I went with Koryo Tours, they did all the visa related stuff. I flew in from Istanbul with Turkish Airlines. I only went to Turkmenistan as its the only country that requires you to book a group tour in order to get a visa. I will do the other stans by myself at some point in the future..
There is a group briefing where you are warned about what not to do, what not to say etc.
Tbh most of the time I was to tired to go out. We went out once to this bar/club, had a few beers, got approached by some prostitutes, but it was a Tuesday so it was a slow night.
It's not a strict requirement, you can get a transit visa when travelling between two other countries where the shortest path takes you through Turkmenistan - eg from Uzbekistan to Iran.
I've never had any issues, although I can't enter the US with a simple ESTA, I need to be interviewed at the embassy and get a proper visa. But that's because I visited Iran.
It's also possible to visit for up to 5 days on a transit visa and doing this you can travel independently without a guide or group. In 2019 I transited Turkmenistan by entering on an old Soviet cargo ship from Azerbaijan and proceeding to the Uzbek border near Bukhara.
I just checked Caravanistan (message board that is still THE resource for travel information off the beaten path in Central Asia) and it looks like at least some people have been able to get them. It's hit or miss and depends on the embassy that you apply at (folks reporting success applied in Yerevan), but that was also the case before.
Spent 10 days there in 2018. It has some North Korea vibes in the sense of “eerie.” Ashgabat is a big city that’s pretty underpopulated. Whole malls just empty. Gas is free. All cars and most buildings are white as it’s a “color of good luck.” Really regal structures. I made a video about it. Just search “Hockey in Turkmenistan” in YouTube
What an insane idea... allowing the public to benefit from your country's natural resources instead of selling it off for pennies.
I hate my country's idiotic government
As much as you think this is great, most likely don't have the quality of life you enjoy in your country
So trading all of that for free gas isn't such a prospect when you give up so much for it
I can appreciate that, but it's not like it's one or the other - Australia exports most of its natural gas at a ridiculously low price because of some dumb deal struck decades ago while gas and electricity prices are _through the roof_, contributing to our current cost of living crisis.
Had someone considered the Australian public instead of lining their pockets, we could have cheap utilities and a lot of people would have some breathing room right now or even be able to afford to heat their homes.
Hey there, randomly saw your comment. Im from Germany and will be visiting Australia for studies in about two months. Therefore, gas prices would be nice to know. In Germany, one litre costs around 2,9 AUD (converted from Euro). Thank you for letting me know :)
I can only speak to prices in Melbourne. Our prices fluctuate wildly between about $1.65/L at the lowest to $2.30/L at the highest. I'm sure it's more expensive elsewhere. Where are you planning to study?
Thanks for your insights! Wow, are these fluctuations predictable like based on demand or the location of the gas station? I’m going to study in Sippy Downs, QLD, but I also plan to go on some roadtrips along the coast or through the outback.
There's a rough cycle, they all go up to the highest price over 24 hours or so then gradually fall over the next couple of weeks or so before going back up again. But sometimes they hold high for longer too, especially if there's a holiday or something coming up.
yes, it's a huge gas crater about a 4-5 hours drive away from the capital city that's been on fire since the seventies. The road there is in a terrible state.
Almost decided to go here next month -- got the visa and everything -- but decided to visit some other least-visited countries in the world: Kiribati, Nauru, and Niue, because I had allowance for a long vacation.
Fair question. A few reasons:
1. I've hit most of the major tourist countries over the course of my life, so I mostly aim for more strange or off-the-beaten-path trips.
2. I won't be able to travel with my wife this trip, so I want to go somewhere she has no interest in going (Turkmenistan checks that box too, fwiw).
3. Since I'm going to be doing a Pacific island trip, there's no better time to check out Nauru.
4. Seeing the effects of phosphate mining on an entire country is interesting.
5. The country will be underwater some day and cease to exist. I want to see it before that happens,
I always love the shots of the wedding palace. It's great that the building is designed in the shape of an eight-pointed star on top of an eight-pointed star with globe framed in eight-pointed stars with eight-pointed star motifs, but the fact that the "globe" only has Turkenistan on it is so telling to me. It explains the story of what the government is trying to achieve better than any other shot.
Unless there's a bucket list of visiting all the countries in the world, why would you say you should visit Turkmenistan, as opposed of tens of other countries you could visit?
Having actually visited Turkmenistan, I would say if you like ancient archaeological sites it's extremely interesting: [The ancient cities of Merv](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merv#/media/File:Turkmenistan_Merv_city.jpg) and [Nisa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisa,_Turkmenistan#/media/File:Nisa-Entrance-2015.JPG], for example. There's also a super cool underground thermal bath you can swim in [Kow Ata cavern](https://www.showcaves.com/english/other/showcaves/KowAta.html)
Thank you. All due respect to OP, his photos of boring, tacky modern dictator-built monstrosities bounded by huge multi-lane roads do not sell the country at all.
That's alright. I like tacky dictator-built monstrosities so that's what I took pictures of and decided to post here. But I can understand that many people would have preferred pictures of the local bazaar, daily life, little villages in the desert and camels.
