Beset by economic hardship, enterprising Turkmens have found a way to supplement their incomes - smuggling towels and bed linen into neighboring Kazakhstan. Moving hundreds of items every trip in trademark Chinese plaid bags which at times have clogged airport luggage belts, informal traders - mostly women in their late forties and fifties - hand them over to relatives or local partners to be resold for up to five times the purchase price. Dressed in traditional Central Asian garb such as headscarves and long skirts, these women arrive on almost every flight from Ashgabat to Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city. ... (full story)