Nathan's Insights

Tuesday 30 May 2023
Highlights: Border crossing to Turkmenistan, Card game

Today I said goodbye to 10 members of the tour group and our CEO Rustam while 6 of us (Kyle, Ingrid, Amy, Mike, Nancy and me), plus our new CEO Eziz, travelled to Turkmenistan for the fifth and last ‘Stan of the Five Stans. Khiva was only 1.5 hours from the border and we left around 9 am.

Getting into Turkmenistan is not easy. First you need an invitation which G Adventures organised. The invitation required a lot of information plus photo of passport and COVID vaccination records.

Leaving Uzbekistan wasn’t too difficult, just the standard three check points plus bag scan. The countries have also organised a bus to take your though the neutral zone between countries. The barbwire fences everywhere highlighted border security is taken seriously.

To enter Turkmenistan, you need to undergo a medical certificate for COVID that included a temperature check plus a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) which apparently takes 30 minutes to come back. We waited 3 hours in a holding area before we could pay our entry visa ($80 USD for me) and COVID test cost ($30 USD) which all up cost $110 USD. The British members of our group paid $140 USD all up.

For here we then lined up for our entry visa, then for border control, then followed by a bag scan, and finally one my check of our passports before we could leave the customs control area.

G Adventures had already experienced $50 USD into local currency using the local market rate of $12 Turkmenistani Manat for $1 USD whereas the official Government rate was $3.5 TM for $1 USD so this was a good service. All up we arrived at the Border around 10.35 and left after 14.05 so a long draining time.

It was then a short drive to Dashoguz. We did a quick supermarket stop to purchase snacks for lunch and checked into our hotel. We then learnt just how strict internet access is in Turkmenistan with only limited sites allowed and our VPN blocked so no access to Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp etc even with a VPN.

While we had some possible options to visit sites the lengthy border delay meant they weren’t really feasible. Instead we settled in for a few hours rest before meeting for our group dinner. Even at 7 pm it was a hot 33c. After a lovely dinner we returned to the hotel and Amy taught us a new card game to play, it was a throw back to when internet access was a given so people enjoyed each others company more often.