locals, at least at budget establishments. I stayed at what seemed to be the cheapest hotel in the city that was allowed to accept foreigners and it was $10/night for a pretty small and bare bones room with one single bed.
Wait, if the official rate is 3.5 to 1 then couldn't you at the end of your stay go to the government or an official exchange and exchange at that rate. That way your entire stay could be free.
@@thunderb00m For that, you'll have to show the previous receipt of your dollar to Manat conversion which you can't.
@@ayush2977 what about exchanging it back to $ when you get back to America??
@@Darkest_matter bro, good luck finding any exchange office or bank who is operating with manats. No way
Morshu be all "Come back to Ashgabat when you're a little, mmm, richer"
I have richest citi in world!
Sorry amead i cant give credit!
I’m so glad I get this.
Me seeing my well developed city between Ashgabat and Beirut: Sweat nervously
Hang tough dude. I know what's happening in Honk Kong is awful, but hopefully you and your family can seek refuge in the UK. I know it won't be the same, but as long as you're alive so too will the HK spirit survive.
I'm from Lebanon where Beirut is. It's funny because Lebanon is going through the same thing as Turkmenistan. The official rate is 1500LBP to the dollar and the Black market rate is 17000LBP to the dollar. You *have* to exchange your dollars in the black market if you don't want to get ripped off.
@@adnan37h sourna bahdale ya man
@@adnan37h so does that mean a well-off Lebanese would be richer if they move out and exchange all the currency they own with dollars?
@@juch3 It doesn't make sense because the local currency is just a piece of paper in other countries, they can't use it for anything.
@The Phenom mni7 tole3 fi nes metelna :p
As a Canadian, I can confirm that our maple syrup is quite expensive. The supply is limited due to provincial regulations, we export quite a lot, and it's a lot harder to make than say corn syrup. Maple syrup is a delicacy, not a staple.
Huh, didn't know this
I'm still able to get a 500ml can for $5.50 at my local grocery store, and I eat it almost everyday with my oatmeal. Sugar would be cheaper but maple syrup is very affordable for me and I'm not rich. I imagine this varies by region quite a lot and I live in Montreal.
If it wasn't expensive and in limited supply then the "Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist" wouldn't be a thing. Which would be a shame.
@@televisionblitz C'est 8,49 pour 540ml chez Super C (Longueuil). C'est quoi ton secret? À 5,50 j'en achèterais plus souvent 😁
@@marc-andreservant201 va chez maxi
The people who I know that fled Turkmenistan told me about the situation. It is not as bad as protrayed as no one uses the official exchange rate. It hat always been fixed as far as I know, but at a lower rate.
Turkmenistan suffers from its location. It has lots of gas but nowhere to sell to. To the south there is no ocean, there is only Iran which is not really willing to let Turkmen gas shipped through its ports as that would be competition for Iran, which is a major natural gas producing nation itself. There is a pipeline structure to Russia from soviet times, but Russia also does not want competition and is not willing to sell Turkmen gas. After the independence they were buying it at basically production cost and selling to Europe at market prices but they stopped since ties with Turkmenistab worsened. China has emerged as a customer, but as they are the only real customer left they can dictate prices; everybody wants to sell gas to China as it is a big and rapidly growing market. China lended Turkmenistan money for the pipeline construction and is profiting off of that, the earnings are barely enough to pay back that loan + interest.
The only real hope was a pipeline to India and Pakistan through Afghanistan which is under construction. There have been countless delays and all that and now that the Afghan government has been replaced we have to see what is happening. May god help these people and this country!
When you haz no seaport =(
Shipping it across caspian sea into Azerbaijan?
@@cyzcyt Yes, that is the main cause of the problem
@@kurniaerfan7307 That is really expensive. There was an idea for a pipeline (Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline), but the problem with this is that maintenance and construction costs would be so high that they would impact the gas price. The gas would be too expensive, it would find no buyers. The only reason why the European countries would buy gas through such a pipeline would be in order to not support Russia by buying their gas. It is not clear if they would do this.
