You can see the same in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan - perfect tarmac in the capital, but outside of it, the road is lousy, even on transit routes (Iran-Uzbekistan) -

You can see the same in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan - perfect tarmac in the capital, but outside of it, the road is lousy, even on transit routes (Iran-Uzbekistan) - we cycled there in 2013: http://poab.org/log/c/0/60#2 http://poab.org/log/c/0/60#2