The Karakum Desert

14 September 2012

My visit to the Turkmentistan embassy in Tashkent was a great success.

With a visa in hand, I headed back to the west of Uzbekisten and spent my last night in the country staying in a yurt in the courtyard of the Jipek Joli guest house - what a great name. Two tour groups had booked out all the rooms; one from Japan and one from Holland. I saw the past and future of my life that evening - a special experience in a remote town.

Passing through the border to Turkmenistan was again a smooth operation with no embarrasing searches through my ragged belongings. These are times when the iPad comes into its own. The border guards were totally absorbed with checking out my photos on it - particularly those of beautiful Japanese girls!

The first town over the border is Konye-Urgench. I was immediately struck by some differences. The roads were dusty tracks full of pot holes, there were several donkey carts around the market area, the old men were wearing furry black hats and the school age girls wore their hair in two plaits under an embroidered skull cap. All the women were wearing full length fitted dresses in various fabrics with head scalves arranged over a hidden hat. This seems to be the unique dress design of the Turmenistan women.

I spent the evening visting the most incredible sight in the middle of the Karakum desert. Apparently a result of a Soviet- era exploration in the 50s, a number of craters were formed and in one, the natural gas was set alight so that the inferno has continued to burn creating a hot hole of fire. We saw this at night and it creates an unbelievable sight as well as generating intense heat.

I slept in the safety of a local's yurt that night. The hole in the yurt's roof let in a much needed breeze and we were able to star gaze whilst drinking the obligatory tea. Lots of sand dunes all around but no camels yet!