We woke early and found our driver in the hotel lobby waiting to take us through the Karakum desert to what was one of the trip highlights Darvaza gas crater aka door to hell. Apparently the Soviets originally thought to be a substantial oil field site. The engineers set up a drilling rig and operations to assess the quantity of oil available at the site. Soon after the preliminary survey found a natural gas pocket, the ground beneath the drilling rig and camp collapsed into a wide crater and was buried. Expecting dangerous releases of poisonous gases from the cavern into nearby towns, the engineers thought it best to burn the gas off. It was estimated that the gas would burn out within a few weeks, but it has instead continued to burn for more than four decades. We'd heard that there were rumours that the crater might eventually be filled in and they would continue their exploration of the substantial natural has reserves throughout the country. This is not the case at the moment however, it may change so I'd encourage you to get there while you can!
Speaking of resources Turkmenistan is blessed with lots of gas and oil like many central asian countries. This has fulled the rapid development of Ashgabat and I was told that locals have heavily subsidised electricity, water and gas.
We traded the marble of Ashgabat for the highway and desert of the Karakum. Apart from the odd settlement and camel there wasn't much to be seen. The Karakum is a dry and desolate place and a view into traditional Turkmen life. We did stop at a small village on the way and it was a reminder that much of the country still lives the traditional lifestyle and has been untouched by the boom. This was the simple life here and our driver reiterated that equality of money was a long way off and much of the country outside of Ashgabat lives on very low wages and has little access to modern amenities like their richer cousins in Ashgabat. This reminded me of the many apartment buildings I noticed that were empty and the endless construction of Ashgabat demonstrating the wealth and ambition of leaders.
After a few hours we arrived to see the main event and boy did it deliver!
You could feel the heat from some distance. As we approached it was roasting and you could make out fires below. As the wind blew you would get wafts of extreme heat and gas. This was ridiculous and just simply awesome!
As the sun began to set you truly were able to appreciate how amazing this site was. A man made monstrosity but simply brilliant!
As the night set in the temperature dropped and the heat from the crater was a welcome relief! We sat for ours joined by perhaps 10 people during the evening at its peak. We me a Kiwi who had a drone who was taking amazing footage of the crater from above. He also showed us footage of Yangykala Canyon out by the Caspian Sea which looked incredible. He and his wife were on a 14 day trip throughout the country!
https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attr...gykala_Canyon-Balkanabat_Balkan_Province.html
Eventually we retired to our yurt and slept peacefully in the quiet of the desert.
The next day we awoke at dawn and enjoyed a delicious breakfast before hitting the road and heading north to the ancient UNESCO site of Konye Urgench.
While impressive somewhat I think I had been spoilt by sites in Iran and was again spoilt by sites in Uzbekistan so at the time and upon reflection it was interesting but not mind blowing.
We then hit the bumpy roads to the border town of Dashoguz which was sadly our last stop in Turkmenistan. We'd become fond of the country despite being there for only three days. We really liked the obscurity and grand nature of Ashgabat and thought Davaza was out of this world. But as the saying goes the show must go on! We knew that moving on to Uzbekistan was on to bigger and better things!
Crossing the border was seamless and straightforward we were even given priority over locals ushered to the front of the queue. We'd read that it was a short walk to the other side however we were blocked from this and forced to ride a 5 minute shuttle van with the masses. A convenient operation that was lucrative for whoever runs it. Regardless we forked out the $2 USD and moved towards the Uzbek border. A relatively seamless transition and our newly bought E visas worked seamlessly gaining us entry to a place we had long wanted to visit Uzbekistan. As we exited border control there was a mass of potential taxi drivers. I often enjoy the game of finding my driver which is a complex game of negotiation and finding the right character. Some negotiating later we were off on the 1 hour trip to Khiva for the ridiculous sum of $10 USD. We realised immediately that the cost of living in Uzbekistan would be significantly lower than Turkmenistan.
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