Sunday 7th August
Full of great optimism we arose under the premonition that the remaining formalities would be relatively painless and we’d be in Turkmenistan by lunch. 7 hours and about 12 separate stamps for just the car later we were ready to leave the Iranian side of the border. Getting past the Turkmenistan side was a whole new kettle of fish.
For Turkmenistan we needed to buy a visa and for
this we needed to show our letter of invitation to officials. To our dismay the
border guards at the counter were so enraged at what they deemed to be
insufficient LOIs, they aggressively hurled everyone’s passports back at us
through the window. Once a fellow rallier had sweet-talked them round, they gave
us a receipt which we then had to take to the next counter along labelled
“bank”. But it wasn’t a bank; it was a desk with three men sat behind it next
to a safe. We reluctantly parted with $100 each and went back to the first
counter for the hallowed stamp. It was just our luck that Ed, Edd and Eddie had
somehow messed up our visas and we had underpaid by $20.
Trying to explain this back at the bank was like trying to play darts with spaghetti, it was impossible. Constant to-ing and fro-ing between the two windows ensued, all the while having to barge past impatient lorry drivers who were clambering to be served next. For something they do as their day job, they really were as useless as Anne Frank’s drum set. After a few more hoops to jump through, more dollar robbery and a strip search of Marigold, we were finally across the border – 30 hours after initially arriving. Like greeting a long lost friend, it was an emotional reunion with our shorts and a pint of beer in the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat.
At night, Ashgabat was stunning. Built almost entirely of marble, it is the second largest city in the world, after Pyongyang, to be designed and crafted according to the vision of one man. A lot of wealth was on display but being the impoverished students that we are, we tracked down the cheapest hotel in the city and my god was this place a dive. Our room didn’t have a main light, the mattresses were one big urine stain with spots of clean fabric and a cockroach decided to climb into bed with me. It was so laughably bad that we actually weirdly enjoyed staying there.
Full of great optimism we arose under the premonition that the remaining formalities would be relatively painless and we’d be in Turkmenistan by lunch. 7 hours and about 12 separate stamps for just the car later we were ready to leave the Iranian side of the border. Getting past the Turkmenistan side was a whole new kettle of fish.
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| We visited this window at least 6 times |
Trying to explain this back at the bank was like trying to play darts with spaghetti, it was impossible. Constant to-ing and fro-ing between the two windows ensued, all the while having to barge past impatient lorry drivers who were clambering to be served next. For something they do as their day job, they really were as useless as Anne Frank’s drum set. After a few more hoops to jump through, more dollar robbery and a strip search of Marigold, we were finally across the border – 30 hours after initially arriving. Like greeting a long lost friend, it was an emotional reunion with our shorts and a pint of beer in the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat.
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| Finally free in Turkmenistan after 30 hours at the border |
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| 10/10, would stay there again |
At night, Ashgabat was stunning. Built almost entirely of marble, it is the second largest city in the world, after Pyongyang, to be designed and crafted according to the vision of one man. A lot of wealth was on display but being the impoverished students that we are, we tracked down the cheapest hotel in the city and my god was this place a dive. Our room didn’t have a main light, the mattresses were one big urine stain with spots of clean fabric and a cockroach decided to climb into bed with me. It was so laughably bad that we actually weirdly enjoyed staying there.
Posted by: Rich