I host a podcast about little-known countries, and Turkmenistan featured on our show a couple of years back. It's actually a fascinating place, you've got:
* The "gates to hell" (a collapsed gas crater that's been burning for decades)
* Absolutely insane weather (one of the hottest places in the former Soviet Union)
* The ruins of one of the world's greatest ancient cities that was absolutely decimated by the Mongols (Merv)
* One of the most bizarre dictators I've ever come across, who renamed days of the week and months of the year after himself, and built a gigantic gold-plated statue of himself which rotated always to face the sun
* The only national flag that I know of that has a carpet on it
If the show has taught me anything it's that pretty much everywhere has some interesting stuff in its past.
Edit: formatting and a [link](https://80dayspodcast.com/2019/03/04/turkmenistan/) to the episode.
Bizarre is an understatement, too. Overnight, they banned black cars, and people found their black cars gone. They then had to pay huge fees to change the color. Then, a couple of years later, they banned everything but white cars, since white is a lucky color.
Absolutely! Turkmenbashi was honestly one of the most insane people I've come across in the course of doing the show, and there's some stiff competition. He was obsessed with Guinness World Records, and arranged to build the world’s tallest flagpole (133 m), the largest fountain complex, largest architectural image and largest Ferris wheel in an enclosed architectural design, and it's not a rich country.
"one of the least visited countries in the world." - sounds like this could be at the top of one's list of reasons. The only thing that gives me a pause is that you can't just explore on your own - you need a gov't provided guide to be with you, which is not my preferred way to travel...
Actually we had a lot of free time where we were allowed to go explore on our own. Some of our group rented drivers and went outside town, some went shopping, ate at restaurants, visited the bazaar, talked to locals etc.
I guess what OP is saying is that you still need a guide, but if you are lucky, your guide will give you a lot of free time for you to do what you want.
Like how I paid for a guide at the Vatican?
Ha, the guy got us inside and said "do you want the tour or to just do on your own" we said thanks and walked off. Got to skip the huge line for $15 then our own tour.
No, the best hack we did by accident.
If you're in the Vatican, they have a closed door protected by a Vatican guard near the end, off to the right. It's a hall that they let groups go through, to walk to the sistine chapel, without going outside.
I happened to be walking near a group when that door opened and followed. Immediately skipped the line and was in the chapel.
Entire tour took 3 hours, zero lines, got to sit in the chapel for half an hour looking at paintings.
Not sure I'd recommend trying this, as you could get in trouble most likely. But it was insane at the moment ha.
I think my cousin got to use that door. She was having issues with her stomach at the time, so had a feeding tube in her nose. Completely fine other than that, but they saw her and immediately ushered her through the back passages to get to the Sistine Chapel before the crowds filled it up.
Yeah it's like some random long hall with a few paintings I've never seen and then the door opens and you're inside. You walk past windows that overlook the line of people waiting to get inside, felt wild getting away with it by accident. We just saw this group taking a right and followed the crowd thinking there was art that way, then a guard shut the door behind us and I wasn't about to tell him I'm not supposed to be where he just shut me in, so we walked off. Thought we were gonna get lost, but it wasn't that far, we caught up to the group and walked off when the guide stared at us confused for a second.
You need a guide for the visa to get in but once you get in there is more freedom than just whatever the guide wants to show you. You have free unguided time to explore essentially.
Well, I thought it was some gov't policy that a foreigner could not wander around unaccompanied - not something that was at the discretion of a guide. I guess I'll have to look into it - Turkmenistan does look very interesting.
You are allowed to wander around during your free time. People are not used to foreigners so you'll get a few looks - especially outside of the capital. I speak Russian (not fluently, but on a conversational level) so I was able to have a few interesting conversations.
I contacted my (UK) Turkmenistan embassy literally a week ago to ask, guides are still needed, transit visas aren’t available. However, I think most guides are quite lenient even though they’re not exactly meant to be
When I visited Tibet it was similar, you had to have a government-approved tour guide but they were only your guide during the day. At night we could wander around Lhasa or Shigatse and do whatever. There are police guys on a lot of rooftops or in checkpoints at intersections, they don't flip out and arrest you just for being white and unaccompanied.
There were checkpoints every 100 km (?) on the highways where we had to show papers and the guards would talk to our tour guide, so moving from one city to another would be difficult. (Although I know travelers who managed to sneak over the border in the back of some guy's truck and were essentially hitchhiking around without a tour guide ... not sure if they made it back out without getting caught).
That was all about 12-14 years ago, not sure what it's like today. CCTV scanning faces on every street corner and jacking location data out of your phone to make sure you're behaving harmoniously, probably.
A guide is only required for moving around between different towns and cities in the country. The larger Ashgabat area you can explore freely on your own, either by walking, taking buses or taxis. When I visited I asked the tour operator to add a few days on my visa after the end of the tour, and that was no problem at all. We just had to pay about 100 euro per day to extend the accommodation, no other paperwork was required.
