JULY 2017

I always wanted to go to Turkmenistan! Those that I had been fortunate enough to meet on the road used to talk about how controlled the country really is. I had watched some documentaries online and the more I watched, the more I wanted to go and the more I wanted to explore. After visiting North Korea, I was determined to visit another similar country and Turkmenistan is strongly nicknamed North Korea #2

I knew how difficult it would be, but I was willing to try everything possible to get the visa, even though I was told it could end badly!

There was an easy way into Turkmenistan, paying for a really expensive tour, really expensive hotel, and really expensive tour guide + driver, but I was unwilling to do that, remembering my Bhutan and North Korea trips and the expense of them both, especially North Korea, that trip almost cost me an arm and a leg.

There was option B,cheaper option, fly to Iran, go to the Turkmenistan embassy in Tehran, the capital of Iran, apply for a transit visa, wait two weeks, pick the visa up in Mashhad (northern Iran), then cross up through Turkmenistan, stopping in Mary and Ashgabat and then arriving in Uzbekistan through the land border crossing. Sadly, that didn’t go according to plan!

I arrived in Tehran and began sorting out my paperwork almost instantly. I had an Uzbek invitation letter, that I managed to buy online, and needed to present that form along with an application form, photo, and passport copy at the Uzbekistan embassy. Everything was going smoothly so far, I got my Uzbekistan visa there and then, once they took all of the required documents, it was only about $50, though I did pay about $30 as well for the invitation letter weeks before.

Then I literally ran to the Turkmenistan embassy which was reasonably close, and filled out all of the necessary forms and documents, which included a letter saying why I wanted to visit Turkmenistan. It went something like this…..
To whom it may concern,
My name is Conall Charleton and I’m an Irish citizen (passport number.) I’m currently on a biking trip and plan on cycling from Tehran to Tashkent, via Turkmenistan. I’m applying for a transit visa and I plan on visiting Mary (hotel name) and Ashgabat(hotel name). I already have my Uzbekistan visa (printout attached) and I am hoping to pick up my visa at the Turkmenistan embassy in Mashhad. This will be my first time visiting Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. If you require any more information you can call me on….or email me on…..
Best wishes,
Conall Charleton (passport number)

The embassy worker accepted my invitation, checked all of the documents, and told me to arrive in Mashhad, the northern part of Iran, in exactly 2 weeks and there I may be able to pay the visa fee and collect the visa there. I thanked him for his time and stayed in Tehran for a few days before moving northwards towards Mashhad. I was strongly convinced that the visa would get approved because I didn’t hear from them at all and met some German tourists along the way who managed to get their visas approved, so I was massively hopeful.

After exactly 14 days I arrived at the Turkmenistan embassy in Mashhad and the woman took my passport for about twenty or so minutes, then opened up the window again slammed my passport down, and shouted “visa declined.” I asked her for a reason, but she was unwilling to reply. She eventually called another worker over who told me that I’d need to fly to Uzbekistan instead, now unable to do the land crossing. I had wasted an entire journey and a valuable two weeks for absolutely nothing.

I enquired around Mashhad to see if anyone could help me out, but none of the tourist agencies specialized in Turkmenistan tours, or had any links whatsoever, like mentioned, the country is relatively closed to the outside world.

I was only a few hours away from Turkmenistan and I was considering going to the border and trying to see if there was any alternative option l, but I decided not to waste more time. I already had my hotel booked in both Mary and Ashgabat that I had to cancel, and now I was being forced to go back to Tehran and book a different hotel and more importantly, try to book a flight to Uzbekistan. It was all a mess and I was just too tired at that stage to try anything else or try to be too adventurous.
I took the overnight train all the way back to Tehran and showed up in the early hours of the morning because there were no flights between Mashhad and Tashkent in Uzbekistan. About a week later, I flew to Uzbekistan, really wishing that I had just booked that expensive Turkmenistan tour, the one with the fancy hotel with the specialized tour guide and driver, that way things would have been so much easier, but it was back to to the drawing board instead.