The night before entering Turkmenistan we met our new tour leader, Batyr, our current one current, Kamie, couldn’t join as her visa was denied by the Turkmen authorities. Our new leader introduced himself and gave us a break down of the dos and don’ts for when we arrived in the somewhat secretive country. To be honest the requests weren’t anything out of the ordinary and in the end Turkmenistan didn’t seem as secretive as anticipated. We weren’t allowed to photograph police, security, army, checkpoints, the (huge!) MoD and the incredibly grand and huge President Palace. I took a photo of one of the many monuments by the palace which caused some stress for an army guard nearby, he was closely watching in me and was happy enough when then photo was eventually taken away from the palace, but I made a quick exit nonetheless. Another rule was to not leave sight of our first hotel in Dashoguz in the north, if we were in sight of the Dashoguz hotel that should be OK, but any further could cause headaches for our tour leader should we be stopped by the authorities. Having said that, the hotel was a huge grand (but now aging) building so technically you could wander quite far from the hotel not that we dared. The final rule was to be back in our hotel by absolute latest 11pm, anything later would not be wise. It probably goes without saying but there was to be no sensitive questions or discussions about politics, all that would be discussed on this matter would be the facts eg the current president was elected three years ago etc.
The border crossing was smoother than expected and we set a new record, all across within 1.5 hours and the crossing went somewhat like, passport (PP) check 1, scan bags out of Uzbekistan, leave Uzbekistan with (official exit) PP check 2, PP check 3 (to leave the complex), PP check 4 (to board the bus), cross no man’s land in a cramped bus (1km), COVID check on the Turkmen side (a formality here, everyone pays for the test and everyone passes the test), a lot of paperwork undertaken by our tour leader, PP check 5 for official entry into Turkmenistan, scan bags (3 of 11 were opened and searched half heartedly but with emphasis on meds and literature), and finally PP check 6 to leave the complex… we were in Turkmenistan!!!
The country looked quite different already from Uzbekistan, a little less developed, however some of the differences could have just been in our minds. In our big white bus en-route to Dashoguz we certainly received a lot of looks from local cars passing by and I soon came to realise that there are very few private buses on the road, in all our time there I recall seeing around 4 tourist buses on the road.
Pulling into Dashoguz for lunch some girls in long bright red dresses caught our eye, quite hard to miss them on the otherwise empty street, they were however still some distance away. Once inside the empty, large modern restaurant they appeared watching us from the corner, they disappeared and then reappeared 25 minutes later and came over to join us wanting to take photos with us. They stayed for over five minutes and were very grateful to be able to pose with us and practice their English. Dashoguz has a sizable university from which they came. Not sure what they would be able to do with the photos as social media and WhatsApp are all blocked here, furthermore, there is no mobile signal for foreigners, very weak Wi-Fi and not even a cash machine foreigners can use. The students were an indication of what was to come, curious looks but a very friendly welcome from the Turkmen!
First stop after lunch was the Unesco site of Kunya Urgench 1.5 hours north, there wasn’t much to see on the journey except a few police check points here and there and the fact that the highway started off in good condition and soon dwarfed into a road of questionable quality. It looked like the land had been cleared and flattened either side of the road to extend the highway, but it didn’t look like any such work was ongoing anymore.
The following day we were setting out to complete a bucket list item for many people on the tour and switched our big fancy white bus for Toyota 4x4s to cross the world’s third largest desert to reach The Gates of Hell and then on to Ashgabat in the south on the following day. Naturally I assumed the 4x4s were to cross desert terrain (which was true of 10km of the journey), but the main reason was for us to mange to navigate the Turkmenistan highway. The 3-4 lane highway started well from Dashoguz, and then the white lines disappeared, pot holes appeared, one side became gravel, more pot holes appeared, bigger ones appeared, ruts of melted and then set tarmac appeared and it was safe to say these were the worst roads I have ever driven on and they even of strategic importance connecting the north and the south through the central core of the country. Our drivers were able to navigate the terrain as would rally car drivers but the same couldn’t be said for the lorries, trucks and smaller cars trying to make the 500km journey at a snail’s pace! Seeing camels was a highlight as was taking the cars off road on rally tracks purely for our enjoyment.
We pulled up over the crest of a hill and were treated to the stunning sight of the Gates of Hell, a huge burning hole in the desert. Back in the 70s, the Soviets came across a natural gas reserve here, the structure collapsed and further to their research of the reserve they believed it could easily be burnt off…. It is still burning ferociously today some 50 plus years later!! The experience was fantastic and the heat from the burning hole was immense, especially when downwind of the crater.
