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 once got Ashgabat in Geoguessr, and thought it was Pyongyang because everything was gold and there were no people

Favorite quote: "But much like a puzzle with only one piece placed, that's only one piece of the puzzle"

I swear Ashgabat is like singleplayer Minecraft world with a pro builder

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!

Because you have to buy 100 portraits of Turkmenistan's President with everything you buy.

Strangest city I have ever seen...

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.

Morshu be all "Come back to Ashgabat when you're a little, mmm, richer"

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.

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!

Me seeing my well developed city between Ashgabat and Beirut: Sweat nervously

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 😂😂😂

"the "cat runs an airforce" part was a joke" we actually had an airforce general who is a dog here in thailand

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 KZfaq in 144p. That internet is absolutely useless. Good broadband is about $500, where I get around 50-80mb/s

I feel sorry for the suffering Turkmen people living under the mindless dictators rule.

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...

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.

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)

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$ 😂😂

At least you can listen to some good music produced by supreme leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow

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!

“He renamed January after himself.” Julius Ceasar did the same thing with July and he named August after his son. Lol

The most self-absorbed, unhinged, and despotic ruler of central Asia is Tamerlane so Niyazov has some good competition

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.

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.

If you shoplift maple syrup in Canada, the moose in jail will make you his prag. As a Canadian, I can unfortunately confirm that.

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.

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

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.

Wow; nod to whoever pulled graphics from the CDi Zelda games…

I laughed out loud on the Whole Foods joke! 😀👍

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

Cost of living: Milk, Jeans, Internet and HAI Merch. Seems about right. All the essentials are 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.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Ashgabat

This sounds like North Koreas brother

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

Love the video editing on this one.

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.

I spent 5 days there in 2019 and it was one of the craziest experiences ever.

i do like the way you put things lightly 👍

Thanks for your sharing

After this video id like to see a more in depth video on the situation in Turkmenistan

I've heard Ashgabat has a very succesful dentist.

I usually watch this on Nebula (and is where I found this channel). I like it enough to have renewed after a year.

Sounds like a real life version of what one might satirically do playing Tropico

Hahaha, i waited for this all my life! Thanks Sam! I will send you a portrait of our President as a gift😉

Banning smoking because you've quit is actually a good public health measure

That’s a weird way to spell “Los Angeles”

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?)

Somehow, a video about how awful Turkmenistan is that doesn't mention Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.

Last time i was this early, i had to pay 999 Rubles for a loaf of bread in Ashgabat, Soviet Union.

Great video.

I swear, he mentions Canada in every video he does. I'm starting to wonder if it's a deliberate Easter egg.

Ashgabat: I am the most expensive city in the world Luanda: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

3:37 "Much like a puzzle with only one piece placed, that's only one piece of the puzzle" 😂😂

I love your sense of humour. It gets me more than I get it 😜

You might've to redo the video in a few weeks, covering Colombo, Sri Lanka

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

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.

0:22 love how 3 of the cities in this list in the background are just swiss cities (Bern, Geneva, Zurich)

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.

"Much like a puzzle that has had only one piece placed" 😂 love it!

Wait, doesn’t Aladdin live there too? Oh that’s Agrabah, nvm …

A cut above the usual comedy level!

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.

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.

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

I love thos channel

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. 🤣

3:00 My birthday is actually January 18th and I cannot imagine saying my birthday was during the month of "our leader"

As a mobile user, these arrows at 00:06 just pointed at my fufa and made me sad

the music throws this video off so much

“Much like a puzzle that has one piece placed, that’s only one piece of the puzzle” brilliant

1:23 You put in the wrong image. That’s the US, not a supportive government.

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.

Heading to Ashgabat now to sell my HAI tee shirt. Woot woot!!! Honestly, I feel bad for the people there.

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

Socialized maple syrup keeps me going in life. My reason for living 🇨🇦🥞

3 seconds in and already love this video :D

I was in Ashgabat in 2017 and it didn’t seem that expensive, but it was much more expensive than the rest of country which was super cheap. Bought ingredients for dinner for 22 Ans spent lesss than €5

I always wondered what became of the dogs that were already in Ashgabat...

TLDR: They pulled a Venezuela.

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!!

never let a government get this powerful.

Next on wendover productions: The insane logistics of running the world's most expensive city

3:08 well I actually did believe it because my country’s leader had a dog which was an air chief marshal, so not that far fetched

ok, I did not expect the hidden secret to be an ad for some random no-name music video. is that what it's supposed to be?

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.

1:12 I don't know who writes these jokes, but please make sure they never stop.

I think I may or may out, maybe, just might be, importing stuff into it and exchange with the official and stonk

Exactly the same is happening in Beirut, Lebanon

Expatriate: Fancy rich immigrant

I know its interesting when it involves places I've never heard of....

Exactly the same scenario in Lebanon. using the official rate, prices are outrageous. Heck they are outrageous even at the black market rates

Why is Sam putting bangers as background music

For most of us.. every city is expensive.