What can I say about Turkmenistan. During the rally planning stages there was something that intrigued me about this secretive country. The more I read, the more I wanted to go. Turkmenistan was one of the last countries to leave the soviet era & you had a feeling their last president was quite content being part of it. Being politically neutral today they are able to change things within the country without fear of upsetting an alliance. They are more open today than a decade ago but there is still an essence of mistrust of visitors by the people in power. The country was once labelled the North Korea of Central Asia by some but having now visited all I can say is what a welcoming country.

Yes, they have very strict laws & everyone has to abide by them. In Ashgabat there is a a curfew where everyone has to be home by 11pm but overall the people we met appeared happy. The government subsides their utilities so it is free to all. Their petrol is so cheap they charge visitors a fee upfront. Only in recent years has music been allowed to play in cars & some of the older generation would just come & stand beside the car & listen to the music being played. We tried to turn it down a few times but they kept wanting it louder. You can’t however smoke whilst you are driving. Be it on your head if the authorities catch you.

Their food was enticing & even though we are still not sure if we ate camel meat on our first day we weren’t ill.

I think our lasting memories will be the hospitality offered, the friendliness & the never ending bottles of hot water which were once frozen & had melted in 10 minutes. The camel spiders, the gas crater & the star filled skies are something we won’t see again for a while never mind in one night.

Would we go again? Yes.

Thank you for having us Turkmenistan. I hope we see each other again soon.