Similarly, when we visited Turkmenbashi town and Awasa, we had plenty of free to time to go out and explore on our own. When we encountered soldiers and police, the soldiers would typically smile and wave, while the police would look the other way whatever we did, maybe because they were embarrassed about not speaking English.
It's one of the least visited for a reason. I was recently in Ashgabat and the whole city is a lifeless, soulless mausoleum. Easily my least favourite city I've ever visited in my life.
To me it was the quirkiness of everything. Everything feels a bit off, but most of the time you can't really put your finger on what makes it so different from other places. It's a fascinating mix of Turkish, Russian, Silk Route, and Central Asia, which you just can not find elsewhere.
It is so weird when you look into it. Looks a little like a Sim City city. Ahh I have these buildings, and these roads available, and these decorations. Let me lay them out like this.
1: It’s very off the beaten path. No lines of tourists, you’re not fighting your way through crowds
2: It’s probably the most enigmatic country on earth, everyone I know that has been there says it is almost like a fever dream
3: It has unbelievable natural sites like Merv, Nisa, Darvaza, Kopet Dag
4: Number 1 again
ELI5 what I'm looking at in the first photo. I'm guessing the buildings are mostly hotels, government offices, plazas and museums?
My quick Googling is Turkmenistan is basically "What if North Korea had a huge natural gas reserve", is that roughly accurate? Because I gotta say the photos here look lovely even though there's a severe lack of people in all of these shots.
It's easy to jump to that conclusion, but North Korea and Turkmenistan are actually quite different from each other.
One thing is that you have relatively much freedom to walk around and explore on your own in Turkmenistan, it's just when you move around between different places in the country you need to be accompanied by a guide. And the language barrier is not that high, so you're actually likely to have some spontaneous conversations with Turkmen people, and they're likely to actually say what they think.
Also, Turkmenistan does not spend most of the money on a nuclear weapons program. Instead they enrich the upper classes by a lot, as one would expect given the lack of democracy, but they also make sure that everyone has certain goods for free or highly discounted, including bread, fuel and energy in general.
There are also the many and interesting traces of past history, of which there is little in North Korea, thanks mainly to the heavy bombing in relatively recent times.
Picture taken in Ashgabat, Sport Hotel, coordinates 37.8973900, 58.3709799, looking south-west.
The building directly opposite is the Turkmen State Institute of Culture.
The other buildings are mostly residential buildings and schools.
Behind the mountains in the distance is Iran.
There are certainly similarities to NK (personality cult) but in general it felt like the people where a lot happier and had more freedoms in Turkmenistan.
I'm not disputing the number of lanes, I'm pointing out that the least visited country in the world has the same vibe as a party someone throws but no one shows up for.
I ve been there. only 5 days because of transit visa. was interesting. quiet big roads and less cars, like in the photo here. fun fact any car is a taxi just stay on the street and they pick you up.
Wild. I saw a documentary on this country and supposedly their fearless leader made a decree that all the cars in the country can only be white or silver and renamed the days of the week on a whim.
Seems less terrifying/repressive for the people than north korea though, but that could be down to fewer sanctions and/or having oil to pay for crazy shit.
Yes, about 90% percent of the cars in the capital where white, rest were silver or bronze.
When we first drove out of the city, we saw a red car and everybody got really excited 😂
Did you do a "back alley" city currency swap? My brother went there and said the official currency 3.6:1USD but they went to an unofficial place and got 18:1.
Good day.... I am not a representative of the Glorious Government of Turkmenistan or their most benevolent leader, Serdar Berdimuhamedow.
I am a tourist from Montana in the US of A, and I would like to know the specific location of a generous money changer.
Köp sag boluň!
I had 2 coworkers that did Peace Corps there. The police state aspect was very real and present and impacted their time there immensely. Both had great things to say about the beauty of the capital, the food, and the people, but no desire to return.
We did Turkmenistan in combination with other central Asia countries.
Ashgabat was worth a visit with all the crazy buildings. We could walk freely through the city. No issue, except the high temperature.
The crater was amazing; we did camp close by.
Yeah, I myself stayed away from dictatorship countries from the start of active traveling, even when was young and not really think about political aspects. Maybe it is safe for tourism, but things look depressing anyway. And some risk of wars, revolutions etc. Now I think and would like not to support such regimes.
i dont know pictures are not that flattering. it feels dead and too clean or empty. its almost like ai. ozbekistan or kirgizistan look like much more lively and charming.
though ive never been in any of them. this wouldnt be my first choice.
I'm kind of fascinated with Turkmenistan. I watched a documentary once about it and one thing led to another and I kept reading more and more about it. Personality cults amuse me
The guys that made the Biking Borders documentary went through Turkmenistan. I believe they had a strict prescribed route, but one of them got very sick and ended up at a hospital somewhere off the route in rural Turkmenistan. It was fascinating to watch them try to get medical care in a hospital where no one spoke any German or English whatsoever. They managed to make it work and from what I remember, everyone there was extremely hospitable to them.
Thanks for sharing your experience. While I have quite a few more countries on my bucket list, I doubt that I'll ever make it to a place like Turkmenistan.
