Boarder crossing was smooth. We walked across the no mans land, an abandoned cotton field from Uzbekistan to Turkmenistan. Even as an18yr old soldier with WWII issued AK47 stared at us full of curiosity, immigration and customs were relaxed. But I suspect without a tour group, getting visa would be difficult, especially given Turkmenistan governments extreme xenophobia. Momentarily after the crossing, we hopped onto a Boeing 717 to fly from the boarder city of Dashoguz to Turkmenbashy (eastern shore of the Caspian). The 1hr flight costs $27, alleviating much of my concern that it costs only $2, like the guidebook says. [View Full Entry]

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Prior to researching our visit to the “Stans”, we saw this part of world as little more than a homogenous mass sandwiched between Russia and China. In general one of the highlights of this trip has been watching places change from a name on a map, to a plan, to living breathing experiences and finally memories; this has especially been the case while travelling through a region about which we previously knew so little. Turkmenistan has been dubbed, by those in the know, as the North Korea of Central Asia. The extent to which this analogy applies is debatable and we [View Full Entry]

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Having left Esfahan behind, visiting mosques, wonderful bridges straddling a river with no water and having eaten some traditional Iranian food (apart from the ever present kebabs!) we headed south to Shiraz of grape fame - isn’t it odd that they are a nation of teetotallers. Although we were spending two nights there we only had one full day to explore and half of that was spent at the Iranian Department for Aliens (yes really) extending our visas as we discovered they were due to expire a few hours before we were due to leave the country - a hefty fine [View Full Entry]

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Turkmenistan may have to be seen to be believed: on one hand the ancient sites conjure up images of caravans of traders making their way across Central Asia, on the other hand the capital's skyline makes you think that you are in some kind of strange fairytale wonderland. Merv was once known as "The Queen of the World" and was a bustling city along the Silk Road. Then Genghis Khan's son came along and razed it to the ground. Today it is a vast, imposing, bare expanse, with the occasional surviving building sticking out among endless foundations of what once was. [View Full Entry]

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If you ever consider crossing the border from Uzbekistan to Turkmenistan, bring a beer, you'll be in for a wait. Getting out of Uzbekistan is straight forward enough, and walking 2km to the next border control is relatively easy too, but Turkmenistan is a notoriously difficult country to enter, first getting all the right documents in advance and next physically getting in. You'll be in the good company of truckers from all over the region, ferrying goods from Turkey and Iran as far as Kazakhstan and China. You may then have the bad fortune of having two different letters of invitation, [View Full Entry]

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The Choice Not Taken* Two roads dived in a brown wood I stood there looking at both and I could travel but one, Because I had to be back home at 6:00 So I looked down one and then the other I traveled, neither down the first nor the second No, I would not be wandering down the paths of uncertainty I would make a booth and charge to pass those that would fallow in my foot steps So now looking back, as I roll in my whip sitting on 22’s I know that I have been true to myself There [View Full Entry]

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Underused but stately buildings, older soviet era apartment blocks, Ladas with shiny 'racing' tire rims, cafes that don't serve beer - Ashgabat is different! [View Full Entry]

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I am a bit behind with this journal as Turkmenistan was pretty tight with internet access. I couldn't get phone access as well. After Bukhara we went to Khiva - wandered around more amazing buildings and bazaars. From there we travelled across the border into Turkmenistan. The Border towns had not seen many tourists so we had a lot of attention as we were changing money and shopping in the bazaar. We had a couple of days of bush camping as we made our way through the Turkmen desert. We drank our last beers as we were just out of Ashgabat. [View Full Entry]

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Straight to Ashgabat, the capital, and probably the strangest place on earth. Some interesting facts; Ashgabat has more hotel rooms that the average number of tourists for the whole country, ANUALLY. Petrol costs less than 4p a gallon. There are 17 gold-plated statues or former president (and local madman) Niazov Turkmenbashi in town. There are no taxis in Ashgabat, you just flag down a car going in the right direction. I wander the streets, amazed by the brand new and empty ofccie and residential buildings, but am unable to take any photos for fear of arrest. I can't wait to leave. [View Full Entry]

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The 11th October started out like any other day, except we were leaving Uzbekistan and crossing into Turkmenistan. Things seemed a bit dire when I told everyone to make sure they had their Uzbekistan Customs Declaration forms ready to present at the border, and found out that 2 people didn't even have a form (both copies were mistakenly taken off them at Tashkent Airport). There was nothing we could do about it. Firstly we got them to offload as much currency as possible to other group members, but this still left them with around US$1470 total. Nothing for it. We knew [View Full Entry]

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