Nevertheless, the construction is being considered because gas prices are expected to rise over the next 3-4 years, rendering the gas economically viable. But is this it? How long will has prices stay high until other countries increase their production? 2 years? They wouldn't earn enough money in that time to pay the pipeline off. :(
@@chraman169
Where are you from?
You seem to know a lot about the economic situation of turkmenistan, very interesting thanks for sharing
"the "cat runs an airforce" part was a joke"
we actually had an airforce general who is a dog here in thailand
Wait what?
I have been to Ashgabat on a mission to visit all the Asian countries in 2016, and I'll tell you this, visiting Turkmenistan is like visiting a whole new world. Its literally a ghost town with giant marble buildings gazing right down at you, at first it looks like another Dubai, but once you visit the outskirts of the municipal city, you'll see rundown houses where majority people live. Hard to watch...however not even close to how hard it was to getting the visa 😂😂😂
Wow how expensive it was ? I am from India but I have a very close friend from Ashghabat
Man, I got accepted to a foreign uni and it took me an entire year to get a visa and leave that place. I'm still in fear, even though it's been 1 year already
I feel sorry for the suffering Turkmen people living under the mindless dictators rule.
The leader is a troll. It can't be otherwise.
The leader reminds me of Admiral General alladeen
Niyazov, Berdimuhamedow are Putin's puppet
its their fault for not resisting
I am not a dictator, go to gulag!
When you make your mom mad at you so you have to rename a month after her to try and make it up to her...
I live in Ashgabat and got really excited when I saw the notification with the first couple words but now I see the full title of the video I'm sad :(
I pay nearly £300 a month for internet (350€ or 500 USD)
This last weekend I got a small bottle of Heineken for about a tenner (12€ or 16 USD)
Petrol and transport is extremely cheap though, but I don't really go anywhere domestically. A lot of places take pound sterling or roubles too despite the price being in manat
Edit: lol the video said a month of internet is $186, that might be true if you only ever want to watch CZcams in 144p. That internet is absolutely useless. Good broadband is about $500, where I get around 50-80mb/s
WARNING I am the unprettiest human YTer worldwide. Take the hint, dear james
how can you afford it?
rip
Aren't you a Berdumuhamedov's son (sorry if i incorrect wrote his second name) if you can afford all of this? :)
This sounds crazy. Are you (and most people) payed that much as well, so you can afford it?
Hopefully this video will finally make me stop mixing up Ashgabat and Dushanbe as the capitals of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan and allow me to finally associate one capital with its respective country. You know, a problem every normal person has.
South Africa has entered the chat.
have tajikistani family members, i can tell between them cause you can’t find dushanbe on a map (it’s so obscure it’s not on most maps)
Tajikistan is Iranic, all other central Asia is turkic.
#sporcleproblems
Most people don't have that problem bc most people don't know that country exists, so you're ahead of the curve on my book
At least you can listen to some good music produced by supreme leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow
Unfortunately, Sportly Turkmenistan has been taken down from YT 😢, does anyone know where you can find it?
@@kugul1683 czcams.com/video/o4oiRiP-7SE/video.html here you go, only video I could find of it left
I sing best Karakum song! Kara Kara Kara, Kara Kara Kara, Karakum!
Life is so wonderful in motherland.
Lol we had the same problem in Venezuela with the exchange rate control. What's funny is that it ended up benefitting me once, when I was going to leave the country I found a job with a relocation package which will cover everything I'd spend to get a visa, I ended up spending like 80$ but they had to pay it back to me at the official rate, ended up being 4500$ 😂😂
“He renamed January after himself.” Julius Ceasar did the same thing with July and he named August after his son. Lol
No. The Roman senate did so in his honor. And long after Caesar was dead, the senate did the same thing for Augustus - who was not the son of Caesar, but his adopted son and chosen heir.
he didn't rename it, he ADDED two extra months to the calendar.
