Despite the excellent organization, the taxi ride to the border would have given me a sleepless night. At least I had enough time to pack my luggage.
At 6:00 a.m., I made some noise to wake the manager. He came out at 6:10 a.m. At 6:15 p.m., he called the driver, who said he would be there at 6:30 a.m. (as previously agreed). At 6:37 a.m., the manager called again. At 6:40 a.m., Wayne asked if we were coming (he didn’t have internet outside the hotel, so I had told him I would send an “OK” as soon as we left). At 6:45 a.m., we left, picked up Wayne, and walked to a large bus station I hadn’t seen before, which even had “Olot” as an option. The driver stopped, got out, another man came over, and told us the taxi wouldn’t leave until we had paid for the two empty seats. Wayne started negotiating, we even got out to collect the luggage, and agreed on a departure time of 7:30 am (we were supposed to be at the border by 9 am, with 100 km to go).
At 7:37 a.m., another guy joined us, we were able to set off, and later picked up another one. In the end, we paid 200,000 SUM, which was a good price for both the driver and us, and arrived at 8:45 a.m. So, it was good, but beforehand I regretted not having used Yandex with its fixed prices and star ratings.
The Usbek border crossing opened at 9:00 a.m. Everything went smoothly, then a bus was waiting for transfer. We had to pay a small fee, and I had some sum. After this border crossing, another bus was waiting; we had to pay with mandat, which we didn’t have, but we were able to ride for free.
Turkmenistan border:
Mostly waiting. They had trouble reading my passport with the machine. Meanwhile, our tour guide came and asked if I had a second passport – and I did! That worked out perfectly. Then came payment, a stamp on the invitation letter, a COVID test, more stamps, but all in all it only took an hour and a half until we were on the last bus, Guljan, our tour guide, paid, and we met our driver. In Turkmenbad we had lunch (more like brunch for us).
Some good food, some incredible food and for me enough for the rest of the day.
Then we drove along a bumpy road to Merv. According to my schedule, we should have gone to Mary, but Wayne was determined to go to Merv. For me, it was the same thing, and essentially it was, because Mary has been the name of the city since Soviet times, and Merv refers to the ruins of the old city that the Mongols destroyed, killing hundreds of thousands.
It was a long drive, and besides some ruins, we also saw some reconstructions. It’s hard to say whether the long drive was worth it. But we also had a long chats with the tour guide, including about our personal lives. She has two children and left her husband when their second child was born. She now lives with her mother, brother, sister, and their children. This has allowed her to offer tours for the past year.
We had a flat tire along the way, but changing it wasn’t a problem. On the way from Merv to Ashgabat, we had lunch and visited a small museum. I was happy with just tea, but the tour guide also shared some Russian chocolate with us. Turkmenistan produces its own chocolate; we saw a branch later.
After another three hours of driving, we reached Ashgabat around midnight. My expectations were not met, even though I knew that the city had to be completely rebuilt after the devastating earthquake of 1948 and had been shaped by the ideas of dictators since 1989. I had seen other cities before, but the names “Turkmenistan” and “Ashgabat” still conjure up images of narrow alleyways, old markets, and imposing architecture. While the second image is accurate, what we saw along the way were mostly long rows and fields of uniform buildings in residential areas, mostly two stories high, with flocks of eight- and rows of twelve-story buildings. The streets looked polished, the bridges were illuminated (electricity and other energy are free), and the underpasses were made of gleaming white marble.
The hotel looked crazy, and we walked through corridors of empty rooms, but in the end Wayne and I had to share one, and the tour guide slept outside at her aunts place.