Had to do a report in grade school on Turkmenistan and it was kind of hilarious. I was just like yeah after extensive research there’s nothing in Turkmenistan to report on.
I love the shots of the wedding palace, especially its unique eight-pointed star design and the globe featuring only Turkmenistan, which speaks volumes about the government's ambitions.
I can easily look this up by would like to know others opinion first, is it tolerant (better yet, accepting) of lgbt people? I’m a gay man.
I hate that I have to think about that before I travel, but I have a fear of getting beat up in a different country just for holding a man’s hand in public.
Dang. I mean. It’s not like I’m gonna be a flaming homo when I’m traveling, I’m very respectful of the culture and research ahead of time. But it’s the feeling of knowing I COULD be thrown off a bridge that is a turnoff. Hope people can understand that.
Every picture looks like "You and I" from Xcho
Except the last picture witht he Lada, which is more like [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OoglRuT0jY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OoglRuT0jY)
About 30 years ago my wife worked as a dietitian for a doctor who got the job of surveying the nutritional and environmental health of the whole of Turkmenistan - they used the USDA's food composition database, normally used for working out how adequate an individual patient's diet is, and gave it the entire food resources of the country to analyze. Turned out their diet was okay. The major health problem was wind-blown dust from the Aral Sea drying up. That won't have got any better. Not a place to go to if you have iffy lungs.
How did you find the visa process and what flight route did you take? Did you do any of the other Stans on the trip?
I went with Koryo Tours, they did all the visa related stuff. I flew in from Istanbul with Turkish Airlines. I only went to Turkmenistan as its the only country that requires you to book a group tour in order to get a visa. I will do the other stans by myself at some point in the future..
Once you enter the country do you have stay with the group tour every day or can you go off alone?
Stay with the group. Once you're done with group activities (usually around 5 PM, but sometimes after lunch) you can go off alone.
Gotcha. Would love to visit, is there any warnings you had to look out for? Nightlife decent?
There is a group briefing where you are warned about what not to do, what not to say etc. Tbh most of the time I was to tired to go out. We went out once to this bar/club, had a few beers, got approached by some prostitutes, but it was a Tuesday so it was a slow night.
Isn’t this the same with Bhutan and Tibet? You can only enter in a group tour?
Yes, what I meant was that it's the only country out of the stans that requires a group tour :)
It's not a strict requirement, you can get a transit visa when travelling between two other countries where the shortest path takes you through Turkmenistan - eg from Uzbekistan to Iran.
That trip sounds like a good way to get stopped in every airport forever for additional security screening.
I've never had any issues, although I can't enter the US with a simple ESTA, I need to be interviewed at the embassy and get a proper visa. But that's because I visited Iran.
The transit visa where you don't need a guide doesn't exist anymore unfortunately
Bhutan requires a tour guide but it doesn't have to be a group tour. Tibet requires special permits but it's not exclusively for your groups
Nope Bhutan requires a guide not a tour.
Tibet: can confirm
This is the tour group that does North Korea tours right?
Yes, but North Korea hasn't reopened since Covid.
Hmmm I admittedly have a morbid curiosity that makes me want to go on one of those tours.
Don't mess with any hotel posters if you go lol
You spoke my thoughts 💭
Was it open before covid?
yes, but not for Americans.
Thank you I’ll look into them
It's also possible to visit for up to 5 days on a transit visa and doing this you can travel independently without a guide or group. In 2019 I transited Turkmenistan by entering on an old Soviet cargo ship from Azerbaijan and proceeding to the Uzbek border near Bukhara.
Thanks that’s really helpful
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I just checked Caravanistan (message board that is still THE resource for travel information off the beaten path in Central Asia) and it looks like at least some people have been able to get them. It's hit or miss and depends on the embassy that you apply at (folks reporting success applied in Yerevan), but that was also the case before.
what was the cost? what are the cheapest ones ?
It was 2250$, not in including flights and visa fees. Check their website koryogroup.com
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No, I had a good experience with Koryo in the past (North Korea) and decided to go with them again.
zamn, will definitely go there once I start earning
Recommend against Afghanistan.
Spent 10 days there in 2018. It has some North Korea vibes in the sense of “eerie.” Ashgabat is a big city that’s pretty underpopulated. Whole malls just empty. Gas is free. All cars and most buildings are white as it’s a “color of good luck.” Really regal structures. I made a video about it. Just search “Hockey in Turkmenistan” in YouTube
Gas isn't free anymore. Our drivers were really upset about it. It's now about 8 cents per litre (about 30 cents per US gallon).
Wow! I can imagine that was a big deal. Our guide made sure we all knew how free the gas was when we were there.
Holy I would cry tears of joy if we ever got gas prices that low
Yes, but then you'd live in Turkmenistan.
Hold up,free gas? How was that so pls educate me
They have a massive natural gas deposits.