@@RedOctober_ is this why SEPTember is the 9th month, OCT the 10th, and so on?
@@lynxfl correct!
real bull move
1:56 the video is played backwards, so the water in the fountains jumps up from the pool and into the pipe (that actually caught my eye instantly)
I was lucky enough to visit there 2 years ago for a holiday. The most insane 48 hours of my life. Such a bizarre place!
The most self-absorbed, unhinged, and despotic ruler of central Asia is Tamerlane so Niyazov has some good competition
Not that you care but a fun fact is that Tamerlane is my ancestor
@@notfunny007 hah, Genghis Khan is my ancestor, so is my neighbor's probably...
@@juch3 Nice
@@ihaveadream3321 Timur also sounds like my surname lol
Genghis Khan is an ancestor for a very large number of people ;)
When Sam starts talking about Canada standardizing the price of maples syrup and you think he's going to make a joke about our syrup reserve, but instead goes in a completely different direction for the joke.
there's a s y r u p r e s e r v e?
@@2kuyu685 Yes. It helps to stabilize the price of maple syrup and ensure that farmers make a steady income regardless of their production in a given year.
If you shoplift maple syrup in Canada, the moose in jail will make you his prag. As a Canadian, I can unfortunately confirm that.
I laughed out loud on the Whole Foods joke! 😀👍
they’re such a scam
Couple of years ago I calculated that one of Turkmenistan's (if I remember correctly) coins was actually worth more as a scrap metal in international market than the coin's face value. Now I know why.
It's the same here in Turkey for coins up to 25 kuruş (~1.5 cents) but i'm pretty sure there is a law that forbids scraping coins
Turkish money is more valuable as a metal bar rather than actual currency 😊
same with the american 1 penny coin and the european 1 cent coin
Canadian here, syrup here isn't actually cheap either lol
Quebec basically has a monopoly, so depending on where you buy it, it can cost like $12-14 for a reasonably large jug of syrup.
The fact that maple syrup is cheaper halfway across the globe from Canada feels very odd now...
To be fair maple syrup is hard to make and can only be done a small time each year. Unfortunately, I don't think it will ever become truly cheap. It's like God trolling all of us making the most delicious thing on earth extremely hard to get.
Yeah, Isn’t there a cartel of Québécois Syrup companies?
@@janmelantu7490 Helo Jan !!..☺️🌹🌹
@@wojciechmuras553 there's a big scale of quality though, cheap maple syrup exists here but it's sacrilege to eat once you've had the real stuff.
Cost of living: Milk, Jeans, Internet and HAI Merch.
Seems about right. All the essentials are there.
3:09 In my country(Thailand) the king promoted his own dog to be colonel of Thai air force army. And for sure it’s get paid with a real money. how sarcastic
I’ve worked there for 10 months… It’s actually a pretty fun place! The currency stuff might be a little bit tricky, but that means that going to government-owned companies will be incredibly cheap coz they use the official exchange rate
its not a fun place.
Wow; nod to whoever pulled graphics from the CDi Zelda games…
Really takes me back to "Nuclear Launch Detected."
Love the video editing on this one.
This sounds like North Koreas brother
You really should check John Oliver episode on its current dictator (one of his best), this country is insane!
Helo Brother!!...
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Ashgabat
Harry Potter and the Half-As-Interesting-Blood Prince (of Turkmenistan)
We don't need to shoplift maple syrup, silly. Because it is indeed a nationalized essential industry, the Crown corporation known as the CSC/CEC (Canadian Syrup Corporation/Companie d'Erable Canada) provides a beaver for every household. We keep them in a little hutch on the patio, and when we're thirsty we just go milk the beaver and drink a fresh glass of maple syrup.
Thanks for your sharing
I enjoy the fact that someone's job that they got paid to do was to film B-Roll footage at a dave and busters knowing full well they had a drink and played some games while there.
