Turkmenistan
Karakum Desert, Darvaza & Ashgabat
From September 18th to September 21st, 2023
Day 1
We drove from Khiva to the border at Turkmenistan near Xorazm. The crossing didn’t take too long, but the interesting thing was that they only accepted USD for the 16 different fees we had to pay (GPS, health declaration, etc).
After crossing the border, we hopped in the bus with our guide and headed to lunch at a hotel nearby in Gasoguz. They had quite a spread for us: a beet & corn salad, a hamburger looking patty with potatoes and onion, a cucumber tomato and onion salad, and beers. These are not places you can just pop into unannounced.. there was nobody else in the hotel until we got seated. After we got seated, magically people started showing up to eat in the same dining hall as us.
We hopped back in our tour van and headed towards Darvaza. It may have been a 6 hour drive, but felt like 16 because of the zig zag driving through the crude pot-holed “roads”. We finally made it to Darvaza by sundown and just barely got to see the Door to Hell gas crater at dusk. The crater is about 230 feet wide and 100 feet deep; for perspective, thats the length of almost 2 olympic swimming pools or just larger than the wingspan of a Boeing 777.
We checked into our yurts at the Owadan Tourism Camp Site, had dinner, saw a pet baby hedge hog, drank some whiskey, wished our stomachs weren’t gurgling with uncertainty every 10 minutes, and did our best to sleep through the night.
Day 2
Because we didn’t sleep too well (it was windy, our yurt was near the “bathroom”, and you could hear people’s footsteps on the gravel going to/from the bathroom all night), we woke up early and were able to spend some time back at the gas crater on our own. It was beautiful to see the sun rise, the colors change, and look at the flames burn incessantly.
We ate a quick breakfast, then hopped in the car for another 6 hour drive to the capitol city, Ashgabat.
As we entered the city, the usual things you hear about Turkmenistan stuck out to us: all the cars were white, all the buildings were white (including the marble ones), all the school girls were dressed in their same red or green floor length dresses, there aren’t many people or traffic in the streets. Our own observations led us to other conclusions: the city was clean, peaceful, not chaotic, the architecture was unique and stunning; unlike any place we’ve ever been. Turkmenistan definitely has an identity of it’s own.
We had dinner that night at the top floor of the Paytagt Restaurant. The food was good, we had the usuals: soup, meat, bread, salads.
On the drive home we noticed that the marriage building, also known as the Wedding Palace, was full of cars and people for a Tuesday night. Because there was traffic and we were at a standstill, we popped out of the tour bus and decided to walk to the Wedding Palace to get a closer look, and finish the journey home via foot.
Day 3
We started the morning off with a visit to the Akhal-Teke horses at the State Racetrack. It was here that we learned the legend of the golden horses, got to spend time admiring their beauty, and even got to trot on one for a little bit.
We spent about an hour at the facility before heading off to an attraction at the city called the Turkmenistan Independence Monument. It had the usual characteristics of other monuments built around the city: large plazas, impeccable landscaping, ornate design, marble, gold colors, no locals around, maintenance teams constantly working to keep the attraction in pristine shape, etc. Across the street was the National Library and we saw multiple military aircraft flying around in preparation for their upcoming independence day. We came across a group of 15 or so high school aged kids who were finished painting portraits of the monuments around Turkmenistan and we stopped to take our pictures with them and praise their artwork.
The last stop before lunch was to see the monument of Turkmenbashi’s book, Ruhnama Monument. We got out to take a picture, but were out of car for no less than 10 minutes. The guide didn’t even leave the car.
Our guide took us to a Russian Bazaar, where we had about an hour to walk around. We were kindly asked (instructed) not to take any photos.
Lunch was at an awesome spot (I think it was named Bear or Strong in Turkmen?) in town. We had a great meal and were approached by the guide of another group. She was representing a diplomat of South Korea and he was interested in knowing how Americans got into Turkmenistan and what types of things we did while visiting the country. I believe he was trying to figure out how to get more South Koreans to visit Turkmenistan.
For those that had energy, we continued on to the Monument of Neutrality, which boasts a statue of the first leader of Turkmenistan that originally rotated so that his golden face was always facing the sun. The last stop was at the Asgabat National Museum of History, where we were paired up with an official guide who gave us more history about the Turkmen people. We were not allowed to wander around on our own, and if we got too far in front or behind the guide, we were asked to join the group again. Its outside the National Museum of History that the 5th largest flagpole (once the largest) resides at 440ft tall.
Dinner that night was at CentralPark and the place was lively and hip. Below the restaurant at the top is a mall where locals were picking up everyday necessities.
If you want to visit Turkmenistan, Owadan Tourism is the company to get you access. Our guide’s name was Jabar and he was our favorite guide of all of our travels in any country.