Turkmenistan 27/07/2005

Trip Journal From 27th July 2005 - 1st August 2005

On July 27th 2005 we met our guide Oleg at the border. Angry, tired hot and sweaty truck drivers could hardly contain their tempers as we were ushered to the front of the queue, who could blame them as the temperature was hitting 35 plus. After a succession of pay windows and rooms to fill out the required documentation, our purses were lightened considerably to the tune of US$135 this included road tax and other various charges. Total time for border crossing was 5 hours. I must point out that things totally ground to a halt for them to have a 1 ½ hour lunch break. I could just see NZ Customs and Immigration adopting this practice LOL. Along with the constant police checks the large pontoon bridge west of Farab was a real roller coaster ride, again we got stung at inflated tourist prices US$50 plus 66,000 manat.

Stopping off for a visit at the ancient city of Merv near Mary, the share size of the site, its spread over 100km and dates back to the 6th Century BC. Merv was also a main player on the Silk Route along with Abiwerb, another visit on route to Turkmenbashi. What was so interesting here was walking around the site visible were the broken remains of ceramics and pottery dating back to 1000BC

Across Turkmenistan we had hotel accommodation in Ashgabat and the remainder of the nights we camped in the Kakakum Desert. The nights were surprisingly cool, considering the temperature was still 35 egrees at 7.30pm, perfectly clear skies enabling us to star gaze, make wishes on falling stars and watch the many satellite s zooming overhead.


Ashgabat is the capitol city and a city of great opulence, impressive buildings, fountains galore, designs all symmetrical, golden statues of President Niyazov reside everywhere you turned. As you strolled through the wonderful parks you were struck by the absence of people enjoying them. They were designed for show not to be user friendly. We visited the Arch of Neutrality riding the glass elevator to the top where we overlooked Independence Square, Palace of Turkmenbashi, Mosques and many other grand buildings.Having dinner with Lynda and John at Five Legs at the Golden Age Restaurant which offered amazing views over Ashgabat we watched a sand storm roll in, just like fog would except it was accompanied by horrific winds, which disappeared as quick as it arrived, we were thankful we were out having dinner and not driving through it. Five Legs is the largest fountain in the world, I am sure it would have been impressive but was not going. A visit to the Tolkuchka Bazaar on the desert outskirts near Ashgabat had us all sifting for bargins, a fun outing dispite the heat.

The residents of Turkmenistan enjoy gas at NZ 4 cents lt, free buses, a power bill which we could only dream of ….. $20 for 5 years, and cheap flights. The black market offers US$1 =24,500 manat, but at the banks the rate was 5600 …a huge difference. Despite the country being mainly 90% desert it was still an interesting country to visit, camels were wandering every where, our first glimpse of the Caspian Sea was refreshing after months of traveling inland. The worst part of our visit would have to have been all the time wasting with the continual Police checks…. 36 in total, Poor Oleg, he was forever gathering the passports from all four vehicles and we were certainly glad we had a guide with us. Much to our surprise we were able to get a passage on a boat heading to Azerbijan sailing at 6pm, we couldn’t believe our luck as were had heard stories of delays of 3days or so. Paper work took 3 hours and 5.30pm saw us all on the boat looking forward to a drink and watching the sun set up on deck.