The cost of living index is so... odd.
Tokyo is constantly listed as one of the most expensive cities to live in....
I don't know, you can get an average meal for under $10 and beer for $1-$2.
The living spaces are rather small, but.... it's not Kowloon Walled City or anything. Rent is half what you'd pay in many major cities in the US (Boston, NYC, etc), and with a convenience store around every corner, and super punctual, cheap public transportation, it couldn't get any better.
If the earnings and state benefits are really high, as well as the price of items, then it evens out.
Hahaha, i waited for this all my life! Thanks Sam! I will send you a portrait of our President as a gift😉
If you can do that I will give you 500tm manats!
Keep watching your back, Türkmen FBI is coming to your ass😂
I've been subbed to curiosity stream for almost a year and I never use it just enjoy great content that I watched 10+ months ago
i do like the way you put things lightly 👍
After this video id like to see a more in depth video on the situation in Turkmenistan
I spent 5 days there in 2019 and it was one of the craziest experiences ever.
I've heard Ashgabat has a very succesful dentist.
Great video.
Sounds like a real life version of what one might satirically do playing Tropico
I usually watch this on Nebula (and is where I found this channel). I like it enough to have renewed after a year.
Is this fr?
@@gamermapper guessing by "fr" you meant "free" here. It's something like $14/year for Nebula and Curiosity Stream. Watch the ad at the end of a recent HAI video.
@@fltchr4449 I mean "for real" smh
@@gamermapper Ah. Well, then yes, I am for real.
3:37 "Much like a puzzle with only one piece placed, that's only one piece of the puzzle" 😂😂
Ashgabat: I am the most expensive city in the world
Luanda: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED
Doesn't Venezuela also have an "official" exchange rate that's wildly different from actual market rates? How do living costs in Caracas compare? (Or is that policy now gone?)
Last time i was this early, i had to pay 999 Rubles for a loaf of bread in Ashgabat, Soviet Union.
Banning smoking because you've quit is actually a good public health measure
i agree
That’s a weird way to spell “Los Angeles”
I swear, he mentions Canada in every video he does. I'm starting to wonder if it's a deliberate Easter egg.
Wait, doesn’t Aladdin live there too?
Oh that’s Agrabah, nvm …
I love thos channel
Somehow, a video about how awful Turkmenistan is that doesn't mention Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.
Can you imagine Sam trying to pronounce that? The writers made the right call.
John Oliver nailed the pronounciation in his Last week video the autocaptions manage to pick it up correctly
Birdy Muhammed ow
probably because the guy the video mentioned is way worse lol
Even here in Canada real Maple Syrup is $$$, so I can't imagine what everyone else is paying... If I go to a regular grocery store it's like $20/L, or $15/L at Costco
Dale, no-one else USES maple syrup.
It's about $10 per 200ml for the good stuff, here in the Netherlands
Y’all buy maple syrup by the LITER?!
"Much like a puzzle that has had only one piece placed" 😂 love it!
I love your sense of humour. It gets me more than I get it 😜
A cut above the usual comedy level!
That’s only if you use the official exchange rate. The black market rate (about 15:1 USD) makes it one of the cheapest cities on the planet.
Thanks, Dear Leader!
all hail turkmenbashi
It's gone up a lot since then, supposedly about 40:1 now.
@@EebstertheGreat Higher? You meant lower
For half a second a I really did believe that some crazy Eastern European/Western Asian dictator from the 90s would have put their cat in charge of the Air Force. 🤣
the music throws this video off so much
0:22 love how 3 of the cities in this list in the background are just swiss cities (Bern, Geneva, Zurich)
I love the way you describe how bad the economy is and how crazy the leader is. Could you maybe do one on worst economies? Several weeks ago I saw the Lebanon had the worst economic situation in 150 years and I was confused because that means was worse than the Great Depression or even worse than 1923 when Germany had 1 trillion percent inflation for a Time. Why is Lebanon now considered worse than 1 trillion percent inflation in Weimar Germany? If that food wasn't just a newspaper trying to get readers... Well a website trying to get readers.
