Border trouble in Turkmenistan!

My journey into Turkmenistan didn't start on a good note:

7am: Wake up and pack my bags
7.30am: Check out of guest house and breakfast
8am: Get ready to leave and head to the Nukus Uzbek-Turkmen border. Find out my bag missing from the reception! The receptionist makes a few calls and find out my bag mistakenly taken my a group of people heading to the Aral Sea! They send my bag on a taxi
9.30am: My bag finally arrived back at the hotel!
10am: Finally get to the border. After digging with my drug cabinet and checking my registration I'm out of Uzbekistan
10.20am: On the Turkmen side, meeting the customs I show them my passport and quoting my "Visa Number" for my transit visa which I picked up in Tashkent. Turkmen customs ask me "Do I have a guide waiting for me or a letter of invitation?". I told him I don't and was told I only needed to quote the visa number from the Turkmen embassy in Tashkent. He ask me to take a seat
11.30am: After waiting more than hour and some more back and forward talk, he finally issues me a transit visa. However, only gave me a 4 day transit visa instead of 5 days. :(
11.35am: After getting my visa, a thorough bag search of my contents is conducted and my laptop and hard drives are checked to make sure no "sensitive" are in my possession which took a good 30 or so minutes.
12.10pm: Thinking it was completed, I leave only to be turn back and asked to wait.
12.25pm: I go into a interrogation room to be asked more questions from my religion to questions about my links to ISIS....
1.15pm: I'm finally out of the embassy!

Although thorough, the Turkmen border control were quite pleasant to deal with and were quite helpful when I asked them questions about how to get to where I wanted to go and prices. With the lack of transport from the Nukus border on the Turkmen side, I was told I would need to walk to the nearest cross road from the border about 2km in and try hitch a ride after the cross road to Konye-Urgench.

Turkmen side of the border. Walking towards to closest crossroad.

Gates to Hell

My initials plans were to stay in Konye-Urgench for the day to explore the ancient Silk Road city. However, given my visa was reduced to 4 days, I didn't want the prospect of overstaying my visa in North Korea  I decided to find a ride towards Ashgabat where I would get off at Derweze to see the Gates to hell where I would camp overnight without any camping gear on me. From the main highway, it was a 8km walk into the desert to where the Gas Crater was located.

Crossing the train tracks in the desert to get to Darvaza Gas Crater

Walking to the Gas Crater

Gates to Hell finally in sight!

Gates to Hell at Dusk.

Good to know I wasn't the only idiot to camp the night without camping gear.

Darvaza Gas Crater by Dawn

Sunrise!

Having met a retired British traveller Peter at the gas crater with a guide who camped the night, I managed to get a free ride back to the main highway as they packed camp and headed for the other 2 gas crater: a mud and water crater. Of the three, the gas crater is probably the only one worth seeing.

The Mud crater. Apparently, there was a truck accident a few years ago which spilled gasoline into the crater which ignited and fire which have been burning since.

Water crater.

After seeing the water crater, Peter and his guide drove me another 100km down the highway towards Ashgabat before they went our seperate ways and I hitched my ride to Ashgabat.

Ashgabat

While my time in Ashgabat was short, only spending half a day there before I left, my impressions of Ashgabat was a quirky place with an self obsessed president with pictures of him found all over and marble. Alot of marble! However, before taking a photo of anything, you better make sure its a government building or prepared to get stopped!

Marble...

More marble.... 

And more marble....

 Leaving Ashgabat the next morning, I headed to the Bajgiran border for Iran! For those using this border, I thought I put some advice given the lack of information/misinformation I found online on crossing the Turkmenistan-Iran border via Bajgiran.

TIP!

1. From the Ashgabat side, a taxi to the border cost between 30-50 manat (USD10-18) depending on your haggling skills. However, there is actually public transport available which I didn't find any information about anywhere. Coincidentally, on my taxi ride to the border of no-man's land, I past bus number 16 which stopped at the end.
2. From the no man's land to the border, after a passport check it is another 30 minute ride on a marshrutkas which cost 8 manat.
3. On the Iran side, in Bajgiran there is no buses to Mashhad. A taxi to Mashhad cost USD50. The cheapest way to Mashhad is to take a shared taxi to Quchan. A spot in the taxi should only cost $3-$5USD. From Quchan, it is possible to take a bus to Mashhad which cost $1-2USD.

More on Iran in my next blog!