Ashgabat or bust!

The hardcore traveler hitching a ride back to the capital!

Dashogouz Airport

Having decided it would be too long and boring to sit around Dashogouz until our flight departed at 11 PM (Turkmenistan Airlines only flew once a day to Ashgabat), we opted instead to exchange our tickets at the airport and join our driver who was heading south anyways. The drive back to Ashgabat would be about six to seven hours but would get us in earlier, around sunset, as opposed to flying when we would arrive just after midnight. 

Everything was cool until the road started to turn into what felt like the Turkmen version of a crash test dummy course. Although I had my seat belt on I was still being tossed around the car, my body feeling every last pothole, giant boulder and divot in the unpaved road. After about an hour and a half worth of bumping and grinding across the Turkmen desert we FINALLY hit nice soft asphalt and what a relief it was! The next four hours of the drive was mind numbingly boring, miles upon miles upon miles of straight desert roads. Once in a while we would encounter heavy traffic, um I mean camels walking seven abreast across the road but that was about the only highlight.

The long and lonely road home!

Two hours into our road trip “home”, my driver pulled over to fuel up. What’s so interesting about this mundane activity? Not much, except in Turkmenistan gas is free, as in ZERO! Each citizen gets a certain amount of gas credit every month to use. Once they have used up the monthly credit, prices “skyrocket” to a “crushing” $0.14 a liter or approximately $0.56 a gallon. Citizens also receive free heating, water, and electricity. So, who said Turkmenistan is not free? All in a matter of semantics! My guide was always emphasizing this fact to me and just about any other foreigner he spoke with.

As we zipped down the highway I noticed something odd………..there was no sign of any ads! This was quite the contrast to Russia where ads are just about anywhere and everywhere. The only thing resembling any type of ad were random patriotic propaganda billboards scattered along the highway. Most of them featured messages praising Turkmenistan and her people, pictures of the great President, the Turkmen horse (more on that in a later post), the nation’s coat of arms, etc.

Turkmenistan restroom

From time to time we pulled off to stretch our legs, pray (as in my driver) and use the “restroom”, which usually consisted of a bush on the other side of a sand dune. Some five hours later off on the desert horizon I spotted a sign, not a stop sign or a Turkmen propaganda sign, but smoky/hazy skies, a sure sign we must be nearing the capital. Right as the sun was setting we finally arrived in to Ashgabat. My epic journey across the Turkmen desert was over.

Sunset over Ashgabat. Kopet Dag Mountains in background.

Billboard highlighting Turkmenistan's attractions

Our prayer, snack and restroom break