Travelling time: 09:45 – 12:55
Dashogus Airport, one of many white marbled and gilded State buildings, flying the Turkmenistan flag and showing the President’s ubiquitous portrait.
The day ahead held a pretty big ask. Not only did we have reasonable stretch of road to cover, with unknown road conditions, we had what we anticipated to be the toughest of borders to cross, that of Turkmenistan. With all our research, reading of guidebooks, scouring blogs and travel websites of far flung places and conversations sought with fellow travellers and consulates, we expected this to be a long day.
We took advice from our host as to the best road to take to the border, that deemed to be through the tiny village of Shovot (Uzbekistan) and into Dashoguz in the north of Turkmensitan. This is a small and less frequently used crossing, compared to the busy border between Nukus and Konye-Urgench which draws tourists to the ancient city of Urgench, once the centre of the Muslim world and seat of the Khorezm empire in the 12th Century, a major trading post and city of learning. It was the scene of bloody Mongol battles with the arrival of Genghis Khan seeking revenge and the further spread of power and latterly decimated by Temur.
The road to the border post was unsurprisingly poor but Murray now had navigating the potholes in hand and we covered the 36 miles in just over an hour. We were one of the first to get to the crossing and made it out of Uzbekistan will relative ease, although it took a little time to persuade the senior immigration officer that we were simply visiting Uzbekistan as tourists and not on official business.
We were into Turkmenistan! Driving the 1 km between the posts our passports were checked by no less than three impossibly young Turkmen, clad in the uniform of conscripts, each of whom spoke a significant amount of English and welcomed us warmly. We were feeling quietly confident – none of the brusqueness of a police run state had yet been demonstrated. The official building at this small post was pleasingly orderly and filled with all flavours of officials, some in uniform, others not. We had our first glimpse of the pretty Turkmen national symbol and the first portrait of the President, with many more to come.
The process here was a little more exacting than crossing into Uzbekistan but having gone from one desk to another, with our official letter of invitation (which took three months to obtain before we left Islamabad!) as our licence to enter we were issued with a rare 10 day transit visa, and no mention of the usual compulsory guide for visits of longer that 3 days was mentioned.
On to customs to get the car into the country. This took a little longer and was somewhat more convoluted with no less than 5 stamps required from different officials. The result was a very smart green and white document, with the imposing green Turkmen star, and a definitive, no variation or deviation marked of our transit route through the country. So, here began the control, after a straight forward 2 hours of process and procedure.
Whitesides on the Road 