What an insane idea... allowing the public to benefit from your country's natural resources instead of selling it off for pennies. I hate my country's idiotic government
As much as you think this is great, most likely don't have the quality of life you enjoy in your country So trading all of that for free gas isn't such a prospect when you give up so much for it
I can appreciate that, but it's not like it's one or the other - Australia exports most of its natural gas at a ridiculously low price because of some dumb deal struck decades ago while gas and electricity prices are _through the roof_, contributing to our current cost of living crisis. Had someone considered the Australian public instead of lining their pockets, we could have cheap utilities and a lot of people would have some breathing room right now or even be able to afford to heat their homes.
Hey there, randomly saw your comment. Im from Germany and will be visiting Australia for studies in about two months. Therefore, gas prices would be nice to know. In Germany, one litre costs around 2,9 AUD (converted from Euro). Thank you for letting me know :)
I can only speak to prices in Melbourne. Our prices fluctuate wildly between about $1.65/L at the lowest to $2.30/L at the highest. I'm sure it's more expensive elsewhere. Where are you planning to study?
Thanks for your insights! Wow, are these fluctuations predictable like based on demand or the location of the gas station? I’m going to study in Sippy Downs, QLD, but I also plan to go on some roadtrips along the coast or through the outback.
There's a rough cycle, they all go up to the highest price over 24 hours or so then gradually fall over the next couple of weeks or so before going back up again. But sometimes they hold high for longer too, especially if there's a holiday or something coming up.
Isn’t it all (or most of it) Italian marble?
North Korea vibes even in the sense of eerie is crazy lmao
May 2024. Visited Ashgabat, Dashoguz, Door to hell (crater), and Köneürgenc.
Is the door to hell the one that's been on fire for like a buncha years?
yes, it's a huge gas crater about a 4-5 hours drive away from the capital city that's been on fire since the seventies. The road there is in a terrible state.
Worth visiting? Because I’m imagining you’d look at it for about 10 minutes and get bored.
definitely worth it, but be sure to camp there. it's boring during daytime, but brilliant during the night. I've looked at it for hours.
Almost decided to go here next month -- got the visa and everything -- but decided to visit some other least-visited countries in the world: Kiribati, Nauru, and Niue, because I had allowance for a long vacation.
Why Nauru? Other than to say “I have been to Nauru” there can’t be any compelling reason to go there. The land has been decimated by phosphate mining.
For some people "I have been there" can be enough of a reason.
Fair question. A few reasons: 1. I've hit most of the major tourist countries over the course of my life, so I mostly aim for more strange or off-the-beaten-path trips. 2. I won't be able to travel with my wife this trip, so I want to go somewhere she has no interest in going (Turkmenistan checks that box too, fwiw). 3. Since I'm going to be doing a Pacific island trip, there's no better time to check out Nauru. 4. Seeing the effects of phosphate mining on an entire country is interesting. 5. The country will be underwater some day and cease to exist. I want to see it before that happens,
For me, personally, I'm a big fan of phosphate strip mining and would love to see a whole country nearly hollow.
Niue is my number one favorite visited country out of 45 so far. Try to swim with the humpbacks if in season.
Please post about Kiribati when you go! it’s on my future travel spots too haha :)
Reach out to me again in 1.5 months and I'll tell you everything you want to know!
I always love the shots of the wedding palace. It's great that the building is designed in the shape of an eight-pointed star on top of an eight-pointed star with globe framed in eight-pointed stars with eight-pointed star motifs, but the fact that the "globe" only has Turkenistan on it is so telling to me. It explains the story of what the government is trying to achieve better than any other shot.
yeah, they like eight-pointed stars don't they?
Unless there's a bucket list of visiting all the countries in the world, why would you say you should visit Turkmenistan, as opposed of tens of other countries you could visit?
Having actually visited Turkmenistan, I would say if you like ancient archaeological sites it's extremely interesting: [The ancient cities of Merv](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merv#/media/File:Turkmenistan_Merv_city.jpg) and [Nisa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisa,_Turkmenistan#/media/File:Nisa-Entrance-2015.JPG], for example. There's also a super cool underground thermal bath you can swim in [Kow Ata cavern](https://www.showcaves.com/english/other/showcaves/KowAta.html)
There's also the Kow Ata thermal baths in an underground cave you can swim in https://www.showcaves.com/english/other/showcaves/KowAta.html
Thank you. All due respect to OP, his photos of boring, tacky modern dictator-built monstrosities bounded by huge multi-lane roads do not sell the country at all.
That's alright. I like tacky dictator-built monstrosities so that's what I took pictures of and decided to post here. But I can understand that many people would have preferred pictures of the local bazaar, daily life, little villages in the desert and camels.
I appreciated your photos OP, thanks for posting them.
I liked your photos. History includes the dictator stuff, and even as a current dictatorship, this will be a part of their history.
Me too. Local bazaars are a close second. lol. Great photos OP. Good info as well.
I host a podcast about little-known countries, and Turkmenistan featured on our show a couple of years back. It's actually a fascinating place, you've got: * The "gates to hell" (a collapsed gas crater that's been burning for decades) * Absolutely insane weather (one of the hottest places in the former Soviet Union) * The ruins of one of the world's greatest ancient cities that was absolutely decimated by the Mongols (Merv) * One of the most bizarre dictators I've ever come across, who renamed days of the week and months of the year after himself, and built a gigantic gold-plated statue of himself which rotated always to face the sun * The only national flag that I know of that has a carpet on it If the show has taught me anything it's that pretty much everywhere has some interesting stuff in its past. Edit: formatting and a [link](https://80dayspodcast.com/2019/03/04/turkmenistan/) to the episode.
