The gateway to the Silk Road from the Middle East is distinct from the other ‘Stans’ in culture, history, and landscape, and for sheer craziness, there is nowhere else in the world quite like it. Central Asia has long been the crossroads of empires from the ancient Persians through Genghis Khan, imperial Britain and Russia, and most recently as the southernmost tip of the Soviet Union. Descendants of nomadic desert tribes, the Turkmen infuse their Islam with animism. You’ll find pilgrims’ shrines dotted all around the country, with locals stopping to worship, leave items for luck, and attend to rituals, like walking around minarets in circles. Bread is sacred to the Turkmen, so it’s only broken by hand, and never, ever thrown out. While there’s lots of regional cuisine, like plov (a delicious Uzbek rice dish), and Russian favourites including caviar from the Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan’s speciality is shashlyk, open-coal barbecued meat and vegetables that take on an almost magical deliciousness, washed down, of course, with beer and vodka.