The next day we passed a couple more craters and ploughed on along the questionable roads to Ashgabat, the capital, home to supposedly more than 1 million people! The previous president expanded the city limits 30km in all directions to ensure the population was recorded as more than 1million, thus allowing them to then spend more than $7billion hosting the Asian Games! The white elephant stadiums that remain are incredible!!! All white and all very grand. A 45,000-seater stadium was built purely for the opening and closing ceremonies… one end of the stadium also has a huge horse head protruding from the top, to be honest it looked incredible! The huge city centre complex was locked behind grand white fences and we didn’t see a single athlete wandering the complex using any of the state-of-the-art facilities.
This is something representative of the rest of city. It is hard to describe the city, but it looks somewhat like North Korea, Orlando and Dubai had a love child that was born and raised in space… There are so many huge futuristic monuments all giving praise to something or other and then a huge amount of grand futuristic government buildings and identical imported white marble housing blocks.
In the city centre we saw so few people on the streets walking here and there, and their rush hour, although busy, felt quite calm and quiet versus a city of supposedly such size. Furthermore, we saw no one entering or leaving the government buildings and only a handful entering the housing blocks. We were told that all building were generally entered via the back or underground car parks, which I don’t doubt but even when we circled behind some buildings we still didn’t see a hive of activity, to caveat, we could have been there during business hours when no one was coming or going or outside of them, but still…. One building we (understandably) weren’t allowed to photograph was the MoD which was massive for a country of 7million! And another was the Presidential Palace which now encompasses the Soviet era palace within its grounds! It was massive! And that isn’t to say the soviet one was tiny, it was quite something itself and now sits dwarfed by the current palace.
Everywhere we went there were grand monuments and perfectly manicured gardens which wasn’t bad for a city that sits on the edge of the desert! From the top of our hillside hotel we could see all across the city to the mountains and towards Iran. The ground away from the city was, as expected, very dry and arid, but within the city there were human devoid green parks that would dwarf Hyde Park.
The number of observations I could note are endless but one final one is regarding a nearby 5* hotel which I popped in for a look. It was incredibly grand, and I am sure there were more staff than guests. The girl in the gift shop was over the moon to have human interaction, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was for the first time that day at 3pm! I popped up to the rooftop bar, the lift doors opened in the restaurant and once again two waitresses were very happy to see a customer, however I wanted the bar… I ascended the stairs to the bar and yeap, once again was met by a very happy bar man. The only place that I saw guests was by the pool and even then there was at any one time a maximum of 30 people.
Having said all of the above, some of the information we were told by our tour guide was quite impressive, one being state-ran child care for 5.5 days a week costs around £5 a month, a nominal payment.
In Ashgabat we were given more freedom to explore in comparison with Dashoguz, but our 11pm curfew still stood. The overall experience was incredible and I loved every second of it and meeting so many of the very friendly locals.
Some rough notes from our Ashgabat city tour:
- Memory Park – first stop at 9.10am at the massive glorious park where I counted at least 11 cleaners almost more than our group and that was only those in sight. The park was huge and very decadent with fountains, benches, intricate lighting and many monuments to the fallen. One soldier guarding the eternal flame looked as if he was about to faint in the heat! It was HOT, I struggled and was only there 20 minutes and kept to the shade where I could! He has to do a two-hour shift. I hope he was coming to the end of it. The monuments must sit hundreds of steps above the road below, thankfully you can drive to the top (no one really seems to walk much around the city).
- Nisa ruins stop 16km out of town – five or more workers working outdoors in the already stifling 10.15am heat
- The worlds biggest indoor Ferris wheel (we had to enter via the back road as the main city road was closed due to an important meeting). We also couldn’t take photos of part of the park or from one side of the wheel as they were setting up a huge amount of fireworks for the Independence Day celebrations on the 27th.
- Monument of Constitution – sadly couldn’t pass too close due to set up for the firework show.
- Monument of Neutrality – as per above
- Opposite the Independence Monument, where we stopped for a photo stop, was the very grand complex consisting of a Concert hall, cultural centre and library
- We passed through the city passing the Asian Games complex and down through the MoD area and presidential palace – both were huge and very grand, far bigger than what we have in the UK no photos allowed in this district of Ashgabat.
- Bazaar / market