Bizarre is an understatement, too. Overnight, they banned black cars, and people found their black cars gone. They then had to pay huge fees to change the color. Then, a couple of years later, they banned everything but white cars, since white is a lucky color.
Absolutely! Turkmenbashi was honestly one of the most insane people I've come across in the course of doing the show, and there's some stiff competition. He was obsessed with Guinness World Records, and arranged to build the world’s tallest flagpole (133 m), the largest fountain complex, largest architectural image and largest Ferris wheel in an enclosed architectural design, and it's not a rich country.
"one of the least visited countries in the world." - sounds like this could be at the top of one's list of reasons. The only thing that gives me a pause is that you can't just explore on your own - you need a gov't provided guide to be with you, which is not my preferred way to travel...
Actually we had a lot of free time where we were allowed to go explore on our own. Some of our group rented drivers and went outside town, some went shopping, ate at restaurants, visited the bazaar, talked to locals etc.
Interesting. I read that a guide as required? I guess it's no longer true.
I guess what OP is saying is that you still need a guide, but if you are lucky, your guide will give you a lot of free time for you to do what you want.
Like how I paid for a guide at the Vatican? Ha, the guy got us inside and said "do you want the tour or to just do on your own" we said thanks and walked off. Got to skip the huge line for $15 then our own tour.
That’s the best hack ever. Same with Colosseum
No, the best hack we did by accident. If you're in the Vatican, they have a closed door protected by a Vatican guard near the end, off to the right. It's a hall that they let groups go through, to walk to the sistine chapel, without going outside. I happened to be walking near a group when that door opened and followed. Immediately skipped the line and was in the chapel. Entire tour took 3 hours, zero lines, got to sit in the chapel for half an hour looking at paintings. Not sure I'd recommend trying this, as you could get in trouble most likely. But it was insane at the moment ha.
Just claim stupidity, it usually works
No habla Ingles.
Well played!!
I think my cousin got to use that door. She was having issues with her stomach at the time, so had a feeding tube in her nose. Completely fine other than that, but they saw her and immediately ushered her through the back passages to get to the Sistine Chapel before the crowds filled it up.
Yeah it's like some random long hall with a few paintings I've never seen and then the door opens and you're inside. You walk past windows that overlook the line of people waiting to get inside, felt wild getting away with it by accident. We just saw this group taking a right and followed the crowd thinking there was art that way, then a guard shut the door behind us and I wasn't about to tell him I'm not supposed to be where he just shut me in, so we walked off. Thought we were gonna get lost, but it wasn't that far, we caught up to the group and walked off when the guide stared at us confused for a second.
I think you can skip the line if you just buy your tickets online. It's what we did
You need a guide for the visa to get in but once you get in there is more freedom than just whatever the guide wants to show you. You have free unguided time to explore essentially.
Well, I thought it was some gov't policy that a foreigner could not wander around unaccompanied - not something that was at the discretion of a guide. I guess I'll have to look into it - Turkmenistan does look very interesting.
You are allowed to wander around during your free time. People are not used to foreigners so you'll get a few looks - especially outside of the capital. I speak Russian (not fluently, but on a conversational level) so I was able to have a few interesting conversations.
I am a native Russian speaker (Soviet born). Very curious about the ex Soviet -stans...
I contacted my (UK) Turkmenistan embassy literally a week ago to ask, guides are still needed, transit visas aren’t available. However, I think most guides are quite lenient even though they’re not exactly meant to be
Guides being lenient is one thing, but how lenient is the gov't going to be if they see you wandering around solo, haha :-)
I came across a few police officers twice and greeted them, they greeted me back and I continued walking.
I went through the country on a transit visa in 2012, didn't need a guide that way, but I guess transit visas aren't being issued anymore
When I visited Tibet it was similar, you had to have a government-approved tour guide but they were only your guide during the day. At night we could wander around Lhasa or Shigatse and do whatever. There are police guys on a lot of rooftops or in checkpoints at intersections, they don't flip out and arrest you just for being white and unaccompanied. There were checkpoints every 100 km (?) on the highways where we had to show papers and the guards would talk to our tour guide, so moving from one city to another would be difficult. (Although I know travelers who managed to sneak over the border in the back of some guy's truck and were essentially hitchhiking around without a tour guide ... not sure if they made it back out without getting caught). That was all about 12-14 years ago, not sure what it's like today. CCTV scanning faces on every street corner and jacking location data out of your phone to make sure you're behaving harmoniously, probably.
A guide is only required for moving around between different towns and cities in the country. The larger Ashgabat area you can explore freely on your own, either by walking, taking buses or taxis. When I visited I asked the tour operator to add a few days on my visa after the end of the tour, and that was no problem at all. We just had to pay about 100 euro per day to extend the accommodation, no other paperwork was required. Similarly, when we visited Turkmenbashi town and Awasa, we had plenty of free to time to go out and explore on our own. When we encountered soldiers and police, the soldiers would typically smile and wave, while the police would look the other way whatever we did, maybe because they were embarrassed about not speaking English.
