
In Ashgabat - flannery
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n15/james-lomax/diary
======
mrg2k8
The easiest way to experience Turkmenistan is to go on the Mongol Rally. They
work with a visa company to give all the participants a letter of invitation,
which is valid for two months, for a five-day transit without a guide.

Some facts that I found funny at the moment: \- they gave us a GPS device at
the border to keep plugged in so they could track us. We just threw it in the
back because our old crappy car didn't have a lighter. They didn't check the
data when we left the country. \- they had a bank rate for exchange and a
black market rate. The black market rate was 1 USD for 16 something and the
bank rate was 1 USD for 3 something of the local currency. You could pay in
USD, of course getting ripped at the bank rate. We managed to change some
money on the street. \- a room at a normal hotel costs more than 80 USD, we
found something similar to a hostel for 15 USD and still went to the Grand
Turkmen, acted like we stayed there and stole some Internet \- a SIM card with
1 GiB of Internet was around 40 USD, we passed \- the Internet goes through an
IPS that blocks everything we use in the western world: FB, Gmail, Whatsapp,
VPNs etc. I had to tunnel through an SSH server listening on port 443 just to
be able to send an email. Images didn't work, because the connection closed (I
think they were cutting connections based on sequence numbers or something) \-
you couldn't take any photos, they checked our mobiles upon leaving the
country. Funny, because Ashgabat was beautiful and it's in the Guiness Book
for the most marble and for the most waterfalls \- whenever we were alone, it
took only 10 minutes tops for someone with a walkie-talkie to pass next to us
\- they removed all people from a whole boulevard to make room for some
official hotshot to pass \- we were listening to music in the car with the
windows lowered and I later read that it was illegal. Maybe that's why
everyone was staring at us \- beer was available at almost any place \- we
slept at Darvaza, "the gates of hell" one night. The next day we headed north
and ran out of water. \- we had some work performed on our car and the
mechanics were very friendly

All in all, it was a fantastic experience and I would totally do it again.

~~~
Fuddh
Sounds like an adventure!

Unfortunately my team didn't end up visiting when I participated in the rally,
but every team who wanted to go to Turkmenistan had to advertise some horse
show that was running in the country that summer. They made everyone slap a
rather large sticker with the logo on their car. I wonder if the campaign was
considered successful considering most people outside of the country weren't
able to attend or watch it anyway :)

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mobileexpert
Turkmenistan is a really interesting place to visit. I entered from the north
on foot and caught a ride in a weird hippy van taxi instead of the 1km walk
between the border checkpoints of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. If you are
interested in atypical travel I definitely can recommend it.

~~~
albroland
I managed to finally get a LoI approval this year after 2 previous rejections
but then COVID happened; I'm hoping it's an easier process when I reapply next
year (assuming they've reopened to tourists).

Note to anyone curious and reading: if you have a US passport - this is a
challenging country to get into. Plan ahead and be prepared to either book
flights last minute pending approval or buy refundable tickets for when you
get the rejection last minute.

~~~
082349872349872
For flavour, if travel is difficult[1], at least Youtubing is easy.

Here's a turkmen wedding:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGhSBOy8H_Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGhSBOy8H_Y)

and a pop clip:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udALVHSH9T4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udALVHSH9T4)
(According to WP and the picture on
[https://yashlar.gov.tm/catalog/556](https://yashlar.gov.tm/catalog/556) ,
this song is named after the "red rover" game.)

or landscapes + folkloric activities:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy8LOpoMh10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy8LOpoMh10)

Akhal-Tekes clean up fancy?
[https://live.staticflickr.com/5560/14529754743_26a80692e0_b....](https://live.staticflickr.com/5560/14529754743_26a80692e0_b.jpg)

[1] "Восток — дело тонкое"

(the obvious incentivisation is that oil companies need to hire country
managers who are wealthy enough on their own account they can assume any
necessary irregular payments and entertainment will be arranged by their
personal lawyers, or in any case, well off the companies' own books?)

Incidentally, Berdimuhamedow's thesis was "Clinical features and pathogenesis
of major dental diseases in children of multiparous women", but I haven't
bothered to look up his advisor.

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neonate
[https://archive.is/OpUaO](https://archive.is/OpUaO)

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exmadscientist
I seem to remember there are or were a few more of these, all making for
fascinating reading. But I'm having trouble finding them again, possibly due
to the intentional detail fuzzing. Leads or links would be appreciated if
anyone has them....