3:00 My birthday is actually January 18th and I cannot imagine saying my birthday was during the month of "our leader"
You might've to redo the video in a few weeks, covering Colombo, Sri Lanka
“Much like a puzzle that has one piece placed, that’s only one piece of the puzzle” brilliant
you should differentiate the generic stock footage from the subject of the video footage (in this case Turkmenistan) because I got to the video curious to see footage of the city and such, and it was confusing because of the amount of generic stock footage that you use
Why Ashgabat, Turkmenistan is the World's Most Expensive City? The answer is, it's not.
No one will change their foreign currency with the official rate here. Because black market will pay you almost 10 times that price. At which point the city becomes one of the most affordable in the world. You pay almost no tax either. Some prices for comparison:
- beef/lamb/mutton 1.50 USD per kg
- bread 0.10 USD (around 400 grams)
- gas for transportation 0.05 USD per liter
- 2 bedroom apartment (outside marble area) 100-200 USD
- utilities cost less than 20 USD (including internet, must say it's quite slow though, 2 mbps)
- local vegetables and fruits in a fresh market are dirt cheap. If you were to shop for around 4-5 USD, you won't be able to carry it.
yes but imported manufactured goods are just insanely overpriced
U kidding man? Fruits and vegetables are fucking expensive, unless you buy them in long ass lines
@@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367
Due to high tariffs.
Aren't they government-subsidized?
0:32 You missed an opportunity to put in a picture of General Lee at this time lol. Whether Charles Lee from the Revolution or Robert E. from Civil War.
Nobody I know buys syrup in Canada, we just get a free bottle or 3 every spring from a buddy up North. It grows in trees here.
As a mobile user, these arrows at 00:06 just pointed at my fufa and made me sad
At your what
TLDR: They pulled a Venezuela.
They bought the same discount cookbook
"HAI merch"
That cracked me up XD
awesome
1:23 You put in the wrong image. That’s the US, not a supportive government.
3 seconds in and already love this video :D
My family used to live in Turkmenistan. The black market valued foreign currency much higher than the official exchange rate. You could exchange the dollar for nearly double the currency so everything was essentially 50% off. That was like 20 years ago tho
Not informative enough to be boring, not silly enough to be annoying. You're the master of that fine line.
never let a government get this powerful.
1:12 I don't know who writes these jokes, but please make sure they never stop.
My dumb ass was moments away from googling "is maple syrup free in canada" before the punchline came
Oh my dear beautiful country.
ashgabat is so expensive that the water in the fountains moves backwards
I live in the U.S.(Ohio) and when I hear... America suck(and ya it can sometimes),but not like a lot of places around the world. I think be glad you live here and not in a place like Ashgabat.
Expatriate: Fancy rich immigrant
Exactly the same is happening in Beirut, Lebanon
"Put his cat in charge of the air force."
Rest of the world: Ha, what a funny joke
Thailand: ಠ_ಠ
Socialized maple syrup keeps me going in life. My reason for living 🇨🇦🥞
I like some of the content on Nebula, but man, their media player needs work. For instance, one point is not having the ability to autoplay multiple videos one after the other. This makes it feel a little clunky at times.
holy shit!! did i just see my city on the first 30 seconds of an HAI video!! i must so honoured!!
Why is Sam putting bangers as background music
For most of us.. every city is expensive.
Next on wendover productions: The insane logistics of running the world's most expensive city
Heading to Ashgabat now to sell my HAI tee shirt. Woot woot!!!
Honestly, I feel bad for the people there.
Also, that throwaway line about their cotton is no joke. Aside from the severe environmental impacts of the cotton farms in that area of central asia, Turkmenistan has one of the least ethical cotton industries on Earth.