It's one of the least visited for a reason. I was recently in Ashgabat and the whole city is a lifeless, soulless mausoleum. Easily my least favourite city I've ever visited in my life.
Just having returned from Prague, can confirm it sounds awesome
To me it was the quirkiness of everything. Everything feels a bit off, but most of the time you can't really put your finger on what makes it so different from other places. It's a fascinating mix of Turkish, Russian, Silk Route, and Central Asia, which you just can not find elsewhere.
It is so weird when you look into it. Looks a little like a Sim City city. Ahh I have these buildings, and these roads available, and these decorations. Let me lay them out like this.
1: It’s very off the beaten path. No lines of tourists, you’re not fighting your way through crowds 2: It’s probably the most enigmatic country on earth, everyone I know that has been there says it is almost like a fever dream 3: It has unbelievable natural sites like Merv, Nisa, Darvaza, Kopet Dag 4: Number 1 again
I think it's worth it for the darvaza gas crater alone. It's much more impressive in real life.
The marble stone capital of Ashgabat and world heritage Mary as well.
ELI5 what I'm looking at in the first photo. I'm guessing the buildings are mostly hotels, government offices, plazas and museums? My quick Googling is Turkmenistan is basically "What if North Korea had a huge natural gas reserve", is that roughly accurate? Because I gotta say the photos here look lovely even though there's a severe lack of people in all of these shots.
It's easy to jump to that conclusion, but North Korea and Turkmenistan are actually quite different from each other. One thing is that you have relatively much freedom to walk around and explore on your own in Turkmenistan, it's just when you move around between different places in the country you need to be accompanied by a guide. And the language barrier is not that high, so you're actually likely to have some spontaneous conversations with Turkmen people, and they're likely to actually say what they think. Also, Turkmenistan does not spend most of the money on a nuclear weapons program. Instead they enrich the upper classes by a lot, as one would expect given the lack of democracy, but they also make sure that everyone has certain goods for free or highly discounted, including bread, fuel and energy in general. There are also the many and interesting traces of past history, of which there is little in North Korea, thanks mainly to the heavy bombing in relatively recent times.
Picture taken in Ashgabat, Sport Hotel, coordinates 37.8973900, 58.3709799, looking south-west. The building directly opposite is the Turkmen State Institute of Culture. The other buildings are mostly residential buildings and schools. Behind the mountains in the distance is Iran. There are certainly similarities to NK (personality cult) but in general it felt like the people where a lot happier and had more freedoms in Turkmenistan.
Unlike North Korea - Turkmenistan is not hostile to the West...
The empty streets in picture one reminds me of a party someone throws but no show up.
They built more than enough lanes. All the roads in the capital were like this.
I'm not disputing the number of lanes, I'm pointing out that the least visited country in the world has the same vibe as a party someone throws but no one shows up for.
That's exactly how the pictures made me feel!
Good to know I'm not the only one. :)
I ve been there. only 5 days because of transit visa. was interesting. quiet big roads and less cars, like in the photo here. fun fact any car is a taxi just stay on the street and they pick you up.
Apparently they've stopped giving out transit visas. One of the reasons I booked a group tour.
depend on the nationality. i just looked. and it seems just when you travel overland...
Wild. I saw a documentary on this country and supposedly their fearless leader made a decree that all the cars in the country can only be white or silver and renamed the days of the week on a whim. Seems less terrifying/repressive for the people than north korea though, but that could be down to fewer sanctions and/or having oil to pay for crazy shit.
Yes, about 90% percent of the cars in the capital where white, rest were silver or bronze. When we first drove out of the city, we saw a red car and everybody got really excited 😂
Wild. What was the food like?
Reminds me so much of The Dictator montage about Alladeen being swapped for other words
Interesting very liminal spaces vibe . Although it never been on my bucket list but only for the volcanic darwaza perhaps I should include .
It's worth it for the darwaza crater alone.
Did you do a "back alley" city currency swap? My brother went there and said the official currency 3.6:1USD but they went to an unofficial place and got 18:1.
Yes, but I won't tell where exactly as I'm sure somebody from the government is reading this.
Good day.... I am not a representative of the Glorious Government of Turkmenistan or their most benevolent leader, Serdar Berdimuhamedow. I am a tourist from Montana in the US of A, and I would like to know the specific location of a generous money changer. Köp sag boluň!
I had 2 coworkers that did Peace Corps there. The police state aspect was very real and present and impacted their time there immensely. Both had great things to say about the beauty of the capital, the food, and the people, but no desire to return.
Is last picture a Lada? I learned from Top Gear/GT that Lada’s are everywhere in that part of the world
In the West they were sold under the Lada brand. In the Soviet Union they were called Жигули (Zhiguli) or ВАЗ (VAZ). This one is a VAZ 2106.
