The Mongol Rally: Turkmenistan, inside a police state
Turkmenistan is one of the world’s most closed countries. Five million people in a vast desert, ruled by a despot and running on oil wealth. When we signed up for the Mongol Rally, we knew we had to hit up Turkmenistan on our route.
Making an exception for the Mongol Rally
Usually, as foreigners, we would have had to sign up for an official tour to even be considered for entry. Somehow, however, the Adventurists had persuaded the Turkmen authorities to make an exception for the Mongol Rally. So, after much hoop-jumping and bureaucracy, we entered Turkmenistan on a transit visa. Five days to explore the country. Before the doors were firmly shut again.
Turkmenistan’s Caspian Sea coast
Mongol Rally camping in Turkmenistan
As we set off on the road south, from Turkmenbashi on the Caspian Sea, towards the capital, Ashgabat, we left the shore behind and drove into the desert. Passing through multiple police roadblocks along the way, we whizzed past camels grazing the scrubby desert grass beside the road.
With no time to reach Ashgabat on the first day (due to the 7-hour wait at the border), we found a small desert road and pitched our tent by its side. We both love camping, just not so much in the desert. With the air temperature well over 30°C and the ground giving off the day’s heat all night, we could barely sleep even with the tent doors left open. We began to realise that our time in Turkmenistan wouldn’t be the most comfortable.
Sharing the road with the locals during the Mongol Rally through Turkmenistan
Our Mongol Rally campsite in the desert of Turkmenistan
Ashgabat is the weirdest city on the Mongol Rally
We rose with the sun the following day and continued toward Ashgabat. The breeze billowing through the windows made the heat vaguely bearable, and we alternated between driving and dozing in the passenger seat.
Ashgabat is a surreal Disneyland city in the desert. It couldn’t be more different from the small, dusty, hardscrabble towns and villages we’d been passing by all morning (each one with its own police roadblocks). Seeing so many fountains and greenery after our long drive through the lifeless desert was quite a surprise.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan’s capital, is packed full of elaborate monuments
We had big ideas for an afternoon of sightseeing; Ashgabat has a plethora of wacky monuments and buildings to see. But after walking to Independence Square in 40°C heat – a policeman on every corner making sure we didn’t take any pictures -we gave up and found a hotel with free wifi and air-con. We spent the afternoon slowly nursing iced coffees (poorly made and overpriced) in the lobby and waiting for the heat outside to subside.
By 6:30 p.m., the day’s heat had dissipated somewhat and we were ready to face the world again. Cruising the vast, empty boulevards of Ashgabat in the zebra, we felt like celebrities, with people waving, honking, and even trying to talk to us through the windows as they drove alongside. Not many foreigners are allowed into Turkmenistan, so we were clearly quite the novelty in our zebra print car.
Ashgabat is a brand-new city. The previous Soviet-era buildings were mostly demolished to make way for parks, monuments and marble towers. So we started our tour at ‘Ten Years of Independence Park’, with its golden statue of the previous president (Saparmyrat Niyazov). And followed it up with an after-dinner visit to the Arch of Neutrality, topped by another golden statue of Niyazov, no longer rotating as it did during his life.
Turkmenistan’s president Niyazov loved a golden, cape-clad statue of himself
Another caped Niyazov atop the Arch of Neutrality, Ashgabat
Another uncomfortable night during the Mongol Rally in Turkmenistan
With an abundance of expensive hotels but a complete absence of budget options, we drove out of the city towards Turkmenistan Tower. Thankfully, along the way, we found a quiet lay-by (with no policemen) for a night in the car. The following day, we were treated to sunrise over the city before hitting some final sights: the ‘totem pole’, the ‘Ferris wheel’ (our names, not theirs) and the arch of neutrality again before striking out north into the desert, and towards the ‘Gates of Hell’.
We slept in the car with a great view of Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat
The ‘totem pole’ and a hot air balloon with a dog in traditional Turkmen dress on the front; Turkmenistan is full of surreal sights
The Gates of Hell is a popular stop on the Mongol Rally
We had heard rumours from previous Mongol Rally teams about the road north: bad conditions, very slow going. We set off early. But it wasn’t as terrible as we’d imagined, and we arrived at the turnoff for hell earlier than planned, in the hottest part of the day.
A sandy track strikes out from the main road here, straight into the desert. It’s a very sandy track. With a big hill at the start. Too sandy and too hilly for the zebra. The locals will drive us in their 4×4 for a price. We wait. Sheltering from the sun in the hot car. For hours. Until more teams arrive, try the same sand track, also fail on the first hill.
A couple of Mongol Rally teams do make it through. But we pay once the heat subsides and are delivered to the Gates of Hell by the enterprising locals. On the way, we pass those we thought had made it, still stuck in the sand at the top of the first hill.
The killer hill on the way to Turkmenistan’s Gates of Hell
The Gates of Hell is not a natural phenomenon. A burning crater in the desert bigger than an Olympic swimming pool, the fire was started in the 1950s when the Soviets were exploring for gas. Worried about leaking gas affecting local communities, they set fire to it (as you do), and it’s been burning ever since.
The Gates of Hell is a cauldron of fire in Turkmenistan’s desert
The Gates of Hell had no safety barriers when we visited in 2017
The Mongol Rally gets tougher
It makes for an interesting, if extremely hot, stop along the road north to Uzbekistan. The following day was the most challenging day of the Mongol Rally yet. Convoying with another team, we struggled through sand, gravel and infinite potholes for hours. All in 40°C heat through the Karakum Desert.
The rough road took its toll on the car as we rattled our way north. And we got our first puncture of the Mongol Rally – probably not our last – which we changed in record time to escape the sun as quickly as possible. Perhaps Turkmenistan would benefit from slightly fewer crazy monuments and slightly more tarmac!
One of the better stretches of road in Turkmenistan’s north
Our first wheel change of the Mongol Rally
Thankfully, it was much easier leaving Turkmenistan than entering. Although we still had the car, all our bags and our cameras searched. And it took us over twelve hours of very tough and slow driving to reach our next destination: Khiva, Uzbekistan. Welcome to another police state!
This Leg
Days: 3
Countries: 2
Distance: 833 miles
Time in car: 1 day 1 hrs 30 min
Total
Days: 23
Countries: 20
Distance: 4,897 miles
Time in car: 5 days 20 hrs 30 min