Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan trip report
(Aktau to Turkmenbashi border crossing)
As a long time reader of the group, this is my first trip report as I think some content would be helpful to future travelers. These two countries are fairly well covered in the group, so I’ll try to focus on adding some info that is more helpful.
Route:
Almaty-Astana-Turkistan-Aktau-Turkmenbashi-Ashgabat-Darvasa-Ashgabat
I mainly used flights between cities due to the shortage of time, with the exception of the drive between Aktau and Turkmenbashi.
Flights:
TK Birmingham-Istanbul-Almaty 380usd
CZ Ashgabat-Urumqi-Beijing 450usd
Flew with Air Astana, FlyArystan, SCAT and Turkmenistan airlines for domestic flights, all fairly standard and reliable. Tickets are not expensive. It’s also worth mentioning that Air Astana has a great product and is one of the best airlines in the world in my opinion, having flown on both their business and economy class on short and long haul routes.
Almaty:
Spent a day in the city and covered the main sights. Did a day tour to Charyn canyon and the two lakes, wouldn’t recommend the company I used, total mismanagement and lack of communication, but the sights were impressive. Instead people can easily rent a car and drive to the places by themselves, though you have to take the “taxi” from Saty to get to Lake Kaindy.
Astana:
Capital city with lots of cool architectures, visited Bayterek Tower, the three main mosques and walked around in the city. I wanted to go to the Korgalzhyn Reserve from Astana but didn’t have any luck, as it was probably too early yet to go there. I ended up deciding to go to Turkistan instead.
Turkistan:
The main sight here is definitely the Mausoleum of Yasawi. Other than that I felt like there was not really anything else interesting to see. There was a huge vacation/amusement park close to the Mausoleum which felt quite strange. The airport opened a few years ago and was beautiful.
Aktau:
The city itself was nothing spectacular, in typical soviet style. You could have a nice walk along the Caspian sea. A pleasant surprise was that a huge celebration of Nauryz took place during my stay, which I believe now holds the world record for having the most people gathering in Kazakh traditional clothes.
The region around Aktau is truly the highlight of this trip. I joined a 2D1N tour with RedMaya for 220usd, traveling with a French overlander, who was trying to walk from there all the way to Almaty. We visited Kyzylkup, Bokty, Bozjyra, Karaman Ata and Ybyk. At night we camped under a mountain close to Bozjyra. It was such a wonderful experience, and it felt absolutely surreal to be in the region. The high season hasn’t started yet, so everywhere we went there was absolutely no other tourist. It genuinely felt like being on Mars. I heard that it was also possible to do the trip with a local taxi, but I don’t think a non-4WD car can handle the off-road part.
Aktau to Turkmenbashi via the Temir Baba-Garabogaz border:
I previously asked about this border when doing research, and the info available in the group was scarce. There was a detailed report from a few years back in the other direction.
My guide in Turkmenistan arranged a driver taking me from Aktau all the way to Turkmenbashi. I paid 150usd with another passenger in the car. I later learnt that it was like a shared cab running between the cities, which usually charges 50usd for one passenger, taking 4 passengers each time. I paid for three seats to lower the waiting time at the border, because I was flying to Ashgabat from Turkmenbashi in the evening. If you’re coming from Turkmenbashi, you can also try to hitchhike on a truck to Aktau from the border.
The border itself was one of the most remote and beautiful I’ve ever used. After a day of rest in Aktau we set off at 7am, aiming to clear the border before the lunch break. There was a high quality highway running all the way to Zhanaozen(You’ll also take this road on the way to Bozjyra). From Zhanaozen to Kendrick, the road became narrower and bumpier. A few kilometres from Kendrick, we took a turn(this is where the border control area starts) and significantly more potholes appeared. The last 20km or so to the border was so bad that it took us around two hours.(It was raining heavily in the morning that day)
We eventually got to the Kazakh side of the border at 12:15. In 10-15 minutes we cleared it and drove towards the Turkmen side. As mentioned in the previous report, you’ll have to walk for around 2km if you don’t have a car that takes you all the way through. There was pavement but I imagine it would still be a huge pain on raining days or in extreme temperatures.
We then stopped at a small house, where the Turkmens check passports and take covid tests. The official lunch break was at 1-2pm but they decided to start it early, so we have to sit in the car waiting for 1.5 hours. At 2:10 we had our Covid test and continued to the actual Turkmen border station. An official filled the arrival form for me, and I was pointed to the doctor to have my Covid test result, which was basically a little note that said I was negative. The driver then handed out my passport, LOI and letter of assurance(Your driver/guide should have that at the border if you’re entering overland, not needed if you fly in) for the visa. I then paid 102usd at the cashier or bank as they called it(29 for covid, 55 for visa and the rest for taxes and administrative fees and stuff). In around half an hour my visa was ready and they stamped me in. For customs, the Turkmen Korean lady sharing the car was fined for a can of what I thought was hair gel. They checked my bag especially for the camera gears I carried, but quickly cleared me to go. We waited for the driver to clear the vehicle on the other side, where I met an official who was the same age as me. He curiously and friendly asked to see my passports for all the visas and stamps. At 15:27, more than three hours after we reached the border, we finally cleared everything and were on our way again.
There were still a few passport checks after the border, but each never took over a minute. The road condition, especially north of Garabogaz, was even worse than the Kazakh side. Right outside of the border, there was a huge queue of trucks because of the single file traffic caused by some roadwork going on. Our driver decided to take us off road, which helped us skip the queue but we ended up getting a bit lost, as there was a huge hole between us and the actual road and there was a fence in front. It took us about half an hour to get back to the right track.
The fence was the end of the border control zone on the Turkmen side. We had another passport check, and after the checkpoint we had our first sight of the Caspian Sea on the day, shiningly reflecting the sun. It looked as blue as the sea in all other popular islands I’ve been to. It was at 16:27.
We sped up quite a bit after Garabogaz, doing 130+ most of the time, and it did get quite scary sometimes. We reached Turkmenbashi airport at exactly 7pm, finishing this crossing for 13 hours.
Turkmenistan🇹🇲:
There was nothing special about my itinerary other than this crossing. I visited Ashgabat, Old Nisa and Darvasa. I followed the recommendations from previous travelers in this group and went with Murad Ovlyakuliyev, who turned out to be one of the best guides I’ve had in the world. He speaks perfect English and shares a lot of insights not just on the country. I only spent 2.5 days in Turkmenistan this time and would love to spend more time to explore more places on my next trip.
As mentioned in my last post Turkmenistan airlines tickets are now available on the new website. I flew without any problem with the ticket I booked myself.
I did plan for Turkmenistan to become my 60th country but the strike in Germany ruined it.