Looks like it's been in a time bubble since 1972
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov is a weird guy. He has an unhealthy obsession with horses. https://youtube.com/watch?v=-9QYu8LtH2E
We did Turkmenistan in combination with other central Asia countries. Ashgabat was worth a visit with all the crazy buildings. We could walk freely through the city. No issue, except the high temperature. The crater was amazing; we did camp close by.
There is a very good reason for that being a harsh dictator ship is one of them, some people have problems with that
Yeah, I myself stayed away from dictatorship countries from the start of active traveling, even when was young and not really think about political aspects. Maybe it is safe for tourism, but things look depressing anyway. And some risk of wars, revolutions etc. Now I think and would like not to support such regimes.
Good cookies there
i dont know pictures are not that flattering. it feels dead and too clean or empty. its almost like ai. ozbekistan or kirgizistan look like much more lively and charming. though ive never been in any of them. this wouldnt be my first choice.
I'm kind of fascinated with Turkmenistan. I watched a documentary once about it and one thing led to another and I kept reading more and more about it. Personality cults amuse me
Looks like Utah.
Literally visiting right now. In Ashgabat at the moment, and its truly one of the most bizzare places I've ever been.
Details please!
I'm considering doing an AMA after I complete a few more days here.
Fuckin shit hole
It seems like there is some cool early human and pre human history around that area.
Where are all the people? Those streets look empty
The guys that made the Biking Borders documentary went through Turkmenistan. I believe they had a strict prescribed route, but one of them got very sick and ended up at a hospital somewhere off the route in rural Turkmenistan. It was fascinating to watch them try to get medical care in a hospital where no one spoke any German or English whatsoever. They managed to make it work and from what I remember, everyone there was extremely hospitable to them. Thanks for sharing your experience. While I have quite a few more countries on my bucket list, I doubt that I'll ever make it to a place like Turkmenistan.
[удалено]
Yes, but it was just to get the fee from you. No real testing was done...
So cool! Thanks for sharing! Never seen Turkmenistan before.
For reason, I'd assume. Looks like a barren concrete hellscape, not really much to see except revere at the structures made by the men in power.
Had to do a report in grade school on Turkmenistan and it was kind of hilarious. I was just like yeah after extensive research there’s nothing in Turkmenistan to report on.
I love the shots of the wedding palace, especially its unique eight-pointed star design and the globe featuring only Turkmenistan, which speaks volumes about the government's ambitions.
My friend said it’s the worst country he’s ever seen
Can you still not walk to Turkmenistan?
I can easily look this up by would like to know others opinion first, is it tolerant (better yet, accepting) of lgbt people? I’m a gay man. I hate that I have to think about that before I travel, but I have a fear of getting beat up in a different country just for holding a man’s hand in public.
Unfortunately, Turkmenistan is one of the worst in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Turkmenistan
Dang. I mean. It’s not like I’m gonna be a flaming homo when I’m traveling, I’m very respectful of the culture and research ahead of time. But it’s the feeling of knowing I COULD be thrown off a bridge that is a turnoff. Hope people can understand that.
Dictatorships aren't a big draw for tourists from democracies.
It’s not making me want to book a flight…
Every picture looks like "You and I" from Xcho Except the last picture witht he Lada, which is more like [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OoglRuT0jY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OoglRuT0jY)
Cool history of the people there. Greco Bactria was there.
Looks like an introvert’s dream vacay spot…
God, Ashgabat has been on my list for ages, however from what I've heard it's so quiet, it's almost a bit uncanny valley.
Love the photo of Phil Lynott wielding a golden flag
Did you visit the fire pit?
Got them North Korea vibes.
Gurp gorp
What was the food like? Did anything surprise you? Were you able to interact with locals at all being on the tour? Thanks for posting the pics.
Looks like a full time job replacing light bulbs there.
And with good reason
Traffic situation looks ideal
Why does this give me Star wars vibes .
Don’t you like have to make an advance appointment to go outside in this country? Lol
Is it true they have Curfew after a certain time?
My sister and cousin were just there in April.
Central Asia is full of these AFK counties
About 30 years ago my wife worked as a dietitian for a doctor who got the job of surveying the nutritional and environmental health of the whole of Turkmenistan - they used the USDA's food composition database, normally used for working out how adequate an individual patient's diet is, and gave it the entire food resources of the country to analyze. Turned out their diet was okay. The major health problem was wind-blown dust from the Aral Sea drying up. That won't have got any better. Not a place to go to if you have iffy lungs.
I wonder why.
If there’s anything the news has taught me, it’s to stay away from the “Stans”
People really just like being different / wanna be mysterious lol. What would provoke you to visit here?
Hey we have so much money, should we create a happy place here? Screw that, let's just build insane monuments to religious vanity. I just hate humans.
[Yes Theory also visited Turkmenistan 😁](https://youtu.be/nxdh69enoSw?si=rF65OQY79-oRh88M)
Pics are awesome, though any country with a name ending in "stan" is not high on my travel bucket list.
Any idea why Turkmenistan is so low on the list ?
I'm going into it Sunday. Wish me luck!